Readership drop in Kerala does not reflect market realities: Chairman, Kerala Regional Committee, INS

A Press Release has been issued by P.V.Chandran, Chairman, Kerala Regional Committee, Indian Newspaper Society.

 

The release states that the results of the latest quarter of Indian Readership Survey (IRS) (IRS2012-Q2 ) does not reflect the market reality in Kerala.

 

The distribution of the publications in Kerala were affected during March and April 2012 due to Agents’ strike.  As a result Kerala Regional Committee , INS, requested Industry Bodies like ABC and MRUC to take this into consideration and  exclude the strike affected period from their reports.

 

This request was heeded to by ABC who released the January –June 2012 report without the strike affected days but on the other hand MRUC did not consider the issue. This resulted in an overall readership drop of dailies and magazines in Kerala despite the fact that the publications in the state have shown growth in circulation as per the relevant ABC report.  

 

IRS is a sample survey and the samples selected during the strike affected period, when publications were not available, has in turn affected readership figures. This has led them to believe that the readership figures of Kerala are incomplete and do not reflect the actual market reality.

 

They are of the opinion that Industry Bodies like MRUC should be sensitive to such problems faced by the publications especially since normalcy was restored in a short period but the impact of this survey can continue for a longer period of time.