Indian Newspaper Industry

Indian Newspaper Industry Free Online Research Papers India is one of the few countries in the world to have many business newspapers, which not only reflects the vitality and vibrancy of the media, but also the new vitality of our economy. The large readership for these business newspapers transcends from the rapidly growing corporate sector, it also illustrates the growing interest that the general public now evinces in economic matters which reflect the growing importance of business and economy in our national discourse. There was a huge growth in the sales of the business newspapers for the past few years. According to the recent study by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), this growth would outperform the general economy each year till 2011. The Indian print media industry netted $90.80 million in foreign investment in the last three years, few papers like Business standard have tied up with Financial Times of London. Business newspapers have the ability to carry the message in greater detail and clarity, more in-depth information and analysis, which helps companies and their business. Business newspapers are re-inventing themselves to protect their turf in a fiercely competitive multi-media environment. They are using different strategies to attract the customers of different sectors. Business newspapers focused mainly on business news, insightful views on significant issues and comprehensive coverage of the stock market. They have managed to hold the attention and fidelity of more than 9, 00,000 readers (both individual and corporate across the nation). All the business newspapers in India (Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Times, Business Line, Mint and Financial Chronicle) are working strategically to increase their sales. This Summer Internship Program is also designed with a view to study about the market regarding the personal sale of the Business Standard products and also looking for subscriptions and promoting the product and also creating awareness about business newspapers among different sectors. The aim is to create an in-depth awareness of the brand Business Standard among the various segments of readers, in comparison to other business dailies like Economic Times, Business Line and Financial Times. There is a huge scope of growth for Business newspapers in coming years as only a paltry 0.1% of the population is reading business newspapers at present. Newspapers reach only 35 per cent of our adult population even though the adult literacy is about 65 per cent. To build this gap between readership and literacy and also to remain competitive the publications have kept their prices low and depended entirely on advertisers to subsidize the reader and to increase the sales. Introduction How did the Newspapers originate? The history of newspapers is a dramatic chapter of the human experience going back some five centuries. In Renaissance Europe handwritten newsletters circulated privately among merchants, passing along information about everything from wars and economic conditions to social customs and human interest features. The first printed forerunners of the newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400s in the form of news pamphlets or broadsides, often highly sensationalized in content. Some of the most famous of these report the atrocities against Germans in Transylvania perpetrated by a sadistic veovod named Vlad Tsepes Drakul, who became the Count Dracula of later folklore. In the English-speaking world, the earliest predecessors of the newspaper were corantos, small news pamphlets produced only when some event worthy of notice occurred. The first successively published title was The Weekly News of 1622. It was followed in the 1640s and 1650s by a plethora of different titles in the similar news book format. The first true newspaper in English was the London Gazette of 1666. For a generation it was the only officially sanctioned newspaper, though many periodical titles were in print by the centurys end. Asia’s role in the Newspaper industry Worldwide newspaper sales edged up by more than two percent in 2007 while advertising revenue recorded significant gains, according to the World Association of Newspapers. In its report on trends in the newspaper industry, the WAN said nearly 515 million copies of newspapers were sold daily in 2007 and read by an estimated more than one billion people worldwide. China, India and Japan were the worlds biggest newspaper markets in 2007 and China overtook Japan as the country with the highest number of publications in the world. Three-quarters of the worlds 100 best selling daily newspapers were now published in Asia where sales were up 4.1 percent for the year. The figures from WANs annual survey of press trends, were released to more than 1,300 publishers, editors and other senior newspaper executives from 81 countries attending the World Newspaper Congress and the World Editors Forum, Asias biggest ever media gathering. Worldwide newspaper circulation