Blog readers easily undercounted by traditional bigCo methods

Since 90% of blog reading occurs at work, blog readers will likely be radically undercounted by the likes of comScore and Nielsen, we can infer from reading this article. The rub:

High-traffic Internet sites often employ outside survey firms, such as Nielsen/NetRatings or comScore Media Metrix, to measure site traffic. Both use huge “panels” (comScore claims to have 1 million panelists) of computer users who, in exchange for incentives, permit the companies to track which websites they visit.

But because many companies won’t allow their workplace computers to be used for such purposes, “these panels clearly undersample at-work users,” says Richard Gordon, a professor of online journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.