Newspaper Distribution Final Report[1]

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Introduction :

The credit of conceptualizing a “Newspaper” actually goes to Julius Caesar who, in

59 B.C (approx), started ‘Acta Diurna’, an activity to inform the public about

important social and political happenings, wherein upcoming events were written on

large white boards and displayed in popular public places like the “baths”. The ‘Acta’

kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and

executions. In the 8th century the first newspapers appeared as hand-written

newssheets in Beijing.

The printing press, invented by Johann Gutenberg in 1447, ushered in the era of the

modern newspaper. Gutenberg’s machine enabled the free exchange of ideas and the

spread of knowledge -- themes that would define Renaissance Europe. During this

era, newsletters supplied a growing merchant class with news relevant to trade and

commerce. Manuscript newssheets were being circulated in German cities by the late

15th century. These pamphlets were often highly sensationalized; one reported on the

abuse that Germans in Transylvania were suffering at the hands of Vlad Tsepes

Drakul, also known as Count Dracula. In 1556, the Venetian government published

Notizie Scritte, for which readers paid a small coin, or “gazetta”.

In the first half of the 17th century, newspapers began to appear as regular and

frequent publications. The first modern newspapers were products of Western

European countries like Germany (publishing Relation in 1605), France (Gazette in

1631), Belgium (Nieuwe Tijdingen in 1616) and England (the London Gazette,

founded in 1665, is still published as a court journal). These periodicals consisted

mainly of news items from Europe, and occasionally included information from

America or Asia. They rarely covered domestic issues; instead English papers

reported on French military blunders while French papers covered the latest British

royal scandal.

Newspaper content began to shift toward more local issues in the latter half of the

17th century. Still, censorship was widespread and newspapers were rarely permitted

to discuss events that might incite citizens to opposition. Newspaper headlines did

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announce the beheading of Charles I at the end of the English Civil War, although

Oliver Cromwell tried to suppress all news-books on the eve of the execution. In

1766, Sweden was the first country to pass a law protecting press freedom.

The invention of the telegraph in 1844 transformed print media. Now information

could be transferred within a matter of minutes, allowing for more “in time” and

relevant reporting.

By the middle of the 19th century, newspapers became the primary means of

disseminating and receiving information. Between 1890 and 1920, the period known

as the “golden age” of print media, media barons such as William Randolph Hearst,

Joseph Pulitzer, and Lord Northcliffe built huge publishing empires. These men had

enormous influence within the media industry, and gained notoriety for the ways in

which they wielded their power.

Newspapers have also played a role as disseminators of revolutionary propaganda.

Iskra (The Spark), published by Lenin in 1900, is one notable example. On June 21,

1925, Thanh Nien made its debut in Vietnam, introducing Marxism to the country and

providing information on the revolution’s strategic policies.

Broadcast radio exploded onto the media scene in the 1920’s. Newspapers were

forced to re-evaluate their role as society’s primary information provider. Like the

new media technologies of today, the development of a low cost, alternative media

source produced rumblings that radio would topple the newspaper industry. To

respond to this new competition, editors revamped the paper’s format and content in

order to broaden their appeal, and stories were expanded to provide more in depth

coverage.

Soon after newspapers adapted to radio, they were forced to re-evaluate themselves in

light of a new and more powerful medium: television (TV). But TV’s omnipresence

did not render the newspaper obsolete. Even some newspapers, like USA Today,

responded to the technological advancements by using colour and by utilizing the

“short, quick and to the point” stories that are usually featured on television.

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The technological revolution of today is creating new challenges and opportunities for

traditional media. Never before has so much information been so accessible to so

many.

The amount and immediacy of information on the Internet is unparalleled, but it has

not signaled the end of the newspaper’s relevance. Newspapers in print remain a

popular and powerful medium for the reporting and analysis of events that shape our

lives. According the estimation of World Association of Newspapers, one billion

people in the world read a newspaper every day.

Newspapers in India

Newspapers in India started with William Bolts, an ex-employee of the British East

India Company who attempted to start the first newspaper in India in 1776. Bolts had

to beat a retreat under the disapproving gaze of the Court of Directors of the

Company.

Then, in 1789, James Augustus Hicky started Bengal Gazette, a two-sheet newspaper

that publicized the private lives of the “sahibs” of the Company. In the newspaper,

Hicky even dared to mount scurrillious attacks on the Governor-General and Chief

Justice, for which he was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs.5, 000, which

finally drove him to penury. These were the first tentative steps of journalism in

India.

B. Messink and Peter Reed were pliant publishers of the India Gazette, unlike their

infamous predecessors. The colonial establishment started the Calcutta Gazette. It was

followed by another private initiative, the Bengal Journal.

The Madras Courier was started in 1785 in the southern stronghold of Madras.

Richard Johnson, its founder, was a government printer. Madras got its second

newspaper when, in 1791, Hugh Boyd, who was the editor of the Courier quit and

founded the Hurkaru. Tragically for the paper, it ceased publication when Boyd

passed away within a year of its founding.

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It was only in 1795 that competitors to the Courier emerged with the founding of the

Madras Gazette followed by the India Herald. The latter was an “unauthorized”

publication, which led to the deportation of its founder Humphreys. The Madras

Courier was designated the purveyor of official information in the Presidency.

In 1878, The Hindu was founded, and played a vital role in promoting the cause of

Indian independence from the colonial yoke. It’s founder, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, was

a lawyer, and his son, K. Srinivasan assumed editorship of this pioneering newspaper

during the first half of the 20th century.

Bombay, surprisingly was a late starter. The Bombay Herald came into existence in

1789. Significantly, a year later a paper called The Courier started carrying

advertisements in Gujarati.

The first media merger of sorts happened with The Bombay Gazette, which was

started in 1791, merging with The Bombay Herald the following year. Like, The

Madras Courier, this new entity was recognized as the publication to carry “official

notifications and advertisements”.

Compared with many other developing countries, the Indian press has flourished since

independence and exercises a large degree of independence. In 2001, India had

45,974 newspapers, including 5364 daily newspapers published in over 100

languages. The largest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (20,589),

followed by English (7,596), Marathi (2,943), Urdu (2,906), Bengali (2,741), Gujarati

(2,215), Tamil (2,119), Kannada (1,816), Malayalam (1,505) and Telugu (1,289). The

Hindi daily press has a circulation of over 23 million copies, followed by English with

over 8 million copies.

Some important timelines:

1447: Johann Gutenberg invents letterpress printing, a process that enabled the mass

production of the printed word.

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1501: Pope Alexander VI decreed that printed material must be submitted to clerical

authority prior to publication in order to prevent heresay. Failure to do so could result

in fines or excommunication.

1588: In Cologne, Germany, Michael Entzinger publishes a 24 page news book

reporting on the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The news book’s front page shows a

woodcut representing the Spanish Armada sailing off the coast of England. Although

the report came months after the actual event occurred, this is one of the earliest “first

reports” of a significant historical event.

1605: Johann Carolus publishes the first printed newspaper, Relation, in Strasbourg,

now in France, but at the time a part of the so-called

Deutsches Reich :

1645: worlds oldest newspaper still in circulation, Post-och inrikes Tidninger, is

published in Sweden

1704: Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe and often recognized as the

world’s first journalist, begins to publish the Review, a periodical covering European

affairs.

1851: Reuters is established.

1880: First photographs appear in a newspaper.

1903: Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) develops the first tabloid

newspaper, the Daily Mirror, in London. The Daily Mirror introduced the concept of

the “exclusive” interview. The first was with Lord Minto, the new Viceroy of India, in

1905.

1966: Behram “Busybee” Contractor begins publishing his column “Round and

About” in the Evening News of India. Running until 2001, the satirical column

became the longest running column in the history of newspaper journalism.

1994: First independent on-line daily appears on the World Wide Web.

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Background of the Study :

Today morning’s newspaper publishing is a competitive and became a very complex

market. Besides a declining trend in the circulation, the morning newspapers compete

with each other and with other media such as TV, radio, the www and other on-line

services. In order to be competitive in the media landscape of today, morning

newspapers need to improve the production and the distribution of newspapers as well

as other processes within the newspaper companies. Research regarding the

newspaper distribution process & consumer buying behaviour of particular newspaper

has been focused in this report. In this thesis, studies of newspaper distribution

companies in the India are presented. The distribution process, which is carried out by

the newspaper distribution companies in India as well as in other countries, is a

process where “conflicts” may occur between the management of the newspaper

company and the customers, e.g. readers and advertisers. The management, on the one

hand, would like the start of the production and the distribution to occur as late as

possible in order to include the latest news On the other hand; the readers would like

to receive the newspapers before a certain time in the morning, which is also in the

interest of the advertisers. By a determined printing start and delivery deadline, the

time for distribution is predetermined. This predetermined distribution time must be

used effectively and therefore the planning, the physical distribution and the

information flow, among other things, are important areas of improvement for the

newspaper companies. The newspaper distribution is a major expense for the total

newspaper, making up approximately 20% of the total cost, which makes it important

to improve upon this research area in order for the newspaper companies to be

competitive. The use of computers is limited within distribution organizations;

therefore the implementation of computer aid to improve planning of the physical

distribution and the information flow can be of importance in order for the newspaper

companies to remain competitive.

What are the characteristics of the processes within morning newspaper

distribution?

How are the processes within morning newspaper distribution related?

How can morning newspaper distribution be improved?

What factors influence the consumer to purchase the newspaper?

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These three areas involve a number of sub-questions, which were uncovered and

answered during the course of the project. However, the third interest needed a focus.

