STUDY ON MARKET DEVELOPMENT FOR FINANCIAL NEWS PAPER

AT BUSINESS STANDARD
1

A REPORT ON

MARKET DEVELOPMENT
AT BUSINESS STANDARD AHMEDABAD SUBMITTED TO AES Post Graduate Institute Of Business Management

SUBMITTED BY Dhwani Worah Amit Raichuria

Acknowledgement
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This project is an amalgamation of team efforts. My heart felt thanks to all who have given time and insight into making this project possible.

We are grateful to Dr. A.H. Kalro, Director, and AESPGIBM for giving us the opportunity to undertake summer training in the field of our interest.

We are also thankful to the entire staff of BUSINESS STANDARD, Ahmedabad branch for guiding us and giving us a patient listening every time we encountered problems. Mr. Mukund Shukla, Business Standard Circulation head, Gujarat has been a mentor and we thank him for his support. We also extend our sincere gratitude to Mr. Kunal Panchal, Market Development Executive and our project head.

Our special thanks to Mr. Rajendra Sharma and Ms. Jinal Parikh for guiding us throughout the project.

Last but definitely not the least; we thank our friends for their unconditional support extended.

Executive summary

Marketing is an all embracing function that links the business with customer needs and wants in order to get the right product to the right place at the right time. Moreover the marketer has to understand customer needs and offer products and services better than the competition.

Working at business standard was a great learning opportunity. The duration for the summer project was 18th May to 18th July. Business Standard is Indias one of the fastest growing newspapers having growth rate of 300% in past five years. During the course of the summer training various tasks were undertaken: MAY 18TH -19TH ORIENTATION Introduction with staff members Analyzing and understanding BUSINESS STANDARD newspaper as a product and its content Comparison with other business dailies like ET, BL, FE etc.

MAY 20th 28th FIELDWORK Market mapping and identifying potential target areas. Conduct survey to find the brand awareness and market penetration of Business standard relative to competitors. Market development through personal selling the annual subscription scheme of Business standard. A target of 20 subscriptions in a week was given which was achieved before the deadline. MAY 29TH 31ST STRATEGY FORMATION Involved in strategic planning implementation of a counter attack strategy to withstand the entry of new competitor FE in Gujarat.

JUNE 8TH - 17TH FIELD WORK (BARODA MARKET) Success at Ahmedabad market was motivating enough to undertake the same drive in Baroda market. Both the markets had entirely different features. 200% target was achieved within one week.

JUNE 18TH JUNE 31ST Institutional market development

JULY 1ST 8TH- VISIT TO ALL THE DEPARTMENTS Visit to the printing press

JULY 10TH 15TH - REPORT MAKING We feel glad to present this report which is a comprehensive effort to describe our learning experience. The project report can be summarized as follows: Market development strategies: MDS is a tool to increase the circulation of newspaper with various tactics like mass subscription, schemes, sponsored copies, promotions etc. Research Design: We collected data through scheduled questionnaire which were transformed into information which was used by us to penetrate into the market coping up with competition and increasing our customer base. Findings: We found that management students have more potential to read business newspaper, further we found that awareness of Business Standard was 30.3% we also found that presently 41.18% were reading Business standard for mutual funds news also 63.3% were interested in schemes or offers. Suggestions: Business Standard should target management students to increase the circulation. It should also target undergraduates, who are preparing for management

entrance exams, and they should also provide job appointment supplement and they should become media partner at various B-schools quizzes and seminars to create brand noise

The research work forming the part of the university syllabus has provided an opportunity for probing into the marketing strategies and to understand the policies of Business Standard. We have tried our best to collect the information required for the organization study and market development strategies.

Contents

Acknowledgements Executive summary

iii iv

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 History of the Print 1.2 Popularity of the Print Media in India 1.3 Challenges for the Print Industry 1.4 Changing trends in the Newspaper Industry

1 3 5 7 9

2. BUSINESS STANDARD 2.1 Stake holder- Financial 2.2 Product Profile

12 14 16

3. DEPARTMENTS 3.1 Market Development 3.2 Space Marketing 3.3 Scheduling 3.4 Editorial 3.5 Systems and Production

19 22 28 29 31 32

4. COMPETITION ANALYSIS 4.1 Other Financial Newspapers 4.2 Readership Survey Results 4.3 SWOT Analysis 4.4 Porters Five Forces Model

35 37 40 47 49

5. MARKET RESEARCH 5.1 Chi-Square Test 5.2 Findings and Recommendations 6. CONCLUSION

54 64 66 68

ANNEXURE NOMENCLATURE BIBLIOGRAPHY

69 72 73

A REPORT ON

MARKET DEVELOPMENT
AT BUSINESS STANDARD AHMEDABAD SUBMITTED TO AES Post Graduate Institute Of Business Management

SUBMITTED BY Dhwani Worah Amit Raichuria

CHAPTER 1

INTODUCTION HISTORY OF THE PRINT POPULRITY OF THE PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINT INDUSTRY CHANGING TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION

INTRODUCTION
Media is an important and inseparable part of a democratic society. It is in fact called the fourth pillar of democracy. Before the advent of electronic media, print media played an important role in disseminating information to people. Over the years, a wide variety of media like the press, performing arts, television, radio and films have been used for communication. Among these, print media continues to play an important role. The Government uses print media to secure wide coverage of messages through various newspapers and journals. A newspaper is a regularly published print product containing information vital to the function of the market it serves. Definitions become more important as traditional

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newspaper companies move from single-product management (newspapers) to multiproduct management - often under the company's brand, typically the title of the newspaper.

What newspaper companies are learning is that the value of what they produce is not the ink on paper, but the content, depth, segmentation choices, credibility, and emotional attributes that are delivered in any distribution channel they choose.

Over the years newspaper reading has become a daily early morning regime. What for decades was a dull market place with limited number of newspapers is today a very diversified offering.

Print offerings have multiplied and cater to diverse needs like travel, sports, fashion etc. Newspapers these days not just provide news and entertainment but also cater to niche audience. Financial newspapers are such newspapers that target niche market comprising corporate, businessmen and investors.

With the era of multi edition newspapers and therefore multi newspaper markets, has given greater choice to readers and also resulted into a fierce fight for readers attention. But, the latest trend observed is that one reader is not necessarily habituated to reading only a particular newspaper, therefore even a small difference in price could sometimes bring about a change in the purchase decision.

This has driven newspaper prices to a point where leading newspapers fetch virtually no circulation revenue for their publishers. The little that is collected from the reader goes almost entirely to the distributor or the hawker.

The growth of newspapers have been highly affected by growth in computer and internet connectivity, mobile telephony which enables real time access to news, views and entertainment anytime anywhere!

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Recent changes in regulations permitting FDI in print and broadcasting media has further heated up the media market. With the entry of the foreign players, the Indian print media scene has changed tremendously. On the other hand the Indian print media now operates overseas as well and thus, it is not confined to Indian audience only.

The newspaper plays an important role in contributing to social good, playing a critic and the watchdog function, helping to foster debates on agendas for social transformation. The one that best fulfils these roles will gain the maximum eyeballs share.

With the growing literacy and income, particularly among the young, our media today is being forced to respond to the demands of a new readership one which is discerning and demanding, impatient with the old content and style and not bound by old codes of loyalty. This adds pressure on the newspaper companies to seek creative solutions and explore new roles and meanings for it.

HISTORY OF THE PRINT

James Augustus Hicky a rambunctious and irreverent Englishman gave India its first newspaper in January 1780. The weekly Bengal Gazette, also known as Hickys

Gazette, was a rag of sorts with gossip about English society in Bengal, the center of the British East India Companys existence at that time. More than a year later in June 1781 he was in jail for defamation. Undaunted, Hicky edited his paper from jail and his audacious column continued to appear. After a second prosecution in 1782, his press was confiscated and his career as an editor came to an end.

If that seems like an unpromising beginning for Indias publishing industry, it wasnt. Here was an Englishman with the impudence to question the governor general and chief justices that his own country had appointed. Hicky symbolizes in many ways that essential element of a vibrant print industry freedom. Combine that with the other mark- that of government censorship and control. Across the developed and

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developing world, the history of press is littered with examples of governments trying to browbeat, scare, cajole and bludgeon the freedom that the Hicks of this world want to write what they think for the people who want to read it.

By the time the first newspaper was launched in India, printing was a booming industry elsewhere in the world. After Hickys Gazette came a succession of newspapers and periodicals, many out of Bengal and many created by Englishmen. There was the India Gazette, another weekly from B. Messink Welby and Peter Reed in 1780, and the Calcutta Journal, a bi-weekly from James Silk Buckingham in 1818. The first Indianowned, Indian language paper came, rather appropriately from noted social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy in 1820. Sambad Kaumudi was a weekly Bengali newspaper. Between 1780 and 1947 until Indias independence, more than 120 newspapers and periodicals were launched in almost every Indian language. Some were owned by Englishmen, others by Indians and still others by missionaries. Almost all of them began with a cause either to speak out against British imperialism or to spread the message of Christianity among the natives. None of them, it seems, had the intention of making money.

