Estimating our Reach

In recent months, media coverage of the work of the CGIAR Centers has reached new highs, with current monthly media hits averaging about 1,200, a four-fold increase from a year ago. What does this mean in terms of our stories reach and impact? To get a better understanding of our reach, an audience analysis was conducted by Burness Communications, a public relations firm based in Washington. Burness assessed coverage received in relation to a story promoted collaboratively by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the CGIAR Secretariat communications team on the conservation of animal genetic resources. The promotion coincided with the FAO organized Interlaken Workshop on Animal Genetic Resources in September 2007. The total audience reached derived from this analysis was 49,554,844 people, of which 5,697,702 were reached by printed publications and 43,857,142 by broadcast radio.

Those numbers are based on the circulation numbers of every daily and weekly newspaper and magazine in which the story appeared in print (see Table 1). For newspapers and magazines, all circulation numbers were obtained from Cision MediaSource, unless otherwise indicated. The radio broadcast reach estimate is based on the daily audiences of most of the top radio stations on which the story was broadcast (see Table 2), however, information was not available for all stations.

Table 1: Circulation for print coverage

Source: Burness Communications

Table 2: Audience estimate for radio coverage

Source: Burness Communications