grew 2.1 percent, the number of daily titles was up two percent and advertising revenue rose 5.3 percent, its biggest jump in four years, the WAN report said. It has been an extraordinarily positive 12 months for the global newspaper industry, said Timothy Balding, director general of the Paris-based WAN. Newspapers are clearly undergoing a renaissance through new products, new formats, new titles, new editorial approaches, better distribution and better marketing. Indian Newspaper Industry The Indian Newspaper industry can be primarily segmented across two categories viz English Newspapers and Regional / Vernacular Newspapers. The English medium dominates the industry in terms of advertisement revenues, though vernacular newspapers outperform the English newspapers in circulation. English newspaper industry in India has been fragmented with the players having a regional focus such as the Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad, Hindustan Times in Delhi, Times of India in Mumbai, Hindu in Chennai, Telegraph and Statesman in Kolkata, Deccan Herald in Bangalore, Gujarat Samachar in Ahmedabad. However, the industry is witnessing a trend whereby players are looking beyond their home territories viz. Times of India’s and Business Standard’s entry into certain newer territories and Deccan Chronicle and Hindustan Times also doing the same. The competitive landscape has now drastically changed with major publishers trying to expand to other geographic regions, initiating price wars and marketing campaigns to win readers. The competitive intensity, which was quite â€Å"mild† until few years ago, also reached a higher level with the launch of DNA and Hindustan Times in the Mumbai market. A booming economy and the opportunity to raise funds from a well-developed financial market have also contributed to the growth of the newspaper industry in India. Indian newspaper industry had a turnover of Rs 13,500 crore in 2006. It is expected to touch Rs 15,500 crore. The size of media industry in India as a portion of the GDP is estimated at 0.7%, which is lower than most of the developed and developing nations. Thus it offers a scope of high growth in this industry moving forward. Advertising expenditure to GDP reveals that advertisement expenditure to GDP ratio in India is 0.4%. With rising income and education level in India, readership is expected to rise and with favorable demographics, advertising revenues will increase as advertisers start spending more to attract higher quality audience with more purchasing power. Newspaper publication is usually issued on a daily or weekly basis, the main function of which is to report news. Many newspapers also furnish special information to readers, such as weather reports, television schedules, and listings of stock prices. They provide commentary on politics, economics, and arts and culture, and sometimes include entertainment features, such as comics and crossword puzzles. In nearly all cases and in varying degrees, newspapers depend on commercial advertising for their income. Present scenario is that by the time, they see a newspaper, most people have already learned about breaking news stories on television or radio. Readers rely on newspapers to provide detailed background information and analysis, which television and radio newscasts rarely offer. Newspapers not only inform readers that an event happened but also help readers understand what led up to the event and how it will affect the world around them. The staff of a large newspaper works under the constant pressure of deadlines to bring news to readers as quickly as human energy and technological devices permit. Reporters, photographers, artists, and editors compile articles and graphics- sometimes in just a few hours. Page designers assemble articles, photos, illustrations, advertisements, and eye-catching headlines into page layouts, and then rush their work to the printer. Newspapers as known today are complete with advertising and a mixture of political, economic, and social news and commentary. Business news papers in India Publication of Business newspapers started in India by the launch of Economic Times on 5th march 1961. It has traditionally been the essential reference document on Indian business, polity, economy and finance. Its focus on the managerial component and evolving business in India and abroad makes it the favorite amongst intellectuals, managers as well as students and researchers, having recorded a staggering growth of 150% over the past few years. The Economic Times has emerged as the most widely circulated economic and business daily in the country and among the top three English financial dailies in the world. Business Standard was started in 1975 by the Ananda Bazaar group in what was then Calcutta, the paper was hived off as a separate company in 1996, and then bought by Mumbai-based financial investors, after which it began a phase of rapid expansion with the launch of new editions. The Financial Times of London took an equity stake in BSL in 2004. Business Line or The Hindu Business Line is an Indian business newspaper published by Kasturi and Sons, publishers of the The Hindu newspaper. Business Line started publishing in 1994. It is Indias youngest business newspaper and also the countrys second largest selling, with a circulation of one lakh copies, next to the Economic Times. Financial Times entered into the market after Business Line, so did the Hindustan Times, Mint and Financial Chronicle which is the youngest of the lot. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: To find out the attributes which are considered important by the customers while purchasing a business newspaper? To study the growth of Business newspapers To increase the sales of Business Standard newspaper. To find the awareness level of business newspapers among the respondents To find out the perception of customers towards various Business newspapers they are reading To find out the attributes which they like in Business standard newspaper. Concepts/models introduced in the study Market Research 1. Research: Qualitative and Quantitative 2. Data: i. Primary Data ii. Secondary Data: Through personal interaction, mails 3. Research Approach: Survey method 4. Research Instrument: Questionnaire 5. Type of Questionnaire: Structured 6. Type of Questions: Close-ended and open-ended questions Questionnaire was prepared on the basis of Likert scale. Likert scale is a type of attitude scales. Likert’s summated scale Summated scales are developed by using the item analysis approach. Here a particular item is evaluated on the basis of how well it discriminates between persons whose total scores are high and those whose scores are low. Items or statements that best pass this sort of discrimination test are included in the final instrument. The summated scale was developed by R.Likert and is frequently used in the study of social attitudes and other social sciences research. In this scale, the respondent indicates several degrees of agreement or disagreement with each item that constitutes the scale instead of indicating his agreement with only a few items. Each response is given a numerical score based on a scale of five or seven points- indicating his degree of agreement or disagreement. Likert type five point scale Strongly agree (5) Agree (4) Undecided (3) Disagree (2) Strongly disagree (1) The points mentioned in the brackets are the scores against each opinion. The response indicating the least favorable degree of job satisfaction is given the lowest score (say 1), while the most favorable response is given the highest score (say 5). Advantages of Likert-type scale 1) It is relatively easy to construct the Likert-type scale compared to the remaining scales because it can be done without a panel of judges. 2) The Likert scale is considered more reliable because each statement of the respondent is included in the instrument. 3) Each statement is given an empirical test for discriminating ability and as such the Likert-type scale permits the use of statements that are not manifestly related to the attitude being studied. 4) The Likert-type scale can easily be used in respondent-centered and stimulus centered studies, i.e., we can study how responses differ between people and between stimuli through it. 5) It takes much less time to construct the Likert-type scale and is frequently used by students of opinion research. Limitations of a Likert scale 1) In this scale we can only examine whether respondents are more or less favorable to a topic, we cannot tell how much more or less favorable they are. The interval between strongly agree and agree may not be equal to the interval between agree and undecided. 2) The total score of individual respondents has little clear meaning since a given total score can be secured by a variety of answer patterns. Sales Direct selling is the marketing of products or services to consumers through sales tactics including presentations, demonstrations, and phone calls. It is sometimes also considered to be a sale that does not utilize a middle man such as at retail outlets, distributors or brokers. This is needed where the product’s value, like in Insurance, needs more explanation and cannot be purchased off the shelf. At its best, direct selling can be an opportunity for individuals to find fulfillment, express their entrepreneurial talents and gain financial independence. Please note that direct selling involves people and is a part of direct marketing which additionally involves the use of media, print etc. ORGANIZATION PROFILE Business Standard is the countrys most respected business daily, being the first choice of serious business readers, launched in 1975 in Kolkata and today is printed in 10 centers. It is published in colour from ten centers in India Mumbai (formerly Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Bangalore, and Chennai (formerly Madras), Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kochi and Pune. Around 100,000 copies of Business Standard are being sold every day across the country. This is the most respected