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Perceptions of practicing andprospective women executives fromIndia about Indian business newspapersAnuradha Bhattacharjee a , Shubhra P. Gaur b & RavishankarPandey ca Centre for Grassroots Innovation, Tianjin University of Financeand Economics, Tianjin, Chinab Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, Indiac The Nielsen Company, Mumbai, IndiaPublished online: 01 Dec 2011.

To cite this article: Anuradha Bhattacharjee , Shubhra P. Gaur & Ravishankar Pandey (2011)Perceptions of practicing and prospective women executives from India about Indian businessnewspapers, Asian Journal of Communication, 21:6, 632-647, DOI: 10.1080/01292986.2011.609598

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RESEARCH NOTE

Perceptions of practicing and prospective women executives from Indiaabout Indian business newspapers

Anuradha Bhattacharjeea, Shubhra P. Gaurb* and Ravishankar Pandeyc

aCentre for Grassroots Innovation, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China;bMudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, India; cThe Nielsen Company, Mumbai,

India

(Received 22 July 2010; final version received 18 April 2011)

An increasing presence of women in the premier professions in India in the pasttwo decades has led to an increase in the requirement for business information bywomen (Gaur, Bhattacharjee, & Pandey, 2010). In addition, the NationalReadership Study (2006) shows an increase in the readership of Englishnewspapers by women. This study is an attempt to explore the perception ofwomen executives about the business newspapers published in India. The data ofthe study were collected through an online survey amongst women executives(N �111) and women students (N �83) of postgraduate management studies1 toascertain the preferred sources of business information, time spent readingbusiness newspaper, the perception about various aspects of business newspaperread by the respondent and level of importance accorded to and satisfaction withspecific dimensions of business newspaper read by the respondent. Descriptivestatistics are used to analyze and interpret the data. The findings haveimplications towards making the business newspaper more gender-friendly.

Keywords: women and business information; gender and business newspaper;business newspaper; women executives

Introduction

Unlike the trends reported by the print media industry in the USA and Europe, the

Indian Readership Survey (2010) reports that print media have retained their reach at

almost the same level from the year 2006. It was 38.7% in 2006 and 38.4% in 2010.

Though the reach of radio has declined, growing penetration of TV and Internet has

contributed to an increase in the overall reach of media. In 2006, the average Indian

citizen interacted with media across various platforms for 117 minutes, which has

risen to 125 minutes in 2010. The survey report makes a significant point: ‘Almost

everywhere, there has been a growth in time spent � by gender, by almost all age

groups, as well as by SEC groups. Also, women are driving this phenomenon more

than men’. Newspapers, including business newspapers, have an e-newspaper avatar

on the Internet. While TV programs are also available on the Internet in an audio-

visual format, both media retain their basic format even on the Internet. As per the

FICCI�PriceWaterhouseCooper (2008) report on Indian Entertainment and Media

Industry, the revenues of print media (Newspaper and Magazine) was INR 149

*Corresponding author. Email: spg@micamail.in

Asian Journal of Communication

Vol. 21, No. 6, December 2011, 632�647

ISSN 0129-2986 print/ISSN 1742-0911 online

# 2011 AMIC/SCI-NTU

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2011.609598

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billion in 2007 and is expected to be INR 281 billion by 2012. Hence, it is predicted

that despite increasing penetration of the Internet, the importance of newspapers is

not going to decline, but rather grow.

The number of women in the premier professions and services of India rose from7.5% in 1987 to 10.4% in 2000 (Institute of Applied Manpower Research, 2003) and

those in the organized sector2 rose from 14.4% in 1992 to 17.8% in 2001 (Ministry of

Statistics and Program Implementation, 2006). This trend is likely to continue as an

increasing number of women attain higher education and hold jobs. As the number

of women in the field of business grows, a natural corollary would be an increase in

the consumption of business information, driving up the readership of business

newspapers. At present there are no gender-specific or gender-inclusive business news

products. The educated women professionals are more or less bundled together withtheir male counterparts. This is in sync with the post feminism approach which

claims that ‘no singular perspective on feminism can speak for women across the

multiple differences of class and race’ (Ouellette, 2002, p. 318).

