INMA 2012: Need of the hour- create a new measurement system

The 6th edition of International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) entered it’s second day on 8th August 2012 at Le Meridian, New Delhi.

 

It has been seen of late that the literacy rate has risen remarkably well.  But it is a contradictory fact that though circulation figures of newspapers have risen the readership figures have decreased.

 

An interesting topic of discussion at this conference was the need to look at a new measurement system by the newspaper industry. The topic for the session was: Increased circulation; dwindling readership; Is it time to measure ‘access’?’ Hence the speakers felt the need to look at other currencies to measure performance and move beyond numbers.

 

The speakers on this panel were Basant Rathore, Vice President, Strategy Brand and Business development, Jagran Prakashan, Paritosh Joshi, Independent Media Professional and board member of MRUC and L.V. Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research. Lynn De’Souza, Chairman & CEO, Lintas Media Group, moderated for this session.

 

D’Souza began the discussion. she invited opinions from the speakers with regard to the need to show concern about the declining figures in newspaper readership. Joshi said that presently news comes to us in two forms: structured and non-structured (which includes social media, twitter etc.). she said the consumer today has a wide choice, where consuming news in concerned. Unlike in the past when consumers had only one channel and most families owned only a single television set. Now there is stiff competition and the newspaper industry has to move beyond the number game.

 

Krishnan spoke next and stated that digitization will soon increase the number of television channels for the consumer. On the other hand in the newspaper industry a lot of replication is taking place and publishers need to go beyond duplication and concentrate on making the transition seamless. Now that there are multiple platforms there is an urgent need for publishers to curate.

 

Joshi also added that the measurement could go beyond numbers and instead concentrate on a consumer’s affinity for a particular newspaper brand. Focus on it’s drawbacks and this in turn can be an eye opener for the industry.

 

Rathore was of the opinion that content production is expensive and if not measured then companies could suffer in terms of monetization. Content and effectiveness have to be measured through other parameters. Newspapers should be ready to adapt to the new environment and move out of the rat race he said.

 

Hence it can be concluded that creating a new system will go a long way in helping the newspaper industry measure it’s performance for its betterment.