A STUDY ON DISTRIBUTION CHANNELADOPTED BY THE TIMES OFINDIA TO ITS EXISTING CUSTOMERS

Contents AT ....................................................................1CHENNAI.................................................................... .............................1INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................13ABOUT THE INDUSTRY: .....................................................................................13 THE NATURE OF AUDIENCE ..........................................................................15HISTORICAL TRADITIONS ..............................................................................16GROWTH IN PRINT INDUSTRY: .......................................................................29DEFINITION AND FEATURES OF NEWSPAPER .................................................30 TYPES OF NEWSPAPER: ..................................................................................31Daily ..............................................................................................................31Weekly ...........................................................................................................31National................................................. ........................................................32CIRCULATION AND READERSHIP ....................................................................34ADVERTISING ................................................................................................34ABOUT THE COMPANY: ......................................................................................35 Times Groups subsidiary companies include: ...............................................36ABOUT THE TIMES OF INDIA: ............................................................................38OTHER PRODUCTS OFFERD BY THE GROUP: .................................................39 THE TIMES OF INDIA IN CHENNAI: .................................................................43PRICING STRATEGIES USED BY TIMES OF INDIA (Chennai edition) .................45PROMOTION OF TIMES OF INDIA: ......................................................................46DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL ......................................................................................48DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL - DEFINITION AND CONSIDERATIONS: .......................49IMPORTANCE OF DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS ...................................................50CHANNEL LEVELS: .........................................................................................51FUNCTIONS OF A DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL ....................................................51DISTRIBUTION DECISIONS: ............................................................................52DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL ADOPTED BY THE TIMES OF INDIA ............................53DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT ...................................................56RENEWAL OF SUBSCRIPTIONS: .........................................................................57GETTING NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS: .......................................................................58................................................................................. .......................................58METHODOLOGY: ................................................................................................59Primary research: ..........................................................................................59

ABSTRACT: The newspaper sales involve distributing highly perishable productsu n d e r s e v e r e t i m e c o n s t r a i n t s . T h i s p r o j e c t d e a l s w i t h t h e s t u d y o f t h e distribution channel adopted by The Times of India (newspapers). Distributionis an essential element in the newspaper industry as the life time of newspapersa r e v e r y s h o r t and thus a selection of proper channel and a p p r o p r i a t e intermediaries is very important.The newspaper distributor has the rights to distribute the newspaper inhis area. The revenue of the newspaper distributor is based on a commission onthe sale of every newspaper. The circulation is normally through salesmenappointed and salaried by the distributors, who in turn pass it on to hawkers
This project also allows us to renew the subscriptions for the customer and also allows us to book new subscriptions which give us an experience tomeet the customers and also to understand the customer satisfaction level andalso to get an effective feedback from the customer with the help of a marketsurvey.Hawkers, vendors and book stall owners are the last link of the supplychain before newspaper reaches readers. The hawkers' remuneration is also normally based on the commission system and is generally the highest in the entire supply chain.A market survey is conducted with a sample population from the northern p a r t o f C h e n n a i a n d t h e r e s u l t s a r e c a t e g o r i z e d b a s e d o n t h e v a r i o u s demographic factors. The outcome of the survey is studied and based on whicha report is prepared and submitted to the company.Responsiveness and efficiency play an important role in newspaper distribution channel. Responsiveness includes supply chain's ability to respondto wide a range of quantity demanded (due to demand fluctuations) and meets h o r t l e a d t i me s . O n t h e o t h e r h a n d e f f i c i e n c y i s t h e c o s t o f ma k i n g a n d delivering the newspaper to the readers.

INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THE INDUSTRY: India is the world's largest democracy. Its mass media culture, a system t h a t h a s evolved over centuries, is comprised of a complex f r a m e w o r k . Modernization has transformed this into a communications n e t w o r k t h a t sustains the pulse of a democracy of about 1.1 billion people. India's newspaper evolution is nearly unmatched in world press history. India's newspaper industry and its Westernizationor modernisation as French would call itgo hand in hand. India's press is a metaphor for its advancement in the globalized world.James Augustus Hickey is considered as the "father of Indian press" as he started the first Indian newspaper from Calcutta, the Calcutta General Advertiseo r t h e Bengal Gazettein January, 1780. In 1789, the first newspaper from Bombay the Bombay Herald appeared, followed by the Bombay Courier nextyear (this newspaper was later amalgamated with theTimes of Indiain 1861).The first newspaper in an Indian language was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue of this daily was published from the Serampore MissionPress on May 23, 1818. In the same year,Ganga Kishore Bhattacharyastarted publishing another newspaper inBengali, the Bengal Gazetti. On July 1, 1822t h e f i r s t Gujarati newspaper the Bombay Samachar w a s p u b l i s h e d f r o m Bombay, which is still extant. The firstHindinewspaper, the Samachar Sudha Varshan began in 1854. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which p a p e r s h a v e g r o w n o v e r t h e y e a r s a r e Hindi,Marathi,Malayalam,Tamil, Telugu,UrduandBengali. The Indian language papers have taken over the English press as per thel a t e s t N R S s u r v e y o f n e w s p a p e r s . T h e m a i n r e a s o n s b e i n g t h e m a r k e t i n g strategy followed by the regional papers, beginning with Eenadu, a telegu dailystarted by Ramoji Rao. The second reason being the growing literacy rate.Increase in the literacy rate has direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the regional papers.The people are first educated in their mother tongue as per their state inwhich they live for e.g. students inMaharashtraare compulsory taught Marathilanguage and hence they are educated in their state language and the first thinga literate person does is read papers and gain knowledge and hence higher theliteracy rate in a state the sales of the dominating regional paper in that staterises. The next reason being localisation of news.Indian regional papers have several editions for a particular State for complete localisation of news for the reader to connect with the paper.Malayala Manorama has about 10 editions in Kerala itself and six others outside Kerala. Thus regional papers aim at providing localised news for their readers. Even Advertisers saw the huge potential of the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more due to the efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge market. During the 1950s 214 daily newspapers were published in the country .Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest were published invarious regional languages. This number rose to 2,856 dailies in 1990 with 209English dailies. The total number of newspapers published in the countryreached 35,595 newspapers by 1993 (3,805