Research conducted by Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing Networks on 7500

young people between the ages of 18 and 24 in the USA found that most college

students read print newspapers. They have a high disposition to reading news and

staying abreast on what’s going on (Saba, 2006). The findings of a survey done in

Ireland, published by Institute of Advertising Professionals in its ‘Business MediaStudy’, revealed that people feel it is important to read newspapers for their job.

Moreover, depending upon the designation, people’s preference for reading a

particular newspaper also varies (Gunnery, 2009). The above studies imply that

working executives and management students may differ in their perceptions about

the business newspapers.

For the purpose of this study, two groups of women (working executives and

management students) were chosen as the universe. While the former is already

practicing business, the latter aspires to enter the business world. Since information isan empowering tool, the gratification levels of either group consuming business

information might be different. It is likely that women management students

consume business information to have a degree of knowledge and confidence during

class discussions or social interaction, while working executives consume business

information to run the business and are therefore more serious in their engagement

with business news compared to the other group. Be it an entry to the management

institutes or work places, skills and minimum qualifications required for men and

women are the same. Moreover, according to Rothman and Lichter (1983), while thenumber of successful women in journalism and business is relatively small, research

shows that men and women in the business world do not differ in relevant

characteristics as all successful persons are driven by strong achievement and power

needs. Hence, we can conclude that in both the cases (prospective and practicing

women executives), they are comparable at least in respect of education and roles to

their male counterparts who are the primary and targeted audience of the business

newspaper.

Who are the target audience of the newspapers?

Normative beliefs which represent what we stand for and believe to be true can

influence countless behaviors. Persons from a higher status have been taught to be

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interested in current affairs, to be informed, to shoulder responsibilities and

participate in socio-economic activities (Milbrath & Goel, 1977). Individuals who

feel a duty to keep themselves informed are highly educated, middle-aged and with

upper-income level. Just as newspaper readers during the middle of the twentiethcentury were equally as likely to be a woman or a man, individuals who believed they

had a duty to keep themselves informed were just as likely to be a woman or a man

(McCombs & Poindexter, 1983).

White (2009) reviewed Koller’s book Metaphor and gender in business media

discourse: A critical cognitive study. According to Koller, metaphors create and

perpetuate gender bias by exploiting aggressive language in business media text.

Drawing examples from popular print media, such as The Economist, Business Week,

The Financial Times and Fortune, Koller identified patterns in metaphor use,including the usage of war metaphors in business marketing texts and metaphors

of evolutionary struggle in mergers and acquisition texts. Koller demonstrates that,

in addition to introducing the reader to the ‘business is war’ metaphor, the text also

substantiates the aggressiveness and accompanying male bias. She explains that both

war and business have historically been male dominated, business media tends to link

the two through the use of imagery in metaphors, and in turn perpetuate the notion

that business is predominantly a male or masculine affair.

Typically business media are distinct and are categorized as ‘serious’ since theyare regarded as important sources of information and addressing the intellectual

needs of professionals. While business newspapers have been adapting their content

to suit the evolving taste of their readers, one wonders whether gender sensitiveness is

one of the parameters, especially when 30% of their readers are women (Press

Institute of India, 2004). One may feel that the growing number of women in the

media sector automatically takes care of the gender-friendliness requirements.

However, according to Gist (1993), women journalists internalize the news values

men have established, which result in media reflecting the views and perspectives ofthe dominant male group.

Anna-Maija and Tanja (2002) reported that in Finnish business media, the

differences between the genders are dispelled and no clear comparisons are made

between female and male executives. Often, women leaders present their careers and

leadership style in relation to masculine values and norms, especially in the shortage

of female role models and lack of feminine perspective in the dominant discourse.

