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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present study is carried out to understand how the readers perceive The Week magazine to other General Interest English Magazines. The Week magazine is currently ranked as third in the GIEM (General Interest English Magazines) category. The whole category is in a decline on readership and is shrinking. The study also intends to determine the key factors that can create a change in the outlook of the magazine as a whole to survive the competition and the decline in readership. The key objectives included the study of readers perception, competitors and analysing the content of the magazine. The targeted population studied is the readers of General Interest English Magazines confined to Ernakulam District. They were interviewed with the help of a self developed questionnaire and that helped in analyzing how they perceive the magazine compared to its competitors such as India Today and the Outlook. A content analysis is also done in order to analyse the genre of news published by the magazine as compared to its competitors and thereby competitor analysis was done. With the help of secondary data and primary data collected through the questionnaire, a study was conducted on how to reposition the magazine such as to improve its quality and to make it more acceptable among the readers. The magazine gives more importance to the off beat general stories rather than the mainstream stories. The Week magazine is in business for past 30 years and is perceived as South Indian magazine. The magazines in pitted against strong competitors like India Today and The Outlook who are in the 1st and 2nd position respectively. The study also emphasized on the various factors which affects the readership and what measures can be taken to overcome this crisis faced by all the General Interest English Magazines and how to drive the sales and boost subscription.

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1.1 INTRODUCTION The project was undertaken to find out the readership of general interest English magazines among youngsters and consumer perception towards The Week magazine. The media industry has evolved considerably to an extent in the last decade creating news for people. Media in general and magazines in particular are often cited as major forces shaping the drive toward globalization. Readers of magazines often develop a sense of attachment to brands when they perceive them as reinforcing their identity. Attachment to a magazine brand was said to often lead to imagined communities, whereby readers perceive themselves as belonging to a collective group of readers who all share in a passion and interest for the magazine. This study will review the basics of the readership interest and the relationship between readers and how the consumer experiences the magazine. The study also will focus on ideas that will help you I improve the experience of the consumers have with The Week magazine. The Week has been in the market for many years and has been growing well. Considering the current scenario with respect to magazines like India Today & Outlook, The Week would like to benchmark itself versus competition in terms of its editorial content. Prior to conducting an Editorial Continuous Track study, a small qualitative dipstick into what the Current Affairs genre is, what the varied reader segments desire and what is the competitive edge for The Week was conducted and it helped in drawing a good consumer/marketing understanding base before going microscopic into article content on the track. Since there is a considerable decline in readership, studies suggest that that the General Interest English Magazines as a category is shrinking. The readership is declining and the circulation is becoming stagnant. This is due to the fact that the TV channels are infringing into the GIEM territory time and the newspapers publishing thick supplements especially in the weekends. Reading is taking a strategic direction recently. Definition of news over the years has changed, from politics to business, fashion to bollywood; everything has been affecting the reader. As a consequence of these changes, all of the magazine producers are being forced to look for fresh and innovative ways to attract and retain readers. The study is conducted based on the current situation faced by the General Interest English Magazine Categories. The GIEMs are considerably declining in readership. The studies suggest that that the General Interest English Magazines as a category is shrinking. The readership is declining and the circulation is becoming stagnant. This is due to the fact that the TV channels are infringing into the GIEM territory time and the newspapers publishing
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thick supplements especially in The Weekends. Thus, magazines have many competitors. Work creeps into life and in turn time spend on office is on the upswing and the ever increasing dependence on internet is the fallout. The major players in the category of GIEMs are

India Today Outlook The Week Open (launched in Mar 09) Tehelka

The India Today magazine is the key player and number one in the category. It gives more importance to political news and current affairs. It has well researched analysis of facts and it is perceived as a complete news magazine despite its political orientation. On the other hand the Outlook magazine is in the second position. The outlook magazine is young, contemporary and stylish with and international image. As far as The Week magazine is concerned, its holds the third position after India Today and the Outlook. It has a simple and lucid writing and contains more of off-beat topics in contrast to the top contenders. In a category which is declining, being the number three magazine, The Week will be most affected in all means. Pitted against its strong competitors, the study is to find out suggestions for the magazine to improve its image in the media industry. The readership of The Week magazine is 5.2 lakhs as compared to India Today with 26.3 lakhs and Outlook with 8.2 lakhs of copies according to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS). The IRS also proves that Kerala is the 2nd biggest subscription market for The Week magazine. When reading takes a strategic direction in the lives of the consumers, The Week has moved with time and has covered stories that have affected its readers. The magazine is more oriented towards social issues than political stories.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The main objective of the study is to find out how the readers of the general interest English magazines perceive The Week as a magazine. It is mainly known for its simple and lucid style of writing. For finding the key issues faced by the magazines, of which The Week is affected being the 3rd player after India Today and Outlook, there are 4 key
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objectives set for the study. They include

1.

Studying the readership of General Interest English Weekly Magazines among youngsters.

2.

Studying on the sources of their readership and extend of their dependency on digital sources.

3.

Analyzing the cover stories, contents etc of the magazines. For this, the last six month editions are studied and a content analysis is done.

4.

