Adgully Exclusive | The only way to gain viewership is by delivering newsworthy content: Zee News' Rohit Kumar

Over a period of time, the sanctity of news has got diluted in India. Zee News is aware of its responsibility as the fourth estate and understands the importance of serious news content and the credibility it brings with it, especially during Prime Time ' when the nation switches on a news channel for updates on current affairs and important happenings of the day.

Talking about the campaign's success, Rohit Kumar, Marketing Head, Zee News, says, "The media fraternity has spoken out on what constitutes news and what does not. It is this thought that we will take forward to rectify the wrong in hindi news genre to give the right direction to the news industry. This ongoing campaign will be taken to the next level to give power to the people's thought and opinions to bring the necessary change in the current news scenario. I am sure that this will work towards bringing back the sanctity of news."

Kumar's statement is supported by the nature of content on Hindi News channels. According to a report, Zee News delivers 97.4% pure news whereas other channels are heavily into entertainment content. Kumar says that Zee News believes in the ethos of journalism and pure news. "We will be happy if this campaign motivates other news channels to work as a responsible media channel," he adds.

The communication of the campaign has been designed to highlight the USP of Zee News, a promise to its viewers to deliver relevant and credible news. Through this initiative, the channel will reach out to the Media and Advertising industry and invite its feedback on this project.

Morever, Zee News has emerged strongly as the most preferred news channel. As per TAM data, Zee News is the Nation's No.1 News channel during Prime Time in the Hindi speaking market.

So exlpaining the unision between good news- based content and TRP, Kumar, says, "For a news channel, the only way to gain popularity and viewership is to do best in delivering newsworthy content. With the variety of channels available to the viewers today, they will come to a news channel to watch only news. To watch entertainment, comedy, reality shows, they have a plethora of options. If other news channels can acknowledge this basic fact, they too can become credible news channels. We do not believe in a shortcut mechanism. We believe in news and it works. In the last few newsworthy incidents, there was gain in news genre GRP and other genre GRP declined."

Talking about retaining a set of audiences Kumar says that today, the best way to determine the way forward for any brand is to understand and acknowledge what a consumer wants out of the brand. "As we are aware that in this era where information is the key to survival and success, viewers would not want to waste time on a news channel which does not respect the viewers thought and does not provide news that would update and empower them. They would not switch on a news channel to watch entertainment/ reality shows/ comedy etc. Zee News respects the intelligence of its viewers and delivers news that is relevant to them. It acts as the watch dog of the society," he says.

Zee News, a mass news channel, is targeted at 15+ C&S. Kumar says that taking the marketing initiatives to the youth is the channel's topmost priority as of now.

"That is the reason most of our initiatives ' My Earth My Duty ' a campaign on climate change and Apka Vote Apki Taqat ' a voter awareness campaign, have been centered around the youth of the country. It was the participation and interaction with the youth that has benefited the brand and lead to an increase in the channel share. We will continue with such endeavors in the future as well," he adds.

In the past Zee News had launched a nationwide campaign My Earth My Duty on June 5th, 2010. Zee News became the medium to create awareness about the catastrophic effects of Climate Change and protecting our environment. On 25th August, 2010, India became greener by 73 LAKH TREES. The campaign was registered in the Limca book of records.

Aapka Vote Apki Taqat - Nation's biggest and most widespread voter awareness campaign to motivate Indian citizens, especially the youth, has been a continuous and sustainable effort on the part of Zee News from last three years to strengthen the world's biggest democracy.

The objective of the campaign is to reach out to urban as well as rural India, to educate citizens and to motivate them to exercise their power of vote and to choose the right candidate. It is carried out in association with the Election Commission of India which provides all necessary information on the electoral candidates. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]