That is still the main reason why the newspaper industry in India remains small. It never got out of the I am here to fight a battle not to make money mindset. At the time independence that was nothing wrong with the notion. The trouble was that things continued that way for decades later. At that time, India was a nation struggling to discover its identity and trying to get out of British clutches. The need of the hour was to spread the message of independence. So newspapers sprouted up all over the place and equally quickly they shut down. In fact many of the editors of defunct newspapers usually manage to get the funds to start another one. So, it appears that the aim for many of these newspaper launches was never ever to make money. It was always a cause, revolt, a message, and a tool to counter propaganda or spread some of their own. Many of the top publications today are the ones are the one that have lived through the freedom struggle. The Times of India (TOI), Mumbai Samachar, Malayala Manorama, Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP) and the

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Hindu, among others are all veterans of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Ironically enough, across the length and breadth of a largely illiterate country, there cropped up vehicles, which would play a huge role in the bringing down of the British Empire. Most of these were financed by benevolent or patriotic businessmen or through donations. Even after independence most had a cause, to see to the birth of a nation and its growth. Wealthy businessmen continued to keep running these papers, most of them at a loss, because of the influence and the power they brought them. They could afford to do it because most had other successful businesses, like the Goenkas who owned Indian Express, also own real estate.

POPULRITY OF THE PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA

If you read a lot, you are considered well-read; but if you watch a lot of TV, you are not considered well-viewed! cribbed Lily Tomlin, the American actress and comedian. And therein lies the truth behind why, despite all catastrophic predictions, print has managed to survive the onslaught of other media and grow from strength to strength, in India at least. The desire to be well-read, especially in India, has its foundation in our history, where a persons worth was determined by the extent of his or her knowledge. As long as our history continues to subliminally influence our habits, print will never hear the death knell in India. In fact, there exists no better medium to gain knowledge than print currently. Today India is a buoyant print market, with 216 million adult readers, a number that would make this reader universe the fifth largest country in the world. There has been a lot of good news for the Indian print industry in recent years. For example, in the last five years with a 19-per cent growth rate, readership has grown faster than the countrys adult population, which grew at 15 per cent. With projected revenues of Rs 6,800 crore in 2006, print is Indias leading medium, constituting 49 per cent of the Rs14,000-crore advertising market. It is also the fastest growing medium for advertising, with an estimated 20-per cent gain in 2006. Television, for example, is expected to grow only at 15 per cent.
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Also, sensationalism in terms of breaking unique and controversial stories has helped print to regain topicality in news reporting to some extent. More interestingly, the profile of the reader is also changing to address the advertisers need today. About 71 per cent of new readers today are coming from rural India, which is where most advertisers are concentrating their efforts to increase sales. At a 30 per cent growth rate, the advertisers key audience, the female readership, is growing faster than the male readership, which is growing at the rate of 15 per cent.

CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINT INDUSTRY

The first challenge that the print industry has to address is to win over the future readers the youth of today in a big way. A survey done amongst todays youth revealed that only 37 per cent of them felt it important to read a newspaper every day and nearly half of them believed that newspapers do not play an important role in their life. Publication owners need to figure out tactics on how to catch them young. The second challenge lies in defining the role of newspapers, given that the latest news is available on numerous television channels. Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word paper. Theyve got to be defined by the first word news, it holds true with the advent of the news channels and the internet. The third challenge lies in tackling the lack of time amongst todays readers. Time spent reading has hardly grown in the last five years. Despite this, we have numerous publications entering the market and newspapers are flooding the readers with multiple supplements on the same day. The fourth and final challenge lies in making the ad space more efficient and effective for the advertisers. Compared with television, print still continues to be a cost inefficient medium for most advertisers. Also, the print medium is not offering any unique innovations that could generate more bangs for the buck for advertisers

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The challenges in front of the print industry are best summed by the words Whatever business you are in, you cannot run in place for someone else will pass you by. It does not matter how many games you have won. The print industry has managed to constantly run out of place to get to where it is today amidst tough competition. Its future lies in finding an answer to What is the new path they are going to run in now? Numbers crunch Reach: Newspaper readership: Magazine readership: Size of print media industry: 200 million readers 176 million 69 million Estimated at Rs109 billion in 2005; projected to grow to Rs195 billion by 2010 Size of newspaper industry: Estimated at Rs96 billion in 2005; projected to grow to Rs170 billion by 2010 Size of the magazine industry: Estimated at Rs13 billion in 2005, projected to grow to Rs25 billion by 2010
Source: FICCI-PwC report on the Indian entertainment and media industry

CHANGING TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

Newspapers have generally been closely held, many a time family owned enterprises. Significant changes of late are taking place in Newspaper Industry. Some newspapers have gone public while some, which were primarily in the publishing business, have diversified in allied and other fields. Some cross-financial investments between different newspaper groups have widened the potential areas for cooperation and are likely to strengthen the Industry.

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian general newspapers is also taking place. Issue of IPOs is helping closely held newspaper organizations to become widely held. Additional resources mobilized through FDI/IPOs are funding expansion and modernization plans of such newspapers.

Advertising is a big industry and share of print media in the total advertisement market is very significant. In the current economic scenario, as a constantly changing reflection of public and private realms at various levels and intersects of our lives and times the newspapers have a critical role to play.

Readers turn to their preferred newspaper for various reasons. Therefore there is no reason to doubt that the newspapers will continue to thrive, even in the digital world.

AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION

Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is one of the several organizations of the same name operating in different parts of the world.

The ABC founded in 1948 is a not for profit, voluntary organization consisting of Publishers, Advertisers and Advertising Agencies. It has done pioneering work in developing audit procedures to verify the circulation data published by those newspapers and periodicals, which have earned the right to display its emblem.

ABC as it is called and understood by all, is a founder member of the International

18

Federation of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The main function of ABC is to evolve, lay down a standard and uniform procedure by which a member publisher shall compute its net paid sales. The circulation figure so arrived at is checked and certified by a firm of Chartered Accountants which are approved by the Bureau. The Bureau issues ABC certificates every six months to those publishers whose circulation figures confirm to the rules and regulations as set out by the Bureau.

From a modest beginning it has grown to remarkable proportions. ABC's membership today includes 411 Publishers of national and regional importance, 151 Advertising Agencies, 51 Advertisers & 20 New Agencies and Associations connected with print media and advertising. It covers most of the major towns in India.

Facts and figures, which are checked and certified by an independent body, is a very important tool in the hands of the advertising business community. The details of ABC certified circulation figures are available online to all Members of the Bureau (http://www.auditbureau.org) at no extra cost.

An Advertiser would like to know the facts and figures before investing his money in advertising. An Advertiser ought to know how many people buy a publication and in which area. The ABC gives all these vital facts every six months. The ABC figures are not the outcome of opinions, claims or guesswork, but they are the result of rigid, indepth and impartial audits of paid circulations of member publications by independent and leading firms of Chartered Accountants working in accordance with the rules / procedures prescribed by the Bureau.

Few important issues to take care as per ABC certification:

Trade terms to agents on subscription copies should not exceed In case of dailies-40% of the subscription price In case of weeklies-45% of the subscription price

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Publishers have to maintain the full record of subscribers with their address, name and signature. There are two types of panels: 1. Auditors panel 2. Publishers panel

Auditors will audit the circulation twice a year ending June & December The auditors to cover the outstanding dues provide Two months credit period to publishers.

If any distributors have more than 15000 subscriptions copies then he also comes under the audit for ABC certification.

Thus ABC plays a major role to stop the manipulation activity in the publication industry.

CHAPTER 2
BUSINESS STANDARD STAKE HOLDER - FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON PRODUCT PROFILE

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BUSINESS STANDARD

Business Standard is the country's most respected business daily, being the first choice of serious business readers. Business Standard Ltd. (BSL) was incorporated on 16th Dec. 1970 under the name of Desh Publications (p) Ltd. This was changed to Business Standard (p) Ltd. on 7th Sept. 1995 and subsequently converted into Business Standard Ltd on 23rd Nov. 1995 as a limited company. The Head office is in Delhi. Several reputed investors own the company. Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited has a stake of 47.30% and Great Eastern Shipping Company holds 31.87% while others hold 20.76%. The Financial Times of London has taken an equity stake of 13.85% in BSL.

It is published in colour from 7 centers in India - Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. It is also printed at Kochi, Pune and Chandigarh.

