The organisation said in July that it was planning the tender with CEO Tony Hale commenting: “The global media landscape is rapidly changing and it is of vital importance to the newspaper industry to be able to access the best possible measurement information to keep pace with the changes in consumer behaviour and gain a deeper understanding of of how consumers interact with the medium.”

Deadline for expressions of interest is 25 September. Companies bidding for the new tender must have relevant audience measurement or analysis experience, hold accreditations from professional associations and base key personnel in Australia for the project. Click here for further details.

Plans for the new survey have been backed by the Media Federation of Australia, The Australian Association of National Advertisers and the Advertising Federation of Australia, which will all be involved in the tendering process.

However, the new survey will have to compete with Australia’s current newspaper readership study, which Roy Morgan has run for the last 30 years.

Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said last month that the firm would continue running its survey and would not compete for The Newspaper Works contract.

The prospect of two readership surveys split the industry, with some media buyers urging Roy Morgan to drop its opposition to the new survey while others speculated that Roy Morgan could make changes to its offer that would render The Newspaper Works’ survey obsolete.