Preliminary studies show that newspaper readership in the top 50 markets remains healthy, especially when compared to the performance of other comparable media. The report says that online newspaper readers are continuing to remain strong "consumers of the print product".

Among all internet users in the top 50 markets, the newspaper association found that 61 per cent of them read a daily newspaper in its print version paper while 74 per cent read one on Sunday too.

Surfers meanwhile are finding it difficult to break their print reading habits, the study said. As many as 67 per cent of Webbies who logged on to an online edition in the past six months had also read a printed daily newspaper while 78 per cent unfolded and pored over a newspaper on Sunday too.

As against this, the NAA saysthat during the same period, other media took a hit. The average for half-hour of prime-time broadcast TV continued to slip, attracting just 38.5 per cent of the audience. This is is down from 39.6 per cent in the previous 1999 report. Even radio listening is down says the NAA with radio morning drive-time dropping from an average quarter hour share of 25.7 per cent to 24.5 per cent.

What does this mean for Indian media watchers? Well, the internet is impacting our lives and the use of traditional media in some ways. But it probably is yet early days for it to topple them from the perches. However, newspapers cannot afford to become complacent. The old model of just reprinting the print version onto the Web will become tiresome in future. Adaptation is going to be the name of the game. Adapting to the challenges of a constantly morphing internet environment.

Cadbury takes the cake
GUESS which is the best brand in the UK? Cadbury Schweppes, according to Brand Finance, a marketing consultancy,which drew up a ranking of the top companies which manage their brands and their investor relations divisions best in the UK.

They were looking at disclosures of marketing and brand information in either the annual report or through mailers. How many points did it secure? 31.5 out of a maximum of 35 points.

The survey was conducted amongst equity analysts and involving 492 firms. The others on the list included UK retail bank Lloyds TSB Group (31.2), gas and home services group Centrica Plc (30.0) and marketing communications firm WPP Group (29.8).

Shall we say hurrah for Martin Sorrell? The study says that companies which disclosed details about their brands and marketing campaigns were rated better by analysts as it helped them taking better decisions on their investment strategies

.Too scared to taken on competition?
Is information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley finally beginning to speak his mind? Or is he resorting to political speech once again like his predecessors? And is hegoing to go against the previous I&B minister Pramod Mahajan's rantings against the state-owned broadcaster?

Well going by his statements last week he appears to be. Jaitley mentioned that the role of the Prasar Bharati should be to be a public caster. That it has no business competing with the private satellite television channels. This is totally the opposite of the view that Mahajan had expressed when he said that DD can and should compete with private television channels.

If DD converts into a public caster with little commercial programming and mostly educational fare, it could bring about a radical shift in advertising spends by companies. It's quite likely that they will divert their ad budgets to private satellite television channels enriching their ad coffers in the process. The net result: More government funding much beyond the Rs 1,400 crore will be needed to keep the Prasar Bharati afloat. This is one thing that Jaitley will have to think through a lot more.

(The writer is developing aninternet portal http://www.indiantelevision.com and is the editor of The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter. Feel free to e-mail with your comments to television@vsnl.com or television@hotmail.com)