Business Standard

Business Standard

Management education broadly thought is a method which inculcates

knowledge in one about PODC (Planning, Organizing, Directing and

Controlling) along with the knowledge of managerial communication,

organizational structure & dynamics, organizational behavior, financial

management, marketing management, political, moral and ethical aspects

of corporate. This knowledge helps students to understand corporate

thoroughly.

Here in this page we think that we should provide answers of some key

questions to our readers of this report. We specifically identified three

questions…..

1. What assumptions have guided the development of this report?

2. What is the core concept in this report?

3. How is this report important to the readers?

We have tried to answer each of these questions.

ASSUMPTIONS:

In this report we gave facts and findings which we have collected in our

research which was restricted to readers of financial newspapers in

Ahmedabad city only. We have collected information from 100

respondents from the target segment and tried our best to analyze the data.

CONCEPT:

In this report we provide the information about the strategies followed by

the MDD to increase the circulation and core functions of it, which will

help the readers to learn the way how MDD works. It contains backroom

operations and fieldwork.

P

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F

A

C

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Business Standard

IMPORTANCE:

This report will help to check our ability to put theories in practice. It will

also help corporate people to have an insight into our personality and can

also check our efficiency of doing the project.

P

R

E

F

A

C

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Business Standard

Getting this report to your hands was a team effort; in addition to our

contribution we got support from corporate members of Business

Standard, our faculty at TIMS and respondents who co-operatively

provided the honest information through questionnaires.

Let us begin our acknowledgement by thanking the whole Business

Standard staff at Ahmedabad office for the co-operation and the support

during our summer training. Himanshu Patwa (HR & Admn), Ashok

Sharma (Production), Jay Saraiya (Space Marketing), Kamlesh Trivedi

(Editorial), Amit Agrawal (System), Sameer Trivedi (Scheduling), Manoj

Thomas (Baroda Head).

We also take the opportunity to thank Mr. Kunal Panchal (Our project

guide) and Mr. Mukund Shukla (Deputy Manager) without whom this

project could not have been possible. We whole-heartedly thank them for

being our guide and directing us towards right path in the marketing

world.

We are very grateful to all the faculties of the TIMS family and also the

non-teaching staff. They have always been a source of inspiration and we

would like to thank them for all their support and care in their efforts

towards the summer training and the project.

Thanking you-

Kanishk Shah

Mahesh Lalwani

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Business Standard

Business Standard is India’s largest and fastest growing newspaper having

growth rate of 300% in past five years.

MDD: The role of this department goes beyond simply distribution of

newspapers to regular readers. Its primary activity is to identify the

readers so it is formally known in the organization as MDD.

Other Departments: No organization can stand on one pillar so there are

six other departments, which accounts to the overall growth.

Market development strategies : MDS is a tool to increase the

circulation of newspaper with various tactics like mass subscription,

schemes, sponsored copies, promotions etc.

Research Design : We collected data through scheduled questionnaire

which were transformed into information which was used by us to

penetrate into the market coping up with competition and increasing our

customer base.

Our Findings : We found that management students have more potential

to read business newspaper, further we found that awareness of Business

Standard was 30.3% we also found that presently 41.18% were reading

Business standard for mutual funds news also 63.3% were interested in

schemes or offers.

Our Suggestions: Business Standard should target management students

to increase the circulation. It should also target undergraduates, who are

preparing for management entrance exams, and they should also provide

job appointment supplement and they should become media partner at

various B-schools quizzes and seminars to create brand noise.

EXECUTIVE

SUMMARY

Business Standard

Over the years newspaper reading has become a daily early morning

regime. What for decades was a dull market place with limited number of

newspapers is today a very diversified offering.

Print offerings have multiplied and cater to diverse needs like travel,

sports, fashion etc. Newspapers these days not just provide news and

entertainment but also cater to niche audience. Financial newspapers are

such newspapers that target niche corporate, businessmen and investors.

With the era of multi edition newspapers and therefore multi newspaper

markets, has given greater choice to readers and also resulted into a fierce

fight for reader’s attention. But, the latest trend observed is that one reader

is not necessarily habituated to reading only a particular newspaper,

therefore even a small difference in price could sometimes bring about a

change in the purchase decision.

This has driven newspaper prices to a point where leading newspapers

fetch virtually no circulation revenue for their publishers. The little that is

collected from the reader goes almost entirely to the distributor or the

hawker.

The growth of newspapers have been highly affected by growth in

computer and internet connectivity, mobile telephony which enables real

time access to news, views and entertainment anytime anywhere!

Recent changes in regulations permitting FDI in print and broadcasting

media has further heated up the media market. With the entry of the

foreign players, the Indian print media scene has changed tremendously.

