The Indian Readership Study (IRS) is currently the only regular readership survey that is carried out in the country. And like any major media survey, it is basically used to look at the purchase and sale of media space and media time, just like a TV Audience Measurement (TAM) or any other readership measurement or outdoor measurement. This is very basic information for the industry and it is information like this that helps the industry become a lot more organised and also helps the industry grow.

Essentially, for any medium to grow, it should be something that interests both buyer and seller. And therefore, it should be from a third party that both can rely on. Once there is something like this kind of currency or exchange and trust that is formed, only then will that material or commodity or product start to grow. There are many other things as well, for example, a publication knows where they are growing, not only on the broader aspects, but also on the smaller aspects like which place or which city, and then they know exactly where they stand, where they have fallen, where they need to do better, etc. They can see if the steps they have taken in the last six months or a year have been helpful or not and accordingly re-look their strategies.

The IRS also covers information on a lot of products, which help marketers define the target segment. The data also makes them aware of how many people are using their product, what kind of products do better in which market, which will help them in their future marketing and planning strategies.

In India, in general, media is slowly growing. However, when it comes specifically to the print media, there is a long term trend that the younger generation is taking a little less to print as compared to that in the past, possibly because they have so many more other avenues of news and entertainment. Today, there is a lot more demand on the time of people, a lot more mediums are out there competing for people’s attention – be it TV, the Internet, radio or even sports, and this has resulted in a little less adoption of the print media, especially by the younger people.

Magazines have seen a slightly higher decline among the print media. This is because dailies are a more habit-based thing, while magazines are more towards the liking and interest in certain things. Plus the information that one sees in magazines is available everywhere. There are so many supplements these days, which carry articles that a magazine would carry. Moving away from print, there are also a lot of specialist channels these days doing and showing what magazines used to do earlier.

However, even though there is decline in dailies and a higher decline in magazines, there is no doubt that overall, publications are growing.

(As told to Cassandra Serpes.)