INS asks members to reject IRS 2013

MRUC says fate of survey to be decided on February 19

In response to the Media Research Users Council’s (MRUC) statement on Tuesday, the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) sent out an advisory to its members urging them “to reject IRS 2013 (Indian Readership Survey 2013) and to take such steps for restitution as they may be advised to take”. It also includes a draft communication that IRS members can send out to MRUC, which released the survey along with Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI).

Earlier in the day, MRUC had issued a statement, saying it cannot withdraw the survey unilaterally. It said it would take a call on the same after a meeting with the RSCI, a joint body of MRUC and Audit Bureau of Circulation, on February 19.

“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, the 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. The Council looks forward keenly to the RSCI meeting called by the RSCI Chairman on February 19, 2014. All aspects of the study will be placed before the RSCI for helping the broader community of stakeholders convince themselves about the study’s robustness and integrity.”

The statement also includes a presentation by the MRUC which explains how the IRS 2013 data should be read.

On Monday, INS had given MRUC an ultimatum to withdraw the survey by Tuesday evening or else INS members would withdraw their subscriptions to the data.

IRS 2013 was released on January 28 and soon publications began pointing out glaring errors in the data.

On January 31, as many as 18 publications issued a public statement about the anomalies and demanded that the survey be withdrawn forthwith.