1

STUDY ON

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

FOR

FINANCIAL NEWS PAPER

AT BUSINESS STANDARD

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

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

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.

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

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

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

8

ANNEXURE 69

NOMENCLATURE 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY 73

A REPORT ON

9

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

AT BUSINESS STANDARD

AHMEDABAD

SUBMITTED TO

AES Post Graduate Institute Of Business Management

SUBMITTED BY

Dhwani Worah Amit Raichuria

CHAPTER 1

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

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!

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

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

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.

15

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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;

25

• A 13.85% stake in the Business Standard, one of India's leading financial

newspapers.

PRODUCT PROFILE

Business Standard is 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

Business

Standard

Motoring

BS 1000

The

Strategist

Gateway Fund

Manager

Banking

Annual

How to

Spend it

Newspaper

Indian

Manage-

mentThe

World of

b-school

The

Billionaire

Club

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

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

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

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

30

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Publication Process

Space Marketing

Department

Desk

Printing

Press

Dispatch

Officer

Dispatch

City Edition Dark Edition

Takes indent

revision

Editorial

Department

Scheduling

Department

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

36

Dispatch Process

Raw

M aterial

Ahmedabad Nadiad Anand Vadodara B haruch

Vendors B ookstalls

H awkers H awkers

Printing

Press

End Users

Agent in

Each City

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

44

CHAPTER 4

COMPETITION ANALYSIS

OTHER FINANCIAL NEWSPAPERS

SURVEY RESULTS

SWOT ANALYSIS

PORTER’S 5 FORCES MODEL

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?

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.

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

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• 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.

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.

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

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.

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• 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.

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

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.

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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).

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:

57

SWOT ANALYSIS- BUSINESS STANDARD

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

India’s 2nd largest circulated

business daily

Associated with the Financial

times of London

Competitive cover price of Rs. 2.

Unmatched Quantitative and

qualitative content

Diverse supplements

• Low Brand Awareness.

• Third Party Publication.

• Some Product features- small

font size, NAVs are not latest.

OPPORTUNITIES THREAT

• Great market potential.

• Tie-up with different national

newspapers.

• Increasing literacy rate and

incomes.

• Increasing urban population

• Govt policy for FDI in print media.

• Technological advances in

printing which will drive down the

cost per copy.

• Existing Competitors like

Economic Times, Business Line

• Entry of new entrants e.g.

Financial Express English in

Gujarat etc.

• Threat from other media forms

like news channels, internet etc.

• Entry of foreign Players.

• Access to online analysis.

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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

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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

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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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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.

62

BUSINESS STANDARD (AHMEDABAD EDITION) AND THE PORTER’S 5 FORCE

MODEL

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS

LAUNCH OF FE ENGLISH

IN GUJARAT

SEGMENT RIVALRY

ET, BS, FE, HBL

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES

OTHER MEDIA FORMS

LIKE TV NEWS CHANNELS, INTERNET,

AND MOBILE NEWS UPDATES

BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS

LOW AD RATES

BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS

3RD PARTY

PUBLICATION

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.

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

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.

Bank Employees

12%

Stock Brokers29%

CA11%

Insurance Agents

8%

Corporates27%

MBAs13%

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.

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Respondent's Age Group

20-3026%

31-4046%

41-5023%

>505%

(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%

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ET88%

BS68%

FE45%

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.

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.

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

Express ‘English’. This was due to the recent brand noise

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

concerned. Also it is not published from anywhere in

Gujarat. The Mumbai edition of Business Line is

BL24%

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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.

Amongst the rest, most were either reading the branch

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

Supplements

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

YES54%

NO 46%

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we found that majority of the respondents were

reading any financial daily for more than 30 minutes.

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

and brand shifting. As per our findings, people who

have been reading their preferred daily since a long

period of time are more likely to be brand loyal and

thus would not switch to any other financial daily

whatever be the offerings.

(For statistical analysis refer to the annexure.)