Women’s increasing preference for newspaper and business information

People with higher education and income prefer to read newspapers (Guido, Stempel

III, & Hargrove, 2008). The Indian National Readership Study (2006) results show

that 50.7% of the respondents were women while 49.3% were men. The report

highlights that most dailies, including business dailies, have reported a growth in

circulation and readership. It also states that 30% of the readers of the English dailies

are women, reflecting a growing trend of women with higher education engaging

with the newspapers.Indian Readership Data for the period 2003R2�2008R23 showed a YoY decline

in the Average Issue Readership (AIR) of business dailies among both men and

women. However, in 2008 they witnessed a sharp increase in the AIR. Overall,

during 2003 to 2008, the AIR of the top three business dailies (The Economic Times,

634 A. Bhattacharjee et al.

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Business Standard and Mint) among men readers declined by 32.64%, while it

increased by 1.63% amongst women readers in the same period (Indian Readership

Survey, 2003�2008).

According to Jeffrey (2000, p. 172) Andhra Jyoti introduced a serialized novel

claiming that ‘women were now far more ‘‘visible’’ in the decision about which

newspaper a family would buy’. The word ‘visible’ here implies that women are

playing an active role in deciding the family newspaper and shopping. Interestingly,

the circulation decreased when the paper stopped the serials, but it increased after the

reintroduction of the novel. Eenadu introduced a daily women’s page as a part of

the main newspaper in 1992 and circulation has continued to rise. Even more

importantly, so did the advertising revenue. This indicates that women play a critical

role in deciding the family newspaper.As the number of women in managerial positions is increasing, so is their

competition with men and other women. Consequently they require business

information and are likely to have higher ‘functional’ interest if not ‘inherent’

interest. Interest has been found to be an important variable impacting the time

spent on reading business news. Men with higher interest (emphasis added) spend

more time reading business news than women and readers with less interest in the

matter (D’Haenens, Jankowski, & Heuvelman, 2004).

Are the newspapers women-friendly?

Kim and Yoon (2009) categorized newspapers into two types: female-friendly

newspapers and female-unfriendly newspapers in terms of the story’s tone, gender-

equity tendency and use of conflict news value in their news stories about women

cabinet members. Though they did not find any significant differences between the

two, they found that male reporters used a more negative tone, emphasized conflict

news values more, used stereotypical references to women and employed less gender-

sensitive perspectives than female reporters when it came to newspaper stories about

women cabinet members in South Korea. Akhileshwari (2005) noted that Indian

English newspapers tended to push women into feature and non-serious writing.

Figure 1. Readership among men and women.

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Thus there are fewer women journalists reporting and writing to reflect the feminist

or even a gender-neutral viewpoint in business newspapers.

While women have made substantial strides into leadership positions in

academia, business, politics and the media, they ‘still have a ‘‘vexed’’ relationship

with power and the language of power’ (McKenna, 2007, p. 1). The relationship of

women with power is a much debated topic as they get contradictory injunctions

about their gender role identity and their relationship with power from different

sources in the culture while growing up. This is perhaps why McKenna has used the

term ‘vexed’. This notion has been supported by Gaur (2006) when reporting that

‘gender-appropriate behaviour’ in organizations was evaluated positively and

‘masculine behaviour’ like rationality and practicality displayed by women was

underplayed and often evaluated negatively.

Women have a lifestyle different from men. They are still generally responsible

for organizing family food and managing interpersonal relationships within the

family (Haukanes, 2007; Sandra, 1972). According to Johnson and Learned (1967),

research reveals that a woman’s buying mind is always turned on, locating products

for herself as well as for her family and other constituents. This implies that women’s

association with caring for the family is not diminished by their education and

professional roles and responsibilities. Marketers need to understand this special role

women play and can leverage their products/services by advertising in business

newspapers as well.

The literature review brings out clearly that news, especially business news, has

traditionally been targeted at men. The women professionals competing with their

male counterparts in several professions would not necessarily be users of business

newspapers, viz. doctors, architects, etc. Only working women executives and women

management students are a category of women who are not only comparable in their

education and professional competitiveness as their male counterparts but also need

to engage with business media including newspapers in a way comparable to their

male counterparts professionally. Against this backdrop, this study is an exploratory

research into the perceptions of women about the existing categories of contents in

business dailies, and assessing the appeal of such content to practicing and

prospective women executives.