On the other hand the Indian print media now operates overseas as well

and thus, it is not confined to Indian audience only.

The newspaper plays an important role in contributing to social good,

playing a critic and the watchdog function, helping to foster debates on

INTRODUCTION

Business Standard

agendas for social transformation. The one that best fulfils these roles will

gain the maximum eyeball’s share.

With the growing literacy and income, particularly among the young, our

media today is being forced to respond to the demands of a new readership

one which is discerning and demanding, impatient with the old content

and style and not bound by old codes of loyalty. This adds pressure on the

newspaper companies to seek creative solutions and explore new roles and

meanings for itself.

Business Standard Ltd. (BSL) was incorporated on 16th Dec. 1970 under

the name of “Desh Publications (p) Ltd.” This was changed to

“Business Standard (p) Ltd.” On 7th Sept. 1995 and subsequently

converted into “Business Standard Ltd” on 23rd Nov. 1995 as a limited

company. The HO is in Delhi.

Several reputed investors own the company Kotak Mahindra Finance

Limited-47.30% Great Eastern Shipping Company-31.87% OTHERS-

20.76%.

The company believes in ethical conduct through professional

management and has a forward-looking outlook.

It is the 2nd largest circulated business newspaper in India.

It gets published from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai,

Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai and is also printed at Kochi, Pune and

Chandigarh.

Mr. T.N. Ninan, the pre-eminent business journalist of the country

and an ex-editor of The Economic Times, edits Business Standard.

It has the distinction of an exclusive editorial syndicate with

Financial Times of London.

It has a readership of around a quarter million with seven editions.

It is India’s fastest growing newspaper having grown 300% in the

past five years.

INTRODUCTION

Business Standard

Not only about news:

With 200 full time journalists, analysts and writers across

the country, Business Standard delivers its readers the latest business news

with in-depth coverage of breaking stories, events and penetrating

analysis.

Its array of highly respected columnists provide not only

national, regional and global perspective to arm readers but also keen

insights to sharpen their competitive edge in the world o business.

It enriches their lives with lively supplements and vibrant

sections on personal finance, managing careers, personal technology,

travel destination, books, the arts and cultural reviews.

It’s Readership:

150000 approx all India.

11000 approx all Gujarat.

5500 approx at Ahmedabad.

57% of the BS readers are having income above Rs.20 lakhs.

37% of the BS readers take more then 50 flights a year

55% of the Mercedes Benz owners read the BS.

Readers Profile

1. 97% of BS readers are graduate and higher.

2. 98% live in town with more than 1 lakh population.

3. High visibility among corporate, CEOs and industry chief tans.

4. Young achievers in the 25-34 age group are also an emerging set of readers who contribute to 45% of the reader base.

Business Standard

VISION :

To stand at a respected position in the marathon and also keep up with the

pace of the changing needs of their valued readers.

The agenda is to win more and more readers to their cause and also to

deliver 100% of itself.

MISSION:

To expand the marked share of BS by creating a new market and by taking

bites from competitor’s market share.

CORE COMPETENCE:

Content creation, content processing & content management

OBJECTIVE :

To provide comprehensive details of market development

WHEN

YOU

ARE

SURE

Business Standard

I ST section in Business Standard

Page Information

1 General news

2 The Economy

4,5 Companies

6 International Business

7 Politics & public affairs

8,9 Business Life

10 Issues & Insights

11 Opinion

12 General news

II nd section Money & Markets

13 General market news

14 Commodities

15 Money and currencies

16 Stocks

17,18 BS 200

19,20,21 Stocks/Mutual fund values

22 Markets

III rd Section accent West

23 General

24,25 Gujarat

26,27 Maharashtra

28,29,30 Other regions

CONTENTS

Business Standard

PRODUCT PROFILE

Business Standard

SUPPLEMENTS:

The Smart Investor: It’s a tabloid which is published every Mondays, a

total investment guide for retail investors

Focus: Old economy, primary markets, secondary markets and new issues.

The Strategist: Published on every Tuesdays on glossary paper.

Focus: Theory and practice of business management. Guest columns from

world’s foremost management thinkers.

Accent west: A local guide for all that you wanted to know of the

western region published as a tabloid on all weekdays except Monday and

Saturday

Focus: Gujarat business news, Maharashtra and other western regions

news

Weekend: It is published on Saturdays.

Focus: Entertainment, enterprise, motoring, personal finance & leisure

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Special supplement that appear either within the newspaper or as a

separate section providing analysis of development and detail information

on particular industries, services, regions and countries.

