Somewhere along the way, we became color conscious in this country. I’m not talking about race or ethnicity, but party affiliation. Republicans are red, Democrats are blue, and if your state is a toss-up, the color is purple and perhaps we can refer to the remaining independent voters using that color. Nielsen has used all three of these colors for years dating far back to Arbitron times and you should know what each color represents.
Red and Blue refer to the Red Book and Blue Book respectively, which are annual publications listing market ranks and population estimates (the shorthand term for population estimates is “pops”). The colors refer to the color of the covers and even though you won’t find printed versions of these publications today, Nielsen still refers to them as the Red Book and the Blue Book.
The Blue Book is the Spring version, and the Red Book is the Fall version. The latest Red Book was released on September 11 and contains the updated market ranks that Nielsen will use for 2024-25. The new pops will go into effect with the October monthly for PPM and the Fall reports in the diary markets. My home market of Bowling Green, Kentucky moved up one rank to 164! Watch out, Evansville…BG is gunning for you next year to get to 163!
Both publications let you see market ranks and are also sorted alphabetically. You can see 12+ pops, black and Hispanic 12+ pops, TSA 12+ pops, and DMA 12+ pops. In other words, lots of useful information.
The Purple Book is more obscure, and Nielsen Audio has apparently retired the moniker but if you search for “Arbitron Purple Book”, you’ll find links that don’t work. You guessed correctly again that in the days of printed materials, Arbitron used a purple cover for this publication. Today, it’s referred to as “Terms of the Trade” and is a handy two-page document that explains common terms including the simple formulae for important concepts like time spent listening, cost per point, gross rating points, net reach, frequency, etc. In other words, if you keep this handy little document around, you can sound smarter when chatting with others in your cluster. Or if you’ve been in the business for 20 years or more and still don’t know how to calculate TSL, this is an excellent “cheat sheet”. Download it, print it, and hide it in your desk.
As with most everything Nielsen, the color books are “pay for play”. The documents are available in the Nielsen portal which means no access for non-subscribers. While I’m sure you can get your hands on the market ranks whether you subscribe or not, it’s Nielsen’s right to make the information “client only”. If you are a subscriber and can’t find the documents, ask your Nielsen rep for assistance. Nielsen won’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat, or independent.
Before wrapping up this week, I want to give a shout out to someone you probably have never heard of: Marla Cralley. When I arrived at Arbitron in mid-1999 to head up diary methods research in the pre-PPM days, Marla was part of the research department. It didn’t take long to figure out that Marla knew her stuff. Early on, I told her to never fear challenging me if she thought I was wrong about a research issue. She did so from time to time and was usually right. She knew how everything worked, knew all the right people in the company that could get things done or give straight answers, had the institutional knowledge, and was one of the best “natural” researchers I’d ever met.
I’m bringing this up because after 48 years, Marla is leaving Nielsen at the end of this week. The “Arbitron Alumni and Friends” Facebook group (over 700 members) had the news. While she could have retired long ago, she loved her job and stayed on. Word is that her position has been eliminated which is truly sad. You won’t see her name in the trades, and she rarely presented to groups, but it was people like Marla that made things happen. She was a stickler for getting things right which sometimes created delays (“Marla, when will I see that report?”), but is someone I respect. She’s one of those people you don’t know but made an impact on radio ratings and therefore, on the industry itself. Marla, you’ve finally made the radio trade press! Have a wonderful retirement even though we both know you’d rather be working.
Let’s meet again next week.
