IRS 2013: Publications up in arms. Where have the readers vanished, they ask

Many leading publishers who are aggrieved are planning to approach MRUC for corrective measures. If that fails, they claim they are willing to go to court for redressal

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 31, 2014

Publishers were unhappy with the old IRS, they wanted a better and more robust readership survey, they got it too, but many are now unhappy and up in arms. As they say, the good always comes along with the ugly. With the release of new Indian Readership Survey findings earlier this week, after a gap of one year, conducted by research agency Nielsen, MRUC (Media Research Users Council) is facing a lot of heat from publishing houses across the country whose readerships have witnessed a steep decline since previous IRS studies.

The new IRS data have shown minor to huge de-growth for about 90-95 per cent publishers and, according to the highly placed sources in publishing houses, many of the big publishers including Jagran Prakashan, DB Corp., Zee Media Corporation, Bennett, Coleman & Co., The Hindu among others are planning to jointly protest the new IRS data, while a few may lodge their complaint independently.

When asked about the possible course of action, several publishers hinted that they would first go to MRUC in a prescribed manner and seek corrective measures. As BestMediaInfo.com had reported, on the basis of its conversation with Paritosh Joshi, Chairman, IRS Technical Committee, MRUC has so far taken the stand that the data will neither be rolled back nor changed. Many publishers hinted that they will be forced to approach the court if they do not find redressal from MRUC. Some publishers, on condition of anonymity, told BestMediaInfo.com that the reason behind moving court will be to get a stay on the usage of current data.

An analysis of marketwise findings of new IRS done by some of the affected publications is doing the rounds in the media, highlighting the “anomalies and illogical findings in IRS 2013”. The analysis says: “The new report is raising several questions on methodology and mechanism on which this report is prepared. A detailed perusal of the data points would establish beyond doubt and corroborate that process and approach applied for this report is completely irrational, unscientific and very far from accuracy, market perception and ground realities.”

The key indicators derived from the analysis are:

• The overall market is shown to be behaving in asynchronous manner with sudden spurts of growth in some markets juxtaposed with sharp decline in others, leading to serious concerns on the veracity of base-lining and the sanctity of readership survey process execution on the ground.
• There is arbitrary decline of aggregate readership ascribed to certain media groups in a targeted manner. Almost 90-95% of Indian newspapers are negatively affected.
• The outcomes in this report are pre-ordained to benefit a few very specific media groups in a disproportionate and brazen manner for reasons easy to assess and understand.

The analysis highlighted the instance of the surprising gain of a newspaper in Uttar Pradesh where other established newspapers have shown a drastic drop despite the fact that existing newspapers have neither launched nor closed any edition, in almost the last one year's time. It adds that the situation was no different in Uttarakhand.

Moving to South, the analysis pointed out how readerships of newspapers have witnessed huge decline. In Karnataka, all the leading Kannada dailies have dropped significantly by 40-50% where traditionally strong dailies like Samyukta Karnataka and Udyavani have de-grown by as much as 50%.

Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the steep fall in readership of the state's leading daily, The Hindu, has been questioned in the analysis. Another established Tamil daily Dinakaran's decline by 14 lakh readers is also questioned in the analysis.

The dramatic drop in readership of Sakshi in Andhra Pradesh is inexplicable, according to the analysis. Sakshi is down from 53 lakh to 33 lakh where every newspaper in this market, irrespective of language, has dropped by approximately 45-50%.

After studying the IRS data and trend in Jharkhand where all three leading newspapers have lost their readership, the analysis has raised the question that if all the big players have all lost readership, where have those readers gone?

The analysis finds it surprising that in Rajashthan there has been an accretion of 7.5 lakh readers even though no new edition has been launched. In Rural area, the loss of 9 lakh+ readers has also been questioned.

Similar concerns and anomalies have been identified in the analysis. It now remains to be seen if the publishers are satisfied with MRUC's reply or will they consider other ways to save their interest.

Also read: 18 top media houses strongly condemn IRS 2013 results; seek withdrawal of survey

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com