SUPPLIMENTS

Business Standard

MAGAZINES:

The Strategist: It is an annual magazine, which is on the various

companies’ strategies and a recall of great stories from the strategist

supplement of Tuesdays

Indian Management : It is a monthly magazine. It is the journal of all

India Management Association. It is on management style.

Banking Annual : It is a yearly magazine. It gives the information about

bank and gives rank to banker.

The Billionaire Club: It is a yearly magazine which gives information

about the billionaires of India.

BS 1000 : It is a yearly magazine giving information of the corporate

world in India and gives rank to top 1000 companies by sale.

The world of B-schools : A yearly magazine focusing on top b-schools in

India.

Spend : A yearly magazine giving information about how to spend your

money in luxurious life.

Gateway : A monthly magazine on life style

Motoring : A monthly magazine on automobile sector.

Fund Manager : A monthly magazine on mutual fund sector.

Who advertises In BS?

Maruti, Ford, Fiat, Tata Indica, Intel, IBM, ICICI, Birla Sun life, SBI, UBI, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Citi Bank, Bajaj Allianz, Oracle, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley , BP etc… are some of the BS ‘ regular clients.

Special Features

Open sky,

Russia

Shipping

Business Standard

ORGANIZATION CHART :

Business Standard

Role Of ABC (Audit Bureau Of Circulation) In Print Media

What is ABC?

A bureau, which regulates the player in print media as publisher of

newspaper. ABC their rules and policies which are followed by the

members which help them to reflect their in circulations which are audited

by ABC and authorized the number of valid copies.

Few important issues to take care as per ABC certification:

Trade terms to agents on subscription copies should not exceed

In case of dailies-40% of the subscription price

In case of weeklies-45% of the subscription price

Publishers have to maintain the full record of subscribers with their

address, name and signature.

NET PAID SLES (NPS) : Net sale-unsold copies

It includes actual paid sales which are sold on normal cover price

and received payment routine through agents and retailers

10% of the bulk sales include hotels, institutes; airport comes

under net paid sales.

Back copies would not count under NPS

Indent confirmations given by agent will only be the part of

circulation and will be invalid sales

Unsold copies are not counted in circulation copies equivalent to

outstanding dues beyond the credit period as prescribed by the bureau

provided.

REGULATRY

BODY

Business StandardThere are two types of panels :

1. Auditors panel

2. Publishers panel

Auditors will audit the circulation twice a year ending June

& December

The auditors to cover the outstanding dues provide Two

months credit period to publishers.

If any distributors have more than 15000 subscriptions

copies then he also come under the audit for ABC certification.

ABC plays a major role to stop the manipulation activity in

the publication industry.

CONT....

Business Standard

DEPARTMENTS

Business Standard

1. Market Development Department – It is responsible for the

circulation of the newspaper in the whole region which comes under the

preview of the respective editions.

2. Space Marketing Department – It is the only department which

earns the revenue. The main function of this department is to sell space of

Business Standard newspaper and its other products by collecting

advertisements and generate revenue.

3. Scheduling Department – It is responsible for the layout of the

newspaper. Its core function is to adjust the advertisements and the

editorial in the page.

4. Editorial Department – It collects news on its own and from

various news agencies. It edits the contents, fills the remaining allocated

space by the advertisement department with articles and reports.

5. System Department – It is responsible for the communication

network through VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and with

dedicated leased lines with our branches.

6. Production Department – It is responsible for the production of

the newspaper.

7. Administration Department – It is responsible for the overall

administration, also the Finance and HR activities are synchronized and

looked after by this department.

DEPRTMENTS

Business Standard

Business Standard

1. Market Development Department

To manage the distribution channel properly is not the only task that the

Market Development Department has to perform. The department also has

to take care for the necessary steps required to tape the opportunities

prevailing in the market.

Market Development Department generally known as circulation

department and responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the

whole region, which comes under the preview of that addition of the

newspaper. Market Development Department is responsible for more than

40 routes for its regular supply. Addition to that market development

department has daily back-room operations, which contains to give print

order for the regular supply and for other copies like subscriptions,

complementary and sponsored copies.

Functions of Market Development Department:-

MDD handles various functions like Print Order Generation, Regulation

of Dispatch and to receive the payment in mode of cash, cheque or DD

against bill generated by it for the month. MDD also has to maintain

following ledgers /books.

Indent Revision:

A book which keep the record of daily supply to each of

the agent and the variation in the supply as per their

requirement for the copies.

Functions of MDD

Indent Revision

Print OrderGeneration

Print Order Variance

Daily Supply Report

Yearly Supply Report

Net Paid Sales

Unsold Register

Payment Receipt Book

Business Standard

Print Order Generation:

A slip, which is issued by MDD to production department

for the printing of, copies which contains the requirement

of total number of copies to distribution for next day.