Therefore, two fields within the newspaper distribution chain were chosen for further

studies; the information flow and the connection between the production and the

distribution.

Objective of the Study:

The aims of this research work have been divided into three phases. The aim of phase

one was to find the characteristics of morning newspaper distribution and to create a

model of the distribution process. The aim of phase two was to find out how morning

newspaper distribution could be improved. And the aim of phase third was to find out

consumer buying behaviour of the particular brand of news paper. The objective of

the third phase is to find the brand preference for newspaper among consumers. In

this study the aims at analyzing the following aspects:

1) To find out the brand preference for newspaper.

2) To study the relationship between the various personal factors, such as Price,

In-depth Intelligent articles, More number or spicy bites, Prediction of

economic trends / business houses, widest game out of news coverage,

professional approach of news description.

3) To find out the different factors for preferring the particular brand.

4) To know the sources of information which provide about newspaper to the

consumers?

5) To know the degree of satisfactions derived by the consumers.

6) To find out the alternative choice of consumers in case of non-availability of

their preferred brand.

7) To find out the awareness of the consumers about the newspaper brand

Research:

This research has and is covering information logistics as well as physical

distribution, and consumer buying behaviour of newspaper. This research has mainly

been focused on vehicle routing and scheduling rather than on the connection between

production and distribution. Work has mostly been valuable for the understanding of

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which processes that are included in the total distribution process. However, the

related research has addressed problems that are important to consider when planning

production and distribution. This project also fuscous the consumer buying behaviour

of newspaper and analyses the different factor which affect the customers buying

behaviour.

Significance of The Study:

The Indian Media market has been on an upswing in the last 5 years. New media have

grown at high rates in line with their expected potential. However, traditional media

have not been disadvantaged by this, and they have continued to show strong growth,

though their share of the total media pie has expectedly shown a slight dip. The main

reasons for this are: Willingness of emerging advertisers to pay for impact

Expansion of traditional media into new markets and formats, which is helping

them demand value

A strong business environment that supports this growth

Increase in advertisers’ spends on traditional media to maintain status quo and

their willingness to look at new media (which also tend to be cheaper options)

to create differentiation and grab attention

Shift in focus from conventional target consumers (Housewife, aged 25-45

years), to include the Male and the Youth, who are the primarily being

targeted through new mediums like Mobile and Internet, and Radio and Niche

Publications. What remains to be seen is whether recent downtrends at the

stock market will moderate media growth.

Scope Of The Study

Market Size And Growth: The Market: The Display advertising component

of the Newspaper market in India for calendar year 2007 was valued at

Rs.9,290 cr. This is a growth of 18% over calendar 2006 (Rs.7,856 cr.) as

against the 17% predicted by us in last year’s report. Print, despite being the

biggest incumbent medium, continued to attract the largest share of

advertising spends. The India Print story is in stark contrast to the threat being

faced by the medium globally. The major reason for the revenue growth has

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been the consistent hike in Card Rates of major players, in spite of increased

competition in the top 8 Metros and stagnant Average Issue Readership (AIR)

numbers. While this has been made possible due to the continued dominance

of publications in their home markets, rate hikes in some part have also been

imposed to offset their entry into new markets. Rate hikes have taken place at

both the premium and the popular ends of the product spectrum. Expensive

English print became even more expensive with leading brands making forays

into new markets or improving relative readership contribution from smaller

markets. On the other hand the local retail market continued to strengthen its

media investment in regional publications. Here increased colour options

helped publications improve their yield from advertisers. 60% of total volume

consumption in 2007 was in colour as against 52% the year before.

Publications are also actively looking at ways to tap into the local advertising

market with “Go Local” drives by way of new Supplements. With restrictions

on OOH medium usage in some cities, publications are increasingly targeting

retailers and cashing in on their diverted OOH spends. Leading publications

are also creating new avenues for growth through forays into other languages

and formats. Publications are using e-paper versions by targeting NRI

population, which gives them over 75% of the total hits. However, it would

take some time before this avenue begins to generate real value. Publications

which promoted their Classifieds portals as separate entities have succeeded in

penetrating segments like Matrimonial, Real Estate and Jobs. The Players:

Within each language there are one or two players that have seen over 25%

growth and others which are closer to 10% levels. Typically the big players

have got bigger. While some players have grown on the back of increased

offerings and entry into new markets, others have done so on the back of Rate

Hikes and improved Colour to B/W ratios

The Players : Within each language there are one or two players that have

been over 25% and other which are closer to 10% levels. Typically the big

players have got bigger. While some players have grown on the back of

increased offering and entry into new markets, other have done so on the back

of rate hicks and improved colour to B/W ratio.

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The Future: 2008 will continue to be an exciting year for print. We do not

expect the digital wave to dampen our attachment to the morning daily. Rising

literacy levels and limited access to Internet will be the key reasons why print

will continue to grow. Just as in 2007, this year will see a host of new

launches. While existing print players will diversify in related genres and enter

new geographies, non-print players will enter print to diversify. Newsprint

prices are on the rise and the next few quarters will continue to see increasing

prices and shortages. This will put pressure on margins, forcing publishers to

look at new formats and revenue streams. Private Equity players and bankers

will also continue to explore investment opportunities in Indian media houses.

Growth in transport infrastructure will result in the launch of commuter

newspapers across cities. For instance, Delhi's underground, which did not

exist before 2002, will have 100 stations in three years' time and is expected to

carry 3 million commuters, mostly in the age group of 15-45, daily. This is the

TG most coveted by advertisers and media houses are already launching

publications to tap in to this bunch, with Metro Now being the pioneer.

The Reader: The Indian reader has never had it better. While 2 years back

everything appeared plain vanilla, today, he or she has a choice of multiple

flavors and publishing houses are more than willing to cater to his or her

tastes.

The selling Process of Newspaper

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The selling process of newspaper in India involves various steps like: Promotion of

New product i.e. Newspaper in the market.

1) Prospecting & Evaluating : In this stage i.e. before launching the newspaper

in the market company first decides which class of people they are targeting,

Because as the different class of the people there are different class of the

newspaper are available, the style of language, way of writing news are differ

as per the class of the readers. This is the stage where potential customers are

found and evaluated. It is first necessary to identify that the potential customer

has the willingness, ability to buy the product. This would involve first

generating sales leads. In the case of newspapers customers could be

Financial Institutions, IT employees, students preparing MBA students and

other institutions like Hotels, Air lines or weather it’s designed for ordinary

lay man etc.

2) Pre Approach: In this stage the process of approaching the client is decided.

This involves deciding on the approach establishing objectives of the sales call

and preparing for a presentation. In this stage need to analyze what are the

product features in which the customer will be interested and focus on those

during the presentation. This stage involves deciding whether it will be enough

to do a simple cold call or to set up an appointment which is needed in case we

want to set up a stall. Like in the case of setting up stalls in IT companies

where a larger section of our targeted population can be met it becomes

essential that we first fix up an appointment with the facilities manager asking

his permission to set up the stall.

3) Approach: This stage involves getting in initial contact with the customer by

meeting him and generating interest in the product. Once the salesmen we are

with the customer they would make a presentation making him aware of the

characteristics of the paper, the discount and the magazines that are on offer.

While selling to Financial Institutions sales representatives focus on

presenting the various Business magazines that the customer will get if he

subscribes. While pitching to younger customer salesmen focuses on the

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monthly magazines which are more enticing to them. While making

presentations to corporate the focus is on the operational efficiency and

convince the Facilities Manager that the implementation will be starting in 2

weeks time from when the employees start signing up for the subscription.

4) Handling Objection: The most common objection which is encountered

during the selling is the fact that most customers who are regular readers of

others newspapers are very loyal and are unwilling to change. This is the time

when distinguishing features of the products need to be highlighted for

example Business Standard highlights the fact that it has has various

sections like the BS 200 which gives the complete analysis of the 200

companies that were traded the most on the stock exchange the previous week.

This section on the paper is something unique only to Business Standard. Also

'The Compass' which is a small segment in the Business Standard Newspaper

assists people in making their investment decisions as to which sector they

should invest their money in was also of interest to people who were more

investment focused. And of course the magazines which are offered are

another reason why most of these customers get ready to buy the subscription.

Also the supplements like Brand Line, Life by Business Line, and The Smart

Investor by Business Standard are highlighted to entice the consumers to

purchase the subscription. Some of the customers are worried about the

implementation time this is where sales person had to tell the customers about

how we will be ensuring that they get a regular supply of their business

standard by interacting with their vendors and start the delivery of their

newspaper to their home in 2 weeks.

5) Closing: At this stage the customer is more or less aware of the product and

has made up his mind to either go ahead with the sale or not. If the

subscription are attractively priced most customers prefer to go for the plan

offered and want to first get a look at the service being provided. Thus most

people will either back out at the middle of the presentation, while others stick

around to try and see what they are getting for their money.

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6) Find Out The First Readers & Brand Visibility: At initial stage when your

brand of paper is new in the market that time the numbers of customer are not

knowing to any one so at this stage to get the idea of 1st reader, and determine

the exact amount of production of newspaper for the future and to avoid the

wastages, company can distribute maximum amount of newspaper as per the

competitor’s circulation in the market e.g. They produce 10000 copies as per

the competitor’s quality & circulate in the market for one month and observe

the no. of copies is return. I.e. if no. return copies are 7200 then 2800 are the

your first readers.

