IRS 2010 ' Regional-publication results analysed

Now that the result of Indian Readership Survey (IRS) has been announced, expect fireworks and gloomy faces galore. We'll be talking about the entire capsule of IRS and the winners of different verticals, but before that ' there are procedures to understand. I like procedures. You see, IRS isn't really as simple as a mathematical calculation of two single digit numbers, but it isn't rocket science either that you or me would simply scratch our scalps off.

Let us understand the methodology of IRS first, shall we? There are two main pointers to start with:

1. The IRS considers the total urban and rural population of India aged 12 years and above.

Among the dailies, readership of regional newspapers has shot up and players like Malayala Manorama, Thanthi and Lokmat are clear winners. Talking of magazines, the result is same. Magazines like Vanitha and Kumudam have gained massive momentum. The regional publications enjoy unparalleled dominance in their respective geographical areas indicating at the market capacity and dynamics of the print media.

In an interesting turn of fact, it was observed that women are increasingly driving the growth in time spent by gender. So, women consume more media-hours than men, apparently! Additionally, time spent by older age groups has increased at a faster pace as opposed to younger age groups. The growth is close to twice the national average among the 50 years plus.

Talking numbers, for 2010 Q1, Vanitha topped the list of regional magazines with a readership of 30.31 lakh followed by Malayala Manorama at 14.33 lakh. Balaram, Kumudam and Mathrubhumi Arogya Masika were listed in that order to make up the top five. In the dailies section, it was Malayala Manorama leading the way with readership of 95.94 lakh. Lokmat and Daily Thanthi ' running neck and neck at 73.61 and 73.53 lakh readership respectively ' Mathrubhumi and Ananda Bazar Patrika completed the top five list.

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, an ecstatic Jwalant Swaroop of Lokmat said, "It is always the same thing that we are connected to the audiences and circulation in cities like Pune, Kolhapur, Sholapur have contributed a lot. The footprint of Lokmat in Maharashtra and Goa is consolidated. Basically it's the reader's engagement with the paper." Swaroop also revealed plans to go "excessive in the circulation drives and further capitalizing the market strength."

Daily Thanthi's V Ravichandran was less spirited in his response when Adgully gained access to him. "We have gone down from the No. 1 position and there isn't much scope for us as there are already 13 other editions existing", he said. Praising Lokmat for expansion into a number of geographical locations within Maharashtra that facilitated its growth, Ravichandran highlighted that the scope of growth in Tamil Nadu is not as strong. He said, "Tamil Nadu is a very small state and there are already other dailies existing so it is very difficult to grow."

Kumudam has been a steady player and ranks fourth in the list of top ten language magazines and is eighth overall when the entire packet of magazines published in India is taken into consideration. Though it maintains a healthy position in the ladder, Kumudam's readership has fallen a bit. Adgully spoke to Suresh Rao, Regional Manager (Publications), Kumudam, about the decline in readership and he acknowledged the same in his statements. Rao said, "There is an overall decline in readership to the tune of 5% to 6%. I feel the decline is because of the availability of other mediums like TV, Internet etc." Speaking about the IRS report, he commented, "It helps because it is a 3rd party research and now it will be more helpful since it will be publishing quarterly results."

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, P Sridhar, Chief General Manager, Sakshi Newspaper, was enthusiastic about his daily's performance. "We have shown a growth in our readership of close to 471,000. We have received one of the highest regional growth and our avg issue readership has shown a marginal increase of 9,000 copies, however our close competition has lost readership to the tune of 300,000. We have sustained the growth where as competition has shown a negative growth", he said.

Sridhar also went on to compliment the IRS report identifying it as a tool to market the products better to the clients and advertisers. Sharing his views about IRS, he said, "Since we are operating in a dynamic environment, it helps to a great magnitude. In terms of TV, Radio and Internet the availability of research data is quite current where as in print it use to be quite old but now with the quarterly availability of the IRS data it surely helps in marketing our product to clients/advertisers and it keeps a check of our own efforts."