The Media Research Users Council (MRUC), in consultation with the Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) and members of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), has incorporated a sub-committee, under the aegis of Shashi Sinha, chief executive of IPG Mediabrands and Akila Urankar, president of Business Standard, to look into the various anomalies in the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2013. Sinha and Urankar are co-chairing this committee. Shaswati Saradar, director general at MRUC said that the purpose of the sub-committee is to revalidate the IRS 2013. She declined to share the names of the representatives who are part of this committee but industry sources say that Sanjay Gupta, editor and chief executive of Jagran Prakashan, Indranil Roy, president of Outlook Group, Ravi Rao, leader, South Asia Mindshare may be part of this committee.

?They represent our user community. The committee may also appoint a third party for external opinion. Solutions will be arrived at post the committee?s deliberations. The audit company will be appointed for the IRS if need be, and Nielsen is okay with it,? says Saradar. When asked if there is a fixed timeline for the committee to come up with its recommendations, Saradar was unwilling to commit to a date. All she said is ?Let?s wait and watch?. The committee is considering some of the bigger firms ? Ernst & Young (EY), PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte to validate the data, say industry executives. When contacted, the Nielsen spokesperson declined to comment on the matter directing queries to the MRUC and the RSCI.

The all-new IRS mandated by RSCI and MRUC and billed to be the world?s largest continuous study for print readership released its findings on January 28, 2014, and found itself confronted by black flags from various publishers. The survey showed significant dips in readership for most newspaper groups when compared to the last published figures of the fourth quarter of 2012 (IRS Q4).

The study, which is India?s only print survey, was released after a one-year hiatus. The research company which conducted the survey, Nielsen India, covered more than 2,35,000 households across urban and rural India, and based its study on the 2011 Census of India instead of Census 2001 that the older readership survey used. The sample was spread across urban India (nearly 1,60,000 households) and rural India (nearly 75,000). These readership figures are the basis for commercial deals between print publishers and advertisers.

In an unprecedented move, as many as 18 of India?s leading publishing firms released a joint statement pointing out anomalies in the new survey and urging the RSCI to roll back the findings. The publications included The Times of India, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, India Today, Anandabazar Patrika, Lokmat, Outlook, Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Sakshi, The Hindu, Amar Ujala, The Tribune, Bartaman Patrika, Aaj Samaj, The Statesman, Mid Day among others. The statement said that the figures of the new survey contradict audited circulation figures given by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC). After facing unprecedented criticism from INS over the findings of IRS 2013, the MRUC was forced to examine flaws in the survey findings. In order to rectify this, the council started the process of re-validation of data. The MRUC managing committee, after a meeting with the RSCI, announced that IRS 2013 would be under abeyance till March 31.

When contacted, Paritosh Joshi, chairman of IRS technical committee declined to comment. Shashi Sinha, when contacted, said, ?While the committee has been formed, it is too soon for us to comment on the way forward. A third party company may be appointed to validate findings. Things will become clearer after March 31 when we have a board meeting of the MRUC-RSCI.?

Varghese Chandy, chief general manager, marketing and ad sales at Malayala Manorama said that the major problems were in the validation of data. ?This is the one issue that all the newspaper groups have had with the IRS. RSCI and MRUC have taken cognizance of the issues of publisher members, and have decided to go by the recommendations of this committee. Publishers are also represented on this committee. It is a welcome step.?

An executive from one of the largest publishing groups in India said that the formation of the committee is certainly in the right spirit. ?The formation of this committee has set off the process of reconciliation between the MRUC and the print publishers. Hope this exercise will be able to build bridges between the two through the process of data validation and audit of the field work,? he said declining to be identified stating that it is a sensitive matter.

Suresh Srinivasan, vice president at The Hindu said, ?Based on the feedback by us and other publishers on the imperfections of the study, a committee has been set up to validate the findings. From what I understand, the matter has been discussed in great detail and the committee will take certain key steps for addressing the issues in the survey. In addition, an audit firm will be appointed. It is certainly a move in the right direction.?

However, Satyajit Sen, chief executive at Zenith Optimedia sounded a note of caution. He said that in cases of dispute, it is not unusual to get an external firm to audit the process. “But it concerns me that if the outcome is not a happy one for media owners, the dispute isn’t going to subside. Despite best attempts, if the situation does not get resolved, the pricing regime takes over. Pricing (best rates) will follow as the law of the land. Print will not be data driven and there will not be any data driven benchmarks to bank on. When the IRS was in hiatus, it was all working on the basis of pricing and the demand-supply situation. In the absence of a print currency, we may operate that way for a while.” He added that this time around, much ado was being made on the readership numbers. But a fall in one round of readership numbers does not immediately result in a tanking of revenues for the concerned publication, he said.