2. A REPORT
ON
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
AT
BUSINESS STANDARD
AHMEDABAD
SUBMITTED TO
AES Post Graduate Institute Of Business Management
SUBMITTED BY
Dhwani Worah
Amit Raichuria
Acknowledgement
2
3. This project is an amalgamation of team efforts. My heart felt thanks to all who have
given time and insight into making this project possible.
We are grateful to Dr. A.H. Kalro, Director, and AESPGIBM for giving us the opportunity
to undertake summer training in the field of our interest.
We are also thankful to the entire staff of BUSINESS STANDARD, Ahmedabad branch
for guiding us and giving us a patient listening every time we encountered problems.
Mr. Mukund Shukla, Business Standard Circulation head, Gujarat has been a mentor
and we thank him for his support. We also extend our sincere gratitude to Mr. Kunal
Panchal, Market Development Executive and our project head.
Our special thanks to Mr. Rajendra Sharma and Ms. Jinal Parikh for guiding us
throughout the project.
Last but definitely not the least; we thank our friends for their unconditional support
extended.
Executive summary
3
4. Marketing is an all embracing function that links the business with customer needs and
wants in order to get the right product to the right place at the right time. Moreover the
marketer has to understand customer needs and offer products and services better than
the competition.
Working at business standard was a great learning opportunity. The duration for the
summer project was 18th May to 18th July. Business Standard is India’s one of the
fastest growing newspapers having growth rate of 300% in past five years. During the
course of the summer training various tasks were undertaken:
MAY 18TH -19TH – ORIENTATION
• Introduction with staff members
• Analyzing and understanding BUSINESS STANDARD newspaper as a product
and its content
• Comparison with other business dailies like ET, BL, FE etc.
MAY 20th – 28th – FIELDWORK
• Market mapping and identifying potential target areas.
• Conduct survey to find the brand awareness and market penetration of Business
standard relative to competitors.
• Market development through personal selling the annual subscription scheme of
Business standard. A target of 20 subscriptions in a week was given which was
achieved before the deadline.
MAY 29TH – 31ST STRATEGY FORMATION
• Involved in strategic planning implementation of a counter attack strategy to
withstand the entry of new competitor FE in Gujarat.
4
5. JUNE 8TH - 17TH – FIELD WORK (BARODA MARKET)
• Success at Ahmedabad market was motivating enough to undertake the same
drive in Baroda market. Both the markets had entirely different features.
• 200% target was achieved within one week.
JUNE 18TH – JUNE 31ST
• Institutional market development
JULY 1ST – 8TH- VISIT TO ALL THE DEPARTMENTS
• Visit to the printing press
JULY 10TH – 15TH - REPORT MAKING
We feel glad to present this report which is a comprehensive effort to describe our
learning experience. The project report can be summarized as follows:
Market development strategies: MDS is a tool to increase the circulation of
newspaper with various tactics like mass subscription, schemes, sponsored copies,
promotions etc.
Research Design: We collected data through scheduled questionnaire which were
transformed into information which was used by us to penetrate into the market coping
up with competition and increasing our customer base.
Findings: We found that management students have more potential to read business
newspaper, further we found that awareness of Business Standard was 30.3% we also
found that presently 41.18% were reading Business standard for mutual funds news
also 63.3% were interested in schemes or offers.
Suggestions: Business Standard should target management students to increase the
circulation. It should also target undergraduates, who are preparing for management
5
6. entrance exams, and they should also provide job appointment supplement and they
should become media partner at various B-schools quizzes and seminars to create
brand noise
The research work forming the part of the university syllabus has provided an
opportunity for probing into the marketing strategies and to understand the policies of
Business Standard. We have tried our best to collect the information required for the
organization study and market development strategies.
Contents
6
7. Acknowledgements iii
Executive summary iv
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 History of the Print 3
1.2 Popularity of the Print Media in India 5
1.3 Challenges for the Print Industry 7
1.4 Changing trends in the Newspaper Industry 9
2. BUSINESS STANDARD 12
2.1 Stake holder- Financial 14
2.2 Product Profile 16
3. DEPARTMENTS 19
3.1 Market Development 22
3.2 Space Marketing 28
3.3 Scheduling 29
3.4 Editorial 31
3.5 Systems and Production 32
4. COMPETITION ANALYSIS 35
4.1 Other Financial Newspapers 37
4.2 Readership Survey Results 40
4.3 SWOT Analysis 47
4.4 Porter’s Five Forces Model 49
5. MARKET RESEARCH 54
5.1 Chi-Square Test 64
5.2 Findings and Recommendations 66
6. CONCLUSION 68
7
8. ANNEXURE 69
NOMENCLATURE 72
BIBLIOGRAPHY 73
A REPORT
ON
8
9. MARKET DEVELOPMENT
AT
BUSINESS STANDARD
AHMEDABAD
SUBMITTED TO
AES Post Graduate Institute Of Business Management
SUBMITTED BY
Dhwani Worah
Amit Raichuria
CHAPTER 1
9
10. INTODUCTION
HISTORY OF THE PRINT
POPULRITY OF THE PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA
CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINT INDUSTRY
CHANGING TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION
INTRODUCTION
Media is an important and inseparable part of a democratic society. It is in fact called
the fourth pillar of democracy. Before the advent of electronic media, print media played
an important role in disseminating information to people. Over the years, a wide variety
of media like the press, performing arts, television, radio and films have been used for
communication. Among these, print media continues to play an important role. The
Government uses print media to secure wide coverage of messages through various
newspapers and journals.
A newspaper is a regularly published print product containing information vital to the
function of the market it serves. Definitions become more important as traditional
10
11. newspaper companies move from single-product management (newspapers) to multi-
product management - often under the company's brand, typically the title of the
newspaper.
What newspaper companies are learning is that the value of what they produce is not
the ink on paper, but the content, depth, segmentation choices, credibility, and
emotional attributes that are delivered in any distribution channel they choose.
Over the years newspaper reading has become a daily early morning regime. What for
decades was a dull market place with limited number of newspapers is today a very
diversified offering.
Print offerings have multiplied and cater to diverse needs like travel, sports, fashion etc.
Newspapers these days not just provide news and entertainment but also cater to niche
audience. Financial newspapers are such newspapers that target niche market
comprising corporate, businessmen and investors.
With the era of multi edition newspapers and therefore multi newspaper markets, has
given greater choice to readers and also resulted into a fierce fight for reader’s
attention. But, the latest trend observed is that one reader is not necessarily habituated
to reading only a particular newspaper, therefore even a small difference in price could
sometimes bring about a change in the purchase decision.
This has driven newspaper prices to a point where leading newspapers fetch virtually no
circulation revenue for their publishers. The little that is collected from the reader goes
almost entirely to the distributor or the hawker.
The growth of newspapers have been highly affected by growth in computer and
internet connectivity, mobile telephony which enables real time access to news, views
and entertainment anytime anywhere!
11
12. Recent changes in regulations permitting FDI in print and broadcasting media has
further heated up the media market. With the entry of the foreign players, the Indian
print media scene has changed tremendously. On the other hand the Indian print media
now operates overseas as well and thus, it is not confined to Indian audience only.
The newspaper plays an important role in contributing to social good, playing a critic
and the watchdog function, helping to foster debates on agendas for social
transformation. The one that best fulfils these roles will gain the maximum eyeball’s
share.
With the growing literacy and income, particularly among the young, our media today is
being forced to respond to the demands of a new readership one which is discerning
and demanding, impatient with the old content and style and not bound by old codes of
loyalty. This adds pressure on the newspaper companies to seek creative solutions and
explore new roles and meanings for it.
HISTORY OF THE PRINT
James Augustus Hicky a rambunctious and irreverent Englishman gave India its first
newspaper in January 1780. The weekly Bengal Gazette, also known as Hicky’s
Gazette, was a rag of sorts with gossip about English society in Bengal, the center of
the British East India Company’s existence at that time. More than a year later in June
1781 he was in jail for defamation. Undaunted, Hicky edited his paper from jail and his
audacious column continued to appear. After a second prosecution in 1782, his press
was confiscated and his career as an editor came to an end.
If that seems like an unpromising beginning for India’s publishing industry, it wasn’t.