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The newspaper believes in free, fair and independent journalism and strives to inculcate these values in its editorial staff. The journalism practiced by Business Standard lays equal stress on quality, credibility and accuracy.

Business Standard has the country's best economic journalists and columnists working for it. It is edited by T.N.Ninan, perhaps Indias best-known business journalist, who had earlier undertaken a complete and highly successful revamp of The Economic Times and was responsible for its phenomenal growth.

Apart from a business newspaper, BSL publishes several periodicals, including BS Motoring, Indian Management, and Routes: the Gateway Magazine (a lifestyle magazine).

The company sees content creation, content processing and content management as its core competence. It offers complete outsourcing solutions for organizations which want to bring out in-house or private publications but lack the people and/or resources to do it cost-effectively.

VISION To stand at a respected position in the marathon and also keep up with the pace of the changing needs of its valued readers.

The agenda is to win more and more readers to their cause and also to deliver 100% of itself. MISSION

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To expand the marked share of BS by creating a new market and by taking bites from competitors market share. CORE COMPETENCE Content creation, content processing & content management OBJECTIVE To provide comprehensive details of market development

When You Are Sure

STAKE HOLDER FINANACIAL TIMES GROUP

History

The Financial Times newspaper launched in 1888, declaring itself: 'The friend of the honest financier, the bona fide investor, the respectable broker, the genuine director, the legitimate speculator.' The newspaper is now printed in 23 cities, with four editions: for the UK, Continental Europe, US and Asia-Pacific. The FT has a daily circulation of over 425,000 and a readership of approximately 1.4 million, across 110 countries. In print and online, the FT has more paying readers today than at any time in its history. FT.com has 3.2 million unique monthly users and 84,000 paying subscribers. A growing global audience

The aim of the FT is to deliver the most accurate, incisive and timely business journalism to an increasingly mobile audience of global business leaders, and to ensure that our advertisers communicate effectively with this elite group. It presents a holistic
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analysis of global business and financial news. The FT's value lies in its ability to make connections and make the information relevant. It is this ability to collate, analyze and comment on the issues which sets it apart. In recent years, FT has significantly expanded its presence on the global stage. In 2003, it launched an Asia edition in print and online, establishing a news editing operation in Hong Kong. This now forms part of the FT's global editing network, alongside New York and London. The Asia-Pacific edition has continued to grow and is now also printed in Sydney, making the FT the first international daily to print in Australia. The FT's Chinese language website, www.FTChinese.com, has also built a formidable reputation amongst China's fast-rising business elite. The FT is committed to maintaining its position as the definitive business information brand for today's international business audience. FT Business

FT Business produces specialist information on the retail, personal and institutional finance industries. It publishes the UK's premier personal finance magazine, Investors Chronicle, and The Banker, Money Management and Financial Adviser for professional advisers. The FT Group also has a number of other associates and joint ventures, including:
A 50% interest in The Economist Group, which publishes the world's leading

weekly business and current affairs journal;

FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange; Vedomosti, Russia's leading business newspaper and a partnership venture with

Dow Jones and Independent Media;

A 50% interest in BDFM, publishers of South Africa's leading financial newspaper

and magazine;

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 A 13.85% stake in the Business Standard, one of India's leading financial

newspapers.

PRODUCT PROFILE
Indian The W orld of b-school The B illionaire Club M otoring M anagement Newspaper

How to Spend it

Business Standard B S 1000

B anking Annual

The Strategist Gateway Fund M anager

Business Standard is dailies. It is ranked

Indias

emerging

business

second in the daily business

newspaper category. It is published in 7 editions from Indias 7 hubs for industry trade, finance and politics.

The newspaper focuses on content management and comprises of financial and business news, stocks and commodities, international business, banking etc.

Newspaper

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Major Sections in Business Standard newspaper are: IST section - Business Standard contains General news, The Economy, Companies, International Business, Politics & public affairs, Business Life, Issues & Insights, opinion IInd section - Money & Markets which comprises of Commodities, Markets IIIrd Section - accent West* which features General news about the western region covering Gujarat, Maharashtra and Other regions. *Accent West was an extra supplement in business standard newspaper, in a tabloid form, has been included into the main supplement recently. General market news,

Money and currencies, Stocks, BS 200, Stocks/Mutual fund values,

The various supplements of business standard facilitate quality news coverage, articles and analysis.

The Smart Investor: Its a tabloid which is published every Mondays and is a total investment guide for retail investors. Focus: Old economy, primary markets, secondary markets and new issues. The Strategist: Published on every Tuesdays on glossary paper. Focus: Theory and practice of business management, Guest columns from worlds foremost management thinkers.

Accent west: A local guide for all that you wanted to know of the western region published as a tabloid on all weekdays except Monday and Saturday Focus: Business news from Gujarat, Maharashtra and other western regions Weekend: It is published on Saturdays. Focus: Entertainment, enterprise, motoring, personal finance & leisure Magazines

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The Strategist: An annual magazine, which throws light upon the various companies strategies and is a collection of the finest corporate stories featured in The Strategist supplement published every Tuesdays. Indian Management: It is the journal of All India Management Association. It focuses on articles on management style and is published monthly. Banking Annual: A yearly magazine, giving information on the banking scene, and also conducts market survey to rank the banks. The Billionaire Club: A yearly magazine which gives information about the billionaires of India. BS 1000: A yearly magazine which gives a kaleidoscopic view into the corporate scene in India. It also ranks companies on a scale of 1 to 1000 on basis of sales. The world of B-schools: A yearly magazine focusing on top b-schools in India. Spend: A yearly magazine on living. Gateway: A monthly magazine on life style Motoring: A monthly magazine on automobile sector. Fund Manager: A monthly magazine on mutual fund sector

CHAPTER 3

DEPARTMENTS

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

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SPACE MARKETING

EDITORIAL

SYSTEMS PRODUCTION

DEPARTMENTS
1. Market Development Department is responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the whole region which comes under the preview of the respective editions. 2. Space Marketing Department is the only revenue generating department. The main function of this department is to sell space of Business Standard newspaper and its other products by collecting advertisements and generate revenue.

3.

Scheduling Department It is responsible for the layout of the newspaper. Its core function is to adjust the advertisements and the editorial material on the pages.

4.

Editorial Department collects news in the form of special stories reported by journalists as well as news from various news agencies. It edits the contents, fills

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the remaining allocated space by the advertisement department with articles and reports. 5. System Department is responsible for network communication through VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and with dedicated leased lines connected to all the other branches. 6. Production Department It is responsible for the printing process of the newspaper. 7. Administration Department It is responsible for the overall administration, also the Finance and HR activities are synchronized and looked after by this department. 10:00 pm 10:30 pm 11:00 pm 01:30 am 02:00 am 03:30 to 06:30 am 09:30 am 10:00 am to 06:00 pm 06:00 to 06:30 pm 07:00 pm 08:30 pm 08:30 to 10:00 pm Printing starts Printing completed Up country dispatch Dispatch Completed Ahmedabad Dispatch Distribution Center Reporting to office Editorial and space department work Pagination and Scheduling System sends for approval at HO Approval comes back Preparation of master film for production and send it to press

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Publication Process

Editorial Department

Space M arketing Department

Scheduling Department

Desk

Takes indent revision

Printing Press

Dispatch Officer

Dispatch

City Edition

Dark Edition

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

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A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. It is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost.

Readership figures are usually higher than circulation figures because of the assumption that a typical copy of the newspaper is read by more than one person.

Market Development Department generally known as circulation department and responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the whole region, which comes under the preview of that addition of the newspaper. Market Development Department is responsible for more than 40 routes for its regular supply. Addition to that market development department has daily back-room operations, which contains to give print order for the regular supply and for other copies like subscriptions, complementary and sponsored copies.

Functions of Market Development Department:-

MDD handles various functions like Print Order Generation, Regulation of Dispatch and to receive the payment in mode of cash, cheque or DD against bill generated by it for the month. MDD also has to maintain following ledgers /books.

Indent Revision: A book, which keeps a record of daily supplies to each agent, and the variation in the supplies as per agents requirement of copies.

Print Order Generation: A slip, which is issued by MDD to production department for the printing of, copies which contains the requirement of total number of copies to distribution for next day.

Print Order Variance:

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A transactional slip issued to Production Department, which is made by Dispatch Executive showing last moment change in print order. Daily Supply Report: A master record book in which records of daily supplies of BS copies sent to each agent are kept. Yearly Supply Report: A master record book that records an average annual supply of BS copies to each agent. Net Paid Sales: A master record book, which contains the information about daily sale of BS on cover price. The formula for calculating NPS is NPS = Total Print Order FRSN Complimentary copies Unsold copies Unsold Register: A register which maintain a record of daily unsold. Local unsold is maintained on day to day basis where as up country unsold is maintained on monthly basis, which will be credited in agents account as per the unsold norms. Payment Receipt Book: A transaction record, which shows the receipt of payment from the agents.

