#e4mExclusive:  ABC seeks govt nod to audit digital news circulation

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has made a proposal to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) seeking to introduce digital measurement “across the board”, newly elected ABC chairman Mohit Jain has told exchange4media.

Jain said digital circulation and audiences have become increasingly important and that ABC is planning to bring digital into its measurement framework. However, he cautioned that implementation would take time, given the involvement of the government and the complexity of introducing a new measurement system.

“We have made a proposal to the Union government for digital news measurement across the board,” Jain said when asked whether ABC had formally approached the government on digital measurement.

“One of the primary customers is the government. So, the government itself is talking about it. We believe audits should include digital audiences also,” he said.

The move assumes significance as India's print measurement ecosystem is itself attempting to bridge the gap between print and digital.

The Media Research Users Council India (MRUCI) has been working towards reviving the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), which has been unavailable since 2019. Its proposed pilot is expected to measure both print and digital readership, potentially providing advertisers with a more contemporary picture of news consumption across platforms. e4m had reported in 2025 that the pilot was likely to cover three markets and study print as well as digital readership.

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Two bodies, one digital audience

The distinction between ABC and IRS is important. ABC is fundamentally an audited circulation currency—it establishes how many copies a publication circulates. IRS, on the other hand, is a readership/consumption currency, designed to estimate how many people actually read or consume a publication.

The two have therefore historically served different purposes. But with audiences increasingly moving between print and digital, both institutions are now confronting the same larger question: how should a publisher's total audience be measured in a multi-platform world?

ABC itself has been down this road before. The bureau launched ABC Digital in 2016, with Nielsen providing the measurement solution across PC and mobile. At the time, the initiative was positioned as a way to complement print measurement as readers increasingly moved to digital.

The renewed push comes at a particularly consequential moment for publishers. Digital advertising has become a major part of the Indian advertising market, while publishers increasingly need credible third-party data to demonstrate the value of audiences that consume their content across websites, apps and print.

It also raises a larger industry question: will India end up with multiple digital measurement currencies serving different purposes, or will ABC and IRS eventually have to find a way to complement—or converge with—each other?

That question becomes even more relevant as the advertising industry itself pushes for unified measurement across media. The absence of a common currency has increasingly left advertisers stitching together different datasets and platform-reported metrics to understand audiences across screens.

For ABC, however, the immediate hurdle remains government approval. Jain said the government is one of ABC's primary stakeholders and that the process could take time.

According to the ABC website, the bureau has over 750 publishers, including 562 dailies, 107 weeklies and 50 magazines are its members. 

If MIB gives green signal, India could soon have two legacy institutions attempting to establish digital audience currencies—ABC through an MIB-backed measurement framework and MRUC through the revived IRS. The question is whether the industry needs two parallel systems, or the bigger opportunity lies in making the two complementary.

IRS remains elusive

The last IRS was released in 2019. Since then, disagreements over funding, methodology, research partners and survey scope have repeatedly delayed its return. Industry executives now believe the debate extends beyond execution to a more fundamental question: what should a readership currency measure in a media ecosystem that has changed dramatically over the past six years?

Funded by the publishers, the IRS, jointly published by the MRUC and the Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), is the world’s largest continuous study with an annual sample size exceeding 2.56 lakh respondents. 

The survey provides a snapshot of India’s Print and other media consumption, demographics, product ownership and usage. The IRS also covers over 100 product categories in the households surveyed.  

The exercise is estimated to cost ₹40-50 crore, funded by contributions from publishers. However, amid global economic uncertainty, declining print circulation and shifting news consumption habits, several publishers remain unconvinced about the survey's relevance and return on investment. 

“Many are reluctant to commit funds to an exercise whose findings could potentially weaken their market position and, in turn, affect advertising revenues that have only recently recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” said a regional publisher. 

The challenge has become more acute because media planning itself has evolved. Digital platforms now provide near real-time campaign measurement, retail media offers closed-loop attribution, while advertisers increasingly expect continuous optimisation rather than periodic reporting. Against that backdrop, rebuilding consensus around a large-scale readership survey has become significantly more complex.

Yet for the print industry, the absence of IRS continues to leave a significant measurement gap. With the sector still accounting for an estimated ₹20,000 crore in advertising revenue, publishers argue that an independent industry currency remains critical for media planning, advertiser confidence and benchmarking.

Meanwhile, advertisers increasingly rely on ABC circulation data, proprietary publisher research and individual audience studies.