Here was an Englishman with the impudence to question the governor general and
chief justices that his own country had appointed. Hicky symbolizes in many ways that
essential element of a vibrant print industry – freedom. Combine that with the other
mark- that of government censorship and control. Across the developed and
12
13. developing world, the history of press is littered with examples of governments trying to
browbeat, scare, cajole and bludgeon the freedom that the Hick’s of this world want to
write what they think – for the people who want to read it.
By the time the first newspaper was launched in India, printing was a booming industry
elsewhere in the world. After Hicky’s Gazette came a succession of newspapers and
periodicals, many out of Bengal and many created by Englishmen. There was the India
Gazette, another weekly from B. Messink Welby and Peter Reed in 1780, and the
Calcutta Journal, a bi-weekly from James Silk Buckingham in 1818. The first Indian-
owned, Indian language paper came, rather appropriately from noted social reformer
Raja Rammohan Roy in 1820. Sambad Kaumudi was a weekly Bengali newspaper.
Between 1780 and 1947 until India’s independence, more than 120 newspapers and
periodicals were launched in almost every Indian language. Some were owned by
Englishmen, others by Indians and still others by missionaries. Almost all of them began
with a cause – either to speak out against British imperialism or to spread the message
of Christianity among the natives. None of them, it seems, had the intention of making
money.
That is still the main reason why the newspaper industry in India remains small. It never
got out of the ‘I am here to fight a battle not to make money’ mindset. At the time
independence that was nothing wrong with the notion. The trouble was that things
continued that way for decades later. At that time, India was a nation struggling to
discover its identity and trying to get out of British clutches. The need of the hour was to
spread the message of independence. So newspapers sprouted up all over the place –
and equally quickly they shut down. In fact many of the editors of defunct newspapers
usually manage to get the funds to start another one.
So, it appears that the aim for many of these newspaper launches was never ever to
make money. It was always a cause, revolt, a message, and a tool to counter
propaganda or spread some of their own. Many of the top publications today are the
ones are the one that have lived through the freedom struggle. The Times of India
(TOI), Mumbai Samachar, Malayala Manorama, Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP) and the
13
14. Hindu, among others are all veterans of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Ironically enough,
across the length and breadth of a largely illiterate country, there cropped up vehicles,
which would play a huge role in the bringing down of the British Empire. Most of these
were financed by benevolent or patriotic businessmen or through donations. Even after
independence most had a cause, to see to the birth of a nation and its growth. Wealthy
businessmen continued to keep running these papers, most of them at a loss, because
of the influence and the power they brought them. They could afford to do it because
most had other successful businesses, like the Goenkas who owned Indian Express,
also own real estate.
POPULRITY OF THE PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA
“If you read a lot, you are considered well-read; but if you watch a lot of TV, you are not
considered well-viewed!” cribbed Lily Tomlin, the American actress and comedian.
And therein lies the truth behind why, despite all catastrophic predictions, print has
managed to survive the onslaught of other media and grow from strength to strength, in
India at least.
The desire to be “well-read”, especially in India, has its foundation in our history, where
a person’s worth was determined by the extent of his or her knowledge. As long as our
history continues to subliminally influence our habits, print will never hear the death knell
in India. In fact, there exists no better medium to gain knowledge than print currently.
Today India is a buoyant print market, with 216 million adult readers, a number that
would make this reader universe the fifth largest country in the world.
There has been a lot of good news for the Indian print industry in recent years. For
example, in the last five years with a 19-per cent growth rate, readership has grown
faster than the country’s adult population, which grew at 15 per cent.
With projected revenues of Rs 6,800 crore in 2006, print is India’s leading medium,
constituting 49 per cent of the Rs14,000-crore advertising market. It is also the fastest
growing medium for advertising, with an estimated 20-per cent gain in 2006. Television,
for example, is expected to grow only at 15 per cent.
14
16. Also, sensationalism in terms of breaking unique and controversial stories has helped
print to regain topicality in news reporting to some extent.
More interestingly, the profile of the reader is also changing to address the advertiser’s
need today. About 71 per cent of new readers today are coming from rural India, which
is where most advertisers are concentrating their efforts to increase sales. At a 30 per
cent growth rate, the advertiser’s key audience, the female readership, is growing faster
than the male readership, which is growing at the rate of 15 per cent.
CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINT INDUSTRY
The first challenge that the print industry has to address is to win over the future readers
— the youth of today — in a big way. A survey done amongst today’s youth revealed
that only 37 per cent of them felt it important to read a newspaper every day and nearly
half of them believed that newspapers do not play an important role in their life.
Publication owners need to figure out tactics on how to “catch them young”.
The second challenge lies in defining the role of newspapers, given that the latest news
is available on numerous television channels. “Newspapers cannot be defined by the
second word — paper. They’ve got to be defined by the first word — news”, it holds true
with the advent of the news channels and the internet.
The third challenge lies in tackling the lack of time amongst today’s readers. Time spent
reading has hardly grown in the last five years. Despite this, we have numerous
publications entering the market and newspapers are flooding the readers with multiple
supplements on the same day.
The fourth and final challenge lies in making the ad space more efficient and effective
for the advertisers. Compared with television, print still continues to be a cost inefficient
medium for most advertisers. Also, the print medium is not offering any unique
innovations that could generate more bangs for the buck for advertisers
16
17. The challenges in front of the print industry are best summed by the words ‘Whatever
business you are in, you cannot run in place for someone else will pass you by. It does
not matter how many games you have won’.
The print industry has managed to constantly run out of place to get to where it is today
amidst tough competition. Its future lies in finding an answer to “What is the new path
they are going to run in now?”
Numbers crunch
Reach: 200 million readers
Newspaper readership: 176 million
Magazine readership: 69 million
Size of print media industry: Estimated at Rs109 billion in 2005; projected to grow
to Rs195 billion by 2010
Size of newspaper industry: Estimated at Rs96 billion in 2005; projected to grow to
Rs170 billion by 2010
Size of the magazine industry: Estimated at Rs13 billion in 2005, projected to grow to
Rs25 billion by 2010
Source: FICCI-PwC report on the Indian entertainment and media industry
CHANGING TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
Newspapers have generally been closely held, many a time family owned enterprises.
Significant changes of late are taking place in Newspaper Industry. Some newspapers
have gone public while some, which were primarily in the publishing business, have
diversified in allied and other fields. Some cross-financial investments between different
newspaper groups have widened the potential areas for cooperation and are likely to
strengthen the Industry.
17
18. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian general newspapers is also taking place.
Issue of IPO’s is helping closely held newspaper organizations to become widely held.
Additional resources mobilized through FDI/IPO’s are funding expansion and
modernization plans of such newspapers.
Advertising is a big industry and share of print media in the total advertisement market
is very significant. In the current economic scenario, as a constantly changing reflection
of public and private realms at various levels and intersects of our lives and times the
newspapers have a critical role to play.
Readers turn to their preferred newspaper for various reasons. Therefore there is no
reason to doubt that the newspapers will continue to thrive, even in the digital world.
AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION
Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is one of the several organizations of the same
name operating in different parts of the world.
The ABC founded in 1948 is a not for profit, voluntary organization consisting of
Publishers, Advertisers and Advertising Agencies. It has done pioneering work in
developing audit procedures to verify the circulation data published by those
newspapers and periodicals, which have earned the right to display its emblem.
ABC as it is called and understood by all, is a founder member of the International
18
19. Federation of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The main function of ABC is to evolve, lay
down a standard and uniform procedure by which a member publisher shall compute its
net paid sales. The circulation figure so arrived at is checked and certified by a firm of
Chartered Accountants which are approved by the Bureau. The Bureau issues ABC
certificates every six months to those publishers whose circulation figures confirm to the
rules and regulations as set out by the Bureau.
From a modest beginning it has grown to remarkable proportions. ABC's membership
today includes 411 Publishers of national and regional importance, 151 Advertising
Agencies, 51 Advertisers & 20 New Agencies and Associations connected with print
media and advertising. It covers most of the major towns in India.
Facts and figures, which are checked and certified by an independent body, is a very
important tool in the hands of the advertising business community. The details of ABC
certified circulation figures are available online to all Members of the Bureau
(http://www.auditbureau.org) at no extra cost.