The role of Market Development Department goes beyond simply distributing the newspaper to readers. Circulation department also sell and promotes the newspaper. They must identify what readers want, when and at what price.

MDD also includes Dispatch Control Department, which plays the role of to send right number of newspapers at right time, at right station to the right person. For the above purpose this department generates Print Order and Rush Mails of Business Standard. Print Orders shows the required number of newspapers to be printed for each station for the next day. The numbers of Rush Mails are generated accordingly.

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This department makes the parcel of newspaper for each destination, they put the rush mails on the parcel which shows the number of copies on the parcel and its destination. The expenses incurred during the circulation are: Taxi fare : Rs.3 per kilometer (approx.) Parcel packing : Rs. 7 per parcel (approx.)

According to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), newspaper circulations worldwide rose slightly in 2005 while newspaper advertising revenues showed the largest increase in four years. Global newspaper sales were up 0.56 per cent over the year, and had increased 6 per cent over the past five years. Much of the sales growth last year was again in Asia.

When free dailies are added to the paid newspaper circulation, global circulation increased 1.21 per cent last year, and 7.8 per cent over the past five years. Free dailies now account for 6 per cent of all global newspaper circulation.

Overall, the audience for newspapers keeps on growing, both in print and online. Newspapers are increasing their reach through the exploitation of a wide range of new distribution channels, ranging from daily free newspapers to online editions. They are proving to be incredibly resilient against the onslaught of a wide range of media competition.

When the ad revenue grows at a healthy pace, publishers invest in increasing their circulations. With bigger circulations, they are able to command higher ad rates. This business model demands that the momentum be provided by growing ad revenues.

Looking ahead, the prospects to 2006 look fairly good. With the economy of the country continuing to grow at 7.5 per cent, we may reasonably expect at least 15 to 20 per cent growth in ad revenues. This will drive the circulation at an eight per cent growth in the turnover and then can be expected to grow by 12 to 14 per cent.

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To manage the distribution channel properly is not the only task that the Market Development Department has to perform. The department also has to take care for the necessary steps required to tape the opportunities prevailing in the market.

Department tries to increase the readership base with various tactics like mass subscription, prepaid card, sponsored copies etc.

Regular Supply

Regular circulation refers to the circulation of news paper at the cover price that is Rs. Rs. 2 /- from Monday to Friday and and rs. 6 for Saturday, Ahmedabad Edition. Business Standard has a regular circulation of more than 150000 copies all over India with its seven editions. Regular copy of B.S is supplied through the existing channel of hawkers and agents. .

Individual Subscription

Individual subscription comprises of various schemes floated for readers to subscribe to the newspaper for a fixed time period at discounted price. Presently it has floated a yearly subscription scheme for Rs. 695. Generally subscription rate are lower than its cover price of the particular edition and ABC rules.

Mass Subscription

Mass subscription schemes are launched to acquire multiple subscriptions from a single place e.g. corporate office, hotels and institutions. In organization point of view this offer can give marginal increment to its daily circulation.

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Sponsored Copies

This scheme is specially made for those corporate clients who want to advertise in the newspaper. This turns out to be an economical form of promotion for the promoter. The promoter pays for the number of copies to be circulated in the area of their preference. A sticker is also placed on such sponsored copies.

This scheme is beneficial for both the Sponsor Company and B.S to promote the daily in an economical way. The sponsored copies also increase the average circulation figure of the company.

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Dispatch Process

R aw M aterial

Printing Press

A hm edabad

N adiad

A nand

V adodara

B haruch

A gent in E ach C ity

V endors H aw k ers

B ook stalls H aw k ers

E nd U sers

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SPACE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

The space marketing department plays a very important role in running a publication. It is an indispensable part of the publication because it is the only revenue generating department, so all expenses like salaries, production expenses are paid from this department.

60 per cent of revenues come from advertising sales. While the circulation revenue accounts for 38 per cent, other incomes account for about 2 per cent. Circulation revenue covers about 70 per cent of the variable costs. The first 25 per cent of the advertising revenue goes towards covering the variable cost and the balance 75 per cent is available for fixed cost and profits. Obviously advertising drives the print media.

For the company, the overall cost of one copy of BS newspaper is around Rs. 15, but they charge to the customers only Rs. 2 on weekdays and Rs. 6 for the weekend edition. Out of the revenue, 28% is given to the vendors and 5% to the distributor as commission.

In Business Standard newspaper, the pages are predefined for the various types of advertisements. There are advertisement agencies which provide the service of

advertising in any newspaper. The Space Marketing Department is connected with these agencies. The clients who place ads in any newspapers generally contact the agencies and hardly meet any publication directly. There are such 125 ad agencies in Ahmedabad city only. For these ads the commission paid to the agencies is 10 to 15%. The advertisement rates here are negotiable depending upon the clients. The space marketing executives have to maintain a great rapport with the agencies as well as the clients because advertisements in business dailies are generally placed by government undertakings and large corporate houses. In addition usually these ads are larger in size and at a national level.

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Advertisements can be classified into two main parts.

1. Response oriented ads :

Display It consists of general ads of new products and services. It is in the form of B2B, B2C and classifieds.

Tender tenders and notices are that form of ad that is usually placed the government, private companies and public sector companies to invite tenders for an upcoming project.

Feature features is a special advertisement supplement focused on a category, eg. Summer feature on air conditions, coolers or health care supplement on pharmacy industry etc.

Appointment appointments are ads placed by companies in business newspapers to invite applications for middle and top management vacancies.

2. Compulsion ads :

Financial ads The advertisements which include any financial information about the company, as for example, quarter end results etc.

Scheduling dept Main task is to design the ad position, means which ad of which size for how many editions to be printed on which page. On the basis of all these information, the

Scheduling Department of all editions coordinates with each other and makes a tentative. Tentative is a summary of ad positions for all seven editions. According to the tentative, they make the dummy pages. The dummy is prepared on a A4 size paper, which is then send to the systems department.

38

The Scheduling Department has to check that:

The ad material is in PDF, EPS or TIFF file format Ad file is in CMYK color format (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) After the ad is printed in the final copy, it sends a report to Delhi Front page ads must be booked to Kolkata (both sections) Back page ads must to booked to Mumbai (both sections) Front page ad can be of 25x4 only Ads on left page will be on left side of the page Ads on right page will be on right side of the page Stock pages carries only 3 ads of 5x2 Black and White ads must be of 1200 dpi Color ads must be of 300 dpi Government ads come on the left side

39

EDITORIAL
The main task of this department is to edit the story. This department plays the role of parents in the publication. There three main people involved in the editorial department are: Reporter Desk Photographer

Reporters engender the stories from different fields. They collect news on their own through investigation and research as well as from various news agencies like PTI, AP, AFP, and PR agencies of the companies. Reporters file the stories and send it for final editing to the desk in Mumbai. Reporters of all the seven editions file stories and send them to the desk at Mumbai and Delhi.

The Desk decides which stories should be printed and what should be the headline for each news story Photographers take the photographs at various places and events as and when required.

How does this department work?

This department collects the news and then edits the content and sends it to Mumbai and Delhi for the adjustment in the page. After allocating the space for advertisement it adjusts the remaining space for the article. For national dailies, the editorial versus advertisement ratio is 60:40.

40

SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT

The systems department acts as a link between the editorial and the production department. It is linked with V-SAT and dedicated leased lines to seven branches and head office. The Ahmedabad branch is linked by leased lines to only two cities, Mumbai and Delhi. News from all seven editions is obtained from these centres.

This line is open 24 hours and is connected with BSNL and ISDN when it is necessary to take data from Mumbai or Delhi.

It uses the software called Quark Express. Final pages of the main section of the newspaper come from Delhi which is automatically saved to the computer. The system department staff checks these pages and saves it to the computer. These pages are then sent to the Duo Setter to make the cassette for printing the positive image. The most important part is to receive a facsimile copy of newspaper and forward its print to the production department.

Components of System Department 2 personal computers Delta tower-manages the speed between computer and Duo setter, because the speed of the computer is lower compared to duo setter. Duo setter-produces the cassette of the positive to be printed

After receiving the facsimile copy from the system Department on butter paper or on a positive, this positive is framed on the aluminum plate. This plate is then fixed in the printing machine. The required number of copies is printed according to the printing order.

The main raw material for this department is paper, aluminum plates, ink, etc. The printing contract is with Pearl Energy & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. formerly known as Sambhaav Press for the Ahmedabad edition. Newsprint comes in reel form. The
41

weight of one reel of Salmon Pink paper is 400 kg and it costs Rs. 30,000 and it prints about 4000 copies of newspaper. Per 1000 copies machine charges Rs. 800 inclusive of all overhead costs. Per copy cost comes about Rs. 15.

