Fernando Valdés (OJD): "The press has to submit digital subscriptions to audits"

The Diffusion Justification Office (OJD) has proposed to newspaper and magazine associations a system to independently audit digital press subscription data with the aim of giving them more credibility, as is already done in the US USA, Germany or France.

Fernando Valdés (Madrid, 63 years old), president of the auditing entity, whose shareholders are the media, agencies and advertisers, explains that the objective is to launch this project, with transparent and equal certification rules for all, during the first half of 2023. Another of the immediate plans of the OJD, born in 1964 to certify the diffusion of printed newspapers and magazines, is to audit the

and number of followers of the

The firm is in the middle of a transformation process to adapt to market changes after the irruption of the Internet and follow the roadmap of the strategic plan promoted by Valdés.

Graduated in Chemistry, he has been in charge of the OJD since 2016 after holding management positions at Unilever and Campofrío, and having been a director of Nueva Pescanova, in addition to presiding over the Spanish Association of Advertisers and Autocontrol.

In an interview in Madrid, he explains the details of the system designed by the firm to audit Internet subscriptions, which have become the key option for large media to finance themselves in the digital age.

Currently, OJD audits 400 print media and 600 websites, and certifies the digital traffic data that Gfk Dam has been quantifying for a year.

Question.

What course is the OJD following taking into account the evolution of the press, with the thinning of paper and digital expansion?

Reply.

We have seen this trend for a long time and we have changed the role of the OJD in the market.

We want to go from being an auditor of paper, both for newspapers and magazines, to being, in an ambitious way, the auditor of the advertising industry.

We refer it to three areas: first, we want to continue being the reference auditor of the paper, which has declined but has not died;

second, we want to be the auditor of the evolution of paper media: digital videos or web pages;

and third, we think that you have to audit what is read but also what is heard or seen.

This is where television, radio or

come in .

We approved a strategic plan seven years ago and ratified it a year ago to address this diversification in phases.

Q.

Is it more complex to certify web traffic measurements than the diffusion of paper?

A.

Technically it is different.

What you have to have are shared standards.

And once they are defined, the data is certified according to those rules.

The ones on paper are very clear.

Those of digital subscriptions are not yet fully profiled.

Q.

So the next step is to audit the subscriptions?

A.

That's right.

We are working on developing those standards.

The OJD's philosophy is that it is much better to audit interest groups under common rules than to do it individually.

In the end, if the data is not comparable it does not make much sense.

It is about replicating the rules that already exist to control the circulation and diffusion of paper.

And for this we are working with the Association of Information Media and the Association of Magazines.

We believe that the press needs to subject digital subscriptions to independent audits.

Q.

When could it be implemented?

A.

Tomorrow.

Technically there is no problem.

It's a media decision.

Our goal would be for it to be during the first semester of this year.

Q.

What are those certification standards?

R.

If a medium says that it has a certain number of subscriptions, it must have a certain income, in accordance with the price it charges per subscription, and pay the corresponding VAT.

Checking these figures we can conclude that the subscriptions declared are the real ones.

It is 100% reliable.

If we audit what the consumer reads on paper, why don't we audit what they read digitally?

Verifying only the paper transmits to the advertiser and the general public that less is read every day and it is not true: it is read differently.

The press has to transfer the audit model from paper to digital, also to digital subscriptions.

What makes sense on paper makes sense digitally.

Q.

Do advertisers look favorably on these stockings?

A.

Companies invest in advertising if it is effective.

How do they know that an advertising investment is effective?

When they have data and it is reliable, transparent and audited.

If not, it generates resentment.

When there was only one television, it was not necessary to measure the audience.

Everyone saw

But when there are many channels, reliable data is needed.

Q.

In its day, the OJD advocated creating a seal for the audited media.

R.

_

On this subject we have preached in the desert.

We believe that there should not be a black list, but a white list that includes the audited media.

Then the advertiser will decide.

That list could be drawn up by an independent body.

Q.

How is the plan to audit

?

A.

The goal is to launch it this year and certify both the

receives

and the followers they have, if they are fake accounts, if they are real

.

In the end,

are competitors of newspapers and magazines.

We also want to audit events, to certify the number of people visiting, for example, a fair.

If there is a world that needs auditing, it is digital.

Podcast, webinar, TikTok, digital subscriptions... because if it's not the West.

Q.

There are very pessimistic voices regarding the future of paper that predict that its end is near.

Match?

R.

I am not so clear.

Paper books, for example, are back.

The

has not worked.

What will happen to the newspapers?

It depends on how it's done.

The press has been slow to make the digital subscription and the gratuity of the webs has meant that the paper has declined at a faster speed than the digital grew.

With free news, the competition was very uneven.

Q.

Has the transition to digital been done well?

R.

I worked in Campofrío years ago and cooked ham was sold in a supermarket for 10 euros per kilo and on Amazon for 10 euros per kilo.

What never occurred to me is to give it away on Amazon.

By giving the news for free, you lower the perception of quality and, when you want to charge, people resist because it was free.

What was very cheap now seems very expensive.

People think that it is expensive to pay 1.80 euros for a newspaper, but they pay 1.80 for a coffee.

Many thought that digital was going to be the advertiser's global panacea and that they had to position themselves well to attract advertising investment and make a living from it.

It is being seen that this is not the case.

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