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ABC and JICWEBS define new digital standards governance

ABC and the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) yesterday announced an evolution of the current division of standards responsibilities across the two organisations.

The move sees ABC taking on responsibility for defining industry standards for the reporting of census-based measurement for reach and engagement of a brand’s website, app and email platforms.

Current metrics include unique browsers, unique visits, visit duration, active users, paid subscribers, circulation, Publication Active Views (PAVs), Digital Product Licenses and Job/Property website metrics. ABC will now develop industry standards for all of a media brand’s platforms - print, digital and face-to-face – in an integrated and coherent way.

ABC already defines the industry standards for Digital Edition and Digital Publication measurement, alongside its role in print and event auditing governance.

JICWEBS will now focus on developing industry standards for digital ad trading processes to address the emerging challenges faced in this area, such as tackling online ad fraud. This builds on its existing work around viewability, brand safety and identifying non-human traffic. Ad trading metrics, such as ad campaign effectiveness and measurement will continue to be dealt with by JICWEBS and it will also retain responsibility for audio-visual metrics, given the work currently being undertaken with BARB as part of Project Dovetail.

ABC will remain a preferred, but not exclusive, audit supplier for JICWEBS standards, utilising its 18 years of digital auditing and compliance-checking expertise.

Jerry Wright, Chief Executive, ABC said: “This development brings together all census based data measurement standards for media brands under ABC’s remit, allowing for consistent and coherent reporting across multiple platforms. ABC’s foundation of well-established cross-industry groups to build ideas and form consensus will ensure that these multi-platform standards will continue to evolve speedily to meet changing industry needs and innovations in media brands and their platforms. In addition ABC’s expertise in verification offers an extremely valuable service for those companies who wish to report to JICWEBS process audit standards.”