New York - Jan 24, 2007 - Arbitron acknowledged that the first electronic diary has been submitted for the Winter 2007 survey. The first electronic diary keeper was a 31-year-old woman in the Honolulu metro. She submitted 11 entries, amounting to seven hours of radio listening to four radio stations. All the entries were for listening in the car.

Radio survey participants in diary-based markets now have the option to use an Internet-based, electronic diary in place of the standard paper-and-pencil survey tool. The electronic diary system was introduced in Winter 2007 to give respondents the option to use a survey tool that better fits their lifestyle and habits. Based on its tests of the electronic diary, Arbitron expects that at least one out of every 20 survey participants will choose the Internet-based option over the paper-and-pencil version.

Arbitron expects those who will use the Internet option are more likely to be younger. In the Arbitron tests, the largest demographic group of electronic diary keepers is between the ages of 25 and 34 while the largest demographic group of paper diarykeepers is between the ages of 45 and 54. Also, electronic diary keepers are more likely to work full-time.

Arbitron notes that its test shows that there is no significant difference in the number of quarter-hours of listening or the number of stations entered into the electronic diary vs. the paper diary. A sample of a radio diary Web page can be viewed at this link.