Competitor analysis- this objective is to compare the content of the competitors, viz. India Today and Outlook to that of The Week magazine.

The study also involves finding solutions to pitch the magazine into a bold and credible magazine that covers story that others wouldnt dare to. There are also attempts to enhance the visibility and perception among the readers and thereby creating a positive disposition. The objective includes steps to differentiate it The Week as an aggressive magazine in the General Interest English Magazine Segment. This empowers the readers with answers to a relevant question and lends clarity in the complex world. Research Inputs to help client get an understanding of the current status of English news magazines and provide directions for the brand.

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CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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2.1 INDUSTRY PROFILE - Advertising Industry Advertising is one of the oldest forms of public announcement and occupies a vital position in an organization's product mix. According to the American Marketing Association, Chicago, "Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor." To advertise means to inform (seen as the flow of information about a product or service from the seller to the buyer). However, advertising does not end with the flow of information alone. It goes further to influence and persuades people to take a desired action - like placing an order to buy a product. The consumer market has become highly competitive with a new brand being born almost every day. Naturally it is the prime concern of every marketer to promote their brand as a shade better than the competitors. Advertising comes in handy here. Firms in the advertising and public relations services industry prepare advertisements for other companies and organisations and design campaigns to promote the interests and image of their clients. This industry also includes media representatives-firms that sell advertising space for publications, radio, television, and the Internet; display advertisers-businesses engaged in creating and designing public display ads for use in shopping malls, on billboards, or in similar media; and direct mail advertisers. Advertising is a service industry geared towards the communication of information and ideas to and on behalf of others. It is the main arm of marketing, involved in the communication of information and ideas to and on behalf of others for promoting goods and services in order to optimize sales or levels of awareness. Advertising plays a significant role in todays highly competitive world. A career in advertisement is quite glamorous and at the same time challenging with more and more agencies opening up every day. Whether its brands, companies, personalities or even voluntary or religious organizations, all of them use some form of advertising in order to be able to communicate with the target audience. The salary structure in advertising is quite high and if a person has the knack for it one can reach the top. It is an ideal profession for a creative individual who can handle work-pressure. The primary functions of advertising agencies are planning and creating advertising campaigns for clients and placing advertisements in various media. Planning consists of researching the market for a given product or service, assessing alternative methods of distribution and choosing the most effective way to reach the market. The agency then creates the advertising campaign and contracts for time and space with selected media. The
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ultimate objectives of advertising agencies include helping advertisers attain sales objectives, market share and long-term profitability.

2.1.1 Television advertising The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as it is reflected by the high prices for commercial airtime during popular TV events in popular TV networks. 2.1.2 Infomercials An infomercial is a long-format television commercial, typically five minutes or longer. The word "infomercial" is combining the words "information" & "commercial". The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals. 2.1.3 Press advertising Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very specialized topics. A form of press advertising is classified advertising, which allows private individuals or companies to purchase a small, narrowly targeted ad for a low fee advertising a product or service. Another form of press advertising is the Display Ad, which is a larger ad (can include art) that typically run in an article section of a newspaper. 2.1.4 Radio advertising Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio. Radio advertisements are broadcast as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the commercials. While radio has the limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage.

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2.1.5 Product placements Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media 2.1.6 Online advertising Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Online ads are delivered by an ad server. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam. 2.1.7 Billboard advertising Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums. 2.1.8 Mobile billboard advertising Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be on dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients, they can also be specially equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large banners strewn from planes. The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights. Some billboard displays are static, while others change; for example, continuously or periodically rotating among a set of advertisements. Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world, including: Target advertising, one-day, and long-term campaigns, Conventions, Sporting events, Store openings and similar promotional events, and big advertisements from smaller companies. 2.1.9 In-store advertising In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near
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checkout counters (Point Of Purchase display), eye-catching displays promoting a specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping carts and in-store video displays. 2.1.10 Street advertising This type of advertising first came to prominence in the UK by Street Advertising Services to create outdoor advertising on street furniture and pavements. Working with products such as Reverse Graffiti, air dancer's and 3D pavement advertising, the media became an affordable and effective tool for getting brand messages out into public spaces.[1] 2.1.11 Indian Advertising Industry The Indian advertising industry has evolved from being a small-scale business to a fullfledged industry. It has emerged as one of the major industries and tertiary sectors and has broadened its horizons be it the creative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnel involved. Indian advertising industry in very little time has carved a niche for itself and placed itself on the global map. Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on a continuous trail of expansion. With the market gaining grounds Indian advertising has every reason to celebrate. Businesses are looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrative business opportunities. Growth in business has lead to a consecutive boom in the advertising industry as well. The Indian advertising today handles both national and international projects. This is primarily because of the reason that the industry offers a host of functions to its clients that include everything from start to finish that include client servicing, media planning, media buying, creative conceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis, market research, marketing, branding, and public relation services.