An Advertiser would like to know the facts and figures before investing his money in
advertising. An Advertiser ought to know how many people buy a publication and in
which area. The ABC gives all these vital facts every six months. The ABC figures are
not the outcome of opinions, claims or guesswork, but they are the result of rigid, in-
depth and impartial audits of paid circulations of member publications by independent
and leading firms of Chartered Accountants working in accordance with the rules /
procedures prescribed by the Bureau.
Few important issues to take care as per ABC certification:
Trade terms to agents on subscription copies should not exceed
• In case of dailies-40% of the subscription price
• In case of weeklies-45% of the subscription price
19
20. Publishers have to maintain the full record of subscribers with their address, name and
signature.
There are two types of panels:
1. Auditors panel
2. Publishers panel
• Auditors will audit the circulation twice a year ending June & December
• The auditors to cover the outstanding dues provide Two months credit period to
publishers.
• If any distributors have more than 15000 subscriptions copies then he also
comes under the audit for ABC certification.
Thus ABC plays a major role to stop the manipulation activity in the publication industry.
CHAPTER 2
BUSINESS STANDARD
STAKE HOLDER - FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON
PRODUCT PROFILE
20
21. BUSINESS STANDARD
Business Standard is the country's most respected
business daily, being the first choice of serious business
readers. Business Standard Ltd. (BSL) was incorporated
on 16th Dec. 1970 under the name of “Desh Publications
(p) Ltd.” This was changed to “Business Standard (p)
Ltd.” on 7th Sept. 1995 and subsequently converted into “Business Standard Ltd” on 23rd
Nov. 1995 as a limited company. The Head office is in Delhi.
Several reputed investors own the company. Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited has a
stake of 47.30% and Great Eastern Shipping Company holds 31.87% while others hold
20.76%. The Financial Times of London has taken an equity stake of 13.85% in BSL.
It is published in colour from 7 centers in India - Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata,
Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. It is also printed at Kochi, Pune and
Chandigarh.
21
22. The newspaper believes in free, fair and independent journalism and strives to inculcate
these values in its editorial staff. The journalism practiced by Business Standard lays
equal stress on quality, credibility and accuracy.
Business Standard has the country's best economic journalists and columnists working
for it. It is edited by T.N.Ninan, perhaps India’s best-known business journalist, who had
earlier undertaken a complete and highly successful revamp of The Economic Times
and was responsible for its phenomenal growth.
Apart from a business newspaper, BSL publishes several periodicals, including BS
Motoring, Indian Management, and Routes: the Gateway Magazine (a lifestyle
magazine).
The company sees content creation, content processing and content management as
its core competence. It offers complete outsourcing solutions for organizations which
want to bring out in-house or private publications but lack the people and/or resources
to do it cost-effectively.
VISION
“To stand at a respected position in the marathon and also keep up with the pace of the
changing needs of its valued readers.”
The agenda is to win more and more readers to their cause and also to deliver 100% of
itself.
MISSION
22
23. To expand the marked share of BS by creating a new market and by taking bites from
competitor’s market share.
CORE COMPETENCE
Content creation, content processing & content management
OBJECTIVE
To provide comprehensive details of market development
“When You Are Sure”
STAKE HOLDER – FINANACIAL TIMES GROUP
History
The Financial Times newspaper launched in 1888, declaring itself: 'The friend of the
honest financier, the bona fide investor, the respectable broker, the genuine director,
the legitimate speculator.'
The newspaper is now printed in 23 cities, with four editions: for the UK, Continental
Europe, US and Asia-Pacific. The FT has a daily circulation of over 425,000 and a
readership of approximately 1.4 million, across 110 countries. In print and online, the FT
has more paying readers today than at any time in its history. FT.com has 3.2 million
unique monthly users and 84,000 paying subscribers.
A growing global audience
The aim of the FT is to deliver the most accurate, incisive and timely business
journalism to an increasingly mobile audience of global business leaders, and to ensure
that our advertisers communicate effectively with this elite group. It presents a holistic
23
24. analysis of global business and financial news. The FT's value lies in its ability to make
connections and make the information relevant. It is this ability to collate, analyze and
comment on the issues which sets it apart.
In recent years, FT has significantly expanded its presence on the global stage. In 2003,
it launched an Asia edition in print and online, establishing a news editing operation in
Hong Kong. This now forms part of the FT's global editing network, alongside New York
and London. The Asia-Pacific edition has continued to grow and is now also printed in
Sydney, making the FT the first international daily to print in Australia. The FT's Chinese
language website, www.FTChinese.com, has also built a formidable reputation amongst
China's fast-rising business elite.
The FT is committed to maintaining its position as the definitive business information
brand for today's international business audience.
FT Business
FT Business produces specialist information on the retail, personal and institutional
finance industries. It publishes the UK's premier personal finance magazine, Investors
Chronicle, and The Banker, Money Management and Financial Adviser for professional
advisers.
The FT Group also has a number of other associates and joint ventures, including:
• A 50% interest in The Economist Group, which publishes the world's leading
weekly business and current affairs journal;
• FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange;
• Vedomosti, Russia's leading business newspaper and a partnership venture with
Dow Jones and Independent Media;
• A 50% interest in BDFM, publishers of South Africa's leading financial newspaper
and magazine;
24
25. • A 13.85% stake in the Business Standard, one of India's leading financial
newspapers.
PRODUCT PROFILE
Indian
M anage-
The
ment
W orld of
Newspaper
b-school
The
B illionaire
Club M otoring
Business
How to
Standard
Spend it
B S 1000
B anking
The
Annual
Strategist
Gateway Fund
Business Standard is M anager India’s emerging business
dailies. It is ranked second in the daily business
newspaper category. It is published in 7 editions from India’s 7 hubs for industry trade,
finance and politics.
The newspaper focuses on content management and comprises of financial and
business news, stocks and commodities, international business, banking etc.
Newspaper
25
26. Major Sections in Business Standard newspaper are:
IST section - Business Standard contains General news, The Economy, Companies,
International Business, Politics & public affairs, Business Life, Issues & Insights, opinion
IInd section - Money & Markets which comprises of General market news,
Commodities, Money and currencies, Stocks, BS 200, Stocks/Mutual fund values,
Markets
IIIrd Section - accent West* which features General news about the western region
covering Gujarat, Maharashtra and Other regions.
*Accent West was an extra supplement in business standard newspaper, in a tabloid
form, has been included into the main supplement recently.
The various supplements of business standard facilitate quality news coverage, articles
and analysis.
The Smart Investor: It’s a tabloid which is published every Mondays and is a total
investment guide for retail investors.
Focus: Old economy, primary markets, secondary markets and new issues.
The Strategist: Published on every Tuesdays on glossary paper.
Focus: Theory and practice of business management, Guest columns from
world’s foremost management thinkers.
Accent west: A local guide for all that you wanted to know of the western region
published as a tabloid on all weekdays except Monday and Saturday
Focus: Business news from Gujarat, Maharashtra and other western regions
Weekend: It is published on Saturdays.
Focus: Entertainment, enterprise, motoring, personal finance & leisure
Magazines
26
27. The Strategist: An annual magazine, which throws light upon the various companies’
strategies and is a collection of the finest corporate stories featured in ‘The Strategist’
supplement published every Tuesdays.
Indian Management: It is the journal of All India Management Association. It focuses
on articles on management style and is published monthly.
Banking Annual: A yearly magazine, giving information on the banking scene, and also
conducts market survey to rank the banks.
The Billionaire Club: A yearly magazine which gives information about the billionaires
of India.
BS 1000: A yearly magazine which gives a kaleidoscopic view into the corporate scene
in India. It also ranks companies on a scale of 1 to 1000 on basis of sales.
The world of B-schools: A yearly magazine focusing on top b-schools in India.
Spend: A yearly magazine on living.
Gateway: A monthly magazine on life style
Motoring: A monthly magazine on automobile sector.
Fund Manager: A monthly magazine on mutual fund sector
CHAPTER 3
DEPARTMENTS
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
27
28. SPACE MARKETING
EDITORIAL
SYSTEMS PRODUCTION
DEPARTMENTS
1. Market Development Department –is responsible for the circulation of the
newspaper in the whole region which comes under the preview of the respective
editions.
2. Space Marketing Department – is the only revenue generating department.
The main function of this department is to sell space of Business Standard
newspaper and its other products by collecting advertisements and generate
revenue.
