Feature | IRS 2011 Q3: Reactions and plan of acton - straight from the horses mouth!

'Results' is one word that usually get jitters to a lot of people and smile, only to a few. When the number charts roll out, fear, tension, anxiety and curiosity are emotions that run through even the brightest performers.

The situation was not different when the third quarter results of Indian Readership Survey 2011 were announced. Like any other result sheet, here also there were up's and down's in the player's performances.

Adgully caught up with a few publications, to have an idea about the mantra's behind their success and how they maintain their readership marks.

As per the latest round (2011 Q3) of the Indian Readership Survey, Hindustan Times continues to grow its readership. In Mumbai, HT emerged as the fastest growing English daily once again, consolidating its position as the No 2 Broadsheet English daily. In Delhi, HT continues to strengthen further, remaining the most-read newspaper for the seventh time in a row. The Group's Hindi publication, Hindustan has consolidated its gains and has further strengthened its No.2 position among leading newspapers in the country. This growth is primarily a result of rapid expansion of the brand in UP, with 6 new editions launched over the last 3 years.

The business daily of the Group - Mint consolidates No. 2 position & has continued to build its readership in Mumbai, while holding Delhi-NCR as a stronghold. It also continues to have the best reader profile among all Business dailies, both in terms of metro skew [95% from top Metros] as well as SEC A proportion [70% SEC A]

Commenting on the results of all HT Media Publications, Rajiv Verma, CEO of HT Media Ltd., said, "HT, Hindustan and Mint have all had good results, strengthening and consolidating their positions in their respective markets. As a group, we are going to continue our investments going forward in order to drive readership further in all these markets."

Malayala Manorama, serving from the southern platter has although experienced a slight dip in numbers this quarter, but is still the top language daily of India. Varghese Chandy,Senior General Manager, Marketing Operations, Malayala Manorama said, "We at Malayala Manorama do not do anything with the aim to increase readership. It has been 'consistent growth' for us, since the past 4 - 5 quarters. There is no particular strategy to grow readership quarter after quarter. We believe and perform continuous research to look at what our readers want and assure that we deliver it. We also involve our publication into lot of meaningful CSR activities where we interact with our readers to know them even better." Adding further Chandy said, "Our tagline says, 'Nobody delivers Kerela better', certains that the publication, which is 123 years old not only knows what the reader wants, but knows the Malayali as well. That has made us lead every media platform we have entered. We aim and wish to continue the same in the future as well."

Similarly, DB Corp's flag ship newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar continues to maintain its leadership as the largest read newspaper of urban India and has substantially increased its lead over next No. 2 player. P. K. Pandey, Head- Investor Relation cell, D. B. Corp Ltd said, "The story of dominance continues in the core markets of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where the daily has more readers than the combined readership of next 5 newspapers; Nai Duniya, Dainik Jagran, Nav Duniya, Rajasthan Patrika and Raj Express. Apart from consistent

From what it seems here is, like every other result announcement, IRS Q3 2011 results have also brought in some lessons to learn for publications, some have set tactics, while others just 'do their job'. While they shell-out their tricks - of - the - trade to gain readers, it would be interesting to know how the story unfolds in the next quarter, in the next year, in 2012! | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]

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