IRS Q2 2010: Mixed reactions from South publishers; call for different pattern of estimation for magazines

While Daily Thanthi has witnessed some growth as per IRS Q2 2010 data, nearly all dailies and periodicals in Tamil Nadu have shown negative growth. The results have garnered mixed reactions from the players in Southern media.

Expressing his displeasure over the latest IRS results, R Vijay Bobby, GM - Marketing, Dinakaran, said that the Mumbai and Delhi editions of Dinakaran had a net paid circulation of 19,059 and 1,876, respectively, as per ABC, which had not been taken into consideration in IRS Q2 2010. “At 4.20 readers per copy (which is the average as per the survey), readership would increase by 87,927 copies, bringing the total readership to 5,128,927. Hence, the figure of 5,041,000 is incorrect and misleading,” he affirmed.

Similarly, for the Bangalore edition too the report said 1.02 readership per copy, Bobby said, adding, “I am writing a letter to the IRS saying that even though you can give us a statistics based explanation, in reality any average house should have two members, therefore, I don’t know how 1.2 readers per copy fit in.”

Meanwhile, Skandraaj, Chief Operating Officer, Malar Publications, the publishers of Daily Thanthi, said that as far as a Tamil daily was concerned, Mumbai was a single reader market. “Though Mumbai has a huge Tamil population, the reader is only one reader per paper. People in Mumbai can talk Tamil, but whether they are reading Tamil is a big question mark,” he pointed out.

Skandraaj further said that the IRS was the only yardstick available as of now and they were happy with the numbers. “At the end of the day, the client should be happy with the ROI he got,” he said, adding, “Daily Thanthi is the only daily that has shown some growth. We were surprised that this growth has not reflected in the last IRS results. In the last four ABCs, we have shown tremendous growth. We have added close to 2 lakh net paid copies more, according to ABC reports, in the last four years and the growth should have reflected in the last IRS report. We were surprised when that did not happen, but now that it has happened, we are happy about it.”

According to Varghese Chandy, Senior General Manager, Malayala Manorama, “This is the first report on a quarterly basis and will take time to establish itself and stabilise. A quarterly report with moving average will definitely capture the dynamic nature of the market. As far as figures are concerned, I have no complaints as such.”

Magazines should be looked differentially

On the continuous decline in magazine readership, Chandy noted that it was no different this time around. “The only thing about magazines, especially about English magazines, was that this readership survey or any readership survey so far was not actually geared to capture the readerships of magazines as such,” he said, adding, “Penetration of magazines is not as high as that of newspapers, therefore, newspapers tend to get a better reflection of readership estimation as compared to magazines, because magazines by nature are more category specific and more niche, and I do not think the readership estimation practice which we are utilising for newspapers should be used for magazines. Magazines should be looked differentially and magazines should have a different pattern of estimation, which such a large survey like IRS is not able to capture.”

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