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2.2 COMPANY PROFILE : THE LOCAL NETWORK The Local Network is one of the fastest growing advertising agencies in Kerala with its base at Ernakulam. It was founded by Mr. Paul Philip along with three others who were well experienced in the field of advertising. Mr. Paul Philip had earlier associated with organizations as McCann Erickson. The Local Networks customized and collaborative approach helps its clients build valuable and enduring brands. Capability span of DDB Mudra Groups are Advertising, Media, Digital & Data marketing, Youth marketing and Brand Strategy & Design consultancy. With about 17 employees and 3 offices at Ernakulam, Bangalore and Dubai, the agency was founded on 2012. The client list of the agency include Jairaj builders, Radio Mango, Hawalker Chappals, Silky, Ventura securities, Akshaya Gold and Diamonds of the Prince Group etc to name a few.

2.3 NEWS MEDIA INDUSTRY: The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include print media (newspapers, newsmagazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and more recently the Internet (online newspapers, news blogs, etc.). A medium is a carrier of something. Common things carried by media include information, art, or physical objects. A medium may provide transmission or storage of information or both. The industries which produce news and entertainment content for the mass media are often called "the media" (in much the same way the newspaper industry is called "the press"). In the late 20th century it became commonplace for this usage to be construed as singular ("The media is...") rather than as the traditional plural. 2.3.1 Broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video signals (programs) to a number of recipients ("listeners" or "viewers") that belong to a large group. This group may be the public in general, or a relatively large audience within the public. Thus, an Internet channel may distribute text or music worldwide, while apublic address system in (for example) a workplace may broadcast very limited ad hoc soundbites to a small population within its
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range. The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule.Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscriptionbased channels and pay-per-view services. A broadcasting organization may broadcast several programs at the same time, through several channels (frequencies), for example BBC One and Two. On the other hand, two or more organizations may share a channel and each use it during a fixed part of the day. Digital radio and digital television may also transmit multiplexed programming, with several channels compressed into one ensemble. When broadcasting is done via the Internet the term webcasting is often used. Broadcasting forms a very large segment of the mass media. Broadcasting to a very narrow range of audience is called narrowcasting. 2.3.2 Television In a broadcast system (television), journalists or reporters are also involved with editing the video material that has been shot alongside their research, and in working on the visual narrative of the story. Broadcast journalists often make an appearance in the news story at the beginning or end of the video clip. In television or broadcast journalism, news analysts (also called news-casters or news anchors) examine, interpret, and broadcast news received from various sources of information. Anchors present this as news, either videotaped or live, through transmissions from on-the-scene reporters (news correspondents). News films ("clips") can vary in length; there are some which may be as long as ten minutes, others that need to fit in all the relevant information and material in two or three minutes. News channels these days have also begun to host special documentary films that stretch for much longer durations and are able to explore a news subject or issue in greater detail. 2.3.3 Newspapers A newspaper is a lightweight and disposable publication (more specifically, a periodical), usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special interest, and may be published daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly. General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news on a variety of topics. Those can include political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions ( either editorials, columns, or political cartoons).Many also include weather news and forecasts. Newspapers increasingly use
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photographs to illustrate stories; they also often include comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords. A story is a single article, news item or feature, usually concerning a single event, issue, theme, or profile of a person. Correspondents report news occurring in the main, locally, from their own country, or from foreign cities where they are stationed. Most reporters file information or write their stories electronically from remote locations. In many cases, breaking stories are written by staff members, through information collected and submitted by other reporters who are out on the field gathering information for an event that has just occurred and needs to be broadcast instantly. Radio and television reporters often compose stories and report "live" from the scene. Some journalists also interpret the news or offer opinions and analysis to readers, viewers, or listeners. In this role, they are called commentators or columnists. Reporters take notes and also take photographs or shoot videos, either on their own, or through a photographer or camera person. In the second phase, they organize the material, determine the focus or emphasis (identify the peg), and finally write their stories. The story is then edited by news or copy-editors (US style) or sub-editors in Europe, who function from the news desk. The headline of the story is decided by the news desk, and practically never by the reporter or the writer of the piece. Often, the news desk also heavily re-writes or changes the style and tone of the first draft prepared by the reporter / writer originally. Finally, a collection of stories that have been picked for the newspaper or magazine edition, are laid out on dummy (trial) pages, and after the chief editor has approved the content, style and language in the material, it is sent for publishing. The writer is given a byline for the piece that is published; his or her name appears alongside the article. This process takes place according to the frequency of the publication. News can be published in a variety of formats ( broad sheet, tabloid, magazine and periodical publications ) as well as periods ( daily, weekly, semi-weekly, fortnightly or monthly ). 2.3.4 Newsmagazines A newsmagazine is a usually weekly magazine featuring articles on current events. News magazines generally go a little more in-depth into stories than newspapers, trying to give the reader an understanding of the context surrounding important events, rather than just the facts. Magazines are traditional media with unique features. They attract specialized audiences and reach precise demographic, occupational, interest, political, geographic, or other specific groups. For example. Vogue caters to people interested in fashion. Magazines
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are well- versed with social, demographic, and economic trends of society and publish content related to the corresponding trends. For example, magazines previously never featured pornographic content, but in todays era there are a lot of magazines featuring it. Furthermore, magazines influence social trends. For instance, the Playboy magazine fueled the 'sexual revolution in the 1950s and the fashion magazines today set a lot of fashion trends. Also magazines involve more long-form writing, are published at intervals of time, and are made of higher quality paper stock than newspapers. The functions of magazines include surveillance but instead of specializing by reporting on local geographic communities like newspapers, they specialize by subject matter covering narrow topics such as science, health etc. Another function of magazines is correlation which they do by interpreting aspects of the content for their readers. Magazines also perform the entertainment function as they usually contain a lot of entertaining content. For example, Reader's Digest has small sections of jokes and riddles. Magazines also serve the function of marketing goods and services. In fact, often readers spend more time looking at ads than reading editorial content as they browse some magazines. 2.3.5 Online journalism Online journalism is reporting and other journalism produced or distributed via the Internet. The Internet has allowed the formal and informal publication of news stories through mainstream media outlets as well as blogs and other self-published news stories. Journalists working on the Internet have been referred to as J-Bloggers, a term coined by Australian Media Academic Dr Nicola Goc to describe journalists who [blog] and [blog]gers who produce journalism. "J-Bloggers: Internet bloggers acting in the role of journalists disseminating newsworthy information, who subscribe to the journalistic ideals of an obligation to the truth and the public's right to know" Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online. How much they take advantage of the medium varies. Some news organizations, such as the Gongwer News Service, use the web only or primarily. The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. They may be losing classified ads to Web sites, which are often targeted by interest instead of geography. The advertising on news web sites is sometimes insufficient to support the investment. Even before the Internet, technology and perhaps other factors were dividing people's attention, leading to more but narrower media outlets. Online journalism
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also leads to the spread of independent online media such as open Democracy and the UK, Wiki news as well as allowing smaller news organizations to publish to a broad audience, such as media strike.