7. What is/are your main purpose of reading the financial dailies?

Business News

BN72%

Stock Values

SV46%

International Business

IB19%

Economic News

EN54%

<30 Min.34%

>30 Min.66%

<1 Yr.21%

1-3 Yrs.29%

3-5 Yrs.35%

>5 Yrs.15%

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

discounts and gifts are offered. This is also consistent with

Gifts as one of the factors for subscribing to a financial

daily.( one of the previous questions) Particularly this

information is useful for devising a strategy for Business

Standard to penetrate the market. (Shifting preference is

also one of the variables for the chi-square test given in the

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.

YES49%

NO27%

MAY BE

24%

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Vendors69%

Subscrp. Scheme

24%

Book-Stalls

7%

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.

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11. How do you find the delivery of Business Standard? In this fast paced industry, timely and

consistent delivery of newspapers is very

important as far as customer satisfaction and

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.

Distribution System

Average32%

Poor10%

Satistactory58%

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CHI SQUARE TEST (1) Set up the Hypothesis: Ho : Brand shifting is independent of since how long a person reads a particular financial daily H1 : Brand shifting depends on since how long a person reads a particular financial daily.

(2) Test Statistics: Χ2 = (fo – fe)2 fe

Will shift ? Fo Fe Fo - Fe (Fo - Fe)2 /

Fe Yes <1 22 15.09 6.91 3.1642

1-3 31 21.41 9.59 4.2956 3-5 14 25.31 -11.31 5.0539 >5 6 11.19 -5.19 2.4072 No <1 2 8.47 -6.47 4.9423 1-3 4 12.03 -8.03 5.36 3-5 18 14.21 3.79 1.0108 >5 17 6.29 10.71 18.2359 May Be <1 7 7.44 0.44 0.02602 1-3 9 10.56 -1.56 0.2305 3-5 20 12.48 7.58 4.5313 >5 0 5.52 -5.52 5.52 54.7777 (3) Degree of freedom: (r-1)(c-1) = (3-1)(4-1) = 6 (4) Level of Significance: α = 0.05 (5) Critical Value: χ2 = 12.592

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(6) Decision:

The calculated chi-square does not fall within the acceptance region so the null

hypothesis is rejected and It can be said that shifting preference depends on the tenure

for which a person reads a particular financial daily.

Limitations of the Research:

Following are the limitations of the pilot survey:

1. To get an overview about the prevailing market conditions, we used judgmental

sampling and took a sample of only 150 from a huge population.

2. the survey was restricted to Ahmedabad city only. Thus, it may not fully represent

the whole population of business newspaper readers in India.

3. Time Constraint: We had only a week’s time to carry out this pilot study.

12.592 54.777

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Findings and Recommendations

From the study carried out and the analysis of the result obtain from the survey, the

following suggestions and recommendations were made to help the firm improve upon

its product.

1) Increase the number of centers where the news paper is available.

2) Regarding news content.

a. Give more values to foreign exchange rate.

b. Increase the font size of stock details.

c. Provide the separate columns of Banks and Insurance news.

d. Cover all the scheme of Mutual Funds.

e. Provide script code of BSE and NSE.

f. Provide information of appointments and education abroad.

3) Management should design a vendor Relationship Management program and

should come up with some motivational offers and scheme for the vendors, so

that they are self-motivated and hence push Business Standard from their side

increasing trade sales.

4) Business Standard as a newspaper can implement a MIS to keep a track of BS

readers. Through this MIS, Business Standard can focus on their existent

readers and can work for customer retention and customer loyalty programs.

5) The survey revealed another important learning that newspaper reading is a

matter of habit and habits are hard to break. A slight drop in price does not

endear the other newspaper — more or less newspaper demand is price

inelastic. Thus business standard should target the young age group today so

that they become loyal readers tomorrow. For this it should launch BUSINESS

STANDARD STUDENTS’ FORUM for management students and a JUNIOR BS

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FORUM for undergraduate students. Students would have to subscribe Business

Standard and in turn The BS forums would provide a platform for students to

participate in various competitions.

6) Also, the floating readers are inherently disloyal and are prone to experiment with

any new entry on the block. After these insights, combo offers prove to be an

effective pricing tool. Unlike other newspapers, business standard does not have

support news paper brands for combo offers.