3. Scheduling Department – It is responsible for the layout of the newspaper. Its
core function is to adjust the advertisements and the editorial material on the
pages.
4. Editorial Department –collects news in the form of special stories reported by
journalists as well as news from various news agencies. It edits the contents, fills
28
29. the remaining allocated space by the advertisement department with articles and
reports.
5. System Department –is responsible for network communication through VSAT
(Very Small Aperture Terminal) and with dedicated leased lines connected to all
the other branches.
6. Production Department – It is responsible for the printing process of the
newspaper.
7. Administration Department – It is responsible for the overall administration,
also the Finance and HR activities are synchronized and looked after by this
department.
10:00 pm Printing starts
10:30 pm Printing completed
11:00 pm Up country dispatch
01:30 am Dispatch Completed
02:00 am Ahmedabad Dispatch
03:30 to 06:30 am Distribution Center
09:30 am Reporting to office
10:00 am to 06:00 pm Editorial and space department work
06:00 to 06:30 pm Pagination and Scheduling
07:00 pm System sends for approval at HO
08:30 pm Approval comes back
08:30 to 10:00 pm Preparation of master film for production and send it
to press
29
30. Publication Process
Editorial Space M arketing
Department Department
Scheduling
Department
Desk Takes indent
revision
Printing Dispatch
Press Officer
Dispatch
City Edition Dark Edition
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
30
31. A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. It is
one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the
same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are
distributed without cost.
Readership figures are usually higher than circulation figures because of the
assumption that a typical copy of the newspaper is read by more than one person.
Market Development Department generally known as circulation department and
responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the whole region, which comes under
the preview of that addition of the newspaper. Market Development Department is
responsible for more than 40 routes for its regular supply. Addition to that market
development department has daily back-room operations, which contains to give print
order for the regular supply and for other copies like subscriptions, complementary and
sponsored copies.
Functions of Market Development Department:-
MDD handles various functions like Print Order Generation, Regulation of Dispatch and
to receive the payment in mode of cash, cheque or DD against bill generated by it for
the month. MDD also has to maintain following ledgers /books.
• Indent Revision:
A book, which keeps a record of daily supplies to each agent, and the variation in
the supplies as per agent’s requirement of copies.
• Print Order Generation:
A slip, which is issued by MDD to production department for the printing of,
copies which contains the requirement of total number of copies to distribution for
next day.
• Print Order Variance:
31
32. A transactional slip issued to Production Department, which is made by Dispatch
Executive showing last moment change in print order.
• Daily Supply Report:
A master record book in which records of daily supplies of BS copies sent to
each agent are kept.
• Yearly Supply Report:
A master record book that records an average annual supply of BS copies to
each agent.
• Net Paid Sales:
A master record book, which contains the information about daily sale of BS on
cover price. The formula for calculating NPS is
NPS = Total Print Order – FRSN – Complimentary copies – Unsold copies
• Unsold Register:
A register which maintain a record of daily unsold. Local unsold is maintained on
day to day basis where as up country unsold is maintained on monthly basis,
which will be credited in agents account as per the unsold norms.
• Payment Receipt Book:
A transaction record, which shows the receipt of payment from the agents.
The role of Market Development Department goes beyond simply distributing the
newspaper to readers. Circulation department also sell and promotes the newspaper.
They must identify what reader’s want, when and at what price.
MDD also includes Dispatch Control Department, which plays the role of to send right
number of newspapers at right time, at right station to the right person. For the above
purpose this department generates Print Order and Rush Mails of Business Standard.
Print Orders shows the required number of newspapers to be printed for each station for
the next day. The numbers of Rush Mails are generated accordingly.
32
33. This department makes the parcel of newspaper for each destination, they put the rush
mails on the parcel which shows the number of copies on the parcel and its destination.
The expenses incurred during the circulation are:
• Taxi fare : Rs.3 per kilometer (approx.)
• Parcel packing : Rs. 7 per parcel (approx.)
According to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), newspaper circulations
worldwide rose slightly in 2005 while newspaper advertising revenues showed the
largest increase in four years. Global newspaper sales were up 0.56 per cent over the
year, and had increased 6 per cent over the past five years. Much of the sales growth
last year was again in Asia.
When free dailies are added to the paid newspaper circulation, global circulation
increased 1.21 per cent last year, and 7.8 per cent over the past five years. Free dailies
now account for 6 per cent of all global newspaper circulation.
Overall, the audience for newspapers keeps on growing, both in print and online.
Newspapers are increasing their reach through the exploitation of a wide range of new
distribution channels, ranging from daily free newspapers to online editions. They are
proving to be incredibly resilient against the onslaught of a wide range of media
competition.
When the ad revenue grows at a healthy pace, publishers invest in increasing their
circulations. With bigger circulations, they are able to command higher ad rates. This
business model demands that the momentum be provided by growing ad revenues.
Looking ahead, the prospects to 2006 look fairly good. With the economy of the country
continuing to grow at 7.5 per cent, we may reasonably expect at least 15 to 20 per cent
growth in ad revenues. This will drive the circulation at an eight per cent growth in the
turnover and then can be expected to grow by 12 to 14 per cent.
33
34. To manage the distribution channel properly is not the only task that the Market
Development Department has to perform. The department also has to take care for the
necessary steps required to tape the opportunities prevailing in the market.
Department tries to increase the readership base with various tactics like mass
subscription, prepaid card, sponsored copies etc.
Regular Supply
Regular circulation refers to the circulation of news paper at the cover price that is Rs.
Rs. 2 /- from Monday to Friday and and rs. 6 for Saturday, Ahmedabad Edition.
Business Standard has a regular circulation of more than 150000 copies all over India
with its seven editions. Regular copy of B.S is supplied through the existing channel of
hawkers and agents. .
Individual Subscription
Individual subscription comprises of various schemes floated for readers to subscribe to
the newspaper for a fixed time period at discounted price. Presently it has floated a
yearly subscription scheme for Rs. 695.
Generally subscription rate are lower than its cover price of the particular edition and
ABC rules.
Mass Subscription
Mass subscription schemes are launched to acquire multiple subscriptions from a single
place e.g. corporate office, hotels and institutions.
In organization point of view this offer can give marginal increment to its daily
circulation.
34
35. Sponsored Copies
This scheme is specially made for those corporate clients who want to advertise in the
newspaper. This turns out to be an economical form of promotion for the promoter. The
promoter pays for the number of copies to be circulated in the area of their preference.
A sticker is also placed on such sponsored copies.
This scheme is beneficial for both the Sponsor Company and B.S to promote the daily
in an economical way. The sponsored copies also increase the average circulation
figure of the company.
35
36. Dispatch Process
R aw
M aterial
Printing
Press
A hm edabad N adiad A nand V adodara B haruch
A gent in
E ach C ity
V endors B ook stalls
H aw k ers H aw k ers
E nd U sers
36
37. SPACE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
The space marketing department plays a very important role in running a publication. It
is an indispensable part of the publication because it is the only revenue generating
department, so all expenses like salaries, production expenses are paid from this
department.
60 per cent of revenues come from advertising sales. While the circulation revenue
accounts for 38 per cent, other incomes account for about 2 per cent. Circulation
revenue covers about 70 per cent of the variable costs. The first 25 per cent of the
advertising revenue goes towards covering the variable cost and the balance 75 per
cent is available for fixed cost and profits. Obviously advertising drives the print media.
For the company, the overall cost of one copy of BS newspaper is around Rs. 15, but
they charge to the customers only Rs. 2 on weekdays and Rs. 6 for the weekend
edition. Out of the revenue, 28% is given to the vendors and 5% to the distributor as
commission.
In Business Standard newspaper, the pages are predefined for the various types of
advertisements. There are advertisement agencies which provide the service of
advertising in any newspaper. The Space Marketing Department is connected with
these agencies. The clients who place ads in any newspapers generally contact the
agencies and hardly meet any publication directly. There are such 125 ad agencies in
Ahmedabad city only. For these ads the commission paid to the agencies is 10 to 15%.
The advertisement rates here are negotiable depending upon the clients. The space
marketing executives have to maintain a great rapport with the agencies as well as the
clients because advertisements in business dailies are generally placed by government
undertakings and large corporate houses. In addition usually these ads are larger in
size and at a national level.
37
38. Advertisements can be classified into two main parts.
1. Response oriented ads :
Display – It consists of general ads of new products and services. It is in the form of
B2B, B2C and classifieds.