Research questions (RQs)

RQ1: Which are the preferred media sources of business information among prospectiveand practicing women executives?

Though the focus of the study is on business newspapers, this mapped the

respondents’ use of different media to seek business information and the position of

the business newspapers amongst them.

RQ2: How much time do prospective and practicing women executives spend with theirpreferred business newspaper for consumption of business information every day?

This assessed the average amount of time respondents spent with various media

vehicles for the purpose of consuming business information. The time spent by

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consumers with a media product is an important consideration for advertisers in

advertising their products and services on that medium.

RQ3: How do prospective and practicing women executives perceive the businessnewspaper they read?

This evaluated the respondent’s perception on five parameters of the business

newspaper she reads, i.e. quality of language used, coverage, analysis, content related

to women and the kinds of advertisements carried.

RQ4: Is there any gap between the level of importance attributed and satisfactionachieved from various aspects of business newspapers by prospective and practicingwomen executives?

Often, consumers express satisfaction with certain aspects/attributes of a product,

even though that attribute may not be of importance to them, while the customer

may be dissatisfied with an attribute of the product that is important to them. The

producer of that product may be outlaying resources on attributes not important to

the consumer or user and overlooking aspects or attributes important to the

consumer. Hence, these sets of questions explored the existence of any gap between

importance and satisfaction on various aspects of the business newspapers.

RQ5: What are the most and least preferred contents of the business newspapers byprospective and practicing women executives?

The sections of the business newspaper the respondents read and skipped

regularly were identified in this section. The contents they desired the most and the

least were also explored here.

Method

Sampling

The sample consists of two different groups of women: prospective women executives

and practicing women executives. Prospective women executives are those pursuing

their postgraduate degree/diploma in management education in the premier business

schools of India, viz. Indian Institute of Managements (Ahmedabad, Bangalore,

Calcutta, Kozhikode, Indore, Shillong), Indian School of Business (Hyderabad),

Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad, Institute of Management and

Technology (Ghaziabad), International Management Institute (New Delhi), S.P. Jain

Institute of Management and Research (Mumbai) and Nirma Institute of Manage-

ment (Ahmedabad). Practicing women executives are those working in public or

private sector companies in a managerial capacity and have at least a graduate

education (in case they moved into those roles through extensive experience).The total numbers of respondents were 194, of which 111 were practicing women

executives and 83 were prospective women executives. The minimum age of the

respondents was 21 years. To maintain confidentiality, personal information such as

name, affiliation or contact information, were not sought.

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Convenience sampling was used to draw the sample for this study. Thereafter, the

sample was divided into two mutually exclusive groups (i.e. prospective and

practicing executives). Though the samples contained the specific sub-groups as

desired, convenience sampling has its limitations. The limitations include possible

sampling bias, a less representative sample of the population and a limited

generalizability of the results (Yoon & Horne, 2004).

Data collection

A pilot test of the questionnaire was carried out during the development stage, with

the results and feedback contributing towards a refined questionnaire to meet the

desired objectives more accurately. Since the profile of the typical respondent

matched with that of the Internet user in India (educated, affluent), an online survey

was conducted. Emails containing a request message to participate in a survey and

the survey link were sent to students and alumni of the institutions mentioned in the

sampling section. In an effort to bolster sample size, personal contact and social

networking sites were also used.

In the first phase, the survey was launched from 13 April 2009�4 May 2009.

During this period, 125 valid responses were received of which 92 were practicing

women executives and 33 prospective women executives. This time period coincided

with the summer vacations in academic institutions, hence the lower participation by

prospective women executives. To get a better representation of prospective women

executives in the study, the survey was re-launched from 28 August 2009 to 21

September 2009 after the academic institutions reopened. In this phase, valid

responses from 19 practicing women executives and 50 prospective women executives

were received, taking the total number of valid responses to 111 practicing and 83

prospective women executives.