7) Branding: At initial stage the branding are done through some social

campaign and also some advertisement campaign are adopted through media

& other players in the market. Then various scheme provided to vendors so

that they can keep their copies in their stall give them proper visibility, also

some incentives, gifts material are provided to them to increase the sales. Also

various campaign and program are adopted to reach the target audience which

includes Schools, Social campaign, TV commercials, Radio adds, Media

partners etc.

Sales management:

1) Sales Planning: It is the first step in the sales management process Sales

planning guides the organization in achieving its objectives in a systematic

manner leading to profitability and success. In case of newspaper industry

plans are formulated keeping in view the overall sales strategy and objectives

of individual organizations. Since circulation is the main thing in the news

paper industry, all the planning is intended to increase the circulation base of

newspaper .The main source of revenue for a newspaper company is the

advertisements and they can charge more for advertisements only if their

circulation base is higher. This circulation base is increased by eating into the

competitor's circulation. The head office decides the targets for all branches in

the country and this is communicated to marketing manager of branches

across the country. The marketing manager of the branch then allocates targets

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for every sales executive in the branch. The marketing manager asks each

sales executive to target a particular segment. Segment can be hotels,

educational institutes, corporate offices; IT companies students preparing for

competitive examinations like CAT, XAT etc.

2) Organizing & Directing Sales Efforts: Most of the newspaper companies

hire graduates who are well versed in local languages as selling newspaper

require interacting with vendors and intermediate agencies. They generally do

not hire MBAs or Post Graduates as they are more prone to attrition. The

attrition rate is very high in this industry especially in the second rung

companies.

3) On The Job Training: The sales force is briefed about the newspaper and

supplements and then they are sent to the field for training. In this

industry the training is mostly on the job where executives have to go and

sell the subscriptions to the customer.

4) Evaluating Sales Force Performance: The performance of sales force is

measured in terms of the number of subscriptions generated by each sales

person. At the end of the month they collate how many subscriptions have

been generated by executives and on the basis of subscriptions generated

salary is computed

5) Compensation Plan: Generally combination salary plans are followed in

newspaper industry. This type of plan includes a combination of salary,

commission and other type of incentive plans. As sales people get regular

income in the form of monetary incentives, they are continuously motivated

and it also provides sales person with the advantage of both a fixed salary and

variable income. Every executive is given a minimum target to achieve and on

exceeding this target they are given an incentive.

Circulation of the Morning Newspaper

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1) Time Management: Time management is very important as the executives

have to visit morning centers at around 5 to 5.30 a.m. in the morning to meet

the vendors to ensure the timely delivery of newspapers. Morning centers are

places where all the newspapers are dropped and vendors come here to collect

newspapers for their locality. Most of the activities happen between 3.30 am to

5.30 a.m. Within this short span they have to meet

the vendors and ensure they are regularly supplying the newspaper. The

whole process of printing & circulation of newspaper is difficult part of

distribution process normally the printing of newspaper are started around

12:30 and it gets over at 3:30 and after that delivery van gets ready for the

delivery.

2) Printing Efficiency: Once the design of news gets over immediately it passes

to the printing department. In this process first news is type and set as per the

requirement then the positive copy of that news are get after that it get’s

transfer to the alliumenium plate then this plate goes through various process

and then final print gets ready. One machine can produce 45000 newspaper

gets printed. Once the final print gets ready as per the requirement the bundles

are getting packed and first it transfer to the long distance and then short

distance paper prints gets transferred. So that paper gets available to the

various places at same time. This process gets continue till the 3:30.

3) Delivery model : Once the news paper gets ready it gets delivered at various

depot through the company van. In Mumbai such depot are located at junction

places such as Dadar, Thane, etc. Only the delivery till the depot is done by

manufacturer after it gets handed over to the agencies and remaining

circulation are done by this people. In Mumbai Dhanjat Newspaper Agency,

Ambika Newspaper Agency are the big players in the markets. After that such

agencies can transfer the newspaper to the vendors such vendors can provides

copies to the sub vendors, door to door providers, news stall etc.

4) Transportation : Normally the transportation till the depot are take place

through the personal vehicle and after that it takes place through the agency

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distribution network & finally the vendors and agency forecast the circulation.

Normally the long distance transportation is take place through the public

mode of transport e.g. railway, Public bus i.e. ST etc. International

distributions are carried out through Airways but, now day’s because of e

paper concept international supply gets over. Only some magazines and

Outlook are exported. So finally the responsiveness and efficiency play an

important role in newspaper distribution channel. Responsiveness includes

supply chain's ability to respond to wide a range of quantity demanded (due to

demand fluctuations) and meet short lead times. On the other hand efficiency

is the cost of making and delivering the newspaper to the readers.

5) Maintain the Circulation Manpower: It is very difficult to maintain the

manpower at lower level of circulation process, because those people are not

the permanent employee of the company due to the improve in standard of

living of the people, And increase in education level it is difficult to get the

delivery boy. And company is not able to hire such number of employees

because it’s two costly. From Last three years the wage rate of this delivery

boy has increase from Rs. 200 to 1000 and more then that. And now days due

to increase in size of newspaper it is very difficult to carry the large amount of

newspaper.

6) Maintain Own Distribution Network: For small Company it is very difficult

them to maintain the own distribution network due the heavy cost involved in

it. That’s why they use other agencies distribution network. But in Mumbai the

biggest player like Times group of India has their own distribution network

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Diagram of Circulation Network

Procurement of Raw Material:

Production Unit

Various Depots

Use agencies Network

Vendors Newspaper Stall

Final Customer

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In India as such no any newspaper company has its own raw material producing unit

i.e. Paper production, Ink manufacturing, Plate required for printing etc. so normally

they out source such material from outsiders e.g. For paper Rama Newsprint and

Papers limited, For printing plate the suppliers are Techno\, Nirag are the biggest

player

News Positioning Decision:

In newspaper industry the first news is always the last news so the first news

decisions are very important for newspaper sale. Though the main news of the paper

is same for all over the India but the some news are changes according to the area it

means that are design to attract the regional crowed of that area. So the newspaper

information is needed to change region wise.

Model of Distributing Newspaper

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In India significant share of total volume of newspaper distributed, about 69

percentages are delivered to people’s home during early hours of the morning. About

16 percentages are delivered through postal services. About 13 percent of the total

volume of newspaper is bought at shops, kiosks and services and nearly two percent

to the international level through the airways.

1) Early morning Delivery: Early morning delivery is a typical mode of

distribution used in urban and semi-urban areas. The time by which it is

expected to have been completed is generally regarded as being between 6 and

6.30 a.m. The target time can be a little later at weekends. Early morning

delivery covers about 90 per cent of all households in metros. Each year,

approximately 70 per cent of the total number of newspapers ordered on

subscription, reach their readers through the early morning distribution

system. Early morning delivery is always carried out under contract. The

forms of contract delivery that are agreed with newspaper publishers include

early morning, Saturday and Sunday delivery.

2) Regular Postal Delivery: The items delivered include letters, newspapers,

magazines and periodicals. The relevant legislation requires the regular

delivery round to have been completed by 4 p.m., but in practice the

overwhelming majority of items have been delivered several hours earlier than

that. About 16 per cent of newspapers that have been ordered on subscription

are delivered by the postal service For example, a person who has moved

away from a small locality and wishes to keep informed about events there by

reading the local paper can typically have it delivered to the new address with

the postal service’s regular delivery.

3) Spot Selling: This is the last stage of distributing the newspaper at this point

normally the rate of marine is high. Because its end of distribution channel.

Normally 13 percentages of people gets product through this stage.

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Reverse Logistic:

In newspaper industry unsold newspaper i.e. excess paper are scrap so it send it to the

recycling which is completely outsource. So they need to take the proper decision

regarding the quantities of prints such extra newspaper can pick up next day by

company.

Distribution of Newspaper in Rural India

At 3am a newspaper distribution van of printing press of sets out in the dark with

bundles of paper. It makes its way around 40 km. away, every day.

By 4am, when nondescript roadside tea stalls in villages are wakes up to business, the

van has already dropped copies of the newspaper at specified place. The copies of the

newspaper wrapped in neat bundles, they make curiously small package for delivering

to readers in neighboring district. at least 3 hours after the bundles have been

delivered in various places through the various modes of transport.

Rural India is a key market for the newspaper and part of its aggressive plan to access

places in difficult terrain, It has been more about accessibility then volumes.

Newspaper’s sales strategies in rural India :

For the newspaper’s sales strategies, penetration of rural markets involves a two

pronged approach : 1) build varied network of information providers from throw

regions, such as the postman, milkman bus conductors and drivers in small places like

Raghopur in Bihar where boats are the only means of transport when floods engulf

each year. 2) To encourage local vendors to sell the newspaper.

Compensation Plan in rural India :

“Earlier, the information providers were paid a fixed monthly remuneration but after

the growth of market, various vendors are appointed on a commission basis”

Developing grapevine through local news :

One strong USP or unique selling proposition is the news paper’s emphasis on

localized content and regional dialects that its readers can connect with. In rural area

21

local dialects changes every 40 km. Local news network in districts, blocks and

villages, the three levels at which local administrative bodies in India function, to tap

local news and issues that have a bearing on people’s lives, which in turn, has

improved its reach. Some special reporters concentrate on crime and development

issues in the region and believes that while newspaper in the world over are dying,

rural markets in India would to read them for decades ahead.

Reflecting rural shift :

The newspaper’s advertisement spaces also reflect a rural shift : In excess of 905 of

advertisements come from either local sources or government departments. Weather it

is advertisements for locally made tobacco products, Jewellary stores or motorcycles,

advertisements in newspaper reflect the testes and aspirations of its readers. It has also

served as an information provider on job vacancies, Kisan Credit Card camps in

villages and newer, Fuel-efficient motorcycles.

