Re-appointment at media evaluation body for Press Data’s Jerry Ward

THE head of an Edinburgh-based media monitoring and evaluation agency has been re-elected to the board of an international body representing his sector.

Jerry Ward, of Press Data, has been re-elected to the board of AMEC, the global PR trade body for the media analysis industry, for a further two years. He has been a board member for the last six years, and has particular responsibility for building up membership. AMEC – the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication – boasts members in 38 countries.

And last week, it was boosted by a report in trade magazine, PR Week, that the UK body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, concerning one evaluation system.

Says Ward: “AMEC has, for some time, been against trying to measure the effectiveness of PR by simply calculating how much it would have cost to buy the same number of column inches as advertising. So it is good news to hear that the CIPR is no longer accepting Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) in entries for its awards.”

Ward’s election coincides with Press Data offering a new suite of services, including a media mailing list and a range of measurement and evaluation tools that seeks to look at the likes of impact and reputation, when it comes to the outcome of PR activity.

Ward anticipates 20 editorial and research posts will be created in Edinburgh over the next two years, following the launch of NewsPad.