Six months on, IRS pilot remains on hold amid methodology debates

Six months after it was announced, the pilot test of the long-awaited Indian Readership Survey (IRS) is yet to take off, with the Media Research Users Council of India (MRUCI) still firming up key elements of the framework, even as some industry-level divergences persist.

Announced in September 2025, the pilot was positioned as a crucial step towards reinstating a common news readership currency. The pilot was also supposed to measure digital news readership. e4m, which has been tracking the issue for a long time, was the first to publish the development on September 22. 

While the fieldwork for the IRS has yet to begin, preparatory work appears to have gathered pace in recent months. According to industry sources, MRUCI has redesigned the survey model and finalized a questionnaire. 

It is learnt that publishers’ apprehensions around the survey methodology have contributed to delays in the process. The issue was raised by several members during the Council’s meeting last month, with publishers understood to have urged MRUC to revisit and shorten the questionnaire, sources privy to the development told e4m. 

“The length of the questionnaire itself is a concern. If it runs into 30-40 minutes, it becomes a non-starter in today’s environment where respondents have limited time and attention,” said a senior executive at a leading English daily, requesting anonymity. 

“Access is another challenge—getting entry into premium condominiums and gated communities has become increasingly difficult post-Covid, which could skew the sample and impact the quality of urban data,” publishers claimed. 

When asked for comment, MRUCI Chairman Vikram Sakhuja told e4m, “It is a work in progress.”

The pilot is expected to be conducted across three cities, with a mix of urban and semi-urban populations to better capture evolving readership patterns across both print and digital news platforms. The names of the markets have been kept under wraps to prevent any potential bias or influence on the findings.

The last survey was conducted in 2019. Since then, its rollout has been stalled — first due to the pandemic and later because of funding and other challenges. 

India’s print industry still commands a significant ₹20,000 crore in ad revenues — making the currency even more critical for advertisers, particularly in today’s tight economic climate, where every marketing rupee is under close scrutiny.

However, according to the recent Pitch Madison Advertising Report, print’s share in overall ad spends has declined from 19% in 2024 to 18% in 2025, a one percentage point drop that underlines continued share erosion in a market increasingly tilted towards Digital.

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Publishers Holding Back?

Industry conversations around the IRS revival have been ongoing for over a year. Multiple meetings have been held, but consensus on key aspects—including funding, scope, methodology and choice of research partner—is taking time to emerge.

Besides, some media houses are said to be adopting a cautious approach towards joining the pilot survey, due to concerns around potential outcomes.

“Circulation levels for most newspapers have moderated post-Covid. With ad rates softening and ad revenue growth not keeping pace with inflation, publishers have rationalised copies and pagination, leading to an estimated 30% reduction in production costs to manage market pressures. In this context, some executives believe a survey could bring these gaps into sharper focus,” two media industry executives told e4m.

Notably, education, retail and reality sectors have traditionally been the key advertisers for the print industry. But ad dollars are now shifting towards digital, even print advertisers are not much interested in surveys, industry sources say. 

The challenges are also structural. With media planning increasingly driven by digital metrics, some publishers have debated whether the scale and complexity of the IRS remain justifiable in its current form.

The 7-years of pause has also triggered a broader industry debate on the future of audience measurement. Many stakeholders are now advocating for a more holistic approach that captures cross-platform consumption, spanning print, digital, social, and emerging formats.

Echoing this view, Rajiv Dubey, Vice President and Head of Media at Dabur India, has called for an AI-powered “media universe survey” that goes beyond traditional readership metrics to map consumer journeys across platforms in real time.