Description of the questionnaire

Information in the following areas was sought through the questionnaire.

Demographics information

Respondents were asked to furnish details of education, occupation, designation,

number of years at work, sector of industry (public/private), functional area, city of

residence and age group.

Preferential ranking

Six media vehicles of business information were listed and respondents were asked to

rank them in the order of their preference as a source of gaining business information

(Rank 1 for the most preferred source). The media tracked were: business section of

general dailies; business dailies; business magazines; business news channels;

Internet; and other media, viz. mobile phone, radio, etc.

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Time spent

Respondents chose between the options: do not read, less than 30 minutes, more

than 30 minutes for reading business newspaper per day.

Perception measure

Respondents were required to mark a degree of agreement on a five-point Likert scale

for five statements. These statements were: (1) The language of the business

newspapers is easy to comprehend, (2) The business newspapers cover all aspects

the business world, (3) The analysis by the business newspapers is in-depth and

comprehensive, (4) The content related to women is unbiased in the business

newspapers, and (5) The products and services advertised in the business newspapers

usually interest me.

The statements to measure perception were developed on the tangible aspects ofnews media. They were identified in consultation with the media professionals and

academicians followed by the face validity of the statements during the pilot study.

Face validity led to the development of neutral statements free from ambiguities.

Satisfaction and importance

Two sets of eight statements each were developed to measure satisfaction with and

importance of the content of business newspapers. Response was sought on the

coverage on self development, general utility, general information and futuristic

trends. Two statements in each of these categories were to be rated on five-point

Likert scales to measure satisfaction and importance (1 �Highly Dissatisfied and

5 �Highly Satisfied). Just like statements on perception, parameters for satisfaction

and importance were identified after pretesting and consultation with the media

professionals and academicians and thus the face validity of the statements wasestablished.

Desirable and undesirable content in business newspapers

In order to decide the topics for this section, two open-ended questions on issues/

topics the respondents read regularly and skipped were asked. From these responses,

34 topics were selected in framing the list to ask the respondents to decide, whileplaying the role of an editor, the contents of a business newspaper meant exclusively

for women. They were asked to select one of the three options for each of these 34

items: definitely include, may or may not include and definitely not include.

Results

Demographic details of the respondents

Respondents from Mumbai (29.4%), Delhi/NCR4 (19.6%), Ahmedabad (14.9%) and

Bangalore (now Bangaluru) (8.8%) constituted 70% of the total while the remaining

were from Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Shillong. With most of the major urban

centers represented, the sample was considered sufficiently representative.

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Approximately 62% of the respondents were in the 21�25 age group, 27.8% were

in the 26�30 age group, 6.7% were in the 31�35 age group, 2.1% were in the 36�40

age group and 1.5% were in 41� age group. The prospective women executives were

all pursuing postgraduate degrees/diplomas in management education. More than

91% of practicing working executives were postgraduates, including 12.6% with

professional qualification in chartered accountancy and PhD. Only 8.1% were

graduates.Of the 111 practicing women executives, 24.3% were at entry level, 64% were at

the middle management level and 11.7% at senior management level. Eighteen per

cent of the practicing women executives had been working for less than a year, 29.7%

between one and three years, 30.6% between three and five years and 21.6% had

been working for over five years. Approximately, 95% of practicing women

executives were employed in the private sector and 4.5% in the public sector5.

Fifty-four per cent were working in marketing functions, 21.6% in finance functions,

8.15% in information technology or technical functions, 3.6% were in the field of

education and the remaining 12.6% were in diverse functions such as human

resource management, consulting, research, etc.

Research questions

To answer our first research question about preference of media sources of business

information, respondents ranked six media vehicles of business information from 1 to

6 in order of their preference. A composite score for each of the six media was

calculated by allocating different weightages to each of the six ranks. First step was

to multiply the % of respondents who ranked the medium for which the score was

being calculated by the weightages, i.e.% of respondents who gave that medium 1st

rank by 6, 2nd rank by 5, 3rd rank by 4, 4th rank by 3, 5th rank by 2 and 6th rank by

1.The total of these was divided by 6 and multiplied by 100 to get a composite score

for each medium in %. The higher the composite score, the higher was the preference

(rank) for the medium.

