Key Points
- Comscore has launched a new ROI Strategy intended to realign its business and improve long-term performance.
- The plan focuses on reducing costs, simplifying operations and concentrating investment on higher-value growth areas.
- Comscore said the strategy includes a substantial headcount reduction and a rationalization of its international commercial footprint; the company plans to expand use of offshore resources for repeatable operations and reduce legacy business costs.
Comscore has launched a broad restructuring and business realignment plan that will include cost reductions, changes to its operating model and new investment priorities intended to support long-term growth.
This week, the media measurement company said its new business plan, called ROI Strategy, is designed to lower and create more flexibility in its cost base, simplify how Comscore operates internally and externally, sharpen accountability and focus resources on products and opportunities that can create durable long-term value.
The plan includes streamlining corporate costs, expanding the use of offshore resources for repeatable operations and reducing areas of complexity that Comscore said no longer match its current strategic priorities.
Comscore further said it will simplify legacy business costs and underused product features, optimize pricing and contract structures and shift product development toward reusable, scalable solutions instead of bespoke customizations.
“Since assuming the leadership role at Comscore, I have spent significant time evaluating our business, our product portfolio, our organizational structure, and the opportunities we believe can create the greatest value for our customers, employees and shareholders,” Comscore CEO Matt McLaughlin said in a statement.
Comscore has “tremendous assets, intelligent algorithms and long-standing client relationships,” McLaughlin affirmed, but he admitted the company is not yet organized or focused in a way that allows it to fully leverage that value.
“The issue is not effort,” McLaughlin said. “The issue is focus, accountability, scalability and investment capacity. We must do better, and the ROI Strategy is designed to help us do that.”
Comscore said the transformation plan includes a “substantial headcount reduction,” though the company did not specify how many positions will be eliminated. It also plans additional actions to simplify areas of complexity and rationalize its international commercial footprint.
McLaughlin said those steps are intended to realign the business and reset costs to Comscore’s current revenue base. The company expects the financial impact of the changes to appear as it moves through fiscal 2027.
“The next phase is to optimize how we operate and invest in the future,” McLaughlin said. “We plan to streamline legacy activities, align data costs with current usage and strategic value, improve pricing and contract structures, and shift product development toward scalable solutions rather than bespoke activity.”
McLaughlin said the goal is not to do the same work with fewer people but to concentrate resources on areas where Comscore can create lasting value.
“We believe our ability to combine cross-channel intelligence with channel-level enablement positions us to set the standard for modern measurement,” McLaughlin said.
The move comes at a time when a number of streaming services and broadcast television networks have considered Comscore as an alternative currency to Nielsen, at a time when the latter’s products have faced intense scrutiny and criticism over methodology. Two years ago, Nexstar Media Group, the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S., signed a deal with Comscore largely based on that reason.
Comscore also has deals with other broadcasters like E. W. Scripps Company, Sinclair and Hubbard Broadcasting to evaluate audiences across different platforms.