2.4 CLIENT PROFILE: The Week Magazine The Week is an Indian weekly newsmagazine published by The Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. The magazine is published from Kochi and is currently printed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kottayam. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it is the largest selling English newsmagazine in India. The Week's competitors, India Today and Outlook, have opted out of the ABC audit. The Week was launched by The Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd in December, 1982, and has had two chief editors, before the designation was discontinued. K.M. Mathew (Padma Bhushan,1998), the founder chief editor, remained in office until 25 December 1988. Popularly known as Mathukuttychayan, he was chairman of the Press Trust of India, president of the Indian Newspaper Society and chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. He died on 1 August 2010. The obit which appeared in The Times of India said, "The highly acclaimed English news magazine-The Week-was his brainchild". K.M. Mathew's eldest son, Mammen Mathew, (Padma Shri, 2005), took over on 1 January 1989, and continued until 9 December 2007. He is currently chief editor of the Malayala Manorama daily, the group's flagship publication. Currently, The Week does not have a chief editor. K.M. Mathew's second son, Philip Mathew, managing editor since 1 January 1989, is the highestranked editor. Publishers are Philip Mathew, the first publisher of the magazine, held the post until December 1988. Jacob Mathew: 1 January 1989 till date. K.M. Mathew's third son, he is currently president of WAN-IFRA. He is the second Asian and the first Indian to hold the post. The magazine was initially designed in-house, and was periodically redesigned. A major content overhaul was led by Peter Lim, author and former editor-in-chief of The Straits Times/Singapore Press Holdings. He authored the book Chronicle of Singapore: Fifty Years of Headline News. The two major redesigns were led by: Peter Ong on 8 November 1998. And Dr Mario R. Garcia on 20 February 2005.
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Based in Sydney, Australia, Ong was formerly Picture & Graphics Editor of The Straits Times. He is principal consultant at Checkout Australia, and was regional director for the Society of News Design. Garcia owns the premier newspaper design firm, Garcia Media. Both of them also helped redesign the Malayala Manorama. In the early years, cartoonist Mario Miranda designed many covers for The Week. He also had a regular pocket cartoon in the magazine. The Week does not have published stylebook, but generally follows the down style for capitalisation. Its dateline carries the pull date, not the date of issue. Supplements and Standalones: Two supplements go free with The Week: Health, a fortnightly on health and fitness.Wallet, a monthly guide to personal finance and investment.The standalone magazines are The Man:A monthly lifestyle magazine, THE MAN is published from New Delhi and is edited by K. Sunil Thomas. WatchTime India: A quarterly magazine on luxury watches, it is published from New Delhi and is edited by Neha S. Bajpai. The Week was the title sponsor, of the inaugural Hay Festival in India. Held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, from 12 to 14 November 2010, the festival was held at Kanakakunnu Palace, the former summer retreat of the Travancore royal family.Writers and speakers likeMani Shankar Aiyar, Rosie Boycott, Gillian Clarke, William Dalrymple etc were included for the event. The event closed with a concert by Bob Geldof, where Sting made a surprise appearance.

