Free Press Journal has issued a reply letter to the President of the Indian Newspaper Society, Rakesh Sharma, who refuted the publication’s recent advertisement about media houses inflating circulation figures.

The letter states: “We had never said complimentary copies are sold as ‘raddi’ by the publishers. It appears that you had not read ouradvertisementcarefully. We had pointed out that some publications are inflating their circulation figures by selling the unsold copies at depots directly to ‘raddiwalas’. These publishers send copies which are marked as complimentary copies which, in turn, act as a balance for the loss incurred in the process of ‘raddi’ selling.”

“Some of these unsold copies are shown as complimentary copies to balance their book; thus showing vastly inflated circulation figures which do not reflect the actual sales figures,” FPJ added.

e4m reached out to advertisers to understand if this issue impacted advertising decisions. Industry heads shared that the IRS or ABC surveys along with personal research and judgement could be the only way to finalise publications to advertise with.

Rajiv Dubey,  Head of Media, Dabur said, “Honestly, we wouldn't want to speculate something that isn’t from a reliable source. It is all hearsay as of now and one’s word against the other. Between one newspaper and another, its difficult to know who is adhering to the rules and who is not”

But Dubey shared that advertiser’s way of checking publication’s standing is by looking at ABC and IRS, out of which IRS data represents pre-covid figures  and publications haven’t come back to full swing or 100 per cent circulation since then.

“There is definitely a drop in numbers but there is no other way rather than believing in numbers,” he added.

In the recent months newspapers have started to gain traction once again. Since newspaper’s impact is still strong it’s always great to have presence in the newspapers when you want to create an impact, as per Dubey and, though the newspapers are little overpriced because of lower circulation than pre pandemic levels, any further impact in falling circulation will impact future buys.

As a double check, Dabur does its own survey with different research agencies from time to time and sees top publications in a specific geography to be certain. However, the circulation number is still a guesswork to be left to ABC to certify.   The industry urgently requires IRS to be conducted again soon to be certain.

In its reply,FPJfurther stated that they wanted to get advertisers back to Print by charging them a fair rate as per actual circulation figures and said it was in the larger interest of the newspaper industry.

The management of FPJ added, “As you are aware that post the pandemic, circulation of all newspapers have declined and even now it has not reached pre-Covid levels. As a result, some newspapers have suffered huge losses in circulation and therefore they have yet to obtain ABC till December, 2022.”

Sharing the advertisers’ perspective, Mohan Wilson, Director of Marketing, Nissan India said, “We have certain KPIs in mind before we do target setting to be preventive. On the other side there is the absolute number of copies and selecting the right publication with the right content.”

This helps the paper to have a positive word of mouth and have a widerPrintreadership, highlighted Wilson. “For example, we were committed to 10 copies, but they ended up selling seven but the quality of content helps them amplify the readership further and reaches more people.”

Eventually, when the content is engaging, you end up reaching much more than planned, Wilson said.

Sharing how this dispute could impact the advertiser’s trust on publishers, Alok Sanwal, Vice President of Jagran Prakashan said, “We have never come across a credibility or trust issue by any of the advertisers.”

The corporate governance at Jagran requires the publications to declare everything after which an internal audit takes place and then an external audit happens, shared Sanwal.  “We go through strict audits. We have been supported by advertisers and we enjoy the trust they have in us.”

Most print players believe in the same policy, opined Sanwal. “But there can be some players, like any other industry, who do not believe in fair play.”

“Among measurement issues between TV, print, digital, OOH and radio, print still has the most stringent, robust mechanism. IRS done by MRUC is run by the entire industry and let’s be honest, who doesn’t have measurement controversies? BARC has its problems. ABC is already a very strong data mechanism and due to one or two rare cases, someone is trying to make it look as if it has lost its credibility. It's absolutely mischievous,” asserted Sanwal.