business publication with business organizations ranking BS as the most professional company to deal with. Business coverage from more than 35 towns across India and more than 100 reporters and dozens of feature writers are involved. The newspaper believes in free, fair and independent journalism and strives to inculcate these values in its editorial staff. The journalism practiced by Business Standard lays equal stress on quality, credibility and accuracy. The Financial Times of London has taken an equity stake in BSL. This is the only business newspaper to give BS 200. Top 200 companies are evaluated across 22 key parameters. These form 90% of the trading on the exchanges. Moreover, this is the only paper to give detailed analysis on money markets. Business Standard has the countrys best economic journalists and columnists working for it. T.N. Ninan, perhaps India’s best-known business journalist, who had earlier undertaken a complete and highly successful revamp of The Economic Times and was responsible for its phenomenal growth, edits it. Among the other senior journalists in the team are A.K.Bhattacharya, former editor of The Pioneer and associate editor of The Economic Times, and Shyamal Majumdar, former resident editor of The Financial Express. Business Standard’s stable of specialist contributors includes some of the sharpest minds in economics and business. Among them: Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor, government of India, Subir Gokarn, chief economist, Crisil, Deepak Lal, professor of economics, UCLA, Bibek Debroy, director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Suman Bery, director-general, National Council of Applied Economic Research, Alexander Nicoll, assistant director, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Arvind Singhal, chairman, KSA Technopak. The newspaper’s columnists include Surjit Bhalla, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan, Sunil Jain and AV Rajwade. Apart from a business newspaper, BSL publishes several periodicals, including BS Motoring, Indian Management, and Routes: the Gateway Magazine (a lifestyle magazine). The company sees content creation, content processing and content management as its core competence. It offers complete outsourcing solutions for organizations, which want to bring out in-house or private publications but lack the people and/or resources to do it cost-effectively. The web properties of BSL, including the online edition of Business Standard, include business-standard.com and bsmotoring.com. At business-standard.com, you have access to one of the best repositories of Indian and global business news. Apart from the flagship publication, the website also features content from The Smart Investor (weekly), The Strategist (Weekly), Indian Management (Monthly), BS Motoring (monthly) and Routes: Open sky (monthly). ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PRODUCT PROFILE Business Standard is the countrys most respected business daily, being the first choice of serious business readers. The newspaper believes in free, fair and independent journalism and strives to inculcate these values in its editorial staff. The journalism practiced by Business Standard lays equal stress on quality, credibility and accuracy. 1 First page consist of the headlines, news of the last day. On the top of the page, there is a line, which indicates the volume number, publishing centers from where this newspaper is being printed. 2 Below that line there is the header â€Å"Business Standard† in association with Financial Times of London. 3 On left side of the whole page there are certain columns like In Brief, Market watch and opinion poll. 4 On the bottom right corner of the page there is a sole add generally. 5 Second and third pages consist of the news related to the Economy. 6 There is a separate page for International news and State news. 7 Tenth and Eleventh page generally consist of Issues Insights and Opinion respectively. Next is the back page. 8 After back page, a different section called Money and Markets comes which contains all the news related to currency, daily stock market fluctuation and also about the commodity market. This section is completely made for money and markets only, to give the detailed news of each and every factor. 9 After this section a different supplement comes named Accent South.(This name varies city to city like in Mumbai and Gujarat it is named as Accent West) 10 Apart from the daily newspaper, some supplement comes along with the newspaper, Supplements like Smart Investor (weekly), The Strategist (weekly), and Weekender. 11 On every first Friday of the month, one magazine named â€Å"Open Sky† comes which gives complete information about aviation industries. 12 Some annual magazines are also provided with the newspaper which are distributed free of cost along with the newspaper to the customer. The details related to magazines are as below: Value add-ons for readers†¦ ? Weekly supplements 1. Smart Investor (Monday)- serves as an investment guide 2. Strategist (Tuesday) – covers issues around management marketing 3. Weekend (Saturday) – feature on lifestyle, personalities and also has a page devoted to Motoring. ? Business Standard is the only Business newspaper which gives 2 magazines free every month. 