Thus Business Standard can introduce combo offers like 1 year subscription for

business standard + 1 year subscription of Indian Management Magazine at

discounted price.

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Conclusion

• From the pilot survey we found that most of the customer regularly read this

newspaper and they are satisfied with all the contents provided by the Business

Standard.

• Looking at over all publication process, we came to know the whole process of

printing till the final delivery of the newspaper. Understanding the theoretical

aspect makes it look much easier but practically the publication process is very

difficult and requires integrated efforts from all the departments.

• The distribution channel plays a very important role in newspaper industry. The

distribution channel of Business Standard is similar to the other print industry.

After completing the printing work of the newspaper dispatch officer sends the

copies to the various cities, the agent of the various cities collects the copy and

sells to their vendors and bookstalls. Vendors sell their copies to the end user.

• As a part of promotional activity performed by business standard, subscription

scheme at discounted price is offered to customer. The main objective behind

this is to attract the non BS reader and make him try the newspaper. By doing so

the company is able to increase the circulation with maximum customer retention

after the scheme period.

• Finally looking at the acceptance of promotional scheme of Business standard, I

conclude that the scheme offered was mostly liked by the readers and ultimately

most of them were subscribing to it.

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ANNEXURE

1. QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Name:

2. Organization:

3. Designation:

4. Contact No.: M .

5. Age: (a) 20-30 years (b) 31-40 years (c) 41-50 years (d) 51 years & >

6. Qualification: ________________________

7. Which newspaper do you read?

(a) Gujarati

(b) Hindi

(c) English

(d) Others

8. What are the financial dailies that you are aware of?

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

9. Do you subscribe to any financial dailies? If Yes, Which?

(a) Yes (b) No

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10. How much time do you spend on reading the newspaper?

(a) <30 Minutes___ (b) >30 Minutes___

11. Since how long have you been reading the financial daily that you subscribe?

(a) <1 Year

(b) 1-3 years

(c) 3-5 years

(d) > 5 years

12. What is your main purpose of reading the financial dailies?

(a) Local News

(b) Business News

(c) Mutual fund values and Stock values

(d) International Business

(e) Economic News

13. Which are the specific features of the newspaper that you like?

(a) ________________________________________

(b) ________________________________________

(c) ________________________________________

(d) ________________________________________

14. What are the improvements that you would like to see in the newspaper that you

subscribe?

(a) _________________________________________

(b) _________________________________________

15. Would you consider switching over to any other financial daily?

(a) Yes

(b) No

(c) May Be

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Business Standard

1. Which sections of Business Standard do you like? (Assign Ranks)

(a) General Headlines

(b) International News

(c) Editorial Part

(d) Money & Market

(e) accent West

2. What is mode of access to Business Standard?

(a) Subscription Scheme

(b) Vendors

(c) Bookstalls

3. How do you find the delivery of Business Standard?

(a) Satisfactory

(b) Average

(c) Poor

Nomenclature

ABC Audit Bureau of Circulation

BS Business Standard

BL Business Line

DSR Daily Supply Report

ET The Economic Times

FE Financial Express

81

IRS Indian Readership Survey

MDD Market Development Department

MDS Market Development Strategies

NRS National Readership Survey

ROI Return on Investment

SMD Space Marketing Department

YSR Yearly Supply Report

Bibliography

• Kohli, Vanita (2003), ’The Indian Media Business”, Response Books, New Delhi • Kotler, Philip, 2005, “Marketing Management”, Pearson Education, Delhi, 11th

Edition

• K. Suresh, 2003, “Media Management”, ICFAI University Press

• http;// www.indiatelevision.com/image/12/dailies_top10jpg

• http:// www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid_375873

• http:// www.india.mapsofindia.com/the-country/india-forum/media- in-india.html

• http:// www.hindu.com/the hindu/ho/nus/00200606160312.htm

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• http:// www.chronosphere.biz.imo/23/imo.html

• http:// www.newswatch.in/?p=4410