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CHAPTER 3 METHOD OF STUDY

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3.1 METHODOLOGY The study involves in determining the key factors that can create a change in the outlook of the magazine as a whole to survive the competition and the decline in readership. For this, the readers are directly interviewed and data is collected with the help of a questionnaire. The population studied are the readers of GIEMs. A sample of 100 readers are selected and directly interviewed with the help of a self developed questionnaire. The data collected through the questionnaire was analyzed and the readership of the GIEMs among youngsters are measured, also the source of their readership, to what extend they depends on the digital sources, and also perception of the readers with respect to The Week magazine as well as its competitors are measured. A content analysis is also conducted with regard to the Week magazine as well as it competitors. For this, the editions of last 6 months magazine copies were studied. Content analysis helps in knowing the orientation of the magazines with respect to news articles. For this the cover page analysis is also conducted as a part of the content analysis. Thus the analysis part was divided into two parts; the analysis of primary data captured from the questionnaire and the content analysis. Findings are suggested based on the analysis of questionnaire and content analysis. The suggestions for improving the magazine are stated based on the study.

3.2 DEFINING THE POPULATION The study follows a qualitative approach. The targeted populations to be studied are the readers of General Interest English Magazines in Ernakulam district which comes within the age group of 18-30 years. They were interviewed with the help of a self developed questionnaire and that helps in analyzing how they perceive the magazine compared to other competitors such as India Today and the Outlook. The interactions with the target groups are conducted through direct interaction, through online survey as well as through the telephone.

3.3 SAMPLING PATTERN The sampling method used in this study is Convenience Sampling. The populations selected for the study are the readers of GIEMs across the Emakulam District. Sampling was done based on reading habits. Of the population defined, regular readers of General Interest English Magazines were selected. The sample selected for the study was within the age group of 18-60 years. The sample size was restricted to 100 numbers. There is no classification
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done within the age group (as youth, middle aged or old aged) in this study as the perception of all the readers are taken into account.

3.4 TOOLS USED IN DATA COLLECTION The main tool used for data collection was the self developed questionnaire. The questionnaire is prepared in such a way that the readership of the youngsters, their dependency on the digital sources of magazines, their buying patterns, perception of the customer regarding a particular magazine is analysed. May be the consumer will not be a subscriber of The Week magazine, but then also it will help in knowing it competitors better. When such a study is conducted, the key factors which differentiate The Week from another magazine can be easily distinguished. Questions were set in such a way that to understand how much a customer is loyal to a particular magazine brand and how much it is different from other magazines. The factors which measure the brand loyalty and how each preferred magazine of every customer affects their life can be found out easily. The primary data collected from the target group with the help of the questionnaire along with the analysis of the content of the magazine clearly states the orientation of magazine with respect to its subject matter.

3.5 TOOLS USED IN DATA ANALYSIS The primary data collected from the questionnaire were analysed by percentage analysis method. Percentage analysis helps to determine how much an attribute is accepted by the sample. The simplicity of presenting the data by percentage analysis also helps in easy understanding.

3.5.1 Content analysis A content analysis of editions of General Interest English magazines compares the extent of standardization in execution elements (advertising copy, models) across product nationality (multinational, domestic) and category. The content of a magazine is divided into genres viz. offbeat, sports, politics, entertainment, business and economy. The cover page content and also the number of advertisements are also taken into consideration. The competitor analysis is done with the help of content analysis as well as from the secondary data collected from the surveys like IRS (Indian Readership Survey). The content analysis is done by counting
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the number of news articles and dividing them into categories and tallying them using Microsoft Excel sheet. Bar charts were drawn using the data analysed with the help of MS excel sheet to know the extent of each genre of articles in the magazine as well its competitors. The content of the magazine differentiates it from its competitors, This in fact creates a personality for the magazine among its readers. Percentage analysis method is used to find out the genre of news published in the last 6 months editions of the magazines. The cover pages are also analysed in the content analysis and a cover page analysis is also done to know the orientation of the magazine towards a particular issue. The number of advertisements is also taken into consideration and the average number of advertisements in an edition is also found out.

3.6 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

1) The research only examines one type of magazine, that is the General Interest English Magazines, and not on others.

2) The type of audience is also selected in such a way that the eligibility to be a part of the study is to be a regular reader or a subscriber of The Week, India Today or Outlook magazines.

3) The place of study was restricted to Emakulam district alone and no other places are considered for collection of primary data.

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CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS OF DATA

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ANALYSIS The analysis includes the presentation of data that is captured from the questionnaire based on the variables that has to be measured. The tool used to present and analysis the data is Percentage Analysis. This enables easy understanding of the data and presentation also becomes simple. Given below is the analysis to find out the extend of readership of General Interest English Magazines among youngsters. The percentage of readership of magazines is found out easily in this case.

Fig 4.1 PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION WHO READS MAGAZINES

37%

63%

Yes

No

It is obvious from the figure 4.1 that only 37% of the studied sample reads general Interest English Magazines. About 63% of sample doesnt read magazines, and the major reasons found for their non readership are no time to read, not interested, no access to magazines and other reasons respectively.

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Fig 4.2 READER'S REASONS FOR SUBSCRIBING TO NEWS MAGAZINES

It gives significant news

37.50%

News Creatively delivered

62.50%

It gives complete news

25%

It is a credible source of news

0.00% 10.00%

37.50%
20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00%

About 37.50 % of studied sample believes that News Magazines gives significant news, 62.50 % of them likes magazines because of creative delivery of news. 25 % says that magazines provides complete news and 37.50 % of people believes that magazines are the credible source of news.