1. Motoring A complete Car Bike magazine. 2. Open Sky magazine that gives 360 perspectives on aviation. More value ads†¦ ? Annual’s 1. The Fund Manager Covers the high points and performances of Mutual Funds. 2. The Billionaire Club – Listing of India’s richest businessmen and executives. 3. Banking Annual – Performances of the banking sector. 4. BS 1000 – A guide to India’s top 1000 companies 5. Spend – A bi-annual which showcases the latest fashion trends and accessories. BS-200 Business standard stock pages introduced for the first time stock calculus and rating for improving portfolio (SCRIP) on the top 200 shares ranked on the basis of the combined turnover of the Bombay stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE). These 200 stocks, ranked on a monthly basis account for 90-95 percent of the total volume of the shares, value and trade on the two bourses. Routine information on other stocks, such as the previous sessions close, the days close and volume are given separately. The SCRIP for each of the top 200 stocks has four categories of information: First, the basic information on the day’s activities. Here they give the scrip code, group, the previous close, the day’s open, high, low and close, volume of shares traded and the number of trades. Second is to lend a perspective to the days trading, they are giving the trend in price and volume. Every day stock price movements-highs/lows (3 months and 52 weeks) The Third sub set of information is on the bottom-line. How much returns have a particular stock given over 1 year. They are providing returns calculated on a point-to-point basis for 1 month and 1 year. Finally in order to assess the future of the scrip, which people may be interested in, they are giving information on its performance so far. Here they include ratios on valuation, profitability, strength, growth and efficiency. The idea is to look deeper into the source of price movements and get an understanding of why a share may be active and what is in store at the counter. In this segment, they add a new byte of information everyday to enable comprehensive assessment: On Tuesdays they will give 1) cash P/E 2) Industry P/E 3) Quarter on Quarter EPS growth. 4) EPS in the trailing twelve months. On Wednesdays, the highlight will be on quarterly earnings per share for the last four quarters and also consolidated results. On Thursdays there will be data on 1) Dividend yield % 2) Payout ratio 3) Free float 4) FII s stake On Fridays they will provide 1) Book value per share 2) Price/Book value, 3) Market capitalization 4) Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) On Saturdays they will estimate the volatility of returns using 1) Alpha 2) Beta 3) Standard deviation 4) Mean As the official news and data website of Indias second largest business daily, business-standard.com is open to proposals for partnerships in the following areas: Business Standard syndicates online content for use in websites and print publications. They are also open to content swap arrangements where complementarities exist. Business-standard.com welcomes proposals for cross-promotions on websites through appropriate use of banners and links. They are open to two-way tie-ups in appropriate areas for co-branding pages relevant to both partners. Business-standard.com is willing to partner with online auctioneers and sellers through mutually beneficial commercial arrangements. The items to be sold could vary from books to CDs, business gifts, investment advisory services, online business courses or products or services appropriate to the focus of the business-standard.com website. Methodology followed I have taken a sample size of 150 and did Face to Face research i.e. interacting with customers directly and through mail, which includes customers of different professions like 1) Bank employees 2) Insurance companies employees 3) IT professionals 4) Business men 5) Chartered accountants 6) B- school students I specifically targeted the above sectors because Business newspapers are more useful to them and they know very well about these newspapers. Hence I can get a clear perspective from them for my project. I prepared the questionnaire by keeping in mind several factors, which customers consider in purchasing Business newspapers. Factors considered while preparing the questionnaire. They are purchasing business newspaper because 1) To know about the growth of the economy. 2) Business dailies help you make your investments more strategically and smartly. 3) Recent upsurge/ fall in the stock market has generated considerable amount of interest in business dailies 4) Business newspapers are more helpful for the domestic trading people. 