Tender –tenders and notices are that form of ad that is usually placed the government,
private companies and public sector companies to invite tenders for an upcoming
project.
Feature –features is a special advertisement supplement focused on a category, eg.
Summer feature on air conditions, coolers or health care supplement on pharmacy
industry etc.
Appointment – appointments are ads placed by companies in business newspapers to
invite applications for middle and top management vacancies.
2. Compulsion ads :
Financial ads – The advertisements which include any financial information about the
company, as for example, quarter end results etc.
Scheduling dept
Main task is to design the ad position, means which ad of which size for how many
editions to be printed on which page. On the basis of all these information, the
Scheduling Department of all editions coordinates with each other and makes a
tentative. Tentative is a summary of ad positions for all seven editions. According to
the tentative, they make the dummy pages. The dummy is prepared on a A4 size
paper, which is then send to the systems department.
38
39. The Scheduling Department has to check that:
• The ad material is in PDF, EPS or TIFF file format
• Ad file is in CMYK color format (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black)
• After the ad is printed in the final copy, it sends a report to Delhi
• Front page ads must be booked to Kolkata (both sections)
• Back page ads must to booked to Mumbai (both sections)
• Front page ad can be of 25x4 only
• Ads on left page will be on left side of the page
• Ads on right page will be on right side of the page
• Stock pages carries only 3 ads of 5x2
• Black and White ads must be of 1200 dpi
• Color ads must be of 300 dpi
• Government ads come on the left side
39
40. EDITORIAL
The main task of this department is to edit the story. This department plays the role of
parents in the publication. There three main people involved in the editorial department
are:
• Reporter
• Desk
• Photographer
Reporters engender the stories from different fields. They collect news on their own
through investigation and research as well as from various news agencies like PTI, AP,
AFP, and PR agencies of the companies. Reporters file the stories and send it for final
editing to the desk in Mumbai. Reporters of all the seven editions file stories and send
them to the desk at Mumbai and Delhi.
The Desk decides which stories should be printed and what should be the headline for
each news story
Photographers take the photographs at various places and events as and when
required.
How does this department work?
This department collects the news and then edits the content and sends it to Mumbai
and Delhi for the adjustment in the page. After allocating the space for advertisement it
adjusts the remaining space for the article. For national dailies, the editorial versus
advertisement ratio is 60:40.
40
41. SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
The systems department acts as a link between the editorial and the production
department. It is linked with V-SAT and dedicated leased lines to seven branches and
head office. The Ahmedabad branch is linked by leased lines to only two cities, Mumbai
and Delhi. News from all seven editions is obtained from these centres.
This line is open 24 hours and is connected with BSNL and ISDN when it is necessary
to take data from Mumbai or Delhi.
It uses the software called Quark Express. Final pages of the main section of the
newspaper come from Delhi which is automatically saved to the computer. The system
department staff checks these pages and saves it to the computer. These pages are
then sent to the Duo Setter to make the cassette for printing the positive image. The
most important part is to receive a facsimile copy of newspaper and forward its print to
the production department.
Components of System Department
• 2 personal computers
• Delta tower-manages the speed between computer and Duo setter, because the
speed of the computer is lower compared to duo setter.
• Duo setter-produces the cassette of the positive to be printed
After receiving the facsimile copy from the system Department on butter paper or on a
positive, this positive is framed on the aluminum plate. This plate is then fixed in the
printing machine. The required number of copies is printed according to the printing
order.
The main raw material for this department is paper, aluminum plates, ink, etc. The
printing contract is with Pearl Energy & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. formerly known as
Sambhaav Press for the Ahmedabad edition. Newsprint comes in reel form. The
41
42. weight of one reel of Salmon Pink paper is 400 kg and it costs Rs. 30,000 and it prints
about 4000 copies of newspaper. Per 1000 copies machine charges Rs. 800 inclusive
of all overhead costs. Per copy cost comes about Rs. 15.
Tremendous advancement in newspaper printing technology has taken place world
over. Technology advancements are getting passed on to developing countries like
India much faster than hitherto. In fact some of our newspaper printing processes are
amongst the most modern in this part of the Globe.
In the next few years, a major section of the newspaper industry may be going for CTP
(Computer to Plate), which will fully eliminate film output. Each such machine is capable
of producing more than 200 broad sheets pages an hour.
An optical punching and bending machine ensures precise register on four colour
plates. In these machines plates can be mounted focused across and one around each
printing cylinder. Such press can be configured to print 24 broadsheet pages eight of
them in colour. A number of features such as narrow gap plate and blanket cylinders,
double diameter blanket cylinders, metal backed blankets and shaft less drives make for
high quality offset printing at high speeds.
The two rotary folders deliver the printed and folded copies, which are conveyed to and
processed in the mailroom. Two news grip, a single griper conveyer pick copies up from
the folders and deliver them to counter stackers that produce bundles containing a
predetermined number of copies. These bundles are labeled, plastic wrapped and
strapped before being loaded on transport vehicles.
All this means faster and world-class printing of the newspaper. Such new presses are
capable of rolling out around 75,000 85,000 copies an hour resulting in newspaper
ability to carry late news and the reader getting his superbly printed newspaper earlier.
In this technology imaging system takes fully paginated digital file and exposes this
information on to Printing Plate in Plate Setter without creating Film intermediate. The
42
43. pages received from editorial site are fired directly on the CTP having Silver plates
loaded in it. These silver plates are exposed in the CTP.
Technological advances world over have made newspapers less expensive to produce,
specially if, the print order is large. It is likely to result in a shift in production from in
house publishing to setting up of regional mass printing centers with latest technology.
Media companies have begun heading towards cheaper, spacious and places with
better infrastructure.
Substantial investments have been made especially by very large newspapers in
technological up gradation of their newsgathering, communication and installing state of
the art printing facilities. With such modern imported/indigenous latest in printing and
newspaper production technology, readers of newspapers are being treated to
additional colour pages. All such investments have been kept in view; to the extent
information was available, during deliberations of the Committee to determine the
pricing structure of advertisement tariff.
Medium and Small newspapers have also not escaped this technology invasion. A very
large number of Medium newspapers are now being brought out in colour or at least
cover pages are in colour. Reader is now getting a much better printed and more
presentable newspaper. This is also helping the newspaper establishments to increase
their circulation at not only in their traditional areas but also reach readers in hitherto
unexplored cities and towns. Small newspapers are also upgrading their news collecting
and printing technology by partially/fully computerizing their operations. This is also
enabling them to bring out a much more presentable newspaper and increase their
circulation and reach in their traditional and targeted newer areas.
43
45. COMPETITION ANALYSIS
Competitor Analysis is an imperative part of the strategic planning process. Businesses
have to track the competition, observe their moves and react to or preferably be
proactive to their moves.
Competitor analysis helps:
• To understand ones competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to
competitors
• To generate understanding of competitors’ past, present and future strategies
• To provide an informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive
advantage in the future
• To help forecast the returns that may be made from future investments
While undertaking competitor analysis a number of questions need to be answered. The
following are some such questions:
• Who are our competitors?
• What threats do they pose?
• What is the profile of our competitors?
• What are the objectives of our competitors?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors?
• How are our competitors likely to respond to any changes to the way we do
business?
45
46. Competition from other business dailies
The Decision maker’s survey states that corporate honchos in india spend 20 minutes
reading business dailies. There are many business dailies that are competing for this
eyeballs’ share.
THE HINDU Business Line
Kasturi & Sons Ltd., (KSL) is the holding company of The Hindu group of publications.
This organization’s first publication -- The Hindu, started as a weekly in 1878 then
became a daily in 1889 is widely read and always trusted. The Hindu played a major
role during the Indian Independence Struggle.
The corporate office of KSL is situated at Chennai (Madras). With the spread of their
offices in major cities of India, KSL publishes and distributes a number of group
publications all over the country and abroad.
The correspondents all over the world bring the international news to the readers. The
news and views enjoyed by readers through the print editions are now available to the
Global readers through the Net editions of The Hindu and Business Line.
The cover price of business line is higher than business standard thus business
standard has a price advantage. Also in the Ahmedabad market the main advantage for
BS is that it is printed in Ahmedabad and thus reaches the readers early. In case of
business line, it is not printed in Ahmedabad, thus the readers in Ahmedabad receive
copies a day later as the copies come from Mumbai.