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Fig 4.3 SOURCES OF READING MAGAZINES

35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00%

Subscription

Stands

Libraries

Digital sources

Other sources

About 9.77% of the youngsters buy their general interest magazines from stands and 33.33% relies on subscription for magazine source. Other majority group (33.33 %) depends on digital sources for their reading and about 20.22 % reads from libraries. The rest of the people i.e. 3.33 % rely on other sources for magazine readership.

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Fig 4.4 FAVOURITE GENERAL INTEREST ENGLISH WEEKLY MAGAZINE

Open Tehelka 0% 4% India Today 31%

The Week 26%

Outlook 39%

It is obvious from the figure that 39 % of studied sample prefers Outlook as their favourite magazine. India today is found to be in the second position with 31% and The Week in the third place followed by Open magazine. Tehelka magazine was not preferred by anyone as the magazine is not much common in Kerala.

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Fig 4.5 BASIS OF CHOOSING MAGAZINES

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%

Cover page

Brand name

Advertisements

Availability

About 56.67 % of sample, choose their magazines from the stands on the basis of cover page, 16.67 % of them give preference to their favourite brands and only 10% are influenced by advertisements while buying. Availability of magazine is another basis for choosing for 16.67% of the sample.

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Fig 4.6 DIGITAL READERSHIP OF INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0% Official Website Mobile Apps Facebook Twitter

Extend of dependency of India Today readers on its official website is 24% and only 2% uses India Today Magazine Application on their phone. About 13% of the readers visit the facebook pages and 10% of them follow the magazine in Twitter.

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Fig 4.7 DIGITAL READERSHIP OF OUTLOOK MAGAZINE

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Official Website Mobile Apps Facebook Twitter

About 35% of the studied sample visits Outlook magazines official website, 16% of the readers visit their Facebook pages and 15% of people follow the magazine in Twitter. Only 4% of the readers use Outlook magazine Application on their phones.

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Fig 4.8 DIGITAL READERSHIP OF THE WEEK MAGAZINE

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Official Website Mobile Apps Facebook Twitter

The main digital source of The Week magazine its official website and about 30% readers visits the site and 13% readers likes their facebook pages. The Week does not have mobile Apps and Twitter pages.

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4.1 CONTENT ANALYSIS The content analysis is done for the last18 months editions of The Week Magazine, India Today and Outlook of 2012- 2013. This is done to analyse the content and genre of news presented and to know the orientation of the magazine towards a particular issue. The content analysis includes factors like number of advertisements in each issue, the analysis of cover story and the weightage of each news according to the genre. 4.1.1 No. of Advertisements The average number of advertisements in each issue is calculated as a part of the content analysis in order to check out the weightage of the advertisements in each magazine. The data analyzed is found to be; THE WEEK- 14 INDIA TODAY- 16 OUTLOOK- 19 Clearly, Outlook has the most number of ads per week as per the study. The penetration of advertisements among news makes the Outlook, the magazine with most number of pages with respect to the other two. The average number of advertisements is less for The Week magazine compared to its competitors.

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4.2 COVER STORY ANALYSIS

Fig 4.9 THE WEEK COVER STORY ANALYSIS

Politics Sports Fashion Business & Economy Culture Entertainement Technology Society Miscellaneous

19%

28%

10% 5%

12% 15% 6%

2% 3%

The Week magazine generally concerned with current affair news more, thus it conserves the perception as off - beat magazine as compared to its competitors. It has more of offbeat general cover stories which arouse reader interest. The content analysis revealed the fact that 28% of the cover stories were political nature.. Also, it is noted from the study that it has given more importance to news related to culture, business & economy, entertainment respectively. The orientation towards Sports, Technology, Fashion are 6%, 3%, 5% respectively.

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Fig 4.10 INDIA TODAY COVER STORY ANALYSIS

Politics Sports Fashion Business & Economy Culture Entertainement Technology Society Miscellaneous

24% 36% 4%

2%

12% 7% 9% 5%

1%

Saffron ideology of India Today makes the magazine to deliver more news concerned with BJP, So from the study, it is clear that about 36% of cover stories were based on politics. Also, one fourth of the stories were offbeat as far as cover stories are concerned. Least importance is given to technology, fashion, entertainment etc.

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Fig 4.11 OUTLOOK COVER STORY ANALYSIS

Politics Sports Fashion Business & Economy Culture Entertainement Technology Society Miscellaneous

25%

30%

12% 11% 8% 2% 3% 4% 5%

Outlook magazine is considered as one of the contemporary magazine among the existing ones in the category of General Interest English Magazines. Oulook shows the political orientation in its cover stories by publishing 30% of political stories. 11% of the news were based on business & economy, 12% importance were given to entertainment. Weightage given to culture, sports, technology, fashion genres were 8%, 4%, 5%. 2% respectively.