Paper at 2 : 30 am, Bundles of paper are loaded in vans for distribution across

bazaar

22

By 315 the van is battling traffic on the national highway

Milkman makes his way to deliver the paper through sand.

23

Boats are the only means of transport when floods engulf.

Newspaper reading is now a community pastime

24

Group of people sharing news, debate & discussion issue.

25

SWOT ANALYSIS

The more you think about it, the more you need to understand one of the largest and

fastest growing markets of the world .Through understanding of the market is

necessary before it can be served

To formulate and implement effective strategies a clear understanding has to be

obtained of the rural as well as urban environment, its strengths, weakness,

opportunities and threats (SWOT) which will help in the framework of new theories

that are emerging, due to the transformations taking place in rural India.

STRENGTHS:

742million people

Marketers can make effective use of the large available infrastructure

1. Post offices 1,38,000

2. Entry of IFRA worldwide research services industry for newspaper

3. 2.1 million rural readers

4. Large number of Public distribution shops

5. 2000 daily newspaper in 100 languages

6. Helps to educate the people

Abundance of circulation in rural area also.

WEAKNESSES:

Understanding the rural consumer

Poor infrastructure

Physical distribution

Channel management

Promotion and marketing communication

Disposable Income Is Low

Individuals Decide About Purchases

Illiteracy

Brand loyal

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OPPURTUNITIES:

Infrastructure is improving

In 50 years only 40% villages were connected by road, in the next 10 years

another 30% would be linked.

More than 90 % of the villages are electrified, though only 44% rural homes

have electric connections.

Social Indicators have improved a lot between 1981 and 2001

Rural literacy level improved from 36% to 59%

Penetration rate in rural market is low so there are many marketing

opportunities.

Develop number of employment opportunities

THREATS:

Natural calamities – One of the main obstacle of circulation is market is that

natural calamities

Increase Competition

Lack of workers in ground areas

Increase the use of internet

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4A’s of Newspaper marketing

Availability:

The first challenge in newspaper marketing is to ensure availability of the product or

service. India's 7, 00,000 villages are spread over 3.2 million sq km; 700 million

Indians may live in rural areas, finding them is not easy. They are highly dispersed.

Given the poor infrastructure, it is a greater challenge to regularly reach products to

the far-flung villages. Marketer should plan accordingly and strive to reach these

markets n a regular basis. Marketers must trade off the distribution cost with

incremental market penetration. India's largest paper manufacturer, Hindustan Times,

has built a strong distribution system which helps its brands reach the interiors of the

rural market. To service remote village, agent stock use milkman, postman, bus

conductors and drivers, and even boats in the backwaters of Kerala, Bihar etc.

Affordability:

The second major challenge is to ensure affordability of the product or service. With

low disposable incomes, products need to be affordable to the consumer, most of who

are the daily readers. A solution to this has been introduction of advertisement in

newspaper. Large amount of revenue is generated through this adds in newspaper ,

and so it is possible to reduce the cost of paper. Even though the production cost of

paper is huge i.e. approximately Rs. 9 to 10 its available in the range of Rs. 2 to 5

Acceptability:

The next challenge is to gain acceptability for the product in market. Therefore, there

is a need to offer products that suit the market. We need to develop a customized

paper for various regions. To accept the paper in the market we need to identify the

tendency, capacity, likes and dislikes of the target audience.

Awareness:

The fourth important things in newspaper marketing are creating the awareness of the

product in the market. And for that various promotion tools are need to use such as

advertising, trade events, Free sampling, involvement of media partners, social

awareness campaign etc. are done to create the awareness.

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4 P’s of Newspaper Marketing.

MARKETING MIX (4 P’S OF MARKETING)

Marketing Mix is the set of marketing tools that the firm uses to pursue its marketing

objectives. Marketing mix has a classification for these marketing tools. These

marketing are classified and called as the Four Ps i.e. Product, Price, Place and

Promotion.

The most basic marketing tool is product which includes product design, quality,

features, branding, and packaging.

A critical marketing tool is price i.e. the amount of money that customers pay for the

product. It also includes discounts, allowances, credit terms and payment period.

Place is another key marketing mix tool. And it includes various activities the

company undertakes to make the product accessible and available to the customer.

Some factors that decide the place are transport facilities, channels of distribution,

coverage area, etc.

Promotion is the fourth marketing mix tool which includes all the activities that the

company undertakes to communicate and promote its product to target market.

Promotion includes sales promotion, advertising, sales force, public relations, direct

marketing, etc.

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Product:

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. It is of two types: Tangible (physical) and Intangible (non-physical). Since services have been at the forefront of all modern marketing strategies, some intangibility has become essential part of marketing offers. It is therefore the complete bundle of benefits or satisfactions that buyers perceive they will obtain if they purchase the product. It is the sum of all physical, psychological, symbolic, and service attributes, not just the physical merchandise. All products offered in a market can be placed between Tangible (Pure Product) and Intangible (Pure Service) spectrum.

Pricing:

A customer is price sensitive and shops for value. This is mainly because of his

income levels than his perception. Hence the marketer has to find ways of making the

product affordable to the consumer. The product packaging and presentation offers

scope for keeping the price low. Reusable paper are also preferred and are seen as

value addition. In many paper manufacturing company, the price is the assigned

numerical monetary value of a goods, service or asset. Price is also central to

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marketing where it is one of the four variables in the marketing mix that business

people use to develop a marketing plan. Pricing is a big part of the marketing mix.

Choosing the right price and the right pricing strategy is crucial to the marketing

process.

The price of the product is not something that is fixed. On the other hand the price of

the product depends on many other factors. Some times the price of the product has

got nothing to do with the actual product itself. The price may act as a way to attract

target customers.

The price of the product is decided keeping many things in mind. These things

include factors like cost incurred on the product, target market, competitors, consumer

buying capacity etc.

Placement or Distribution:

Place is a term that has a variety of meanings in a dictionary sense, but which is

principally used in a geographic sense as a noun to denote location, though in a sense

of a location identified with that which is located there.

In marketing, place refers to one of the 4 P's, defined as "the market place". It can

mean a geographic location, an industry, a group of people (a segment) to whom a

company wants to sell its products, such as young , professional or middle-aged

family men etc.

There are some problems of rural distribution:

Transportation has not been fully developed.

Lack of proper channels of communication like telephone, postal services, and

so on pose a lot of problem to marketer to service the retailer as it is difficult

to the retailers to place order for goods.

Transportation of goods in rural areas is also a problem for the marketers.

Multiple tiers push up the costs and channel management is a major problem

for marketers due to lot of middlemen in the process.

Availability of suitable dealers

Poor viability of rural outlets

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Promotion:

Communication to consumer is through organized media like TV, Radio, Social

campaign etc. Media. The most common conventional media include: Print,

Television and Print. The Non-conventional media include: Free sampling, Posters

etc. The conventional media have excellent reach, less expensive and create a better

impact. it is customized to reach each area also offers necessary coverage at times.

Low literacy rates, culture, traditions, rural reach, attitudes and behavior are the other

problems in rural communication. An effective promotion should plan for a proper

mix of media. This is very important to create a mind share in the rural consumers.

Hence, talking to the customer in a language known to him, advertising the functional

benefits and demonstrating the product go a long way in capturing the wide market.

Newspaper manufacturers are also apprehensive to "Go Rural." Since, the rural

consumers are scattered and it is difficult to predict the demand in the rural market.

Few agencies that are trying to create awareness about the rural market and its

importance. Promotion is one of the four aspects of marketing.

Promotion comprises four subcategories:

Advertising

Personal selling

Sales promotion

Publicity and public relations

The specification of these four variables creates a promotional mix or promotional

plan. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the four

subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have

a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance,

creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a

corporate image

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PRINT COMPETITION IN MUMBAI AND THE MARKET OF NEWSPAPERS

The print medium in Mumbai has been rapidly expanding, with the introduction of

three major newspapers in 2005. Mumbai Mirror, a product hastily put forth by The

Times of India in anticipation of DNA and Hindustan Times, was the first off the

block. Next came Hindustan Times, which was launched on July 14. DNA was

launched on July 30. With the introduction of these newspapers, Mumbai is now a

major print medium publishing centre. The almost-170-years-old Times of India leads

the pack, followed by DNA, Mid Day, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, the

Asian Age, etc. There are other small newspapers like the Afternoon Despatch and

Courier and the Free Press Journal. Surprisingly, DNA's counter sales are giving the

afternoon tabloid Mid-Day a run for its money. But, as a newspaper agent points out,

a vendor stands to earn 45 paise more per copy if he sells DNA in the raddi (recycled

paper) market, rather than selling it at the counter at Rs. 2. As Charudatt Dangat,

Mumbai's largest newspaper agent, put it, "What choice does the reader really have?

It's more in terms of price. Most of the stories in all of the newspapers are the same.

The journalists keep shifting, from The Times of India to DNA and back again."