46
47. The Economic Times
The Economic Times, launched in 1961, is India's largest financial daily and the world's
second largest financial daily after The Wall Street Journal. It is published by India's
largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, (This company along with its other
group companies are more popularly known as The Times Group), which also publishes
The Times of India, the Navbharat Times, the Maharashtra Times, Femina, and
Filmfare. The current Editor of The Economic Times is noted economist Swaminathan
Aiyar.
Supplements
• Brand Equity (Weekly) - this is a weekly colour supplement which covers
marketing, advertising, media and market research.
• Corporate Dossier is a supplement of The Economic Times aimed at the CEOs
of corporate India, with a special focus on management and strategy.
The Economic time is the market leader. The main advantage is that it is one of the
oldest financial dailies and thus enjoys great brand loyalty. Despite a higher cover price.
It is part of the giant Times Group and thus it as the ability to start a price war to counter
competition. Thus business standard being a number 2 business daily has to adopt a
very defensive strategy of protecting its market share. Even if it launches any scheme it
cannot do it aggressively. The main reason behind it is that it is a third party publication.
Despite this fact business standard has shown 300% growth in the last 5 years of its
existence.
The following graph shows the circulation and readership figures of different business
dailies.
Source: NRS 2005
47
48. • ET has over 10 times the circulation of the next business daily
• ET has over 5 times the combined circulation of all other business dailies in India
FINANCIAL EXPRESS
Financial Express is published since 1961 and is part of the famous express group.
Indian express is flagship brand of the express group. Recently FE launched its English
edition in Gujarat, which has further aggravated the competition in the Gujarat financial
newspaper market. The supplements by financial express are:
India Inc. – it focuses on current market happenings, personal finance, trade,
advertisement and marketing and is published every Thursdays and Fridays.
Corporates & Markets is another supplement which covers issues like money and
banking, international corporations, markets and commodities.
FE investor focuses on tax issues, stocks and investment.
48
49. READERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS
1. DECISION MAKER’S SURVEY 5
DMS, conducted by AC Nielsen-ORG Marg, is an annual survey detailing the attitudes
of 1200 decision-makers aimed at marketers and publications to focus their media plans
more sharply. DMS 5 brings together a composite understanding of the media habits
and lifestyles of today’s business leaders. A successor to the popular DMS 4, the
current survey was conducted among senior executives designated as General
Managers and above across India’s top 500 private companies, top 100 public sector
and 100 leading financial sector companies including banks, merchant bankers and
foreign institutional investors (FII).
Aimed at better understanding this key target group, the DMS enables marketers to
better identify the ideal channels for communicating to these high profile consumers and
provides insight into their media habits - newspaper and magazine readership, TV
viewer ship, radio listener ship and Internet usage as well as lifestyle behavior and
product ownership of the corporate elite whose average annual income is estimated at
Rs 10 lakhs plus..
According to the Decision Maker’s Survey 5, The readership figures of four leading
business publications in percentages put :
• The Economic Times in the number one slot with 78 per cent.
• Business Standard is at number two with 26 per cent
• Followed by Financial Express and Hindu Business Line with 18 and 14 per cent
respectively.
2. NATIONAL READERSHIP SURVEY
Constituted by: Advertising Agencies Association of India, Audit Bureau of Circulations
and the Indian Newspaper Society.
49
50. The National Readership Study 2005 (NRS 2005) in India is the largest survey of its
kind in the world, with a sample size of over 2,61,212 house-to-house interviews to track
the media exposure and changing consumer trends in both urban and rural India – and
of course the estimated readership of publications. The study covers 522 publications
(221 dailies and 301 magazines).
Salient Features of NRS-2005
PRINT MEDIA
• The reach of the press medium (dailies and magazines combined) has increased
from 179 million to 200 million in the last three years – as a proportion reached of
population aged 15 years and above it has increased from 26.4% to 27.4%.
• Of the 200 mn readers, as many as 98 mn are from rural India and 101 mn from
urban India.
• Literacy as measured in the NRS (the ability to read and understand any
language) has risen from 62.5% to 70.6%. The rise has been more in rural areas
(nearly ten points from 55.6% to 64.6%) than in urban India (79.3% to 84.5%).
One would expect this to boost the market for the press medium.
• The number of readers in rural India is now roughly equal to that in urban India.
• Dailies have driven this growth in the press medium, their reach rising from 23%
to 24%. Magazines have declined in reach from 13% to 10% over the last three
years.
• The time-spent reading has gone up quite significantly though – from 30 minutes
daily on an average to 39 minutes per day over the last three years. The increase
50
51. has been sharp both in urban India (from 32 to 42 minutes daily) and in rural
India (from 27 to 35 minutes daily).
• There is still significant scope for growth, as 314 million people who can read and
understand any language do not read any publication. It is not just affordability
that is a constraint, since 21 million of these literate non-readers belong to the
upscale SEC A and B segments.
• Today the average urban adult spends 42 minutes per day reading dailies and
magazines and 1 hour 42 minutes watching TV. The average reading time used
to be 32 minutes and the average viewing time 1 hour 40 minutes 3 years ago.
BUSINESS DAILIES
As per NRS 2005, The Economic Times has a readership of 11,74,000, Business
Standard has 33,000, Financial Express 32,000, and Hindu Business Line 2,02,000.
TELEVISION
• TV and C&S dominate in the Southern States
• Television now reaches 108 mn Indian homes, which means it crosses the 50%
mark of all homes for the first time and reflects a growth of 32% since 2002.
• Satellite TV has grown explosively in reach – from 134 million individuals
watching in an average week in 2002 to as many as 190 million individuals in
2005 – almost catching up with the number of readers.
• Homes with access to C&S jumped from 40 mn in 2002 to 61 in 2005. The
growth of 53% is far higher than the growth of the TV market.
51
52. • An urban adult now spends on press and TV an average of 17 hours a week; on
press 4.9 hours and TV 11.8 hours. The time spent on radio is 10 hours a week.
• The time spent by the average rural adult on press and TV together is 14 hours a
week and that on radio is 9 hours a week
• Internet reach now exceeds 10 mn
• Radio’s reach has stagnated at 23% of the population listening to any station in
the average week. It has improved its performance in urban India (23% listen to
the medium, up from 20% three years ago) primarily due to FM. In rural areas,
the reach has dropped – 23% of village folk listen nowadays compared to 25%
three years ago.
3. INDIAN READERSHIP SURVEY
To counter the NRS, which was supported by large newspaper groups, the IRS was
born in the mid-nineties. Some media users got together to create the media Research
Users Council. The idea was to offer members an unbiased readership and market
study to rival the NRS. The first study was out in 1995 and then after a gap of a year,
the IRS has bee released every year since 1997. The IRS operates on a continuous
interviewing basis across the year in order to mitigate any seasonal biases. This is
done in two half yearly batches with a questionnaire and random sampling.
For the IRS 2006 R1 an annual sample size of 2.4 lakhs was covered-spread equally
over two rounds. A total of 1,178 towns and 2,894 villages were surveyed. The data
represents fieldwork during the full year Jan-Dec 2005. The mid-point of the survey is
June 1, 2005. Being a continuous survey, the reporting takes place every six months
based on a Moving Annual Total.
52
53. Major findings of IRS 2006 ( first round )
PRINT MEDIA
• Dainik Jagran tops dailies, Saras Salil rules magazines
• Business publications register mixed performance
• Most leading dailies see a marginal decline in readership
• Most top magazines experience decline in readership
• English dailies readership shoots up; Hindi dailies experience marginal
decline
• HT continues to rule the Capital: TOI still number two
• Battleground Mumbai: Who is the winner
• Survey reiterates increase in mass media reach
• Fall in English dailies, but Hindu bucks the trend; drop in all magazines
Press reach has been hovering around at 24 per cent, TV at 55 per cent, Radio at 21
per cent and Internet at 1.5 per cent at the all India level.
In Urban India, Press and TV has actually declined in last three years. Press reach has
declined from 42.9 per cent in 2004 to 41.7 percent in 2006. Though TV has declined
from 80.2 per cent to 78.9 per cent in the last three years, C&S has shown some
growth, from 53.5 per cent in 2004 to 54.4 percent in 2006.
