Botched Rajasthan survey spurs readership recheck

MRUC says IRS Report 2008 Round I will be delayed because of malpractices in state

Nirmal John & Pritha Mitra Dasgupta
 
MUMBAI: The Media Research Users Council (MRUC) has said that there will be a delay in the release of the Indian Readership Survey Report 2008 Round I, as additional and repeat field work has to be initiated in Rajasthan.

That’s because there is talk of some malpractices having occurred at the field level in the state.

According to IRS 2007 Round II results, ‘Rajasthan Patrika’ had shown an increase in readership by 6.5%, the highest among the top 10 dailies.

Its readership rose from 69.46 lakh in Round I, 2007, to 74.02 lakh in Round II, 2007.
Ashok Das, managing director, Hansa Research, the agency that does fieldwork of IRS, said, “In the past we had caught similar malpractices but on a smaller scale and corrective measures were taken immediately.”

He refused to name the publication involved.

Bharat Kapadia, executive director, Bhaskar Group, said: “We have read article in various sections of media on the IRS08R1 delay.

We are surprised at the behaviour of ‘Rajasthan Patrika’ to have stooped so low to adapt unethical means and ways to influence readership research figures. We strongly condemn this act of ‘Rajasthan Patrika’.

“We at Dainik Bhaskar are glad that MRUC has taken cognizance of the fact and have taken steps to further probe the case and take corrective measures.

“We firmly believe that it is in industry’s interest that the sanctity of the IRS results is maintained. Otherwise in absence of such readership surveys the whole media industry would become a market of speculations.”

Rajasthan Patrika officials couldn’t be reached for comments.

An MRUC source told DNA Money said the company is still in the process of checking the numbers and process at the ground level.

“It would be too early to comment right now but it would take at least a week for a clearer picture to emerge,” the source said.

Hansa had reported to the MRUC that some publications were trying to influence the results in some markets and as a result fieldwork had to be redone.

In its press release, MRUC said: “This has resulted in considerable delays and waste of time and money. This issue has more recently come into focus in the case of Rajasthan, where the research agency’s quality control process found evidence of an attempt to manipulate and influence research findings.

As such the all fieldwork in the current round in this state is being cancelled.”

The Indian Readership Survey and National Readership Survey (NRS) are conducted to establish the circulation and readership base of publications that subscribe to it in India.

IRS was set up in 1994 to address concerns of advertisers who thought it was inappropriate to go by the findings of NRS which was partly controlled by publications.

A media veteran, who did not want to be named, said, “Currently NRS has not been published for the last one year and IRS is the only syndicated research available and is therefore extremely important for ad agencies, media agencies and publications.

In the past, there have been several allegations but none could be proved for the lack of evidence. Any anomalies which came to note were usually corrected at the initial stage itself. It’s unfortunate that people are using such practices to manipulate data.”

Going forward, the MRUC Board has decided to create a Code of Conduct to which all constituencies would agree to abide by.

A standing committee will be commissioned to investigate issues relating to publication interference in the research process — whether identified through the quality control process of the research agency or through complaints raised by members.

The committee would be empowered to appoint an external agency to investigate such issues if required.

Further investigations will now be carried out in relation to the issues in Rajasthan.