Now, magazines demand withdrawal of IRS '13

The Media Research Users Council's (MRUC) woes regarding the latest instalment of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS 2013) have been aggravated with the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) also calling for withdrawal of the survey.

AIM wrote to the MRUC on February 5, citing alleged anomalies in the survey’s data on magazines. The letter points out that despite MRUC’s claims to have used better technology for data capturing, population estimates based on the recent 2011 census and a similar sample size, IRS 2013 has thrown up “more anomalies than the previous round”.

It adds that while newspapers have pointed out some of these anomalies, a closer look at the data shows how “bizarre and unfathomable” the magazine readership figures are.

AIM urged MRUC to immediately withdraw IRS 2013 “as such faulty reporting of readership figures can have extremely damaging impact on business, apart from misleading media planners and advertisers”.

Earlier, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had asked MRUC to withdraw the survey within 24 hours or face withdrawal of subscription by INS members.

However, MRUC refused to take a decision saying it needs to consult the Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI).

In a statement, MRUC had said: “The Council (MRUC) is conscious that it is now only one of the two constituents of RSCI.

With the RSCI now being in charge of governance of the study, MRUC is no longer at liberty to make a unilateral determination of the way forward, particularly in a situation as contentious as it appears today.

Feb 19 meeting
The Council looks forward keenly to RSCI meeting called by the RSCI chairman on February 19, 2014.”

Within an hour of MRUC statement being released, INS sent out an advisory to its members urging them to “to reject IRS 2013 and take such steps for restitution as they may be advised to take”.

The advisory also included a draft communication for transmission to MRUC for information and necessary action.
DISCORDANT NOTES
Anomalies in magazine readership data pointed out in the Association of Indian Magazines’ letter   

• The only business magazine reported, Business Today, has a variance of -34 per cent, dropping to 264,000 readers from 403,000
• Reader’s Digest, which earlier had a readership of 968,000, has fallen to 362,000
• While India Today has grown to 1.52 million from 1.48 million, the growth spurt in three states defies logic: Bihar — from 73,000 to 200,000; Kerala — from 71,000 to 268,000; Uttar Pradesh — from 160,000 to 213,000
• Outlook’s readership in Bihar has grown three times, but has no readership in Hyderabad
• The Sportstar has seen unprecedented growth of 94 per cent — going up to 543,000 from 280,000
• Time magazine has seen a whopping 145 per cent growth — going up to 205,000 from 83,000
• Hindi magazine Meri Saheli has lost 51 per cent of its readers in this round of IRS