MEDIA FORUM: Can media agencies afford greater transparency? As the industry moves on, can income figures still be regarded as too intrusive a way to give media agencies a ranking, Alasdair Reid asks?

If only everything in life could be as reliable as the accountancy profession. Where would we be if companies could just 'make up' numbers that they found pleasing and managed to get a whole bunch of bean counters to give them an official-looking rubber stamp? It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

Unfortunately, though, the advertising industry knows a thing or two about creative accountancy - or at least it did once upon a time. Back in the bad old days, agency league tables were compiled on the basis of 'billings' - a concept linked to a commission-based payment system believed to have been widespread way back in the last century.

Billings became increasingly irrelevant for creative agencies as they moved more to fee-based remuneration. And these days they never actually get their hands on the media budget - the old measure of what an account is worth. So even those who insisted on trying to punt their own version of their billings figure (derived by applying lavish amounts of exaggeration to the number you first created) were eventually laughed into line.

Last year's IPA league tables were the first to be compiled on the basis of income and this year's tables represent a fine tuning of that first effort - and it's surely especially encouraging to see an increased participation by media agencies. Is this an indication that income is becoming more accepted as a currency? There are, however, some notable gaps in the media table - Carat, Zenith and Mediaedge:cia continue to withhold their figures.

Why? Because, Mark Craze, the chief executive of Carat, says, even the IPA recognises that, for media agencies, billings are still a valid measure.

'For us, income figures are not a true representation of the industry or valid as a ranking mechanism. If you look at this year's table you have Poster Publicity appearing at eighth place on pounds 7 million. But it's a nonsense to compare Poster Publicity to someone like, say, MediaCom.

They are totally different business models. Any measurement system needs some level of consistency and people also like to be able to look at trends.