Readers’ Perceptions of Leading Vernacular Dailies in Ahmedabad, (Gujarat, India)

The vernacular Indian print Industry is growing at a dynamic pace. With the readers today getting an array of options to choose from and the intensified competition between the players in the vernacular print industry, catering to the tastes of the readers has become not only difficult but also an imperative for the vernacular dailies. Further, competition along with survival is becoming the order of the day for them. The present research paper is an attempt to find out the key attributes considered by the readers while evaluating the vernacular newspapers in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India). Next, we attempt to map the readers’ perceptions of leading vernacular dailies in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India). In addition, through this paper an attempt to find out whether there is an association between the importance attached to attributes and the demographics of the readers surveyed for each of the leading vernacular dailies in Ahmedabad. The study is a combination of exploratory and descriptive research which was carried out using both primary and secondary data. The findings provide insights about the various attributes considered by the readers of the papers while evaluating the vernacular newspapers. The results of attribute based perceptual mapping indicate each newspaper’s unique position as perceived by its readers.


Introduction
India is the world's largest consumer of newspapers. According to the World Association of Newspapers, more than 107 million daily newspapers were circulated in India in 2009 Gujarat's newspaper industry has also developed quite consistently over the last decade. There were only two leading vernacular dailies namely Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh. However, the strategic entry of DivyaBhaskar in the state in 2003 with a myriad of innovations including colour pages, price reductions and several high-value customer offers; has intensified the competition amongst the Gujarati vernacular dailies.

Readershipof Leading Vernacular Dailies in Gujarat
As per the FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2012 (Figure 3), vernacular dailies namely Gujarat Samachar, DivyaBhaskar and Sandesh constitute 85% of total readership in the state contributing a share of 34%, 27% and 24% each respectively. Thus, the market for vernacular dailies in the state is larger as compared to any other language in the state.

A Brief Overview of Gujarat Samachar, Sandeshand DivyaBhaskar
Gujarat Samachar, Sandesh and DivyaBhaskar are the three most read vernacular publications in Gujarat.
Gujarat Samachar -The paper was founded in 1932, and acquired by Shantilal "Seth" Shah (1920-c.1984) Baroda, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar in 1985, 1989, 1990and 1998 Dillon et al(1985) have used perceptual mapping to understand decisions that face consumer researchers as they implement a perceptual product space analysis based on multi-attribute rating data. Bijmolt and Wedel (1999) have shown the comparison of multidimensional methods for perceptual mapping and their applications to marketing. Hauser and Koppel man (1979) have shown the use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis as alternative methods to perceptual mapping and made a comparison between the two methods. Wong and Teas(2002) have used multi-entity scaling(a multi-attribute measurement) procedure that obtains ratings of two or more entities from a single respondent at the same time to examine experimentally the stability of perceptual maps of retail stores based upon two types of multi-entity scaling datadata produced by attribute and entity-based scaling procedure. Droge and Darmon (1987) have compared attribute versus similarity approaches for finding out associative positioning through comparative advertising.

Research Objectives
 To find out the most preferred vernacular dailies amongst the readers in Ahmedabad.
 To identify the attributes considered by readers while evaluating vernacular dailies  To find out whether there is an association between the importance attached to attributes and the demographics of the readers surveyed for each of the leading vernacular dailies.
 To draw a perceptual map using attribute based perceptual mapping for leading vernacular newspapers (Gujarati Language) in Ahmedabad.

Exploratory Research
An Exploratory Research Methodology has been utilized so as to understand the market of print media, level of competition and the readership and circulation of the three considered newspapers in Ahmedabad. Secondary data was researched from the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) with the latest data available of Q4 2011 (Months of October, November and December 2011). A primary survey of 50 consumers using telephonic interviewing technique was conducted in order to identify the attributes considered by readers while evaluating vernacular dailies.

Descriptive Research
We conducted a descriptive research in order to map the readers' perceptions of the leading vernacular dailies as well as to find out whether there is a significant difference amongst the preferences of the readers based on their demographics. Therefore, we have considered only those readers for perceptual mapping who read any vernacular Ahmedabad edition dailies.

Sources of Information
Both primary and secondary data have been collected depending on the information needed. The

Sampling Technique
We have used non-probability, convenience sampling technique. The rationale behind using this technique is the willingness, ability and eligibility of the respondents to be a part of the survey.

Sample Size
A total of 134 responses have been collected of which 101 responses including readers (75) and non-readers (26) of vernacular (Gujarati) newspapers are complete and therefore have been used for analysis.

Limitations
The study is restricted to Ahmedabad region due to access available, readership of Gujarati newspaper and willingness to share information on the part of newspaper readers. There is a possibility of the respondent bias affecting the results.

Instrument Used
We have used Online questionnaire (Please see Annexure 1) so as to ensure that the research objectives are accomplished.

Data Analysis
Appropriate statistical tools and software packages like Excel and SPSS have been used to conduct data analysis. Attribute-based Perceptual Mapping has been used to evaluate the positioning of the three leading dailies.

