MxMIndia

Tag: ABC

  • The Technical Committee meeting was held yesterday (Jan 22) and the first findings of the study are scheduled to be released before the month ends, and in all probability on January 28.

    New IRS study findings to be released next week

    By A Correspondent

    The new Indian Readership Survey findings are scheduled to be released next week.

    It may be remembered that on the basis of a recommendation of  the Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), the Media Research Users’ Council had awarded the IRS contract to Nielsen. The decision was arrived at after a comprehensive nine month process that began in November 2011, with the formation of the RSCI by its sponsors, the MRUC (Media Research Users’ Council), and ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). The RSCI was mandated by the industry to oversee the conduct of a unified Indian Readership Study (IRS), billed as the world’s largest continuous readership study.

    The Technical Committee meeting was held yesterday (Jan 22) and the first findings of the study are scheduled to be released before the month ends, and in all probability on January 28.

    (See also: http://www.mxmindia.com/2013/03/new-improved-irs-hailed-by-industry/)

  • Starting a new 'quick interview' series; this one is with Shailesh Gupta, Director (Marketing), Jagran Prakashan, who was elected Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) last Friday

    Jaldi 5 with Shailesh Gupta: Both readership & circulation will co-exist & complement each other

    On Friday, Shailesh Gupta, Director-Marketing, Jagran Prakashan was unanimously elected Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for the year 2012-2013. S M Ahmad, Executive Vice President – Marketing of ITC was also unanimously elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Bureau for the year 2012-2013. Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World was the outgoing Chairman of the ABC.

     

    MxMIndia caught up with Mr Gupta on the sidelines of a dinner hosted by Mr Balsara on the occasion and sought his answers in the first edition of a new ‘quick interview’ series.

     

    01.   What will be your priorities as Chairman of the ABC?

    The priority is to bring about a more transparent system, evolve the ABC as a currency and make it a powerful decision-making tool for the industry.

     

    02.  Over the last few years, the ABC’s role has diminished given the growth of readership as a currency… what will be your attempt to reverse it?

    The idea is not to reverse it. Both Readership and Circulation as currencies will co-exist and complement each other. However, in order to make it more relevant to decision making, the currency needs to evolve with the changing times. The attempt will be to ensure that circulation as a currency regains the confidence of the industry and is of genuine use for decision making by both planners and media owners.

     

    03.  With the merger of the NRS with the IRS, the readership currency will only get stronger with newspaper marketers. Do you see a further diminishing of the role of the ABC and the currency of ‘net paid sales’?

    The core issue I think is that while the Readership currency has evolved on the one hand, the circulation as a currency has lived in status quo. Also while Readership as a currency will always be a sample-based study, Circulation is the census – therefore, the importance of the NPS is very clear. Rather than the role being diminished, I look at a scenario where we see these studies complementing each other and eventually benefiting the print industry at large.

     

    04.   One of the charges that many publishers have had is that the ABC – over the last 15-20 years – has failed to take into account present-day practices of invitation pricing and low cover prices of publications. As publisher of India’s largest daily, do you see that rule being amended in the near future?

    It’s too early to talk of the possible amendments. But clearly we will need to march ahead, look at the changes in the environment, and be able to evolve the currency to reflect the changes. For this, we will need to have all publishers on the same page. It will be important to consider suggestions and opinions of all stakeholders to create a robust and transparent currency – one that truly reflects what’s happening in the marketplace.

     

    05.   In the United States, there’s an ABCi for measurement of traffic on websites. Do you see the ABC in India doing that in the future?

    Too early to comment on that at the moment, but as of now we have a clear priority ahead in terms of restoring the sanctity of ABC as a currency and making it more relevant for the entire industry eco system.

     

     

  • As long as all four kinds of news organizations are allowed to exist and flourish – and are subjected to firm and fair regulation and oversight – the news media in India will remain strong and vibrant.

    Comment: Jehangir Pocha on Media’s new Moguls

    By Invitation

     

    By Jehangir S Pocha

     

    Among all the transformations taking place in media, here’s the crucial one – the media baron is being replaced by the media conglomerate.

     

    Corporations are buying news properties once owned by individual proprietors at a rapid pace. Expectedly, media mavens and professionals are crowding conferences to express their angst: Are these oligarchs becoming media’s new moguls only to protect their empires and project their interests? Will they interfere every time a story is done on their favourite babu, minister or party?

     

    But this holier-than-thou approach that automatically assumes a media baron is better for journalism than a media conglomerate is as reactionary as it is wrong.

     

    A corporation owning a news property can be expected to slant or kill a story inimical to its core interests.  But those are few and far between.

     

    After all, how many core interests can a corporation have? On the other hand, many media barons have been notoriously whimsical, politicized, opinioned and ideological, slanting almost every story almost every day, and killing (or overlooking or underplaying) almost every story out of sync with their ideology, views or interests.

     

    In all democracies, the most slanted and ideological journalism has always been driven by media barons, from William Randolph Hearst, to Ramnath Goenka, Thaksin Shinawatra, Rupert Murdoch, Silvio Berlusconi, Michael Bloomberg and others.