Another industry insider added, "Even though the readers want better content,

unfortunately, the competition is taking place on the marketing and sales front, rather

than the editorial." With a six lakh circulation, The Times Of India was far ahead of

earlier competitors like Indian Express (58,000). In fact, it was The Economic Times

(1.47 lakhs) and Mid-Day (1.40 lakhs) that trailed in second place after The Times of

India in Mumbai. While there are varying estimates on how the new newspapers are

doing, market sources estimate that DNA sells around two lakhs and Hindustan Times

1.40 lakhs. However, DNA claims that it is printing 2.90 lakh copies and Hindustan

Times says it sells 2 lakh copies. Traditional market leader ToI continues to rule the

market with a readership of 1,719,000. Given the readership of 1,745,000 that it had

in the last round, this is hardly a bothering dip. Months before DNA and Hindustan

Times launched in Mumbai, The Times of India went on the defensive and started a

new `compact' newspaper, somewhat like a tabloid, called Mumbai Mirror. But it did

not sell much, so The Times of India started distributing it free with the main

newspaper. Now, for Rs.4, The Times of India reader gets more than 100 pages. "We

33

always knew that there was space for a second newspaper in Mumbai, and so we

started an alternative to broadsheets - a compact. By including Mumbai Mirror with

The Times of India. "The Mirror is a newspaper for the new generation who want

news-on-the-go like McDonalds. It's for the supersonic age where people want to scan

news without going into too much depth." It is essentially a `blockading' strategy -

you flood the reader with so much that he/she does not feel the need for another

newspaper. "A normal reader spends 20-25 minutes on newspapers. Do you think

he/she will spend more time reading just because there are new newspapers?" asks

Das. The half period figures released by MRUC (Media Research Users Council) in

the IRS 2006, Round 1 don’t show that these papers made a noticeable dent in the

Times of India’s popularity. The results show that although Hindustan Times has

managed 2.85 lakh readers, DNA has a readership of 4.02 lakh. In comparison,

Mumbai Mirror, the tabloid launched by the TOI group has managed a 7.65 lakh

readership figure. Nothing definitive coming from there right now but DNA is elated.

"In the next few years, Mumbai's market will expand by up to 75 per cent, with even

The Times of India growing,"

HERE AND THERE TECHNIQUES

Why has Mumbai's lethargic newspaper industry suddenly become a `hot market' for

new competitors? First, because it has the country's largest advertisement revenue of

Rs.1, 000 crores, of which only one player - The Times of India - has the lion's share.

The new entrants are vying for a piece of the pie. The Times of India's advertising

rates are the highest in the country. For long, advertisers have felt that they have been

held to ransom as they have no choice but to pay exorbitant rates to The Times of

India in order to reach Mumbai's up market consumers. Now, there are other

platforms, but they will have to prove themselves before advertisers start considering

them an option. "Advertisers are happy that there will be competitors. But, there won't

be a dramatic shift in ad spends in the short term.

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Invitation From World Association of Newspaper

The invitation was issued at the Annual General Meeting of WAN, being held at this

year’s World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo

2008 in Göteborg, Sweden. More than 1,800 newspaper publishers, chief editors and

other senior newspaper executives attended the Göteborg meetings.

India has than 2000 daily newspapers in 100 languages with a combined circulation of

90 million.

Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh and India’s fifth largest city, is a

cosmopolitan city now vying to become India’s Silicon Valley. It has a blend of rich

cultures and a renowned cuisine. It is a centre for the pearl trade.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organization for the newspaper industry, defends

and promotes press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers

world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 77 national

newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives

in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups.

35

New IFRA services for the Indian Newspaper Industry

Ifra-RIND Material Testing & Research Centre inaugurated

Darmstadt, Germany / Chennai, India, 30 January 2007 – Ifra India and the Research

Institute for Newspaper Development (RIND) have joined forces to start the Ifra-

RIND Material Testing & Research Centre, which was inaugurated on 22 January by

Reiner Mittelbach, Ifra’s CEO.

The facility, located on RIND premises in Taramani, Chennai, is the first of its kind

and offers testing of newspaper printing materials and research services.“The industry

has long called for an independent and professional laboratory where all newspapers

can test their printing materials and this Ifra-RIND centre will answer this need. It

will be a one-stop centre for newsprint and newsink testing needs,” said R.Mittelbach.

Extensive testing equipment available:

Initially, the following testing services are being offered by the centre:

– Paper grammage; colour of paper substrate; fineness of ink grind;

– Printability tests: ink mileage and consumption, print through, set-off, picking,

linting, printing penetration, mottle;

– Optical characteristics: density, tone value increase (dot gain), mid-tone spread,

colours, printable colour gamut; screening: screen ruling, screen angles, dot shape.

These tests play a vital role in the quality of the printed paper and if properly

controlled, they can result in savings for newspapers. The centre has the following

testing equipment: Precision Balance from Switzerland, Printability Tester from The

Netherlands, Spectrophotometer from the USA and Grindometer from Germany.

Other equipment that is planned to be added later will include: a special spectrometer

for paper, tensile tester, digital micrometer, roughness tester, tear tester, rheometer,

tackmeter, abrasion tester and ash content meter for testing Newsshade, tensile

strength, sheet thickness, surface roughness, tearing strength, viscosity, ink tack, rub-

off and ash content. The centre is also supported by major Indian newspaper

publishers such as ABP, Deccan Herald, Dinamalar, Malayala Manorama, Manipal

Media Network, Mathrubhumi and The Hindu. Two inks suppliers – DIC Inks and

Micro Inks – complete the list of the centre’s initial supporters.

36

Becoming a ‘Regional Quality Competence Centre’:

In the future, the centre plans to conduct research to improve the overall quality of

newspaper printing. It will undertake studies on standardizing newspaper

consumables as well as trends in Indian newspaper printing. These activities will not

be restricted only to newspapers, but will also cover magazine printing and other

newspaper-related printing areas on request. As such, the services will be open to any

newspaper, magazine or commercial printers offering printing services to the

publishing industry. Ultimately, the centre will be a “Regional Quality Competence

Centre” for testing newspaper printing materials in the entire South Asian region.

An initiative of Ifra:

The Ifra-RIND Material Testing & Research Centre is an initiative of Ifra, the world’s

leading association for newspaper and media publishing. Based in Darmstadt,

Germany, Ifra acts as a platform for decision makers from the newspaper industry. Its

main task is to help its members keep pace with the rapid changes in technology.

The Indian office, Ifra India (www.ifra.com/india), is based in Chennai and helps

bring Ifra services closer to companies in India. Currently, there are more than 35 Ifra

members in India, including most of the leading publications. Ifra India organizes an

annual conference, seminars and workshops dedicated to the publishing industry and

also offers consulting and training programmers’.

Ifra has long followed the growth of the newspaper industry in India and gears its

services to reflect the needs of Indian publishers. The ICONS initiative, the

standardization project for Indian newspapers, is one such effort. Also, Ifra is

launching a full-scale exposition in India, Ifra Expo India 2007. The event, the first of

its kind for Ifra outside of Europe, will take place from 4 to 6 September at the

Chennai Trade Centre.

37

Best Business Newspaper in India:

So here are the winners:

1. Which newspaper do you think comes out with the most number of

in-depth/intelligent articles?

Winner: Mint

Ever since its launch, Mint has always positioned itself as a newspaper that analyzes

developments in the financial worlds and presents them in a way that is easy to

understand to the reader. It has also put focus on coming up with more in-depth

feature stories than providing short news bytes.

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2. Which newspaper do you think comes out with the most number of inside stories/or

spicy bits of companies?

Winner: The Economic Times

The Economic Times, as we know, has come out with stories that have created many

crisis like situations for many of our clients. Exclusives, inside stuffs - the kind of

things the journalists out there always seem to be after.

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3. Which newspaper do you think comes out with the best predictions of economic

trends/ business houses?

Winner: The Economic Times

It is interesting to note how The Economic Times has swallowed up a majority of the

pie on this question and the above. No wonder this is India’s largest circulated

financial daily.

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4.Which newspaper do you think provides you with the widest gamut of news

coverage?

Winner: The Times of India

Some people have questioned that why include the dailies like The Times of India

among the financial dailies. Our take was that these dailies today come up with

sections of 8-10 pages of business news that have become financial newspapers in

themselves. But perhaps the widest gamut of news coverage might not be limited to

only business news here.

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5. Which newspaper do you think has the maximum number of journalists who are

very professional in their approach?

Winner: The Hindu Business Line

The Hindu Business Line, as we know, is one of those newspapers that puts

journalism ethics above anything else. The staff there are also superb, based on

personal experiences- knowledgeable, intelligent, helpful, modest.

Disclaimer: The results above are based on an online survey taken at India PR Blog

among readers of this blog who chose to participate. The survey is educational and for

research purposes and it does not imply the actual standings of these newspapers

among its readers, stakeholders, or others sections of the market. The voting is done

and the results of the recent ‘Let’s rate the media’ survey on India PR Blog. There

were around 382 responses out of which around 300 valid and completed responses

were chosen. The results are interesting, though not very different to what many of us

already know but might help in putting a number and validating what we think,

especially as the votes were from PR professionals who deal with these newspapers

day in and out

http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/09/lets-rate-the-media.html

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Literature Review

In India, newspapers are published in about 100 regional languages and dialects other

than Hindi and English. Over the years, the number of dailies has steadily increased.

Their number increased to 5638 in 2001 from 5364 in the previous year, i.e. by 5.11

per cent. The total circulation of daily newspapers was 5,78,44,236 in 2001.

In 2001, The Hindu, an English daily, published from Chennai was the largest

circulated single edition daily with claimed circulation of 9,37,222 followed by

Hindustan Times, English Daily, published from Delhi with a circulation of 9,09,278.

Anand Bazar Patrika, Bengali Daily, came third, whereas The Times of India, English

Daily, was fourth.

With such huge number of newspapers and such enormous circulation, the supply

chain model for the newspaper industry is a challenge in itself. Moreover, due to the

perishable nature of the product, its distribution needs all the more importance.