Data Analysis and Interpretation
Exploratory research enabled us to find out that the attributes considered important by readers while evaluating vernacular dailies. These attributes emerged to be: credibility of the source, speed with which the news is covered, level at which the news (local, global, national) is covered, loyalty, brand name of the newspaper, quality, font size, colour, extra supplements, number of pages, advertisements, classifieds, availability of e-paper, innovations, events and promotions by the newspaper, word of mouth, price, free gifts and national presence of the respective daily.
These attributes have been further considered for descriptive research.

Graph 1: Readership of Vernacular (Gujarati) Newspaper
The pie-chart depicts that 74% of the respondents surveyed, read vernacular i.e. Gujarati newspaper whereas 26% do not read vernacular newspapers. This indicates that there is potential for the vernacular dailies to develop their market in Ahmedabad.

Graph 2: Responses by Vernacular (Gujarati) Newspaper read
Of the respondents surveyed, 49% read DivyaBhaskar followed by Gujarat Samachar with a readership of 43% and thenSandesh with a readership of 8%. The graph shows that out of the responses received, DivyaBhaskar is the most recalled Gujarati newspaper followed by Gujarat Samachar followed by Sandesh. Interestingly, no other Gujarati newspaper emerged to be recalled by any of the respondents surveyed.

Graph 3: Analysis of Top of Mind Vernacular (Gujarati) Daily Newspapers in Ahmedabad
We first tried to find whether attributes considered important differ according to the readers of the three leading vernacular dailies i.e. DivyaBhaskar, Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh.

Graph 4: Important attributes according to readers of DivyaBhaskar
The readers of DivyaBhaskar pay more importance to credibility, speed with which the latest news are covered, level of coverage (i.e. local, national, global) and innovations in the newspaper as compared to any other attributes.

Graph 5: Important attributes according to readers of Gujarat Samachar
The readers of Gujarat Samacharhave rated speed with which the latest news is covered and the level of coverage (i.e. local, national, global) of news in the newspaper as more important as compared to any other attributes.

Graph 6: Important attributes according to readers of Sandesh
The readers of Sandesh give more importance to credibility, speed with which speed with which the latest news is covered, level of coverage (i.e. local, national, global) of news and font size of the print in the paper.

Graph 7: Importance attached to attributes of newspapers by readers
Of the various attributes identified, we then attempted to find out the attributes that are important to the readers while evaluating the newspapers. Speed with which news is covered, credibility of the source, level at which the emerged as more important compared to any other attributes of newspapers. Surprisingly, brand name, font size, loyalty free gifts, advertisements, word of mouth, events & promotions, number of pages and national presence were rated as less important over other attributes.

Hypothesis Tests i) Association between gender and the daily read
H 0: There is no association between the gender of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
H 1: There is an association between the gender of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
The results of Chi-square (Please see Annexure 3) with value of p = 0.211 which is greater than the value of α, suggest that there is no association between the gender of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.

ii) Association between age group and the daily read
H 0: There is no association between the age group of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
H 1: There is an association between the age group of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
The results of Chi-square (Please see Annexure 3) with value of p = 0.271 which is greater than the value of α, suggest that there is no association between the age group of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.

iii)Association between occupation and the daily read
H 0: There is no association between occupation of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
H 1: There is an association between occupation of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.
The results of Chi-square (Please see Annexure 3) with value of p = 0.301 which is greater than the value of α, suggest that there is no association between occupation of the readers and the vernacular daily read by them.

Attribute-based Perceptual Mapping of the Three Leading Dailies
We performed attribute based perceptual mapping using discriminant analysis to draw a perceptual map (Graph 8) of the three vernacular dailies DivyaBhaskar, Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh. The perceptual map has been created considering both the importance attached to the respective attributes rated by the respondents and the rating of the particular daily as perceived by respondents on that attribute. The output of discriminant analysis is attached in the annexure 2.

Conclusion
From the data obtained regarding the Readership from our Primary Research Surveys and the promotions. Gujarat Samachar is perceived better than the other two newspapers in terms of free gifts, pages, events &promotions, speed, font size and advertisements. Although Sandesh shows negative perceptions on almost all the attributes, it is associated with loyalty and classifieds.
 The perceptions of respondents regarding the attributes differ from the attributes to which they have rated important for all three leading dailies. This can be attributed to the fact that perceptions about the dailies are mapped irrespective of the fact that he/she is the reader/non-reader of the paper while important attributes have been asked only from the reader of the respective daily. This implies that although the perceptions of these dailies are strong on many attributes, there is a scope of improvement for these dailies to strengthen the strongly perceived attributes among their respective readers.

Recommendations
 Perceptions of the respondents regarding the three dailies on various attribute indicate their strength on those attributes. However, the readers' experiences and the perceptions differ. The newspapers need to bridge the gap between perceptions and experiences in order to strengthen their foothold in the existing market.
 Gujarat Samacharand DivyaBhaskar being close competitors should focus on their perceived strengths and reinforce the confidence of their readers by building on those strengths. However, Sandesh needs to draw more readers in order to be competent with the other two dailies for its survival.
 Each of the vernacular dailies has a unique position in the minds of its readers. The dailies should capitalize on these attributes to reinforce their position in the minds of their readers.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 4 -Issue: 2 -April -2014