Tremendous advancement in newspaper printing technology has taken place world over. Technology advancements are getting passed on to developing countries like India much faster than hitherto. In fact some of our newspaper printing processes are amongst the most modern in this part of the Globe.

In the next few years, a major section of the newspaper industry may be going for CTP (Computer to Plate), which will fully eliminate film output. Each such machine is capable of producing more than 200 broad sheets pages an hour.

An optical punching and bending machine ensures precise register on four colour plates. In these machines plates can be mounted focused across and one around each printing cylinder. Such press can be configured to print 24 broadsheet pages eight of them in colour. A number of features such as narrow gap plate and blanket cylinders, double diameter blanket cylinders, metal backed blankets and shaft less drives make for high quality offset printing at high speeds.

The two rotary folders deliver the printed and folded copies, which are conveyed to and processed in the mailroom. Two news grip, a single griper conveyer pick copies up from the folders and deliver them to counter stackers that produce bundles containing a predetermined number of copies. These bundles are labeled, plastic wrapped and strapped before being loaded on transport vehicles.

All this means faster and world-class printing of the newspaper. Such new presses are capable of rolling out around 75,000 85,000 copies an hour resulting in newspaper ability to carry late news and the reader getting his superbly printed newspaper earlier. In this technology imaging system takes fully paginated digital file and exposes this information on to Printing Plate in Plate Setter without creating Film intermediate. The

42

pages received from editorial site are fired directly on the CTP having Silver plates loaded in it. These silver plates are exposed in the CTP.

Technological advances world over have made newspapers less expensive to produce, specially if, the print order is large. It is likely to result in a shift in production from in house publishing to setting up of regional mass printing centers with latest technology. Media companies have begun heading towards cheaper, spacious and places with better infrastructure.

Substantial investments have been made especially by very large newspapers in technological up gradation of their newsgathering, communication and installing state of the art printing facilities. With such modern imported/indigenous latest in printing and newspaper production technology, readers of newspapers are being treated to additional colour pages. All such investments have been kept in view; to the extent information was available, during deliberations of the Committee to determine the pricing structure of advertisement tariff.

Medium and Small newspapers have also not escaped this technology invasion. A very large number of Medium newspapers are now being brought out in colour or at least cover pages are in colour. Reader is now getting a much better printed and more presentable newspaper. This is also helping the newspaper establishments to increase their circulation at not only in their traditional areas but also reach readers in hitherto unexplored cities and towns. Small newspapers are also upgrading their news collecting and printing technology by partially/fully computerizing their operations. This is also enabling them to bring out a much more presentable newspaper and increase their circulation and reach in their traditional and targeted newer areas.

43

CHAPTER 4
COMPETITION ANALYSIS OTHER FINANCIAL NEWSPAPERS SURVEY RESULTS SWOT ANALYSIS PORTERS 5 FORCES MODEL

44

COMPETITION ANALYSIS
Competitor Analysis is an imperative part of the strategic planning process. Businesses have to track the competition, observe their moves and react to or preferably be proactive to their moves.

Competitor analysis helps: To understand ones competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to

competitors To generate understanding of competitors past, present and future strategies To provide an informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the future To help forecast the returns that may be made from future investments

While undertaking competitor analysis a number of questions need to be answered. The following are some such questions: Who are our competitors? What threats do they pose? What is the profile of our competitors? What are the objectives of our competitors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors? How are our competitors likely to respond to any changes to the way we do business?

45

Competition from other business dailies

The Decision makers survey states that corporate honchos in india spend 20 minutes reading business dailies. There are many business dailies that are competing for this eyeballs share.

THE HINDU Business Line Kasturi & Sons Ltd., (KSL) is the holding company of The Hindu group of publications. This organizations first publication -- The Hindu, started as a weekly in 1878 then became a daily in 1889 is widely read and always trusted. The Hindu played a major role during the Indian Independence Struggle. The corporate office of KSL is situated at Chennai (Madras). With the spread of their offices in major cities of India, KSL publishes and distributes a number of group publications all over the country and abroad. The correspondents all over the world bring the international news to the readers. The news and views enjoyed by readers through the print editions are now available to the Global readers through the Net editions of The Hindu and Business Line. The cover price of business line is higher than business standard thus business standard has a price advantage. Also in the Ahmedabad market the main advantage for BS is that it is printed in Ahmedabad and thus reaches the readers early. In case of business line, it is not printed in Ahmedabad, thus the readers in Ahmedabad receive copies a day later as the copies come from Mumbai.

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The Economic Times

The Economic Times, launched in 1961, is India's largest financial daily and the world's second largest financial daily after The Wall Street Journal. It is published by India's largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, (This company along with its other group companies are more popularly known as The Times Group), which also publishes The Times of India, the Navbharat Times, the Maharashtra Times, Femina, and Filmfare. The current Editor of The Economic Times is noted economist Swaminathan Aiyar.

Supplements Brand Equity (Weekly) - this is a weekly colour supplement which covers marketing, advertising, media and market research. Corporate Dossier is a supplement of The Economic Times aimed at the CEOs of corporate India, with a special focus on management and strategy.

The Economic time is the market leader. The main advantage is that it is one of the oldest financial dailies and thus enjoys great brand loyalty. Despite a higher cover price.

It is part of the giant Times Group and thus it as the ability to start a price war to counter competition. Thus business standard being a number 2 business daily has to adopt a very defensive strategy of protecting its market share. Even if it launches any scheme it cannot do it aggressively. The main reason behind it is that it is a third party publication. Despite this fact business standard has shown 300% growth in the last 5 years of its existence.

The following graph shows the circulation and readership figures of different business dailies.
Source: NRS 2005

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ET has over 10 times the circulation of the next business daily ET has over 5 times the combined circulation of all other business dailies in India

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Financial Express is published since 1961 and is part of the famous express group. Indian express is flagship brand of the express group. Recently FE launched its English edition in Gujarat, which has further aggravated the competition in the Gujarat financial newspaper market. The supplements by financial express are:

India Inc. it focuses on current market happenings, personal finance, trade, advertisement and marketing and is published every Thursdays and Fridays. Corporates & Markets is another supplement which covers issues like money and banking, international corporations, markets and commodities. FE investor focuses on tax issues, stocks and investment.

48

READERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS

1. DECISION MAKERS SURVEY 5

DMS, conducted by AC Nielsen-ORG Marg, is an annual survey detailing the attitudes of 1200 decision-makers aimed at marketers and publications to focus their media plans more sharply. DMS 5 brings together a composite understanding of the media habits and lifestyles of todays business leaders. A successor to the popular DMS 4, the current survey was conducted among senior executives designated as General Managers and above across Indias top 500 private companies, top 100 public sector and 100 leading financial sector companies including banks, merchant bankers and foreign institutional investors (FII). Aimed at better understanding this key target group, the DMS enables marketers to better identify the ideal channels for communicating to these high profile consumers and provides insight into their media habits - newspaper and magazine readership, TV viewer ship, radio listener ship and Internet usage as well as lifestyle behavior and product ownership of the corporate elite whose average annual income is estimated at Rs 10 lakhs plus.. According to the Decision Makers Survey 5, The readership figures of four leading business publications in percentages put : The Economic Times in the number one slot with 78 per cent. Business Standard is at number two with 26 per cent Followed by Financial Express and Hindu Business Line with 18 and 14 per cent respectively. 2. NATIONAL READERSHIP SURVEY

Constituted by: Advertising Agencies Association of India, Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Indian Newspaper Society.

49

The National Readership Study 2005 (NRS 2005) in India is the largest survey of its kind in the world, with a sample size of over 2,61,212 house-to-house interviews to track the media exposure and changing consumer trends in both urban and rural India and of course the estimated readership of publications. The study covers 522 publications (221 dailies and 301 magazines).

Salient Features of NRS-2005

PRINT MEDIA

The reach of the press medium (dailies and magazines combined) has increased from 179 million to 200 million in the last three years as a proportion reached of population aged 15 years and above it has increased from 26.4% to 27.4%.

Of the 200 mn readers, as many as 98 mn are from rural India and 101 mn from urban India.

Literacy as measured in the NRS (the ability to read and understand any language) has risen from 62.5% to 70.6%. The rise has been more in rural areas (nearly ten points from 55.6% to 64.6%) than in urban India (79.3% to 84.5%). One would expect this to boost the market for the press medium.

The number of readers in rural India is now roughly equal to that in urban India.

Dailies have driven this growth in the press medium, their reach rising from 23% to 24%. Magazines have declined in reach from 13% to 10% over the last three years.