A newspaper industry consists of five major functional areas. These include editorial,

advertising, production, administration and circulation. If the same is compared to a

manufacturing industry, one can easily realize the commonalities in the functions.

Editorial supplies the raw material, which is transformed to the finished product

through printing. The marketing function is performed by advertising and

management is done by administration. The key area of sales of the product is dealt

by circulation, hence the importance of distribution channel in the newspaper

industry.

Distributing a perishable product

The newspaper production/distribution problem is an example of a perishable-good

production and distribution problem. A perishable good is one that either loses

significant value if stored or a good that will cause economic loss if delivered late.

There are three main categories of perishable goods: Goods that are perishable only

when considered by the customer; Goods that are perishable only to the manufacturer;

and Goods that are perishable to both the manufacturer and the customer. Newspapers

43

fall into this later category. Newspaper companies cannot print the news sections of

the newspaper in advance because of the requirement that news be timely.

Additionally, with the increase in commuting times, especially in the large,

metropolitan markets, late delivery is also not entertained. Therefore, newspaper

production/distribution is the problem of distributing highly perishable products under

severe time constraints.

The distribution channel consists of stages involved in fulfilling consumer

requirements. The channel includes manufactures, suppliers, transporters, vendors and

customers.

Raw material for the newspaper industry, news, is supplied by the editorial, which is a

functional area in the newspaper office itself. The editorial is fed with news from

various places by reporters, correspondents and news agencies. The final news is sent

to the printing facility where the newspaper is printed.

The printed newspaper is dispatched to various distributors across the country through

transportation. Transportation is normally through private contract carriers within

local area, public transport in case of longer distances and through couriers in other

cases.

The newspaper distributor has sole rights to distribute the newspaper in his area. His

revenue is based on a commission on the sale of every newspaper. He achieves

circulation through salesmen appointed and salaried by him, who in turn pass it on to

hawkers.

Hawkers, vendors and book stall owners are the last link of the supply chain before

newspaper reaches readers. The hawkers’ remuneration is based on a commission

system and is the highest in the entire supply chain.

The most important issue to deal with in distribution of newspapers is the distribution

of newspapers to subscribers at minimum costs all the while presenting the correct

edition of the paper to each subscriber on time. For a major metropolitan morning

newspaper, it is a daily task of producing a total of several hundred thousand

newspapers in many editions and delivering them to home delivery customers in

44

approximately six hours. The key timing parameters are the start of the press run, say

at midnight, and the requirement that each customer receives her/his paper before,

say, 6 a.m. In order to better serve their advertisers and subscribers, newspapers

produce many editions of the newspaper for different demographic/ geographic

regions. The products may differ in editorial content, in run of paper advertisements,

and in advertising inserts. The design of the distribution system involves solving

several location-allocation routing and clustering problems.

The newspaper industry is becoming very competitive with the national players

competing with the regional players. As stated earlier, newspaper is a perishable

commodity and in order to cater to needs of the customer in various geographical

locations, a newspaper has to be published from various locations. This helps in

achieving a strategic fit between the supply chain and the customer needs.

The consumers are primarily looking for a national newspaper giving regional news

as well. Consumers also demand faster response time because of the perishable nature

of the product. In order to economize on the costs of the supply chain, the newspaper

needs to have regional publication units with both national and regional news varieties

in the same newspaper.

As has been shown by various studies, newspaper readers do not want to spend more

on reading a newspaper. Thus an economy of scale is very important factor for a

newspaper. It is also known that revenue earned through sales of a newspaper is many

times low compared to its production cost; the industry gets most of its revenue

through print advertisements. All these imply that newspaper should achieve a critical

mass of customers to achieve economies of scale.

Responsiveness and efficiency also play an important role in newspaper distribution

channel. Responsiveness includes supply chain’s ability to respond to wide a range of

quantity demanded (due to demand fluctuations) and meet short lead times. On the

other hand efficiency is the cost of making and delivering the newspaper to its reader.

Thus on the basis of the analysis so far, one can say that newspaper supply chain

should have high responsiveness than efficiency. This is depicted graphically in the

following figure:

45




cases.




hawkers.





















46


















following figure:




cases.




hawkers.




47































48





following figure:

As can be seen, the cost in such a case is high, which is what is happening in the

newspaper industry. However, the reader is not burdened to recover these costs. In

fact these are recovered through the advertisements that newspapers publish in their

editions.

The main drivers of supply chain are inventory, transportation, facilities and

information.

Inventory exists in the supply chain because of a mismatch between supply and

demand. Applying this to the newspaper industry, inventory of the raw material i.e.

newsprint is maintained based on the safety inventory model. This model states that

inventory is held just in case demand exceeds expectation, i.e. it is held to counter

uncertainty. Moreover, even some of the news items can also be considered as

inventory. These may include special columns, weekly columns etc. Since these are to

be published periodically, they need to be worked upon well before in time. Also,

some articles should always be ready with the newspaper, just to cover up some free

space that might creep in any edition.

Transportation moves the product between different stages in a supply chain. It

bears a large impact on both responsiveness and efficiency. Faster transportation

allows a supply chain to be more responsive but reduces its efficiency. As stated

earlier, responsiveness is more important for newspaper than efficiency and hence the

need for a faster transportation.

49

Normally newspapers use private carriers to transport the product from publication

facility to various agencies in the region. In case it is required to transport the product

across states, public transport such as rail and air are used.

Deciding where a newspaper should locate its facility constitutes a large part of

design of a supply chain. The tradeoff here is whether to centralize to gain economies

of scale or decentralize to become more responsive by being closer to the customer. In

case of newspaper industry, the second option is desirable. Warehousing in newspaper

industry follows cross-docking model to a good extent. The product from printing

facility is carried to the agents from where it is further transported to salesmen and

hawkers.

The design process of a newspaper supply chain is based on push mechanism, where

everyone is vying for the same pie. The competitive environment pushes players to

increase their market share, which is rule of the game. Moreover, due to very nature

of the product, use of information technology can cater to the need of high

responsiveness.

Increasing varieties of the product with respect to demand for regional, linguistic,

special articles in newspaper is an obstacle towards optimizing entire supply chain.

Newspapers have resorted to mass customization in terms of regional editions of

national dailies to overcome this obstacle.

Fragmentation of supply chain ownership is another cause of concern in the

newspaper industry. The private carriers, the agents and the hawkers have different set

of objectives which might not always suit the objective of the overall supply chain

resulting in reduction of overall profitability.

In case of newspapers, demand is forecasted on the basis of past data. Projection for

the forthcoming week is also based on estimates given by the hawkers. In addition to

this the circulation manager has to formulate his own projections. The company alone

has to the loss arising out of any demand irregularity or failure in demand estimation.

There is also a seasonality factor attached to the newspaper demand forecasting.

Normally the demand falls during vacations as families move out.

50

There are also two sequencing problems. Since the printing facility produces several

different products, there is an ideal sequence in which the production would take

place in order to minimize total (including time spent on set up) time spent on

production. On the other hand, some distribution centers may be farther from the

printing facility than others. The geographic locations of the distribution centers

suggest a preferred sequence in which the distribution system receives papers. For

example, Distribution would prefer that Production produce papers for the most

distant distribution center first. However, this production plan may not be consistent

with Production's preferred sequencing. Consequently, the production and distribution

operations are tightly coupled and must be modeled as such. This makes the problem

substantially more difficult than if the production and distribution operations could be

treated separately.

The communication of news between various offices of a modern newspaper is

achieved through networking. The master newspaper is designed and finalized at the

head office of a newspaper. It is then made available on the intranet of the newspaper

company. The local editions are normally generated by making suitable changes to

the master copy on the intranet itself. Even the printing of various editions is done at a

common printing facility, to save on additional costs.

This shows the critical role information technology plays in modern day newspaper

printing. It is evident that without this usage it will be extremely difficult to print

multiple editions of a newspaper from various locations. Moreover, Information

technology also plays an important role in designing of a newspaper, including its

layout. It also saves on critical changeover time during printing.

Information technology helps gather news and advertisements from all sources across

the country and put to one newspaper edition. If said in one simple sentence, use of

information technology has made the life of newspaper industry much easier and

simpler.

Optimization model

51

The overall distribution problem can be viewed similar to the traveling salesman

problem. The entire distribution network can be segregated into various hawker points

and an optimized route proposed for each of them, based on the vehicle capacity

constraints.

Starting at the first hawker, newspaper requirements are accumulated until the vehicle

limit is reached. At this hawker, another vehicle route is begun. The procedure is

continued until all the hawkers are included in some route.

After the routes that include all the hawkers and that satisfy the vehicle capacity

constraints have been constructed, the time constraints must be checked. The routes

describe the distance the vehicle must travel on each route and the sequence in which

hawkers on that route are visited. For each route, the distance along the route, from

the production facility to the last hawker point visited can be calculated. The time the

vehicles stop at each hawker also needs to be considered.

The production schedule can be deduced by arranging the routes in a sequence that

will ensure delivery of all the newspapers by the prescribed time. This sequence can

be developed by arranging the routes in descending order of the total route length

distance from the production facility to the last hawker. Usually, newspapers for the

farthest hawkers are produced and shipped first since the total delivery time is greater.

Costs can be divided into two major categories: costs associated with the actual

production and distribution activities, and costs directly attributable to the

perishability of either an input or an output. The latter costs will be accrued only if the

schedule is not feasible. In the newspaper problem, an infeasible solution would be

one in which not all newspapers are delivered by the deadline. The costs associated

with this infeasibility may include the cost of the newspaper, a lost opportunity and

the cost of processing the complaint.