dailies).The main regional newspapers of India include theMalayalam language Malayala Manorama(published from:Kerala, daily circulation: 673,000), the Hindi-languageDainik Jagran(published from:Uttar Pradesh, daily circulation in 2006: 580,000), and theAnandabazar Patrika(published from:Kolkata, daily circulation in 2006: 435,000).The Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, theHindustan Times Group, and the Anandabazar Patrika Group are the main print media houses of the country. Newspaper sale in the country increased by 11.22% in 2007. By 2007, 62of the world's best selling newspaper dailies were published inChina,Japan, and India. India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers. THE NATURE OF AUDIENCE While a majority of the poor working people in rural and urban areas stillremain oppressed and even illiterate, a significant proportion of people roughly about 52 percent of the population over 15 years of age were recorded as being able to read and write. That breaks down to 65.5 percent of males and an estimate of 37.7 percent of females .After the liberalization of the economy, the growth of industry, and a rise in literacy, the postEmergency boom rekindled the world's largest middle class in news, politics, and consumerism. Since private enterprise began to sustain and pay off, mass communications picked up as a growth industry. Newspapers did not expand simply because the technology was available to make Indian scripts live as they had not been able to live before. Nor did newspaper grow simply because more people knew how to read and write .T h e y g r e w b e c a u s e e n t r e p r e n e u r s d e t e c t e d a gr o w i n g h u n ge r f o r information a m o n g e v e r - w i d e n i n g s e c t i o n s o f I n d i a ' s p e o p l e , w h o w e r e potential consumers as well as newspaper readers. A race began to reach thisaudience advertising avenues were the prizes and these would come largely tonewspapers that could convince advertisers that they had more readers than t h e i r r i v a l s . R e a d e r s , m e a n w h i l e , w e r e s a y i n g i m p l i c i t l y: ' W e w i l l r e a d newspapers that tell us about ourselves and reflect our concerns. HISTORICAL TRADITIONS Newspaper history in India is inextricably tangled with political history. James Augustus Hicky was the founder of India's first newspaper, the Calcutta General Advertiser also known as Hicky's Bengal Gazette, in 1780. Soon other newspapers came into existence in Calcutta and Madras: the Calcutta Gazette ,the Bengal Journal, the Oriental Magazine, the Madras Courier and the Indian Gazette. While the India Gazette enjoyed governmental patronage including free postal circulation and advertisements, Hicky's Bengal Gazette earned the rulers' wrath due to its criticism of the government. In November 1780 its circulation was halted by government decree. H i c k y protested against this arbitrary harassment without avail, and was imprisoned. The Bengal Gazette and the India Gazette were followed by the Calcutta Gazette which subsequently became the government's "medium for making its general orders".The Bombay Herald, The Statesmen in Calcutta and the Madras Mail and T h e Hindu, along with many other rivals in Madras represented the

metropolitan voice of India and its people. While Statesman voiced the Englishrulers' voice, The Hindu became the beacon of patriotism in the South. The Hindu was founded in Madras as a counter to the Madras Mail.Patriotic movements grew in proportion with the colonial ruthlessness,and a vehicle of information dissemination became a tool for freedom struggle.In the struggle for freedom, journalists in the twentieth century performed a dual role as professionals and nationalists.Indeed many national leaders, from Gandhi to Vajpayee, were journalistsas well. Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Delhi were four main centers of urbanrenaissance which nourished news in India. It was onl y during and after theseventies, especially after Indira Gandhi's defeat in 1977, that regional languagenewspapers became prevalent.There were nationalist echoes from other linguistic regional provinces.Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil, Karalla, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh produced dailies inregional languages. Hindi and Urdu were largely instrumental in voicing thev i e w p o i n t s a n d a s p i r a t i o n s o f b o t h H i n d u s a n d M u s l i m s o f t h e N o r t h e r n provinces.As communalism and religious intolerance increased before and after partition, Urdu remained primarily the language of Muslims, as Pakistan chose this language as its lingua franca. After partition, the cause of Urdu and itsnewspapers, suffered a setback as Hindu reactionaries began to recognize the association of Urdu with Islam and Pakistan.