IRS 2013 put on hold till 31 March
On the back of joint public statement of 18 major media houses, which stated, "The IRS survey is riddled with shocking anomalies, which defy logic and commonsense. They also grossly contradict audited circulation figures (ABC) of long standing," demanded the withdrawal of the IRS 2013 with immediate effect.
22 Feb 2014 | By Mihir Joshi
IRS 2013 put on hold till 31 March
The Media Research Users Council Board (MRUC) and the Readership Survey Council of India (RSCI) on Wednesday said that the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2013 will be temporarily deferred till 31 March.
The 18 publishers disputing IRS 2013 include The Times of India, India Today, Anandabazar Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Lokmat, Daily News and Analysis, Sakshi, Nai Duniya,Outlook, The Hindu, Amar Ujala, Aaj Samaj, The Statesman, The Tribune, Bartaman Patrika, Mid Day and Dinakaran.
The MRUC has set up a panel which will validate the data and present its recommendations to the RSCI by early April. The MRUC has said that subscribers and members should refrain from using the IRS 2013 data.
Among the anomalies in the survey that were pointed out were the Hindu Business Line was being shown as enjoying thrice as many readers in Manipur as in Chennai, and Hitavada, the leading English newspaper of Nagpur with a certified circulation of over 60,000, not having a single reader in the new survey. While Punjab had lost a one-third of all its readers in just a year since the last IRS, every major newspaper in Andhra Pradesh, irrespective of language, had lost readers by 30 to 65%.
MRUC had recently roped in the research firm, Nielsen India, to conduct the survey. This was the first survey conducted by Nielsen India. Prior to this Hansa Research were the official researchers for the Indian Readership Survey.
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