5) Linkages and Tie-ups with international financial newspapers increase the interest of reading business dailies. Few other questions are included in order to find out whether they want any changes in these business newspapers so that they will be helpful to them. Tabulation and Interpretations Sales of Business Standard During the 8 weeks of our project along with the market survey we were asked by the organization to do sales. They have given us a target of 25 subscriptions per month. My task was to conduct sales of pre paid subscription of Business Standard through a subsidized price scheme offered by the company. As per the scheme the pre paid customer is offered following prices for different periods. Subscription period Actual Cost Rs Offer Cost Rs Discount Rs 6 Months 474 275 199 9 Months 711 400 311 12 Months 961 525 436 24 Months 1896 1000 896 Growth of Business newspapers There was a huge growth in the Business newspapers in the past few years. The growth rate of the business newspapers in the past one-year is as follows News paper Jun-07 Dec-07 Growth rate Economic times 6,18,196 6,19,750 0.251 Business Standard 96,150 1,16,234 20.882 Business line 1,17,047 1,25,145 6.91 Financial express 27,250 30000 10.09 Economic Times has the major market share among the Business newspapers in India. As per the end of the year 2007 it is as follows Inference From the above data we can clearly say that Economic Times is leading with a market share of 70%. Where as in terms of growth, when compared with previous year, Business Standard is leading, it has increased its sales by 20% in the past 6 months. To know about the brand awareness of Business standard and what customers like in Business standard news paper, I asked the customers to rate the paper on the basis of following parameters 1) Editorial 2) News coverage 3) Annual and Monthly magazines 4) Less Price. Out of a sample size of 150 respondents 37- People said they are not having any idea about Business standard. 30- People said they liked the editorial section. 43- People said they liked the news coverage of Business standard. 22- People said they liked Annual and Monthly magazines. 18- People said because of less Price they are purchasing Business standard. You are interested in subscribing for business newspaper along with the regular newspaper Percentage Strongly agree 42 28 Agree 96 64 Disagree 12 8 Weighted average=42*1+96*2+12*4/150=1.88 Analysis Out of a total sample of 150, 96 people said they are interested in subscribing for business newspaper along with regular newspaper i.e. almost 64%. Only 8% disagreed i.e. just 12 members out of 150.42 people strongly agreed that they are interested in subscribing for a business newspaper along with the regular newspaper. Inference The above data clearly says that there is a lot of scope for the growth of business newspapers in the present conditions. Many people are interested in subscribing for business newspapers along with the regular newspaper. In recent years there was a huge growth in business newspapers. Reading a financial daily is more interesting than reading a regular newspaper. Percentage Strongly agree 24 16 Agree 66 44 Disagree 54 36 Strongly disagree 6 4 Weighted average=24*1+66*2+54*4+6*5/150=2.68 Analysis Out of a sample of 150 almost 60% people said that they are more interested in reading financial dailies than regular newspaper (44% agree+16% strongly agree) and remaining 40% said they are interested more in reading a regular newspaper. Inference People are slowly changing their attitudes towards business newspapers, this data clearly says that these days many people are subscribing for business newspaper and they are more interested in reading them when compared with regular newspapers. This may be due to several reasons, few people said that in regular newspapers they are concentrating more on unnecessary stuff than the important news and few papers have favouratism to particular groups etc. Business dailies should also include a supplement on general news Percentage Strongly agree 54 36 Agree 84 56 Disagree 12 8 Weighted average=54*1+84*2+12*4/150=1.8 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, 138 people are interested, if they include a supplement on general news in a business newspaper (56% agree + 36% strongly agree). Only 12 people said that they are not interested in reading general news in a business newspaper. Inference The above data clearly says that many people are interested in reading the regular news i.e. they said that they want only main important news of regular newspapers without having any unnecessary stuff. Few people said that if they give a supplement on general news they will buy only business newspaper. Very less number of people said that they are not interested in reading general news in Business newspaper, they said that Business newspaper means they should have only business related news. Business dailies help you to make your investment more strategically Percentage Strongly agree 66 44 Agree 48 32 Undecided 36 24 Weighted average=66*5+48*4+36*3/150=4.2 Analysis Out of a sample size of 150, 66 people i.e. 44% of people strongly agreed that Business dailies help in making their investments more strategically. 