The time-spent reading has gone up quite significantly though from 30 minutes daily on an average to 39 minutes per day over the last three years. The increase

50

has been sharp both in urban India (from 32 to 42 minutes daily) and in rural India (from 27 to 35 minutes daily).

There is still significant scope for growth, as 314 million people who can read and understand any language do not read any publication. It is not just affordability that is a constraint, since 21 million of these literate non-readers belong to the upscale SEC A and B segments.

Today the average urban adult spends 42 minutes per day reading dailies and magazines and 1 hour 42 minutes watching TV. The average reading time used to be 32 minutes and the average viewing time 1 hour 40 minutes 3 years ago.

BUSINESS DAILIES As per NRS 2005, The Economic Times has a readership of 11,74,000, Business Standard has 33,000, Financial Express 32,000, and Hindu Business Line 2,02,000.

TELEVISION

TV and C&S dominate in the Southern States

Television now reaches 108 mn Indian homes, which means it crosses the 50% mark of all homes for the first time and reflects a growth of 32% since 2002.

Satellite TV has grown explosively in reach from 134 million individuals watching in an average week in 2002 to as many as 190 million individuals in 2005 almost catching up with the number of readers.

Homes with access to C&S jumped from 40 mn in 2002 to 61 in 2005. The growth of 53% is far higher than the growth of the TV market.

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An urban adult now spends on press and TV an average of 17 hours a week; on press 4.9 hours and TV 11.8 hours. The time spent on radio is 10 hours a week.

The time spent by the average rural adult on press and TV together is 14 hours a week and that on radio is 9 hours a week

Internet reach now exceeds 10 mn

Radios reach has stagnated at 23% of the population listening to any station in the average week. It has improved its performance in urban India (23% listen to the medium, up from 20% three years ago) primarily due to FM. In rural areas, the reach has dropped 23% of village folk listen nowadays compared to 25% three years ago.

3.

INDIAN READERSHIP SURVEY

To counter the NRS, which was supported by large newspaper groups, the IRS was born in the mid-nineties. Some media users got together to create the media Research Users Council. The idea was to offer members an unbiased readership and market study to rival the NRS. The first study was out in 1995 and then after a gap of a year, the IRS has bee released every year since 1997. The IRS operates on a continuous interviewing basis across the year in order to mitigate any seasonal biases. This is done in two half yearly batches with a questionnaire and random sampling.

For the IRS 2006 R1 an annual sample size of 2.4 lakhs was covered-spread equally over two rounds. A total of 1,178 towns and 2,894 villages were surveyed. The data represents fieldwork during the full year Jan-Dec 2005. The mid-point of the survey is June 1, 2005. Being a continuous survey, the reporting takes place every six months based on a Moving Annual Total.

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Major findings of IRS 2006 ( first round )

PRINT MEDIA Dainik Jagran tops dailies, Saras Salil rules magazines Business publications register mixed performance Most leading dailies see a marginal decline in readership Most top magazines experience decline in readership English dailies readership shoots up; Hindi dailies experience marginal decline HT continues to rule the Capital: TOI still number two Battleground Mumbai: Who is the winner Survey reiterates increase in mass media reach Fall in English dailies, but Hindu bucks the trend; drop in all magazines

Press reach has been hovering around at 24 per cent, TV at 55 per cent, Radio at 21 per cent and Internet at 1.5 per cent at the all India level.

In Urban India, Press and TV has actually declined in last three years. Press reach has declined from 42.9 per cent in 2004 to 41.7 percent in 2006. Though TV has declined from 80.2 per cent to 78.9 per cent in the last three years, C&S has shown some growth, from 53.5 per cent in 2004 to 54.4 percent in 2006.

The readership of any English daily has increased by 2.24 per cent in comparison to the previous round of the IRS (Round 2, 2005). The current readership of any English daily stands at 1,73,96,000.

Whether it is English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil or Telugu, the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2006 has shown a decline in readership for almost all publications and largely

53

even across markets. Industry leaders offered mixed reactions to the finding where India Today is flabbergast, Outlook is perplexed, and media professionals try and give a rationale, saying that the days of borrowed readership are going.

BUSINESS DAILIES Much on the lines of what was seen in the general interest and other titles space, the business dailies offer a mixed bag of performance with Hindu Business Line (HBL) and Financial Express (FE) holding on to their readership unlike the leader in the segment The Economic Times (ET) and other players. In terms of business magazines, from Business Today to Business World all have recorded a fall in the IRS 2006 R 1. According to the latest IRS figures, readership figures stand as below:
IRS 2006 Publication The Economic Times Hindu Business Line Financial Express Business Standard Rank 1 2 3 4 Readership 868000 173000 93000 75000

While The Economic Times emerges as a clear leader in all the three surveys, it is interesting to note that Business Standard is number two in DMS followed by Financial Express and Hindu Business Line. However, going by NRS data, Hindu Business Line is way ahead of Business Standard, which is at number three, and there is a difference of only 1000 copies between Business Standard and Financial Express that takes the fourth slot. Also, IRS puts Hindu Business Line at number two followed by Financial Express. Here, Business Standard is fourth.

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INTERNET AS AN EMERGING SOURCE OF INFORMATION

The rapid evolution of the Media is changing the everyday life of consumers the world over, with its significance more evidenced in fast-growing nations like India. Readers feel that internet publications are as good as or better than newspapers/ magazines for finding information about products and music.

Newspaper online consumption rose 8.71 per cent in 2005, and 200 per cent over the past five years. Internet advertising revenues continue to grow rapidly, and were up 24 per cent in 2005, the highest growth for five years. The number of newspaper websites increased by 20 per cent in 2005.

Consumers continue to move beyond purely functional uses of the internet into more media-oriented activities, such as reading stories, looking at photos, and watching video. People of all ages are receptive to the internet as a medium and not just a tool. Significantly there are is almost negligible difference between the age groups in their attitudes toward the internet, television and magazines. However, the importance of newspapers differs significantly depending on the age group of the respondents, with 38 per cent of the 35 to 54 year-old newspaper readers indicating that newspapers are an important part of their day, compared to only 17 per cent of 18 to 24 year-old readers. Interestingly, 45 per cent of the 18 to 24 year-olds indicate that they would turn to the internet first for national news (vs. 29 per cent), while 58 per cent would turn to the internet first for weather (vs. 49 per cent) and 51 per cent for sports (vs. 41 per cent).

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SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. SWOT analysis is an important tool for auditing the overall strategic position of a business and its environment. Once key strategic issues have been identified, they feed into business objectives, particularly marketing objectives. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors inheriting the company For example; strength could be companys marketing expertise. A weakness could be the lack of a new product. Opportunities and threats are external factors. For example, an opportunity could be a developing distribution channel such as the Internet, or changing consumer lifestyles that potentially increase demand for a company's products. A threat could be a new competitor in an important existing market or a technological change that makes existing products potentially obsolete. SWOT analysis can be very subjective given the same information about the same business and its environment. Accordingly, SWOT analysis is best used as a guide and not a prescription. Areas to Consider Some of the key areas to consider when identifying and evaluating Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are listed in the example SWOT analysis below:

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SWOT ANALYSIS- BUSINESS STANDARD

STRENGTHS 2nd

WEAKNESSES the Financial

Indias

largest

circulated

Low Brand Awareness. Third Party Publication. Some Product features- small font size, NAVs are not latest.

business daily Associated with

times of London Competitive cover price of Rs. 2. Unmatched Quantitative and qualitative content Diverse supplements

OPPORTUNITIES

THREAT national literacy rate and

Great market potential. Tie-up with different

Existing

Competitors

like

Economic Times, Business Line Entry of new entrants e.g.

newspapers. Increasing incomes. Increasing urban population Govt policy for FDI in print media. Technological advances in

Financial Express English in Gujarat etc. Threat from other media forms like news channels, internet etc. Entry of foreign Players. Access to online analysis.

printing which will drive down the cost per copy.