The readership of any English daily has increased by 2.24 per cent in comparison to the
previous round of the IRS (Round 2, 2005). The current readership of any English daily
stands at 1,73,96,000.
Whether it is English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil or Telugu, the Indian Readership Survey
(IRS) 2006 has shown a decline in readership for almost all publications and largely
53
54. even across markets. Industry leaders offered mixed reactions to the finding where
India Today is flabbergast, Outlook is perplexed, and media professionals try and give a
rationale, saying that the days of borrowed readership are going.
BUSINESS DAILIES
Much on the lines of what was seen in the general interest and other titles space, the
business dailies offer a mixed bag of performance with Hindu Business Line (HBL) and
Financial Express (FE) holding on to their readership unlike the leader in the segment
The Economic Times (ET) and other players. In terms of business magazines, from
Business Today to Business World all have recorded a fall in the IRS 2006 R 1.
According to the latest IRS figures, readership figures stand as below:
IRS 2006
Publication Rank Readership
The Economic Times 1 868000
Hindu Business Line 2 173000
Financial Express 3 93000
Business Standard 4 75000
While The Economic Times emerges as a clear leader in all the three surveys, it is
interesting to note that Business Standard is number two in DMS followed by Financial
Express and Hindu Business Line.
However, going by NRS data, Hindu Business Line is way ahead of Business Standard,
which is at number three, and there is a difference of only 1000 copies between
Business Standard and Financial Express that takes the fourth slot. Also, IRS puts
Hindu Business Line at number two followed by Financial Express. Here, Business
Standard is fourth.
54
55. INTERNET AS AN EMERGING SOURCE OF INFORMATION
The rapid evolution of the Media is changing the everyday life of consumers the world
over, with its significance more evidenced in fast-growing nations like India. Readers
feel that internet publications are as good as or better than newspapers/ magazines for
finding information about products and music.
• Newspaper online consumption rose 8.71 per cent in 2005, and 200 per cent
over the past five years.
• Internet advertising revenues continue to grow rapidly, and were up 24 per cent
in 2005, the highest growth for five years.
• The number of newspaper websites increased by 20 per cent in 2005.
Consumers continue to move beyond purely functional uses of the internet into more
media-oriented activities, such as reading stories, looking at photos, and watching
video. People of all ages are receptive to the internet as a medium and not just a tool.
Significantly there are is almost negligible difference between the age groups in their
attitudes toward the internet, television and magazines.
However, the importance of newspapers differs significantly depending on the age
group of the respondents, with 38 per cent of the 35 to 54 year-old newspaper readers
indicating that newspapers are an important part of their day, compared to only 17 per
cent of 18 to 24 year-old readers.
Interestingly, 45 per cent of the 18 to 24 year-olds indicate that they would turn to the
internet first for national news (vs. 29 per cent), while 58 per cent would turn to the
internet first for weather (vs. 49 per cent) and 51 per cent for sports (vs. 41 per cent).
55
56. SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
SWOT analysis is an important tool for auditing the overall strategic position of a
business and its environment. Once key strategic issues have been identified,
they feed into business objectives, particularly marketing objectives.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors inheriting the company For
example; strength could be company’s marketing expertise. A weakness could
be the lack of a new product.
Opportunities and threats are external factors. For example, an opportunity could
be a developing distribution channel such as the Internet, or changing consumer
lifestyles that potentially increase demand for a company's products. A threat
could be a new competitor in an important existing market or a technological
change that makes existing products potentially obsolete.
SWOT analysis can be very subjective given the same information about the
same business and its environment. Accordingly, SWOT analysis is best used as
a guide and not a prescription.
Areas to Consider
Some of the key areas to consider when identifying and evaluating Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are listed in the example SWOT
analysis below:
56
57. SWOT ANALYSIS- BUSINESS STANDARD
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
India’s 2nd largest circulated • Low Brand Awareness.
business daily • Third Party Publication.
Associated with the Financial • Some Product features- small
times of London font size, NAVs are not latest.
Competitive cover price of Rs. 2.
Unmatched Quantitative and
qualitative content
Diverse supplements
OPPORTUNITIES THREAT
• Great market potential. • Existing Competitors like
• Tie-up with different national Economic Times, Business Line
newspapers. • Entry of new entrants e.g.
• Increasing literacy rate and Financial Express English in
incomes. Gujarat etc.
• Increasing urban population • Threat from other media forms
• Govt policy for FDI in print media. like news channels, internet etc.
• Technological advances in • Entry of foreign Players.
printing which will drive down the • Access to online analysis.
cost per copy.
57
58. PORTER’S 5 FORCES MODEL
The most influential analytical model for assessing the nature of competition in an
industry is Michael Porter's Five Forces Model, which is described below:
Porter explains that there are five forces that determine industry attractiveness and
long-run industry profitability. These five "competitive forces" are
- The threat of entry of new competitors (new entrants)
- The threat of substitutes
- The bargaining power of buyers
- The bargaining power of suppliers
- The degree of rivalry between existing competitors
58
59. Threat of New Entrants
New entrants to an industry can raise the level of competition, thereby reducing its
attractiveness. The threat of new entrants largely depends on the barriers to entry. High
entry barriers exist in some industries (e.g. shipbuilding) whereas other industries are
very easy to enter (e.g. estate agency, restaurants). Key barriers to entry include
- Economies of scale
- Capital / investment requirements
- Customer switching costs
- Access to industry distribution channels
- The likelihood of retaliation from existing industry players.
Threat of Substitutes
The presence of substitute products can lower industry attractiveness and profitability
because they limit price levels. The threat of substitute products depends on:
- Buyers' willingness to substitute
- The relative price and performance of substitutes
- The costs of switching to substitutes
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Suppliers are the businesses that supply materials & other products into the industry.
The cost of items bought from suppliers (e.g. raw materials, components) can have a
significant impact on a company's profitability. If suppliers have high bargaining power
over a company, then in theory the company's industry is less attractive. The bargaining
power of suppliers will be high when:
- There are many buyers and few dominant suppliers
- There are undifferentiated, highly valued products
- Suppliers threaten to integrate forward into the industry (e.g. brand manufacturers
threatening to set up their own retail outlets)
- Buyers do not threaten to integrate backwards into supply
- The industry is not a key customer group to the suppliers
59
60. Bargaining Power of Buyers
Buyers are the people / organizations who create demand in an industry
The bargaining power of buyers is greater when
- There are few dominant buyers and many sellers in the industry
- Products are standardized
- Buyers threaten to integrate backward into the industry
- Suppliers do not threaten to integrate forward into the buyer's industry
- The industry is not a key supplying group for buyers
Intensity of Rivalry
The intensity of rivalry between competitors in an industry will depend on:
The structure of competition - for example, rivalry is more intense where there are
many small or equally sized competitors; rivalry is less when an industry has a clear
market leader
The structure of industry costs - for example, industries with high fixed costs
encourage competitors to fill unused capacity by price cutting
Degree of differentiation - industries where products are commodities (e.g. steel, coal)
have greater rivalry; industries where competitors can differentiate their products have
less rivalry
Switching costs - rivalry is reduced where buyers have high switching costs - i.e. there
is a significant cost associated with the decision to buy a product from an alternative
supplier
Strategic objectives - when competitors are pursuing aggressive growth strategies,
rivalry is more intense. Where competitors are "milking" profits in a mature industry, the
degree of rivalry is less
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61. Exit barriers - when barriers to leaving an industry are high (e.g. the cost of closing
down factories) - then competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry.
STRENGTHS OF THE FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL
• The model is a strong tool for competitive analysis at industry level.
• It provides useful input for performing a SWOT Analysis.
LIMITATION OF PORTER'S FIVE FORCES MODEL
• Care should be taken when using this model for the following: do not
underestimate or underemphasize the strengths of the organization (Inside-out
strategy).
• The model was designed for analyzing individual business strategies. It does not
cope with synergies and I portfolio of large corporations.
• From a more theoretical perspective, the model does not address the possibility
that an industry could be a companies are in it.
• Some people claim that environments which are characterized by rapid,
systemic and radical change requi emergent approaches to strategy formulation.
• Sometimes it may be possible to create completely new markets instead of
selecting from existing ones.