44 people agreed to the above statement where as 36 people said that they don’t know i.e. they are undecided. Inference By seeing the above data we can clearly say that Business dailies help people in making their investment more strategically i.e. more than 75% people agreed to this statement. They said that few supplements like Smart investor, few reports; analysis of the companies, analysis of Sensex helps them in taking decisions regarding their investments. Business dailies help you to track the growth of the economy Percentage Strongly agree 78 52 Agree 72 48 Weighted average=78*5+72*4/150=4.52 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, 78 people strongly agreed that Business dailies help them to track the growth of the economy and the remaining 72 people agreed to the above statement. Inference The above data clearly says that Business dailies give, up to date information about the country’s economy when compared with the regular newspapers. People are showing more interest to know about the country’s economy i.e. GDP of the country, Inflation rate how it is varying and its effects, Policies and reforms introduced by RBI etc. The attitude of people to know about the economy and its growth has changed a lot, previously they did not exhibit interest in knowing about the economy, now they are showing interest to know about the growth of the economy. Boom/ Fall in Stock market has generated considerable amount of interest in business dailies. Percentage Strongly agree 60 40 Agree 66 44 Undecided 12 8 Disagree 12 8 Weighted average=60*1+66*2+12*3+12*4/150=1.84 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, 126 people said that the boom/fall in stock market has generated considerable amount of interest in Business dailies i.e. nearly 85% people. Only 12 people said that they don’t agree with the above statement and 12 are undecided in comment about this statement. Inference These days most of the people are interested in knowing about the Stock market and its analytical reports. As most of the people, mainly IT professionals and business man are investing in stock markets they are mostly interested in purchasing business newspapers as they give detailed analysis about the stock market which will be helpful to them to have a detailed study and look through them and invest in the stock market. Few people who have not invested any money in the stock market are also interested in reading the news and reports about them to get a brief idea so that it may be useful to them if they are interested in investing in the stock market in the future. Business newspaper is more helpful for the domestic trading people. Percentage Strongly agree 24 16 Agree 66 44 Undecided 60 40 Weighted average=24*5+66*4+60*3/150=3.76 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, 90 people i.e. 60% people agreed to the above statement that Business dailies would be more helpful for the domestic trading people. Remaining 40% said that they are undecided whether it will be useful for them or not in the trading. Inference These days as many people are doing domestic trading i.e. investing in stock market through online at homes. They are not going to any capital investment companies or stock brokers regarding this trading, mainly IT professionals and Insurance company employees are doing this domestic trading and they said that Business newspapers are more helpful to them in taking decisions in trading as daily supplements in business newspapers cater specially to trading aspects. You would like to see sports news in Business dailies Percentage Agree 36 24 Undecided 18 12 Disagree 66 44 Strongly disagree 30 20 Weighted average=36*4+18*3+66*2+30*1/150=2.4 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, most of the people disagreed with the above statement that they would like to see sports news in business dailies i.e. nearly 65% people disagreed. Only 24% people agreed that they would like to see and the remaining 12% are undecided. Inference As most of the people are interested in reading Sports news in regular newspapers and few people only read sports news, I have included this question, to find out if people are interested, but, most of the people disagreed with the statement. Only few people, that too a few B-school students agreed to the idea. Many suggested that Business newspapers should not include Sports news because the uniqueness of business newspapers will be diluted by the inclusion. So it’s better not to include Sports news in Business newspapers. Conclusion: Its better not to include sports news in Business newspapers Association with International financial newspapers enhances the interest quotient in a Business daily Percentage Agree 72 48 Undecided 60 40 Disagree 18 12 Weighted average= 72*4+60*3+18*2/150=3.36 Analysis Out of a sample of 150, nearly 50% people agreed with the above statement that association with International finance newspapers enhances the interest quotient in a business daily. Only 