Fairfax and Magazine Publishers of Australia have withdrawn support for a new readership metric.

The new metric, under development by The Newspaper Works, comes in response to dissent around Roy Morgans measurement and alleged lack of transparency.

The withdrawal coincides with the announcement of three research firms shortlisted for the project: GfK: Mediamark Research and Intelligence, Ipsos MediaCT and, TNS Australia. (Changed semi-colons to commas)

News Ltd supports The Newspaper Works system. Representing media buyers, Media Federation of Australia (MFA) chairman, Gary Hardwick said the MFA will continue to support the development through the tender process. If the new metric is demonstrably better, media buyers will support the transition.

Belinda Rowe, ZenithOptimedia managing partner, said only one system was likely to prevail:

We cant operate two systems in trading metrics and as an agency wed have to make a call on which one.

Id imagine if we felt the tender process resulted in a really strong measurement process then the MFA would absolutely want to get behind it, added Rowe.