The distribution of perishable commodities has a number of features distinguishing it

from other distribution operations. For example, the commodities cannot be produced

or purchased in advance for inventory. Distribution centers rather than warehouses

play an important role, and production and distribution are necessarily intimately

52

related. In addition, the total time devoted to both production and distribution may be

severely limited thereby further tying together the design and operation of the

production and distribution functions. These distinguishing features increase the

complexity of the production/distribution problem for perishable goods. It is also a

problem that has not been adequately addressed in the operations research or supply

chain literature.

Consumer Buying Behavior :

53

Consumer decision making would vary with the type of buying decision. You would

agree that decision to buy toothpaste, a tennis racket; personal computer and a car are

all different. There are 4 types of buying behavior based on the degree of buyer

involvement and the degree of difference between buyers: -

Complex buying behavior: - This type of buying behavior is involved when the

product is expensive, bought infrequently. E.g.: Automobile The consumer will spend

lot of time in discussing and planning about the purchase of such a product.

Dissonance reducing buying behavior: - This type of buying behavior is involved

when purchase is expensive, infrequent and risky but there is not much difference

between the various brands. E.g.: you are planning to buy a DDA flat in a particular

locality. You would agree that all the flats are similar in size and construction. Once

you decide to buy a particular flat you will be more concerned that you should not

have any problem after buying it. Let us assume you wanted to buy a flat and you

have not noticed a dustbin close to it. Now when you come to know about dustbin you

would not have buys that flat.

Habitual buying behavior: - This type of buying behavior is for the product, which

have low involvement and the absence of significant difference between the brands.

These products are frequently purchased. E.g.: When you want to buy product like

salt you don’t even think when you go to store whatever brand is available you would

have pick it up. Variety seeking buying behavior: - This type of buying behavior is

involved when low involvement is there but there are significant differences between

the brand. E.g.: Think about cookies, you may want to change the cookies that you

had last time not because they were bad but you want to change the taste.

High Involvement Low Involvement

Significance Difference

Between the Brands

Few Difference

Between the Brands

Complex buying

Behavior

Variety seeking

Buying behavior

Dissonance

reducing

Habitual buying

Behavior

54

FIVE STAGE MODEL OF CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS

NEED IDENTIFICATION: the buying process starts when the buyer recognizes a

problem or need, this need could be because of internal or external stimulation.

INTERNAL STIMULATION: say when we are hungry we may want to eat

something.

EXTERNAL STIMULATION: say when we are passing through a bakery shop you

smell the freshly baked biscuits based on this you may want to buy, to consume

biscuits

INFORMATION SEARCH: Once the need has been identified the consumer would

look for more information about the product. This information he may get from

personal sources {family friends, neighbors, etc.} or commercial sources

{advertising, sales person, dealers, displays}

EVALUATON OF ALTERNATIVES: Now that consumer has got information of the

product and the companies that are selling their product. He would to evaluate the

various alternatives that he has, various products will have different attributes on

which they would be evaluated. For e.g.: cameras, picture sharpness, camera speed,

camera size and price

PURCHASE DECISION: As the consumer has evaluated various alternatives, he

would then purchase the product. This is the final act that the consumer performs after

evaluating all the alternatives.

POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR: Once the consumers have purchased the product,

he would either satisfied or dissatisfied. If the consumer is satisfied, he will tell his

friends about the same and as such a better word of mouth is spread of the product.

But in case the consumer is dissatisfied he will tell to all his friends and associates

about the dissatisfaction that he had after using or consuming the given product.

Methodology:

55

This study aims to identify the impact of brand preference on newspaper among the

consumers for its purpose data were collected by survey methods through

questionnaire. This questionnaire contained the questions regarding various attributes

of newspaper.

Sampling:

Totally 50 respondents have been interviewed and the data have been collected. The

area of study has been restricted to 50 respondents were selected at random for the

purpose of the study.

Frame work of analysis:

The study of brand preference for newspaper has been made through questionnaire

method. 50 respondents are selected randomly and were asked to answer the question

based upon their answer the classification of respondents are done and are analyzed

and interpreted. Graphical representation & Chi-square test is used while analyzing

and interpreting the data.

Source of data:

The study is based on primary data only. The required information was collected

through the questionnaire from the consumers directly by interviewing them and

information regarding the physical distribution, marketing and handling of

newspaper are collected through unscheduled interviews with the various expert.

56

Analysis & Interpretation

Age of respondent :

Preferred BrandBelow

25 25 - 30Above

30 TotalThe Hindu Business Line 0 3 0 3Business Standard 1 2 1 4Hindustan Times 2 2 0 4The Economic Times 3 1 2 6The Times of India 7 5 2 14The Indian Express 1 0 2 3Mint 3 4 0 7The Hindu 2 0 0 2Other 4 0 3 7 23 17 10 50

1) Chi - square value : 22.701 3) Degree of freedom : 16

2) P – value : 0.12196425

As per the age of respondent, 14 out of the 50 respondent are loyal to the Times Of India

brand & P-value is 0.12196425 > 0.05 therefore result is non-significant i.e. relationship

between age of respondent & their preferred brand newspaper is not up to the level

57

Which Of The Following Factor influence you to choose present brand?

Below 25 25 - 30

Above 30 Total

Price 1 0 0 1In depth Intelligent articles 7 5 3 15More no. of inside or spicy bits 4 4 1 9prediction of economic trends / business houses 4 2 2 8widest game out of new coverage 2 2 0 4professional approach of news description 5 4 4 13 23 17 10 50


2) P – value : 0.93717707

15 out of the 50 respondent are interested ‘In depth intelligent articles’ P-value is

0.93717707 which is much greater than 0.05 therefore result is non-significant i.e. there is

no relationship between factors influence to purchase present brand of respondent & age of

respondent.

Have you ever changed your brand? Below 25 - 30 Above Total

58

25 30

Yes 14 3 6 23

No 9 14 4 27

Total 23 17 10 50

Reasons

Price raises 0 1 1 2

lack of availability 11 7 8 26

Other specify 12 9 1 22

23 17 10 50

1) Chi - square value : 8.338 3) Chi - square value : 8.338

2) P – value : 0.07995265

27 out of the 50 respondents will not change their newspaper brand due to the lack of

availability or any other reason. P-value is 0.07995265 < 0.05 i.e. result is not

significant therefore there is a relationship between changing of preferred brand &

age of respondent

How do you know your preferred brand? Below 25 - 30 Above Total

59

25 30

friends 7 5 2 14

Advertisement 3 4 1 8

Relative 5 4 2 11

Shopkeepers 0 1 3 4

Teacher 5 2 0 7

Other 3 1 2 6

23 17 10 50


2) P – value : 0.23541868

7 out of the 14 respondents have an age below 25 years well known about their newspaper

through friends. P-value is 0.23541868 > 0.05 i.e. result is non-significant; therefore there is

no relationship between preferred brand awareness & age of respondent.

60

Will you change the brand if your family income level is increases?

Below 25 25 - 30

Above 30 Total

yes 0 4 2 6

no 23 13 8 44

23 17 10 50

1) Chi - square value : 5.882 3) Degree of freedom :

2) P – value : 0.05281289

44 out of the 50 respondents will not change their newspaper due to the changes in family

income of respondent. P-value is 0.0 < 0.05281289 i.e. result is not significant therefore

there is no relationship between changing of preferred brand & age of respondent.

61

Gender :

Preferred Brand Male Female TotalThe Hindu Business Line 1 2 3Business Standard 3 1 4Hindustan Times 2 2 4The Economic Times 3 3 6The Times of India 12 2 14The Indian Express 1 2 3Mint 1 6 7The Hindu 0 2 2Other 5 2 7 28 22 50


2) P – value : 0.04601544

As per the gender of respondent, Times of India is most dominant newspaper brand

preferred by 14 respondents, out of those 12 respondents are male & 2 are female. P-value

is 0.04601544 > 0.05 i.e. result is significant; therefore there is relationship between brand

preference & gender of respondent.

62

Which Of The Following Factor influences you to choose present brand? Male Female Total

Price 0 1 1

In depth Intelligent articles 8 7 15

More no. of inside or spicy bits 4 5 9

prediction of economic trends / business houses 7 1 8

widest game out of new coverage 2 2 4

professional approach of news description 7 6 13

28 22 50


2) P – value : 0.40284253

8 out of the 15 respondents are male & 7 are female who are interested to know the In

depth intelligent articles. P-value is 0.40284253 > 0.05 i.e. result is not significant;

therefore there is no relationship between factors influence to purchase preferred

brand & gender of respondent.

63

Have you ever changed your brand? Male Female Total

Yes 13 10 23

No 15 12 27

Total 28 22 50

Reasons

Price raises 0 2 2

lack of availability 15 11 26

Other specify 13 9 22

28 22


2) P – value : 0.99750312

Almost equally male & female have changed their preferred brand due to lack of

availability of preferred brand. P-value is 0.99750312 > 0.05 i.e. result is not

significant; therefore there is a relationship between changing of brand & gender

of respondent.

64

How do you know your preferred brand? Male Female Totalfriends 8 6 14Advertisement 6 2 8Relative 4 7 11Shopkeepers 2 2 4Teacher 4 3 7Other 4 2 6 28 22 50


2) P – value : 0.66303942

8 out of the 14 respondents are male well known about their preferred brand through

friends. P-value is 0.66303942 > 0.05 i.e. result is non-significant; therefore there is no

relationship between preferred brand awareness factor & gender of respondent.