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4.3 ARTICLES ANALYSIS: The cover story analysis gives the orientation of news genre of the above mentioned magazines viz. India Today, The Week and Oulook. This does not give an entire idea about the whole magazine content. For this, the study analaysed each and every editions of last six months (January - June) of the year 2013 and listed out the number of stories based on each genre. The comparison shows how much orientation is given to each genre with respect to the whole magazine. The below analysed data also include the one which is published as the cover story, but is confined to the whole magazine, not the cover story alone. The stories are divided into 5 genres i.e. Politics, Sports, Business and Economy, Science & Technology, Current Affairs and Offbeat stories.

Fig 4.12 POLITICAL ARTICLES

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 The Week India Today Outlook

India Today take the first place as far as Political stories are concerned, Outlook with second place, India Today had 54 stories each on Political issues. Outlook had 46 stories and The Week is third after them with 40 stories on the same genre. This proves that the political orientation has increased recently as analysed from the study. Although from the above

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inferences, The Week magazine has more of offbeat cover stories, the importance given to Politics is also to be noted to be in par with the competitors.

Fig 4.13 OFFBEAT ARTICLES

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 The Week India Today Outlook

The above figure shows why The Week magazine is perceived as an offbeat magazine. It has covered 51 stories on general issues. Whereas India Today and Outlook lag behind with 41 and 39 stories respectively. This approach of The Week magazine clearly states how it likes to position itself in the market.

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Fig 4.14 SPORTS ARTICLES

14

12

10

0 The Week India Today Outlook

Again The Week magazine tops in case of most sports stories reported in the last 6 months according to the content analysis. The number of sports stories is 12 for The Week compared to 8 and 5 for India Today and Outlook respectively. This shows the initiative of The Week magazine towards sports when compared to its competitors.

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Fig 4.15 BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

18

16

14

12

10

0 The Week India Today Outlook

The Outlook and India Today stands equal and surpasses The Week magazine in terms of the number of Business articles published with 17 articles to their credit each against the 14 articles by the latter. This proves that the recent scenario demands more of business and economy related news in GIEMs. There are a lot of readers who are too much oriented towards business articles. The new advancements in the field of business may either increase readership to these magazines.

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Fig 4.16 CURRENT AFFAIRS ARTICLES

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0 The Week India Today Outlook

Outlook had published around 39 articles against the 26 and 28 articles of The Week and India Today respectively. This might be the reason why Outlook magazine is of high demand and is considered and the most preferred magazine across the readers.

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Fig 4.17 READERS RATING FOR THE WEEK MAGAZINE

Poor 0% Average 19% Excellent 9%

Good 72%

72% of the sample studied commented that The Week as a magazine is good. 9% people rated it as excellent when compared to others and 19% thinks that is an average magazine. There is no one within the sample who thinks that the magazine is poor.

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Fig 4.18 READERS RATING FOR INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE

Poor 0% Average 16% Excellent 11%

Good 73%

11% of the sample studied commented India Today is an excellent magazine that 73% people rated it as good and 16% thinks that is an average magazine. There is no one within the sample who thinks that the magazine is poor.

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Fig 4.19 READERS RATING FOR OUTLOOK MAGAZINE

Poor 0% Average 10% Excellent 16%

Good 74%

About 16% of the readers thinks Outlook as excellent magazine and it is the favourite magazine of the readers as per the study. 74% of sample says that it is good and only 10% rate it as average.

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4.4 MERITS AND DEMERITS MAGAZINES STUDIED The data analysed gave the following merits and demerits regarding the magazine with respect to the readers and how they perceive it. THE WEEK MERITS Cover Page is striking Impressive quality with respect to coverage of news In-depth and un-biased view about the current happenings Real news supported by proper research Specialists comments adds more weightage Relevant topics like human interest stories, upliftment of common man, higher pursuits in engineering, science etc. Informative and useful supplements Unbiased views towards political affairs Does not indulge in sensationalism Simple, easy to understand language Attractive subscription offers, with respect to monetary savings + merchandise From the price to the content it is a good buy for the average Indian

DEMERITS Informative + Entertaining, but not Investigative.

READER PROFILE South Indian magazine 20-30

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Middle Class Light reader Graduate, MBA aspirants

INDIA TODAY MERITS Good mix of regional + national + international topics Investigative journalism is the key Good write-ups by journalists Good coverage of scoops like Tehelka, cricket-match fixing scandal, PSUs investment Cover stories are well researched+ in-depth studies + neutral, decision is left to the readers India Today covers India like no one does DEMERITS

DEMERITS

Leftist in their ideology More of commercialization and sensationalism Magazine cover made scandalous More adverts than content Service factor is very low Low quality subscription offerings Lack of behind-the-scene stories, deep-seated investigative stories

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READER PROFILE Old, 40+ Mass + Local - 70% Middle and Upper Class Serious Traditional Seniors, Professors, IAS, Bureaucrats MERITS

OUTLOOK MERITS Serious magazine that has re-established ones faith in journalism Distinguished columnists are an important factor Strong editorial team Helps develop a perspective of our own Extra supplements give a sense of added advantage. Good reporting of rural issues Attracted by dual subscription offer (cross-selling of 2 in-house magazines) Subscription-based strategy on the rise

DEMERITS Earlier many investigative stories like cricket scandal, kargill etc, now its no:s are very less Investigative stories are too short

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Poorly researched articles Low on journalistic content Biased political views Low cost/unimpressive subscription offers Movie reviews non-impressive More of a product that a source of real information it covers things which are hot and would sell rather then what is healthy and real or more important

READER PROFILE 30,40+ Middle + Upper Middle Class Serious, Businessman IT people

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CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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5.1 FINDINGS

1.

