Media Output Score, a New Indicator for Measuring Online Media Coverage

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article rightly notes that there is a need to develop a metric to measure media reach, while criticizing the AVE indicator. Using the design science research methodology, the case study analyzed the media messages of three main Portuguese telecommunications brands in 2022 in ten digital media. However, the title of the article suggests that the construction of the meter applies to all media, not only digital ones. Therefore, I propose to consider changing the title to "Media Output Score, a new indicator for measuring the reach of brands in digital media" - it will be a title adequate to the content. The introduction describes regularities and trends regarding the broadly understood media coverage covering all segments of the media market, and this is also a certain inconsistency because the research part concerns digital media. I propose to expand the analysis of literature to include digital media.

Especially:

- the research goal specified in the article should be limited to digital media,

-lines 162 – 165 are a repetition of lines 152-155 from the words: The prototype metric…..,

It is important to emphasize the precise description of the research methodology and the development of the MOS metric, but this is only a case study. I note similar limitations pointed out by the authors and therefore further testing is necessary as the application of the new metric may vary depending on the industry and geographical region.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your review and suggestions to improve our work.
We agree with the need to clarify better that the research goal is limited to digital media and framing the scope of the work.
Following your suggestion, we have changed the title to "Media Output Score, a new indicator for measuring online media coverage”. We avoided using the word "reach", suggested by you, to prevent any confusion with the metric "Reach", commonly used in this discipline to define the measurement of the size of the audience that has seen your ads or campaign content. We opted to keep the terminology "media coverage", a broader concept that describes precisely what we aim to measure, although focused on "online media coverage". 
Based on that, we expanded the literature review to include digital media, as proposed.
We have also corrected the repetition in lines 162-165 with lines 152-155, simplifying the text.
Thank you very much,
/Uriel Oliveira

Reviewer 2 Report

I find the paper fascinating and contemporary for our time. Using the design science research methodology, this research includes a case study analyzing the media coverage of the three main Portuguese telecommunications brands during one year on ten digital media outlets. The use of MOS with the sample data proved to be a comprehensive valid metric to measure the output performance of brands' digital media coverage, since it effectively combines all variables, providing a single metric that can be used to evaluate and compare the performance in this context. This paper presents the development, the application, and the implications of the MOS, providing a new lens through which to view and assess media coverage. 

As mentioned in the paper, the scope of this work is in the measurement of media coverage rather than analysis or evaluation. The authors did a great job delving into an interesting subject, aiming to establish a connection between current scientific knowledge on the subject under study, and the needs of the market, particularly for communication and marketing professionals.

Method is well explained, adopting the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology to design the Media Output Score (MOS) algorithm. Data was collected on media coverage for the telecommunications companies in Portugal for one year and this sample was submitted to be measured by the new metric to measure their media coverage.

Conclusions point out that based on the analysis presented,  the MOS metric is a comprehensive approach for measuring the output performance of brands' digital media coverage, as it effectively combines brand objectives, media targeting, visibility, favorability, readership, and social amplification, providing a single metric that can be used to evaluate and compare the performance of brands in this context.

I really enjoyed reading this paper and was impressed with how MOS metric demonstrates consistency to combine the quantitative and qualitative performance of brands, bringing a combination between media performance and media reputation, offering a coherent and simple measure of media coverage performance, either news by news item, or in an integrated way for a set of news items. Also, the several limitations mentioned at the end are important, contribute additional value to the paper and should be noted and addressed. 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your review.
We would like to let you know, that we decided to better clarify the scope of that work on online media, changing the title to "Media Output Score, a new indicator for measuring online media coverage” and we expanded the literature review to include more digital media context.
We hope this change could help to better frame our work in the digital media landscape. 
Thank you very much,
/Uriel Oliveira