65

Will you change the brand if your family income level is increases? Male Female Total

Yes 2 4 6

No 26 18 44

28 22 50


2) P – value : 0.23307449

26 out of 44 respondents are male and remaining 18 are female will not change their

brand will not change the newspaper even though the family income is increased. P-

value is 0.23307449 > 0.05 so the result is not significant. So there is no relation

between income & gender in newspaper consumption.

66

Family Income :

Which newspaper is preferred by you?

Preferred BrandLess then Rs. 10000

Rs. 10001 to Rs. 20000

More then 20000 Total

The Hindu Business Line 0 2 1 3Business Standard 0 2 2 4Hindustan Times 1 1 2 4The Economic Times 1 4 1 6The Times of India 5 4 5 14The Indian Express 1 1 1 3Mint 2 2 3 7The Hindu 0 0 2 2Other 4 3 7 14 19 17 50


2) P – value : 0.51754588

As per the monthly income of the family, again Times of India is a most preferred

brand. 14 out of 50 respondents of different income level preferred same newspaper.

P-value is 0.51754588 > 0.05 result is not significant; there is no relation between

income of the consumer and newspaper

67

Which Of The Following Factor influences you to choose present brand?

Less then Rs. 10000

Rs. 10001 to Rs. 20000


Price 1 0 0 1In depth Intelligent articles 3 7 5 15More no. of inside or spicy bits 2 4 3 9prediction of economic trends / business houses 2 4 2 8widest game out of new coverage 0 3 1 4professional approach of news distribution 6 1 6 13 14 19 17 50

1) Chi - square value: 10.634 3) Degree of freedom: 10

2) P – Value: 0.3867342

7 out of 15 respondents are having income of Rs. 10001 to 20000 are not interested in

depth intelligent articles. P- Value is 0.3867342 > 0.05 so the result is not significant.

So there is no relation between income level and factor which influence the

newspaper.

68

Have you ever changed your brand?Less then Rs. 10000

Rs. 10001 to Rs. 20000


Yes 5 11 7 23

No 9 8 10 27

Total 14 19 17 50

Reasons

Price raises 2 0 0 2

lack of availability 7 11 8 26

Other specify 5 8 9 22

14 19 17 50

1) Chi - square value: 1.838 3) Degree of freedom: 4

2) P – Value: 0.76552318

11 out of 26 respondents that income level is 10001 to 20000 are not change the

newspaper even though the newspaper is not available in the market P- value is

0.76552318> 0.05 so the result is not significant. So there is no relation between

income level and change in brand

69

How do you know your preferred brand?

Less then Rs. 10000

Rs. 10001 to Rs. 20000


friends 3 6 5 14

Advertisement 1 3 4 8

Relative 3 5 3 11

Shopkeepers 0 2 2 4

Teacher 3 2 2 7

Other 4 1 1 6

14 19 17 50


2) P – value : 0.55934784

6 out of the 14 respondents have a monthly income Rs. 10001 to > 20000, well known about

their preferred brand through friends. P-value is 0.055934784 > 0.05 i.e. result is not

significant; therefore there is no relationship between preferred brand awareness factor &

monthly income of family.

70

Will you change the brand if your family income level is increases?

Less then Rs. 10000

Rs. 10001 to Rs. 20000


yes 4 2 0 6

no 10 17 17 44

14 19 17 50


2) P – value : 0.04983688

44 out of 50 respondents from different income level i.e. 10 out of 14 respondents

have less then 10000 income, 17 out of 19 respondents have less then Rs. 10001 to

20000 and, 17 out of 17 respondents have no willingness to change the news paper. P-

value is 0.04983688 > 0.05 i.e. relation is significant, therefore there is relationship

between different income levels and family income.

71

Findings:

As per the age of respondent:

7 out of the 14 respondents having age of below 25 years who preferring

Times of India brand.

7 out of the 15 respondents having age of below 25 years are interested

In depth Intelligent articles.

14 out of the 27 respondents having age of 25 – 30 years preferred will

not change their brand. Even though there is lack of availability.

7 out of the 14 respondents having an age of below 25 years well known

about their preferred brand through relatives.

23 out of the 44 respondents having age of below 25 years will not

change their brand even though the income level is increased

As per the gender of respondent:

12 out of the 14 respondents are male who preferred Times Of India as

a lead brand.

15 out of the 15 respondents are male who are interested In depth

Intelligent articles.

15 out of the 27 respondents are male preferred Times of India a best for

their regular brand. And they will not change it due to the non

availability.

8 out of the 15 respondents are male well known about their preferred

brand through friends.

26 out of 44 respondents are male will not change their brand even

though the family level is increased.

72

As per the monthly income of family

5 out of the 14 respondents having monthly income less than 10,000 and

another 5 out of 14 respondents having monthly income more than 20000

Rs preferring Times of India Brand as a lead brand.

7 out of the 15 respondents are required in depth intelligent articles

having monthly income Rs. 10001 to 20,000.

10 out of the 27 respondents having monthly income more than 20,000

Rs preferred Times of India for their regular brand. And they will not

change it because lack of availability.

6 out of the 14 respondents having a monthly income Rs. 10001 to

20,000 well known about their preferred brand through friends.

17 out of the 44 respondents having a monthly income Rs. 10001 to

20000 and 17 out of the 44 respondents having a monthly income more

then 20000 will not change their brand due to change in income level.

Conclusion

From the above findings, majority of the population preferred Times

Of India brand mainly below the age of 25

Most of the consumers preferred Times Of India

Mouth publicity i.e. through the friends and relative are the most

important factors for the awareness of preferred brand.

According to Chi-square test,

There is a relationship between following factors,

As per the gender of respondent, Times Of India is most dominant

newspaper brand

Respondents have no willingness to change the news paper even

though the family income is changed.

73

Conclusion on present distribution system of newspaper:

By understanding the process it becomes possible to determine where improvements

can be of value. The model can serve as the basis for finding processes within the

field of distribution to be improved. It may be possible to improve each process;

however, each process must be a project of research. In this licentiate thesis, a model

was created in order to find which process could be improved. It was found that it

would be valuable to improve two processes within morning newspaper distribution:

the information flow and the coordination between the production and the

distribution. The information flow within the distribution process can be improved

with electronic devices used by the truck drivers and the carriers so the problems can

be maintained.

The coordination between production and distribution is important since the time for

distribution is dependent upon the production output. If the copies could be loaded

onto pallets before they are loaded onto the trucks, the time spent by truck drivers on

the loading dock can be decreased.

By changing the information flow and the planning of the loading process, the

distribution can be more effective. The proposed changes might increase the costs

initially for the distribution company, both in terms of investment costs and in running

costs. However, in the long run, improved planning and faster information low with

correct information can bring about rationalizations and an increased delivery quality.

New businesses for the distribution companies may involve both tangible and

intangible products. The distribution of these products may involve physical

distribution as well as electronic distribution. The improvement of physical

distribution may involve an improved information flow with new electronic devices

and an optimization of physical flow.

74

Questionnaire

Personal Profile

1. Age :

2. Gender : Male Female

3. Marital Status : Married Unmarried

4. Income (per month) : Less than 10,000 Rs.

Rs.10, 001 – Rs.20, 000

More than Rs.20, 000

5. Family Size : 1-3 members 4-6 members

: : More than 6 members

Brand Preference

1. Which Newspaper is preferred by you?

The Hindu Business Line The Times Of India

Business Standard The Indian Express

Hindustan Times Mint

The Economic Times The Hindu

Other

2. Which of the following factors influence you to choose present

newspaper?

Price

In-depth Intelligent articles

More no. of inside stories or spicy bits

Prediction of economic trends / business houses

75

Widest game out of news coverage

Professional approach of news description

3. How did you know your preferred brand?

Friends

Advertisement

Relative

Shop keepers

Teacher

Others (specify)

4. Do you know the name of the manufacturer of your preferred brand?

Yes No

5. State the degree of satisfaction in the following (for your preferred brand)

Sr. No. Characteristics

Highly Satisfactory Satisfactory

Not Satisfactory

1) Price

2)

Information

3) More no. Of articles

4) News coverage

5) Advertisement

6. In case of non-availability of your preferred newspaper brand, what will be your next best alternative choice? (Name it)

76

7. Have you ever changed you brand?

Yes No

If yes, mention the reason:

Price raise

Lack of Availability Other (specify)

8. Name the substitute newspaper par brand for your regular newspaper

brand with reason.

Brand Reason

1)

2)

3)

9. Do you feel that your preferred brand of the newspaper enhances your knowledge rich?

Yes No

10. Will you change the brand if your family income level is increases?

Yes No

11. Mention the reasons for selecting the next brand:

Same Price

Same Information

No other alternative

12. Have you ever suggested your preferred newspaper brand to your friends or relatives?

Yes No

77

Bibliography

Unplanned interview with industry expert

1) Danker Kokitkar ( Circulation head of Sakal newspaper)

2) Vijay Jagtap ( Production head in Dhangat media )

3) Sachin Sir ( Marketing head of newspaper company )

4) Shrad Survase (Marketing head of newspaper company)

Various articles in newspaper i.e. Mint, Times of India etc.

Sources: Article on Indian Media Forecast (April 2008)

Group M Specialist Practices: Trading, mConsult, Dialect, Interaction, ESP

GroupM Communications Agencies: MindShare, Maxus, Mediaedge: CIA,

Motivator, MediaCom, Kinetic

‘Let’s rate the media’ survey on India PR Blog.

http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/09/lets-rate-the-media.html

Newspaper Distribution Final Report[1]

Documents

Transcript of Newspaper Distribution Final Report[1]