Here the Internet emerged as the most preferred source of business information

as it had the composite score of 73.5% followed by business newspaper which had a

composite score of 66.67%, followed closely by business news channels with a

composite score of 66.13%. Table 1 represents the % composite scores and ranks of

the six media. The composite score indicates the % of respondents preferring the

medium and hence indicative of the derived rank of the media.

Table 1. Composite % score and composite rank of the media sources of business information.

Media source Composite % score Composite rank

1 Internet for business news 73.50 1

2 Business newspaper 66.67 2

3 Business news channel 66.13 3

4 Business section of general newspaper 58.52 4

5 Business magazine 56.83 5

6 Other media such as radio/mobile, etc. 28.22 6

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Since details of websites visited were not sought, the Internet option here would

include national and international e-newspapers besides all other resources available

on the Internet. Due to the presence of international content which is beyond the

purview of this study, this option would have to be set aside from further analysis.

To answer our second research question about time spent on business newspaper

reading, 83% of prospective and 68% of practicing executives reported that they

read business newspapers daily. Thirty-one per cent of prospective and 25% of

working executives reported that they spent more than 30 minutes every day on

average. Fifty-two per cent of prospective and 43% of practicing executives spent

less than 30 minutes every day.

Only those respondents who reported reading at least one of the several Indian

business newspapers listed answered our third research question which measured

respondents’ perception about their preferred business newspaper. Sixty-nine

prospective women executives and 76 practicing women executives read at least

one business newspaper every day. On the ‘most-read business newspaper’ parameter,

70.3% respondents reported The Economic Times, 13.8% Business Standard and 8.3%

Mint as the most-read business newspaper. This observation is in keeping with the

circulation figures, thereby translating into availability ratio.

High mean score on dimensions related to the ease of language comprehension

(M �3.93), coverage (M �3.94) and in-depth and comprehensive analysis

(M �3.88) indicates that respondents of the study perceived the language of the

business newspapers to be comprehendible. The respondents reported high level of

agreement with ‘the coverage of all aspects of news and information from the

business world’ as well as ‘the analysis of the business newspapers to be in-depth and

comprehensive’. The dimension of ‘content related to women is unbiased’ (M �3.37)

as well as ‘products and services advertised is of interest’ (M �3.07) secured

relatively lower mean scores. Figure 2 represents the perception reported on the

most-read business newspaper.

Compared to practicing women executives (M �4.13), prospective women

executives (M �3.71) perceived the language of business newspapers to be less

comprehensible.

The fourth research question pertained to identifying the gap between

importance attributed and satisfaction achieved from different aspects of business

newspapers. The importance satisfaction gap question was administered only to

Figure 2. Perception of the most-read business newspaper.

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those respondents who reported that they read business newspapers. The mean value

of importance attributed to seven out of eight dimensions, namely (1) the coverage of

domestic economic environment, (2) the coverage of international business environ-

ment, (3) information related to career development and planning, (4) analysis of

prevailing business environment, (5) information about new and existing financial

products, (6) reportage about emerging trends and (7) the information about new

products and services were higher than the mean value of satisfaction achieved from

the business newspapers. The only parameter where mean satisfaction level was

higher than the mean importance level was specific information on prices of stocks,

currency, commodities, etc. Figure 3 is a graphical representation of the satisfaction

and importance measures.The results indicate that there is considerable scope of improvement on the

content of seven out of eight parameters for women readers of business newspapers.The fifth research question was aimed at identifying most and least preferred

contents of the business newspapers. The top four areas of news and information the

respondents said that they would definitely include in the business newspaper

exclusively meant for women are as follows:

� News related to country and current happenings in the business world (82%),

� Analysis of Indian economic environment (75%),

� International business news (74%), and

� Entrepreneurship ideas (73%).