     

    Their news properties have openly, sometimes shamelessly, displayed their biases.  Compare Murdoch’s Fox News with its corporate-owned competitors, NBC News (owned by General Electric), CBS (owned by Westinghouse), ABC (owned by Disney) and CNN (owned briefly by AOL). Which is most slanted? Which is most protective of vested interests? Which would any unbiased media professional rather work for?

     

    Yes, a media corporation might protect its pet politicians and restrain its news properties from covering its other businesses fairly. But many media barons do the same. Some appear to have more pet politicians than any corporation. In fact, often the “other business” of media barons is politics (consider Berlusconi, Thaksin, and Bloomberg).

     

    When it comes to coverage of oneself, it is India’s media barons who have constructed the self-serving maxim that “media mustn’t cover media”, leaving them free of all public scrutiny. That’s what’s allowed some of these tycoons to injure Indian media and dupe their viewer/reader by introducing poisonous practices like “paid news” and “private treaties”.

     

    It is highly unlikely that any media conglomerate would allow such practices precisely because of the fear of public scrutiny that publicly-listed and/or publicly known corporations naturally have. Companies run by professionals and overseen by a board of directors that includes independents and representatives from government-owned institutions are generally forced to put in place the systems and standards needed to run a business right.  Media barons exempt from oversight rarely do so.  This is why Murdoch’s newspapers spy on people and others don’t.

     

    This doesn’t mean concerns over how corporations will manage their new media enterprises can be ignored.

     

    As Indian media comes of age it must codify its journalistic standards and rigorously implement them through an independent body akin to Britain’s Media Standards Trust. Such a body should give India’s journalists protections, such as the legal right not to disclose a source, and freedom from prior restraint (attempts to prevent publishing/airing of an opinion/idea/story before it is published/aired).

     

    Every news organization must also be required to have an independent Ombudsman charged with ensuring fair and balanced coverage.  At the same time, this Ombudsman and/or the standards authority should also ensure journalists and news outfits respect the rights and reputations of others (anti-defamation), separate news from views, eschew ‘paid news’ and private treaties, protect national security, public order, and public health, and prevent incitement to hostility, violence or discrimination.

     

    Stringent regulations that prevent any monopolistic control of news are also essential to any democracy. To some extent, digital technologies and social media already ensure this. A smart line on Twitter or great video on YouTube can become more influential than an op-ed in the Times of India. But the government must still work to ensure there are enough voices in the media and that no one voice dominates the national discourse.

     

    Corporations enter (and sometimes dominate) the media business because it is highly capital-intensive. So, one effective way to maintain a plurality of views in news is to keep entry barriers and operating costs in the business low. For example, existing distortions in media policy, such as exorbitant “carriage fees” that benefit the well-heeled and hurt small news operations must be ended. Banks must be encouraged to lend to smaller media companies, capital requirements in the industry should be eased and more journalism schools built to develop a larger talent pool. Building stronger news-related services, like more text and video wire services, freelancer organizations, and shared news infrastructure, would also help newer and smaller players. Lastly, the government must pass laws to separate carriage from content, and control media cross-holdings.

     

    Ultimately, every kind of media owner – the government, individual, the public trust and the corporation – comes with pros and cons. India knows well the short-comings of the first three.  We will now discover the dangers of the fourth.  But as long as all four kinds of news organizations are allowed to exist and flourish – and are subjected to firm and fair regulation and oversight – the news media in India will remain strong and vibrant.

     

    Jehangir Pocha is CEO, INX News.

    The views expressed here are the writer’s and not necessarily those of MxMIndia.

     

  • Madison chief Sam Balsara on his key focus areas as head of the Audit Bureau of Circulation

    Sam Balsara’s big plans for ABC

    By A Correspondent

    The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) Council of Management for 2011-12 has been announced, and as expected Chairman and Managing Director of Madison World, Mr Sam Balsara, who was the bureau’s deputy chairman in the previous year, has been entrusted with the chairman’s responsibility.

    In a brief conversation with MXM India on his key focus area as the Chairman of the Bureau, Mr Balsara elucidated, “I would have a two-pronged focus. One, to convince the media planners, who do not realize circulation data’s value, about its significance. The second focus area is to make the Audit Bureau of Circulation a more valued body in the eyes of the Government and a few others.”

    There have been a few instances where publications have exactly not been delighted about the ABC rules. Would Mr Balsara also look at softening the rules? He responds with a strong No, adding, “Any audit organisation needs to have strict rules. If the rules are not stringent, and do not need to be followed – it is better not to have them at all. In the five years or so, ABC audit has had no, or very minimal, intervention in the publishers’ marketing plans.”

    As for the readership survey and the ABC working more closely now, considering that there would be only one readership survey, Mr Balsara says, “That will happen automatically, considering that 10 members of RSCI would be from ABC.

    Mr T Venkattram Reddy of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has been elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Bureau for the year, while Mr Shashidhar Sinha, Universal McCann Erickson (India) Pvt Ltd has been elected as Honorary Secretary and Madhukar Kamath, Mudra Communications Pvt Ltd is Honorary Treasurer.