abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
National Readership Survey (NRS) (research on various media)
Brought out first in 1971, the NRS was conducted to yield readership data instead of circulation data. The second NRS was published in 1978; the third in 1983, the fourth in 1990, fifth in 1994, 1995 and NRS VI had also come to the market in the early 1998.
NRS VI has the distinction of being an industry survey as it is sponsored by publishing advertisers and advertising agencies. The aims of the NRS among others are the following:
To provide information that can be used for buying and selling of advertising space in the print media.
To provide media users with data on comparative levels vis-à-vis TV/radio, cinema and video.
The NRS covers readership estimates for various selected publications, viewership of TV, video and cinema, listenership ratio, duplication between publications and inter-media duplications.
For the first time, the NRS provides the distribution of households by social classes, according to the new SEC developed by the Market Research Society of India. This system is based on the occupation and education of the chief wage earner of the household, so as to create an alternative to the household income, so far used as the basis of classifying households. The NRS has covered urban areas except for the states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Punjab.
The universe of NRS VI is now a resident of urban Indian of age 15+. It covered 590 towns, classified into respective population strata based on the 1981 Census (Over 40 lakh base metros; 10-40 lakhs mini metros; 1-10 lakhs and below 1 lakh).
A stratified multi-stage sampling procedure was used for the survey. Administrative districts constituted the primary stratum for sampling. All the towns with over 2-lakh population, those with publication centers of dailies in the district were included purposely. The rest were a predetermined number of towns within a district selected using PPS methodology (Probability Proportional to Population Size of each town). The selection of respondents for the survey was made using a two-step procedure.
A sample of voters was drawn from the electoral rolls in clusters of a predetermined size; then those addresses were selected, where voters who were currently or formerly residing. The adults of these households participated in the readership interviews.
Although the survey was urban in nature, 140 villages in Kerala were included (Kerala as we know is a 100 percent literate state and is also a center of some of the highly circulated publications).
The selection of publications was finalized by a committee, which comprised a cross-section of media planners and media directors from leading advertising agencies. The publications were selected on the basis of the Minimum Circulation Criterion.
The measurement criterion of readership was ascertained using the Masthead method. A booklet which had the reproductions of mastheads of various publications was used for aided recall of respondents. The average issue readership of a publication was estimated by determining the number of respondents who read any issue within a specified time interval = publication interval, i.e., daily, yesterday, weekly-7 days, fortnightly-14 days, monthly-4 weeks.
How does NRS help a media planner?
The NRS establishes a product-consumer profile linkage; consumption and ownership pattern among various target segments and their preferences, number of hours devoted in media. NRS provides segment wise readership surveys and overall size of each segment.
Brought out first in 1971, the NRS was conducted to yield readership data instead of circulation data. The second NRS was published in 1978; the third in 1983, the fourth in 1990, fifth in 1994, 1995 and NRS VI had also come to the market in the early 1998.
NRS VI has the distinction of being an industry survey as it is sponsored by publishing advertisers and advertising agencies. The aims of the NRS among others are the following:
To provide information that can be used for buying and selling of advertising space in the print media.
To provide media users with data on comparative levels vis-à-vis TV/radio, cinema and video.
The NRS covers readership estimates for various selected publications, viewership of TV, video and cinema, listenership ratio, duplication between publications and inter-media duplications.
For the first time, the NRS provides the distribution of households by social classes, according to the new SEC developed by the Market Research Society of India. This system is based on the occupation and education of the chief wage earner of the household, so as to create an alternative to the household income, so far used as the basis of classifying households. The NRS has covered urban areas except for the states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Punjab.
The universe of NRS VI is now a resident of urban Indian of age 15+. It covered 590 towns, classified into respective population strata based on the 1981 Census (Over 40 lakh base metros; 10-40 lakhs mini metros; 1-10 lakhs and below 1 lakh).
A stratified multi-stage sampling procedure was used for the survey. Administrative districts constituted the primary stratum for sampling. All the towns with over 2-lakh population, those with publication centers of dailies in the district were included purposely. The rest were a predetermined number of towns within a district selected using PPS methodology (Probability Proportional to Population Size of each town). The selection of respondents for the survey was made using a two-step procedure.
A sample of voters was drawn from the electoral rolls in clusters of a predetermined size; then those addresses were selected, where voters who were currently or formerly residing. The adults of these households participated in the readership interviews.
Although the survey was urban in nature, 140 villages in Kerala were included (Kerala as we know is a 100 percent literate state and is also a center of some of the highly circulated publications).
The selection of publications was finalized by a committee, which comprised a cross-section of media planners and media directors from leading advertising agencies. The publications were selected on the basis of the Minimum Circulation Criterion.
The measurement criterion of readership was ascertained using the Masthead method. A booklet which had the reproductions of mastheads of various publications was used for aided recall of respondents. The average issue readership of a publication was estimated by determining the number of respondents who read any issue within a specified time interval = publication interval, i.e., daily, yesterday, weekly-7 days, fortnightly-14 days, monthly-4 weeks.
How does NRS help a media planner?
The NRS establishes a product-consumer profile linkage; consumption and ownership pattern among various target segments and their preferences, number of hours devoted in media. NRS provides segment wise readership surveys and overall size of each segment.