The top four areas of news and information that the respondents indicated that

they would definitely not include in the business newspaper exclusively for women

are as follows:

� Pet care (54%),� Counseling on childcare and parenting (40%),

� Information about creches/schools (34%), and

� Information about domestic health agencies (31%).

Figure 3. Importance and satisfaction measures.

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Approximately 40% of the respondents were undecided about the inclusion or

exclusion of the sections such as: sports news, travel, stock prices and business gossip.

Discussion

Media preference for business information and time spent with business newspapers

Business newspapers are second in the order of preference as a source of business

information for both practicing and prospective women executives. The Internet

(including e-newspapers) emerged as the most preferred source of business

information among both groups owing to its ‘just-in-time availability’, links to

related information, past coverage and extensive availability of informationincluding international news and control over the medium. Gaur, Bhattacharjee,

and Pandey (2010) found that the most preferred source of business information for

men is the business newspaper. This finding coupled with the result of this study

imply a need for the content of business newspapers to be more women-friendly so

that business newspapers can overtake their immediate competitor ‘Internet’ as they

have for men. However, since this study was primarily focused on Indian business

media and there is no way international content can be separated from domestic

content on the Internet owing to the free and open access to information policy ofthe Government of India, the Internet, though the first choice of the respondents as

a source of business information, cannot be incorporated into the results of this

study. It can, at best, be a pointer to the desired qualities for the Indian business

media.

Eighty three per cent of prospective women executives and 68% of practicing

women executives read business newspapers. Further, 28% of all respondents spent

more than 30 minutes every day with the medium.

Perception about business newspaper read

The Economic Times, Business Standard and Mint were found to be the most read

business newspapers. This has also been reported in the data from Indian

Readership Survey, National Readership Study and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Respondents indicated a high level of satisfaction with the language, coverage of the

business news and in-depth analysis of issues and situations presented in thebusiness newspaper they read. About 40% of respondents indicated that they did

not perceive the contents of business newspapers to be biased. They also indicated

that the products and services advertised in the business newspaper were of great

interest to them. Respondents differed on the ‘language’ criteria of the business

newspaper they read. Prospective women executives (M �3.71) reported greater

difficulty in comprehending the language compared to practicing women executives

(M �4.13). The main reason for the difference in language comprehension could be

the usage of market parlance in the newspaper. The prospective women executiveswere only exposed to academic language drawn from textbooks that have roots in

Western education, whereas the market uses a variety of terminologies drawn from

the local language to describe products, positions and situations (e.g. badla in stock

market position). Practicing women executives reported a higher level of compre-

hension of the language of the business newspaper, perhaps owing to their exposure

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to the real business environment and the use of contextual language in the daily

setting.

Importance-satisfaction gap

The combined satisfaction scores of prospective and practicing women executives

indicated that satisfaction with the various aspects of the business newspaper they

read was lower than the reported level of combined importance scores on all

parameters except prices of stocks, commodities and currency. Mean level of

importance of all the parameters was higher than the mean level of satisfaction

except prices of stocks, commodities and currency where the level of satisfaction

reported was higher than the level of importance.Though the mean scores of satisfaction with information related to career

development and planning was above average (M �2.96 for practicing women

executives and M �3.21 for prospective women executives), they were much lower

than the satisfaction level with other aspects of business news papers (where

satisfaction range was 3.61�4.16 for practicing women executives and 3.55�4.11 for

prospective women executives). Hence, we can conclude that both groups of

respondents indicated relatively lower satisfaction with the information related to

career development and planning as compared to other aspects of the businessnewspaper they read.

The results suggest areas for improvement on the various parameters that are

significant for both groups of respondents. The results indicated that the business

newspapers require more gender-focused presentation of content. Both groups rated

information related to emerging trends and financial products as highly important.

Most/least preferred content of a proposed business newspaper for women

Both prospective and practicing women executives were highly supportive towards

the inclusion of detailed news related to current happenings in the business world in

both domestic and international spheres, in-depth analysis of the Indian economic

environment, various sectors of the economy and some key companies and

entrepreneurship ideas. The respondents also sent strong signals against the inclusion

of high adrenalin activities such as sports and politics in business newspapers.