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62. BUSINESS STANDARD (AHMEDABAD EDITION) AND THE PORTER’S 5 FORCE
MODEL
THREAT OF NEW
ENTRANTS
LAUNCH OF FE ENGLISH
IN GUJARAT
BARGAINING POWER SEGMENT BARGAINING
OF BUYERS RIVALRY POWER OF
SUPPLIERS
LOW AD RATES ET, BS, FE, HBL
3RD PARTY
PUBLICATION
THREAT OF
SUBSTITUTES
OTHER MEDIA FORMS
LIKE TV NEWS
CHANNELS, INTERNET,
AND MOBILE NEWS
UPDATES
62
63. CHAPTER 5
MARKET RESEARCH
MARKETING RESEARCH
A. Introduction
Marketing research is a tool in the hands of the marketer, either to find out the solution
of any managerial or market related problem or to find new opportunities and threats
prevailing in the market. Marketing research is a systematic gathering, model building
and fact-finding process to solve the problem relating to marketing of goods and
services.
63
64. Marketing research can be of three types;
1. Descriptive research
2. Exploratory research
3. Causal research
As part of our summer training, we first wanted to have an overlook at the present
market conditions. So we first conducted a pilot survey. Based on it some strategies
were suggested to enhance the awareness of Business Standard as a brand and to
further penetrate into the market. A sample of 150 respondents was taken as a base
and a survey was then conducted with the help of a questionnaire, which is displayed in
the annexure. The results of the survey are discussed later in this section.
B. Objectives of the Research:
Following are the major objectives of our pilot survey;
1. To know the reading habits of people
2. To judge the awareness level about Business Standard
3. To make a market development strategy for Business Standard
4. To find the purposes for which people read financial dailies
5. To know the factors considered important for subscribing to any financial daily
C. Research Methodology:
Research methodology is the most important part of marketing research, which consists
of the research design, sampling, data collection, and data analysis parts. These are
described here under:
(a) Research Design
Research design is the planning of how to do the research. It consists of all necessary
answers to questions such as what should be the sample size, sampling method and
64
65. the method of data collection. As Business Standard is a financial newspaper the
research design had to be very specific since the target audience was selective.
(b) Sample size
As we just wanted to do a pilot survey, we took the sample of only 150 respondents. As
the target audience is very specific we decided to go by Judgmental sampling method in
which we included the respondents from all the audience classes described below.
(c) Target audience
Generally any financial daily caters to a niche audience. In order to take a
comprehensive sample the target audience has to be kept in mind. Accordingly a
sample of 150 diverse respondents was taken. The chart shows the proportions of
different respondents included in our sample.
Insurance
Agents
8% CA
11%
Bank
Employees
Corporates
12%
27%
Stock Brokers
29%
MBAs
13%
The sample was not just diverse as far as professions are concerned, but it also
included diverse age groups. Though it was not a pre-determined idea but through data
analysis it was known that the sample was diverse.
65
66. Respondent's Age Group
20-30
26%
>50
5%
41-50 31-40
23% 46%
(d) Data collection
Since, data collection signifies a very crucial place in a pilot survey; primary data was
also collected by way of personal interviews through structured questionnaires.
(e) Data analysis
The actual work of researcher starts after the collection of data, because only heaps of
data does not serve the purpose of market research. The data is to be classified and
analyzed properly so as to get deep insights into the problem or the prospects of the
opportunity. On the basis of the questionnaire, the following facts and analysis is
presented.
1. Which newspapers do you read?
From the table given below, we can observe that from our sample 54% respondents
were reading English Newspapers and 38% were reading Gujarati Newspaper. Also
8% of them were Hindi newspaper readers.
Readers Percentage Readers Percentage
Gujarati 38% Gujarati & English 8%
Hindi 8% Hindi & English 4%
English 54%
66
67. 2. Which Financial dailies you are aware of?
The chart shows that out of 150 respondents 88% were
aware about the Economic Times financial daily. The
main reason being it is a product of Bennett, Coleman &
Co. Ltd. ET
88%
Business Standard, according to our pilot survey got the
second place as far as the brand awareness is concerned.
One of the reasons can be an earlier association with
famous Anand Bazaar Patrika.
BS
68%
The adjoining pie-chart shows
that 45% of the respondents
were aware of Financial Express financial daily. It is
published in Gujarati language also. As the company had to
start the Gujarat i.e. the Ahmedabad edition of Financial
FE Express ‘English’. This was due to the recent brand noise
45%
created through hoardings and other brand promotion
activities as part of the launch campaign.
‘The Hindu Group’ which has a very good brand image as
far as general newspaper category is concerned. Though
Business Line is part of the same group, it does not have
good brand awareness as far as the Gujarat market is
BL
concerned. Also it is not published from anywhere in 24%
Gujarat. The Mumbai edition of Business Line is
67
68. distributed to very few and specific customers only .so all respondents were not aware
of the brand.
3. Do you subscribe to any financial daily?
The chart shows that out of 150 respondents approx.
54% were subscribing to any of the financial dailies. YES
54%
Amongst the rest, most were either reading the branch NO
46%
copies or generally obtain the business news through
other mediums such as business news channels or
through the Internet.
4. Which factors do you take into account while selecting a financial daily?
Editorial
Quality
Gifts
Price
S upplements
The above graph shows that the editorial quality of a financial daily is the most
important factor for readers. It is followed by free gifts with subscriptions that motivate a
person to subscribe for a newspaper. This had been working well for general
newspapers but it is interesting to know that even subscribers for financial daily prefer
free gifts to price and supplements.
5. How much time do you spend on reading a financial daily?
By this question, a background for next questions was built, like the specific features,
improvements and various purposes for which the financial dailies are preferred. Here
68
69. we found that majority of the respondents were
>30
Min. reading any financial daily for more than 30 minutes.
66% <30
Min.
34%
6. Since how long have you been reading the financial daily that you
subscribe?
The main purpose to put this question was to Check
the relationship between the variables, brand loyalty
>5 Yrs. and brand shifting. As per our findings, people who
3-5 Yrs. 15%
35% have been reading their preferred daily since a long
period of time are more likely to be brand loyal and
<1 Yr.
thus would not switch to any other financial daily
21%
1-3 Yrs.
whatever be the offerings.
29% (For statistical analysis refer to the annexure.)
7. What is/are your main purpose of reading the financial dailies?
Business News Stock Values
BN SV
72% 46%
Economic News
Inte rnational
Business
EN
IB 54%
19%
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70. The main purpose of reading a financial/business daily is to get the latest business
news. The above charts show the findings supported the obvious expectation as
Business News acquired the highest percentage. Also Economic news and daily Stock
Values, NAVs are some other purposes for reading a financial daily.
8. Would you consider shifting to any other financial daily?
Findings show that approx. 49% of the respondents were
ready to switch to other financial dailies if some attractive
NO
discounts and gifts are offered. This is also consistent with 27%
Gifts as one of the factors for subscribing to a financial
daily.( one of the previous questions) Particularly this YES
49%
information is useful for devising a strategy for Business
Standard to penetrate the market. (Shifting preference is MAY
BE
also one of the variables for the chi-square test given in the 24%
annexure).
9. Which sections of Business Standard do you like? (Assign Ranks)
This question was particularly relevant for Business Standard readers. The chart shows
that General Headlines and Money & Market section were ranked as most preferred
sections of BS. It also throws light on the fact that though accent west does have good
content as far as the western India news is concerned, but because of its tabloid form it
is read less. Thus we suggested to include accent west’s news in the main supplement.
70
71. General
Headlines
Money &
Market
Accent West
Editorial Part
International
Business
10. What is your mode of access to Business Standard?
Generally the newspapers are distributed through vendors only, but at some regular
time intervals companies launch certain schemes in which customers get some cash
discount as well as some gifts. Our research data shows that majority of the customers
subscribe to Business Standard through vendors only, but there are some who would
like to go for BS if some subscription scheme is provided to them.
Book-
S talls
7%
S ubscrp.
S cheme
24%
Vendors
69%
71
72. 11. How do you find the delivery of Business Standard?
Distribution System
In this fast paced industry, timely and
consistent delivery of newspapers is very
important as far as customer satisfaction and Satistactory
58%
retention is concerned. This is because news
loses it value if delivered late. Here we found
that only 58% of the existing BS customers
were fully satisfied with the distribution. Poor Average
10% 32%
72