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PORTERS 5 FORCES MODEL

The most influential analytical model for assessing the nature of competition in an industry is Michael Porter's Five Forces Model, which is described below:

Porter explains that there are five forces that determine industry attractiveness and long-run industry profitability. These five "competitive forces" are - The threat of entry of new competitors (new entrants) - The threat of substitutes - The bargaining power of buyers - The bargaining power of suppliers - The degree of rivalry between existing competitors

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Threat of New Entrants New entrants to an industry can raise the level of competition, thereby reducing its attractiveness. The threat of new entrants largely depends on the barriers to entry. High entry barriers exist in some industries (e.g. shipbuilding) whereas other industries are very easy to enter (e.g. estate agency, restaurants). Key barriers to entry include - Economies of scale - Capital / investment requirements - Customer switching costs - Access to industry distribution channels - The likelihood of retaliation from existing industry players. Threat of Substitutes The presence of substitute products can lower industry attractiveness and profitability because they limit price levels. The threat of substitute products depends on: - Buyers' willingness to substitute - The relative price and performance of substitutes - The costs of switching to substitutes Bargaining Power of Suppliers Suppliers are the businesses that supply materials & other products into the industry. The cost of items bought from suppliers (e.g. raw materials, components) can have a significant impact on a company's profitability. If suppliers have high bargaining power over a company, then in theory the company's industry is less attractive. The bargaining power of suppliers will be high when: - There are many buyers and few dominant suppliers - There are undifferentiated, highly valued products - Suppliers threaten to integrate forward into the industry (e.g. brand manufacturers threatening to set up their own retail outlets) - Buyers do not threaten to integrate backwards into supply - The industry is not a key customer group to the suppliers

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Bargaining Power of Buyers Buyers are the people / organizations who create demand in an industry The bargaining power of buyers is greater when - There are few dominant buyers and many sellers in the industry - Products are standardized - Buyers threaten to integrate backward into the industry - Suppliers do not threaten to integrate forward into the buyer's industry - The industry is not a key supplying group for buyers Intensity of Rivalry The intensity of rivalry between competitors in an industry will depend on: The structure of competition - for example, rivalry is more intense where there are many small or equally sized competitors; rivalry is less when an industry has a clear market leader The structure of industry costs - for example, industries with high fixed costs encourage competitors to fill unused capacity by price cutting Degree of differentiation - industries where products are commodities (e.g. steel, coal) have greater rivalry; industries where competitors can differentiate their products have less rivalry Switching costs - rivalry is reduced where buyers have high switching costs - i.e. there is a significant cost associated with the decision to buy a product from an alternative supplier Strategic objectives - when competitors are pursuing aggressive growth strategies, rivalry is more intense. Where competitors are "milking" profits in a mature industry, the degree of rivalry is less

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Exit barriers - when barriers to leaving an industry are high (e.g. the cost of closing down factories) - then competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry. STRENGTHS OF THE FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL The model is a strong tool for competitive analysis at industry level. It provides useful input for performing a SWOT Analysis.

LIMITATION OF PORTER'S FIVE FORCES MODEL Care should be taken when using this model for the following: do not underestimate or underemphasize the strengths of the organization (Inside-out strategy).

The model was designed for analyzing individual business strategies. It does not cope with synergies and I portfolio of large corporations.

From a more theoretical perspective, the model does not address the possibility that an industry could be a companies are in it.

Some people claim that environments which are characterized by rapid, systemic and radical change requi emergent approaches to strategy formulation.

Sometimes it may be possible to create completely new markets instead of selecting from existing ones.

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BUSINESS STANDARD (AHMEDABAD EDITION) AND THE PORTERS 5 FORCE MODEL

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS LAUNCH OF FE ENGLISH IN GUJARAT

BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS LOW AD RATES

SEGMENT RIVALRY ET, BS, FE, HBL

BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS 3RD PARTY PUBLICATION

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES OTHER MEDIA FORMS LIKE TV NEWS CHANNELS, INTERNET, AND MOBILE NEWS UPDATES

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CHAPTER 5

MARKET RESEARCH

MARKETING RESEARCH
A. Introduction

Marketing research is a tool in the hands of the marketer, either to find out the solution of any managerial or market related problem or to find new opportunities and threats prevailing in the market. Marketing research is a systematic gathering, model building and fact-finding process to solve the problem relating to marketing of goods and services.

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Marketing research can be of three types; 1. Descriptive research 2. Exploratory research 3. Causal research

As part of our summer training, we first wanted to have an overlook at the present market conditions. So we first conducted a pilot survey. Based on it some strategies were suggested to enhance the awareness of Business Standard as a brand and to further penetrate into the market. A sample of 150 respondents was taken as a base and a survey was then conducted with the help of a questionnaire, which is displayed in the annexure. The results of the survey are discussed later in this section.

B. Objectives of the Research:

Following are the major objectives of our pilot survey; 1. To know the reading habits of people 2. To judge the awareness level about Business Standard 3. To make a market development strategy for Business Standard 4. To find the purposes for which people read financial dailies 5. To know the factors considered important for subscribing to any financial daily

C. Research Methodology:

Research methodology is the most important part of marketing research, which consists of the research design, sampling, data collection, and data analysis parts. These are described here under:

(a) Research Design Research design is the planning of how to do the research. It consists of all necessary answers to questions such as what should be the sample size, sampling method and

64

the method of data collection.

As Business Standard is a financial newspaper the

research design had to be very specific since the target audience was selective.

(b) Sample size As we just wanted to do a pilot survey, we took the sample of only 150 respondents. As the target audience is very specific we decided to go by Judgmental sampling method in which we included the respondents from all the audience classes described below.

(c) Target audience Generally any financial daily caters to a niche audience. In order to take a

comprehensive sample the target audience has to be kept in mind. Accordingly a sample of 150 diverse respondents was taken. The chart shows the proportions of different respondents included in our sample.

Insurance Agents 8%

CA 11% Bank Employees 12%

Corporates 27%

Stock Brokers 29% MBAs 13%

The sample was not just diverse as far as professions are concerned, but it also included diverse age groups. Though it was not a pre-determined idea but through data analysis it was known that the sample was diverse.

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Respondent's Age Group

20-30 26% >50 5%

41-50 23%

31-40 46%

(d) Data collection Since, data collection signifies a very crucial place in a pilot survey; primary data was also collected by way of personal interviews through structured questionnaires.

(e) Data analysis The actual work of researcher starts after the collection of data, because only heaps of data does not serve the purpose of market research. The data is to be classified and analyzed properly so as to get deep insights into the problem or the prospects of the opportunity. presented. 1. On the basis of the questionnaire, the following facts and analysis is

Which newspapers do you read?

From the table given below, we can observe that from our sample 54% respondents were reading English Newspapers and 38% were reading Gujarati Newspaper. Also 8% of them were Hindi newspaper readers.

Readers Gujarati Hindi English

Percentage 38% 8% 54%

Readers Gujarati & English Hindi & English

Percentage 8% 4%

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2.

Which Financial dailies you are aware of?

The chart shows that out of 150 respondents 88% were aware about the Economic Times financial daily. The

main reason being it is a product of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

ET 88%

Business Standard, according to our pilot survey got the second place as far as the brand awareness is concerned. One of the reasons can be an earlier association with famous Anand Bazaar Patrika.

The adjoining pie-chart shows that 45% of the respondents

BS 68%

were aware of Financial Express financial daily.

It is

published in Gujarati language also. As the company had to start the Gujarat i.e. the Ahmedabad edition of Financial
FE 45%

Express English. This was due to the recent brand noise created through hoardings and other brand promotion

activities as part of the launch campaign.

The Hindu Group which has a very good brand image as far as general newspaper category is concerned. Though Business Line is part of the same group, it does not have good brand awareness as far as the Gujarat market is concerned. Gujarat. Also it is not published from anywhere in The Mumbai edition of Business Line is
BL 24%

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distributed to very few and specific customers only .so all respondents were not aware of the brand. 3. Do you subscribe to any financial daily?

The chart shows that out of 150 respondents approx. 54% were subscribing to any of the financial dailies. Amongst the rest, most were either reading the branch copies or generally obtain the business news through other mediums such as business news channels or through the Internet.
YES 54% NO 46%

4.

Which factors do you take into account while selecting a financial daily?

Editorial Quality Gifts

Price S upplements

The above graph shows that the editorial quality of a financial daily is the most important factor for readers. It is followed by free gifts with subscriptions that motivate a person to subscribe for a newspaper. This had been working well for general newspapers but it is interesting to know that even subscribers for financial daily prefer free gifts to price and supplements. 5. How much time do you spend on reading a financial daily?

By this question, a background for next questions was built, like the specific features, improvements and various purposes for which the financial dailies are preferred. Here

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>30 Min. 66%

we found that majority of the respondents were reading any financial daily for more than 30 minutes.
<30 Min. 34%

6.

Since how long have you been reading the financial daily that you

subscribe? The main purpose to put this question was to Check the relationship between the variables, brand loyalty
3-5 Yrs. 35% >5 Yrs. 15%

and brand shifting. As per our findings, people who have been reading their preferred daily since a long period of time are more likely to be brand loyal and
<1 Yr. 21%

thus would not switch to any other financial daily whatever be the offerings. (For statistical analysis refer to the annexure.)

1-3 Yrs. 29%

7.

What is/are your main purpose of reading the financial dailies?