It is interesting to note that though the respondents tend to skip sports news

and stocks prices, a very high percentage of the respondents were undecided aboutincluding these sections in the proposed business newspaper targeted exclusively

for women. On being probed further, a few respondents said that they tended to

skip such sections, while they might perhaps hold importance for other readers,

displaying the quintessential Indian women’s adaptive nature. They reported

‘adjusting’ to the existing products in the absence of a specifically designed product

for women.

Conclusions

The results of the study clearly show that the Internet/e-newspaper tipped business

newspapers as the most preferred source of business information because it offered

privacy, flexibility of use, regular updates and the ‘related news’ link feature. The e-

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newspaper on the Internet allows the reader to choose the items that interests them

along with the ‘related news’ and other links contributing significantly towards the

‘depth of coverage’ aspect that is missing in newspapers. Since it was not established

whether all of the Internet sites used by the practicing and prospective women

executives were domestic or international, all of the reasons contributing to their

popularity cannot be surmised. However, business newspapers emerged as the second

most preferred source for business information. The conclusive findings of this study

are:

� Media professionals in India need to make their offerings more gender-friendly to retain and attract the large and growing number of women readers.

� Women desire detailed analysis of the economic environment and news related

to current happenings in the country and the world. This is adequately

demonstrated by the Internet featuring as the first choice of media for business

information.

� They want the content of business newspapers to give more emphasis on

advertisements and brand related information for products and services

required by women in particular and the family in general, since the onus ofshopping still rests with them.

� They prefer omission or at least toning-down of reportage on high-adrenaline

activities such as politics and sports.

� Since the importance-satisfaction gap is significant on most counts, women

consumers of business information would migrate to whichever medium that

addresses their needs the best.

The above findings clearly corroborate Poindexter’s (2008) findings that women

are sensitive about the way stories are framed and edited, preferring features that

give a detailed narrative. Poindexter and Harp (2008) also concluded that when

women’s interests were regularly excluded from newspapers, women were likely to

turn away from them. Therefore, the business media should be sensitive to women’s

perspective while presenting the news items in order to retain or improve theirreadership.

Indian women do not prefer high-adrenaline activities with a sprinkling of war

and sports metaphors in the content. The emphasis should be on ‘gender-neutral’

reportage and editorial policy using a gender-friendly and inclusive style of

engagement. These modifications are likely to appeal better to women readers,

reinforcing Koller’s suggestion to find gender-neutral and non-violent metaphors

that are less aggressive for describing business scenarios. This is also critical since

media plays a pivotal role in shaping the expectations about people’s behavior.

As demonstrated by the Andhra jyoti example cited by Jeffrey, even the poorest

women have spending power since they make the day-to-day purchase decisions. This

spending power would be multiplied by the large number of women with high

earnings and high disposable income, such as the readers of the business newspapers.

They would continue to seek information about products and brands from the wider

environment and users before finalizing a purchase decision, and the business

newspapers lend themselves very well to such a requirement.

Marketers appreciate that while new product development or product reposition-

ing happens, there is also the emergence of a relatively new genre of consumers of

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their product, namely women, whose number are continually rising. The growing

number of women is a market segment they need to consider.

Notes

1. In India 10�2�3 years (4 years in the case of Engineering and 5 years in the case ofMedical Sciences) of education leads to graduation. All education thereafter is called post-graduation.

2. The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines organized sector as the parts of the economywhich operate through institutions which feed figures into official statistics.

3. The Indian Readership Survey is done twice a year. R2 represents the survey data for round2 of the year, i.e. July-December.

4. Delhi is a Union Territory and its surrounding cities, including Delhi itself, are calledNational Capital Region (NCR). The NCR respondents were from four cities: Gurgaon,Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad. For all practical purposes NCR is considered as a onecity.

5. ‘Public sector’ in India means the companies that are wholly/majority owned by theGovernment of India/state governments. ‘Private sector’ in India means privately heldcompanies including listed companies.

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