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Simmons Market Research Bureau's switch to the "pure recent reading" magazine audience-measuring methodology has--as min reported over the past two weeks--produced aggregates much higher (+67.83% with Better Homes and Gardens) than SMRB's old "through-the-book" method. That they also exceed "pure recent reading" adherent Mediamark Research Inc.'s Spring 1995 measurements by about 10% does not perturb the latter's chairman/ceo, Alain Tessier, for three reasons: (1) "It's what they predicted" last fall to the Advertising Research Foundation; (2) "The numbers are only a half-sample"--SMRB's first "full wave" is due in three months, when the firm begins a September/March semiannual schedule that will give it a one-month head-start to MRI's October/April (which doesn't perturb Tessier, either); and (3) Tessier's confidence that there will be no client defections. Even so, he acknowledges the "concern" from U.S News & World Report publisher Tom Evans and USA Today publisher Tom Curley over their respective -21.64% and -25.86% MRI Spring 1995 audiences (versus Spring 1994). "I explained to them that we use the same procedures in our measurements every year, and we have to deal with the responses that we get," he tells min. "Our discussions are continuing."