The Week magazine is the third favourite General Interest English Magazine. Outlook is the most preferred magazine followed by India Today.

2.

Offbeat topics are the most favourite category of news for the readers. Current affairs, regular coloumns and entertainment together share the second position.

3. 4. 5.

India Today is perceived as a Political Magazine by the readers. Outlook magazine gives more emphasis to Politics and current affairs The Week magazine is perceived as an offbeat magazine as different from its competitors.

6.

The Week magazine has a very good rating among the GIEMs and has got a very good brand recall.

7. 8.

Majority of the readers has not visited the Week magazine website. 48% of the readers think that the recent changes made with respect to the Week magazine is good.

9.

The number of advertisements in the Week magazine is less compared to its competitors viz. India Today and Outlook. Clearly, Outlook magazine has the most number of advertisements per week.

10. The Week magazine has had majority of its cover stories based on offbeat topics as inferred from the content analysis. 11. The competitors of The Week magazine are known for its political biasing and orientation. 12. The drawback of The Week magazine is that it doesnt give much importance in publishing news related to Sports, Business and Economy and current affairs. 13. The Week magazine is not perceived as a modem and interesting in its presentation of articles. The magazine is too monotonous and not informative at times.

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5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS The suggestions and recommendation stated is based on the study which would help in improving the outlook of the magazine among the customers and helps in right pitching in the industry. The positioning of the magazine is in such a way that it contains more of offbeat content. Moreover, considering it as an offbeat magazine is not going to change the status of the magazine. It should include more of stories based on sports, business and economy and current affairs in order to provide news and make it more appealing among the customers. The magazine should demonstrate the courage and integrity which journalism is all about and should narrate stories that are untold rather than be a showman among the magazines. The Week should continue its strategy of fearless journalism in publishing stories that others dont dare narrating. The Week is perceived as a South magazine with offbeat content. This has to be changed. Efforts should be made to pitch it as a national magazine and has to be more ambitious towards progress. The magazine should help the customers in taking a peek to the future today and evocate tomorrows conversations. There are plenty of channels and magazines that can tell the customer what has happened and why it has happened; but in these uncertain times the magazine should go beyond reporting and analysis and tell me what to expect tomorrow. The brand should improve reader engagement and try to improve its readership. Its aim should be to surpass the No. 1 i. e. Outlook magazine.

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CHAPTER 6REFERENCES

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REFERENCES

1. Kotler, Keller, Koshy, Marketing management, Pearson education.

13th edn India.

2. http://www.training-management.info/market-research/questions.htm 3. http://www.hostedsurvey.com/survey-form-samples.html 4. L.R. Potti, Research methodology, Yamuna Publications 5. Last 6 months editions of The Week, Outlook, India Today magazines 6. en.wikipedia.org/media industry 7. the-week.com 8. Documents from Local Network company regarding The Week magazine 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Week 10.http://www.outlookindia.com/ 11.http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/ 12.Indian readership surveys.

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QUESTIONNAIRE THE GIEMs READERSHIP SURVEY

1] According to you which medium is more credible for news? a) Internet b) Newspaper c) Magazine d) Television 2] Do you read general interest magazines and journals? a) Yes b) No 3] If the answer to the above question is no, please mention the reason a) No access to magazines b) No time to read magazines c) No interest to read magazines d) Other ______________________________________________ If the answer to Q2 is yes.... 4] Why do you read news magazines ? a) It is a credible source of news b) It gives complete news c) News Creatively delivered d) It gives significant news e) Other reasons _________________

5] What is your primary source of reading magazines ? a) Subscription b) Stands c) Libraries d) Digital sources e) Other sources

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6] Which is your favourite general interest weekly magazine ? a)India Today b) Outlook c) The week d) Open e) Tehelka 7] On what basis you choose magazines ? a) Cover page b) Brand name c) Advertisements d) Availability

8] Rate the factors while you buy a General Interest English magazine 1=very important 2=important 3=average importance 4=less important 5=not at all important Cover page Brand equity Subscription Offers Price

9] Have you subscribed to any general interest magazines for specific time duration? a) Yes b) No If yes, please mention the name of the magazine(s) ______________________________

10] Do you visit any of these magazine websites ? =yes India today =No The week Outlook Open Tehelka

If yes how often you visit ? a) Daily b) Weekly c) Monthly d) Randomly

11] Do you have these magazine Apps on your Phone ? =yes India today =No The week Outlook Open Tehelka

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12] Do you follow these magazines in facebook? =yes India today =No The week Outlook Open tehelka

13] Do you follow these magazines in twitter ? =yes India today =No The week Outlook Open tehelka

14] Rate the magazines 1=Excellent India today 2=Good 3=Average 4=Bad 5=Very bad Outlook Open Tehelka

The week

15] Do you want to suggest any improvements in THE WEEK magazine in general ________________________________________________________

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