12% people disagreed with the statement where as 40% people are undecided to comment about the statement. Inference As International financial newspapers are better than our National newspapers in all factors most of them suggested that association with them might enhance the interest quotient and the brand image of our financial newspaper. Among Indian newspapers only Business standard is associated with Financial Times of London, it has a 15% stake, which Business Standard portrays as the USP of their paper. Many of the respondents are in a dilemma whether it will be helpful in any way or not. Recommendations 1) Launching a new supplement on the IT sector can help in improving the sales of the newspaper to a great extent as during my interaction with customers, I could sense a great need for such a feature in a business newspaper. 2) Business Standard should be published on Sundays. On Sundays, Economic Times is priced high where as Business Line is available for Rs. 3. Hence, if BS can be published on Sundays, offered at a competitive price, then it can get an edge over the ET and BL. 3) Annual magazines are very popular among all the categories of the sample taken as the content is good and the information provided by those magazines is quite good. The respondents wanted these magazines to be published more frequently. 4) There are major problems with the circulation of the newspaper, which need to be addressed immediately. There are only two executives to deal with vendors across Bangalore for implementing the newspaper subscriptions. As a result, most of the customers do not receive the newspaper. The vendors are also not willing to supply the paper as the commission they receive is very low when compared to other competitive papers. 5) Business Standard should concentrate more on improving their news coverage and content analysis. Limitations of the Study 1) The data collection was difficult from few customers. 2) The study was restricted to Bangalore city market only. 3) The time period was a restriction in using a Sample size of 150. 4) In the Likert scale we can only examine whether respondents are more or less favorable to a topic; we cannot tell how much more or less favorable they are. The interval between strongly agree and agree may not be equal to the interval between Agree and undecided. 5) Tough competition from Economic Times, people are not having any idea about other Business newspapers. 6) Business standard is not having any tie-ups with the regular newspapers as other newspapers have, it is one of the drawbacks for Business standard. 7) ID cards were not given by the organization, which could have been useful at the time of sales. 8) Customers are unhappy with the policy of the company (Business Standard) as the company is not publishing any issue on Sunday. 9) The customers are somewhat dissatisfied with the delivery of the newspaper. Also the newspaper is not available everywhere when compared to its competitors. 10) It does not have its own Press and also the distribution channel is not proper. It is depending on Deccan Herald publications for distribution. Scope for future improvements There is lot of scope for the growth of Business newspapers, right now the circulation of Business newspapers in India is nearly 10 lakhs, where as the population of India is more than 100 crores. The literacy of India is more than 70% so Business newspaper organizations can adapt different strategies by targeting different customers and try to increase their sales. In India, newspapers reach only 35 per cent of our adult population even though adult literacy is about 65 per cent. To build this gap between readership and literacy and to overcome the competition, publications are keeping their prices low and depending entirely on advertisers by giving subsidies to the readers and increasing the sales. Bibliography 1) www.business-standard.com 2) www.wikipedia.org 3) www.Economictimes.com 4) www.google.com 5) www.businessline.com 6) www.auditbureau.org 7) The Hindu – newspaper. Appendices SALES FOR BUSINESS STANDARD AND ANALYSIS OF CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS BUSINESS NEWSPAPERS Questionnaire is on the basis of likert scale. 1-strongly agree 2-agree 3-indifferent 4-disagree 5-strongly disagree You just need to type / write the option i.e. just number except for first question 1) Are you interested in reading business newspaper? If yes, why? Ans) 2) You are interested in subscribing for a business newspaper along with a regular daily. Ans) 3) Reading financial dailies is more interesting than reading regular newspapers. Ans) 4) Business dailies should include a supplement on general news Ans) 5) Business dailies help you make your investment more strategically and smartly Ans) 6) Business dailies help you track the growth of the economy Ans) 7) Boom in the stock market has generated considerable amount of interest in business dailies Ans) 8) Business newspapers are more helpful for the domestic trading people. 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