By A Correspondent
The Association of Indian Magazine has also written to Media Research Users Council (MRUC) director-general Shaswati Saradar asking for the IRS 2013 to be withdrawn. “The current round of IRS has many glaring glitches when it comes to magazine readership. We urge to immediately withdraw IRS 2013,” wrote AIM General Secretary R Rajmohan in a mail to the MRUC.
The text of the mail is as follows:
“IRS 2013, which claims to have used better technology for data capturing, population estimates based on the recent 2011 census and a similar sample size, has thrown up more anomalies than the previous rounds. While newspapers have pointed out many such discrepancies in the last few days, a closer look will make us realise how bizarre and unfathomable the magazine readership figures are.
To begin with, 144 magazines have not been reported individually and have been clubbed as ‘Other magazines’, of which 61 are in English and 24 in Hindi.
> The only business magazine reported, Business Today, has a variance of -34% .Dropping to 2.64 lac readers from 4.03. Business Today had been consistently growing in the previous few rounds of IRS
> It is absurd that Readers Digest, which had a readership of 9.68 Lacs earlier, has de-grown to 3.62 Lacs!
> India Today (Eng), the largest read English magazine, shows a growth to 15.32 lacs from 14.80, however the increase from the following states makes no logic:
o Bihar (from 73,000 to 2 Lacs)
o Kerala (from 71,000 to 2.68 Lacs)
o UP (from 1.6 Lacs to 2.13 Lacs)
> Though Outlook (English) has maintained its readership, in Bihar its readership has grown thrice, but has no readership in Hyderabad.
> The Week, which has an ABC of 1.9 Lacs copies, has dropped to 2.5 Lac readers from 4.2.That gives it 1.25 readers per copy!. Further, The Week has no readers in Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata
> Junior Vikatan has seen 82% of its readers evaporating, having fallen to 54,000 from 3.05 Lacs
> Naanayam Vikatan, which had a decent 51,000 readership as per its niche category of Personal Finance, has lost all its readers!
> Chuti Vikatan, children’s magazine from the same group, has climbed 80% to beat India Today (Tamil)!
> The SportStar has seen an unprecedented growth of 94% going upto 5.43 Lac from 2.8 Lacs. Also, interestingly, The SportStar has grown to 1.98 Lacs from 17,000 in Kerala, 1.55 Lacs from 37,000 in Tamil Nadu and 65,000 from 6,000 in UP. And in West Bengal, the land of sports enthusiasts, The SportStar has declined to 4,000 from 30,000
> TIME Magazine has seen a phenomenal growth of 145% going upto 2.05 Lacs from 83,000. Quite an incomprehendable increase for a niche International magazine, in such a short span.
> Meri Saheli , the leading Hindi magazine, has lost 51% of its readers in this round of IRS.
We urge MRUC to immediately withdraw IRS 2013, as such faulty reporting of readership numbers can have extremely damaging impact on business, apart from misleading media planners and advertisers. ”
R Rajmohan has been elected as the President of Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) at the AGM held in Mumbai. Rajmohan, Chief Marketing Officer ( North) & Head- Special Projects, Malayala Manorama Group, is a veteran in the print media having worked with The Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, Outlook, Open Media Network etc and has been a Governing Council member of AIM since its inception. B Srinivasan, Managing Director, Vikatan Group, is the new Vice President.