Business News BN 72%
Stock Values

SV 46%

Inte rnational Business

Economic News

IB 19%

EN 54%

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The main purpose of reading a financial/business daily is to get the latest business news. The above charts show the findings supported the obvious expectation as

Business News acquired the highest percentage. Also Economic news and daily Stock Values, NAVs are some other purposes for reading a financial daily. 8. Would you consider shifting to any other financial daily?

Findings show that approx. 49% of the respondents were ready to switch to other financial dailies if some attractive discounts and gifts are offered. This is also consistent with Gifts as one of the factors for subscribing to a financial daily.( one of the previous questions) Particularly this
YES 49% MAY BE 24% NO 27%

information is useful for devising a strategy for Business Standard to penetrate the market. (Shifting preference is also one of the variables for the chi-square test given in the annexure). 9. Which sections of Business Standard do you like? (Assign Ranks)

This question was particularly relevant for Business Standard readers. The chart shows that General Headlines and Money & Market section were ranked as most preferred sections of BS. It also throws light on the fact that though accent west does have good content as far as the western India news is concerned, but because of its tabloid form it is read less. Thus we suggested to include accent wests news in the main supplement.

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General Headlines

Money & Market Accent West Editorial Part International Business

10.

What is your mode of access to Business Standard?

Generally the newspapers are distributed through vendors only, but at some regular time intervals companies launch certain schemes in which customers get some cash discount as well as some gifts. Our research data shows that majority of the customers subscribe to Business Standard through vendors only, but there are some who would like to go for BS if some subscription scheme is provided to them.

BookS talls 7% S ubscrp. S cheme 24%

Vendors 69%

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11.

How do you find the delivery of Business Standard?

Distribution System

In this fast paced industry, timely and consistent delivery of newspapers is very important as far as customer satisfaction and retention is concerned. This is because news loses it value if delivered late. Here we found that only 58% of the existing BS customers were fully satisfied with the distribution.
Poor 10%

Satistactory 58%

Average 32%

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CHI SQUARE TEST (1) Set up the Hypothesis: Ho : Brand shifting is independent of since how long a person reads a particular financial daily H1 : Brand shifting depends on since how long a person reads a particular financial daily. (2) Test Statistics: 2 = (fo fe)2 fe
(Fo - Fe)2 / Fe

Will shift ? Yes <1 1-3 3-5 >5 No <1 1-3 3-5 >5 May Be <1 1-3 3-5 >5

Fo

Fe

Fo - Fe

22 31 14 6

15.09 21.41 25.31 11.19

6.91 9.59 -11.31 -5.19

3.1642 4.2956 5.0539 2.4072

2 4 18 17

8.47 12.03 14.21 6.29

-6.47 -8.03 3.79 10.71

4.9423 5.36 1.0108 18.2359

7 9 20 0

7.44 10.56 12.48 5.52

0.44 -1.56 7.58 -5.52

0.02602 0.2305 4.5313 5.52 54.7777

(3) Degree of freedom:

(r-1)(c-1) = 0.05

= =

(3-1)(4-1) 6

(4) Level of Significance: (5) Critical Value:

2 = 12.592

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(6) Decision:

12.592

54.777

The calculated chi-square does not fall within the acceptance region so the null hypothesis is rejected and It can be said that shifting preference depends on the tenure for which a person reads a particular financial daily.

Limitations of the Research:

Following are the limitations of the pilot survey:

1.

To get an overview about the prevailing market conditions, we used judgmental

sampling and took a sample of only 150 from a huge population.

2.

the survey was restricted to Ahmedabad city only. Thus, it may not fully represent the whole population of business newspaper readers in India.

3.

Time Constraint: We had only a weeks time to carry out this pilot study.

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Findings and Recommendations

From the study carried out and the analysis of the result obtain from the survey, the following suggestions and recommendations were made to help the firm improve upon its product.

1) Increase the number of centers where the news paper is available.

2) Regarding news content. a. Give more values to foreign exchange rate. b. Increase the font size of stock details. c. Provide the separate columns of Banks and Insurance news. d. Cover all the scheme of Mutual Funds. e. Provide script code of BSE and NSE. f. Provide information of appointments and education abroad.

3) Management should design a vendor Relationship Management program and should come up with some motivational offers and scheme for the vendors, so that they are self-motivated and hence push Business Standard from their side increasing trade sales.

4) Business Standard as a newspaper can implement a MIS to keep a track of BS readers. Through this MIS, Business Standard can focus on their existent readers and can work for customer retention and customer loyalty programs.

5) The survey revealed another important learning that newspaper reading is a matter of habit and habits are hard to break. A slight drop in price does not endear the other newspaper more or less newspaper demand is price inelastic. Thus business standard should target the young age group today so that they become loyal readers tomorrow. For this it should launch BUSINESS STANDARD STUDENTS FORUM for management students and a JUNIOR BS

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FORUM for undergraduate students. Students would have to subscribe Business Standard and in turn The BS forums would provide a platform for students to participate in various competitions.

6) Also, the floating readers are inherently disloyal and are prone to experiment with any new entry on the block. After these insights, combo offers prove to be an effective pricing tool. Unlike other newspapers, business standard does not have support news paper brands for combo offers. Thus Business Standard can introduce combo offers like 1 year subscription for business standard + 1 year subscription of Indian Management Magazine at discounted price.

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Conclusion

From the pilot survey we found that most of the customer regularly read this newspaper and they are satisfied with all the contents provided by the Business Standard.

Looking at over all publication process, we came to know the whole process of printing till the final delivery of the newspaper. Understanding the theoretical aspect makes it look much easier but practically the publication process is very difficult and requires integrated efforts from all the departments.

The distribution channel plays a very important role in newspaper industry. The distribution channel of Business Standard is similar to the other print industry. After completing the printing work of the newspaper dispatch officer sends the copies to the various cities, the agent of the various cities collects the copy and sells to their vendors and bookstalls. Vendors sell their copies to the end user.

As a part of promotional activity performed by business standard, subscription scheme at discounted price is offered to customer. The main objective behind this is to attract the non BS reader and make him try the newspaper. By doing so the company is able to increase the circulation with maximum customer retention after the scheme period.

Finally looking at the acceptance of promotional scheme of Business standard, I conclude that the scheme offered was mostly liked by the readers and ultimately most of them were subscribing to it.

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ANNEXURE

1. QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Name:

2. Organization:

3. Designation:

4. Contact No.:

5. Age: (a) 20-30 years

(b) 31-40 years (c) 41-50 years (d) 51 years & >

6. Qualification: ________________________

7. Which newspaper do you read? (a) Gujarati (b) Hindi (c) English (d) Others

8. What are the financial dailies that you are aware of? (a) (c) (e) (b) (d) (f)

9. Do you subscribe to any financial dailies? If Yes, Which? (a) Yes (b) No

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10. How much time do you spend on reading the newspaper? (a) <30 Minutes___ (b) >30 Minutes___

11. Since how long have you been reading the financial daily that you subscribe? (a) <1 Year (b) 1-3 years (c) 3-5 years (d) > 5 years

12. What is your main purpose of reading the financial dailies? (a) Local News (b) Business News (c) Mutual fund values and Stock values (d) International Business (e) Economic News

13. Which are the specific features of the newspaper that you like? (a) ________________________________________ (b) ________________________________________ (c) ________________________________________ (d) ________________________________________

14. What are the improvements that you would like to see in the newspaper that you subscribe? (a) _________________________________________ (b) _________________________________________

15. Would you consider switching over to any other financial daily? (a) Yes (b) No (c) May Be

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Business Standard

1. Which sections of Business Standard do you like? (Assign Ranks) (a) General Headlines (b) International News (c) Editorial Part (d) Money & Market (e) accent West

2. What is mode of access to Business Standard? (a) Subscription Scheme (b) Vendors (c) Bookstalls

3. How do you find the delivery of Business Standard? (a) Satisfactory (b) Average (c) Poor

Nomenclature

ABC BS BL DSR ET FE

Audit Bureau of Circulation Business Standard Business Line Daily Supply Report The Economic Times Financial Express

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IRS MDD MDS NRS ROI SMD YSR

Indian Readership Survey Market Development Department Market Development Strategies National Readership Survey Return on Investment Space Marketing Department Yearly Supply Report

Bibliography

Kohli, Vanita (2003), The Indian Media Business, Response Books, New Delhi Kotler, Philip, 2005, Marketing Management, Pearson Education, Delhi, 11th Edition K. Suresh, 2003, Media Management, ICFAI University Press http;// www.indiatelevision.com/image/12/dailies_top10jpg http:// www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid_375873 http:// www.india.mapsofindia.com/the-country/india-forum/media- in-india.html http:// www.hindu.com/the hindu/ho/nus/00200606160312.htm

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http:// www.chronosphere.biz.imo/23/imo.html http:// www.newswatch.in/?p=4410

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