A book that measures up: Medio Relations Measurement is a near-perfect primer for communicators.

We have a saying around my office that "accountable communicators rule," and Ralf Leinemann is living proof. He's been running Hewlett-Packard's PR program in Europe for longer than Tony Blair has been running the U.K., and his new book tells you how. Media Relations Measurement is a must-read for every communicator who wants to survive the 21st century--an almost perfect primer for those wanting to learn how to measure their media performance.

Leinemann and co-author Elena Baikaltseva have nicely synthesized some of the industry's best thinking on the subject of measurement into one easy-to-understand manual. They approach the topic with a wonderfully simple tutorial style that carefully walks the reader step-by-step through the process and the logic behind their recommended methodologies.

Among the most useful sections is a discussion of measurement budgets. If your organization's annual marketing communication budget is US$50,000 or less, Leinemann and Baikaltseva recommend spending 10 percent to 12 percent on measurement; for budgets of between US$50,000 and US$100,000, plan on 7 percent to l0 percent; between US$100,000 and US$500,000, 5 percent to 7 percent; and more than US$500,000, 3 percent to 5 percent.

I do take issue with some of the assertions in the chapter on measuring the results of a PR campaign. The authors start out with a clear explanation of how to determine opportunities to see impressions, then blow their credibility with the mention of a multiplier for the "average number of readers per copy."

In my experience, the problem with multipliers is that they are notoriously inaccurate. Only the largest and most established publications have audited figures for pass-along readership, and the pass-along varies significantly.

For example, because I live alone, my copy of The New York Times is read once, by me, and then used to line the kitty litter box. But the copy of The Times that I read at the doctor's office has a much higher pass-along number. That means that to be truly accurate, you need to track down and enter the specific pass-along numbers for each publication and keep them up-to-date from year to year.

Leinemann and Baikaltseva make matters worse by wading into the advertising value equivalency (AVE) debate. While they start out with a good argument for why AVEs are not accurate, they then propose a variation, suggesting that you divide the ad value by a number that reflects the overall favorability of the article. On the surface this seems to have merit, but its invalidity stems from the fundamental problem with AVEs: There is no scientific evidence that an article and an ad have similar effects on your target audience.

Despite these issues, I would still call this book required reading for the 21st-century communicator.

about the book

Media Relations Measurement: Determining the Value of PR to Your Company's Success by Ralf Leinemann and Elena Baikaltseva Gower Publishing Ltd. 2004, 134 pages

about the reviewer

Katie Delahaye Paine is the founder and CEO of KDPaine & Partners, a consulting firm specializing in the measurement of communication programs.