Print Order Variance:

A transactional slip issued to Production Department,

which is made by Dispatch Executive showing last moment

change in print order.

Daily Supply Report:

A master record book in which records of daily supplier of

BS to each and every agent.

Yearly Supply Report:

A master record book which records an average annual

supply of BS to each and every agent.

Net Paid Sales:

A master record book which contains the information about

daily sale of BS on cover price. The formula for

calculating NPS is

NPS = Total Print Order – Subscribers copy –

Complimentary copies – Unsold copies

Unsold Register:

A register which maintain a record of daily unsold. Local

unsold is maintained on day to day basis where as up

country unsold is maintained on monthly basis, which will

be credited in agents account as per the unsold norms.

Channel of Distribution

Business Standard

Gujarat

More than 50 agents

More than 5000 hawkers

More than 30000 wardboys

More than 1000 Book stalls

AND

Business Standard Payment Receipt Book:

A transaction record, which shows the receipt of payment

from the agents.

The role of Market Development Department goes beyond simply

distributing the newspaper to readers. Circulation department also sell and

promote the newspaper. They must identify what reader’s want, when and

at what price.

MDD also includes Dispatch Control Department, which plays the role of

to send right number of newspapers at right time, at right station to the

right person. For the above purpose this department generates Print Order

and Rush Mails of Business Standard. Print Orders shows the required

number of newspapers to be printed for each station for the next day. The

number of Rush Mails are generated accordingly.

This department makes the parcel of newspaper for each destination, they

put the rush mails on the parcel which shows the number of copies on the

parcel and its destination. The expenses incurred during the circulation

are :

Taxi fare : Rs.3 per kilometer (approx.)

Parcel packing : Rs. 7 per parcel (approx.)

Rush mail is a written

document pasted on the parcel

of the newspaper to make it reach its destinatio

n

The Law of Duality: In the long run every market becomes a two horse race.

Business Standard

Business Standard

It plays a very important role to run a publication. It is the part and heart

of the publication because it is the only revenue generating department, so

all expenses like salaries, production expenses are paid from this

department.

For the company, the overall cost of one copy of BS newspaper is around

Rs. 15, but they charge to the customers only Rs. 2 for the weekdays and

Rs. 6 for the weekend and from this they give 28% to the vendors and 5%

to the distributor as the commission.

In Business Standard newspaper, the pages are predefined for the various

types of advertisements. There are advertisement agencies which provide

the service of advertising in any newspaper. The Space Marketing

Department is connected with these agencies. The client who puts ads in

any newspapers generally contact the agencies and hardly they meet any

publication directly. There are such 125 ad agencies in Ahmedabad city

only. For these ads the commission paid to the agencies is 10 to 15%.

The advertisement rates here are negotiable depending upon the clients.

Advertisements can be classified into two main parts.

1. Response oriented ads :

Display – It consists of launching of new products and

services, it is a product or service display ad. It consists of B2B, B2C and

classifieds.

Tender – It is the offer made by the government, private

companies and public sector companies.

SPACE

DEPARTMENT

Business Standard

Feature – It is a special and well focused category, for

example, in summer we come across feature ad in main line, vernacular

and business dailies of air conditioners, ice-creams, refrigerators, etc. to

catch the market. Industry specific feature is also well known like Open

Sky…………….

Appointment – Vacancies for various posts in the

company are being filled by the ads in the newspaper.

2. Compulsion ads :

Financial ads – The advertisements which include any

financial information about the company, as for example, Balance Sheet

or Profit or Loss Account, etc.

ADVERTISMENTS

Business Standard

Main task is to design the ad position, means which ad of which size for

how many editions to be printed on which page. On the basis of all these

information, the Scheduling Department of all editions coordinates with

each other and makes a tentative. Tentative is a summary of ad positions

for all seven editions. According to the tentative, they make the dummy

pages. The dummy is prepared on a A4 size paper which is then send to

the systems department.

The Scheduling Department has to check that :

The ad material is in PDF, EPS or TIFF file format

Ad file is in CMYK color format (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

and Black)

After the ad is printed in the final copy, it prepares a report

to be sent to Delhi

Front page ads must be booked to Kolkata (both sections)

Back page ads must to booked to Mumbai (both sections)

Front page ad can be of 25x4 only

Ads on left page will be on left side of the page

Ads on right page will be on right side of the page

Stock pages carries only 3 ads of 5x2

Black and White ads must be of 1200 dpi

Color ads must be of 300 dpi

Government ads come on the left side

SCHEDULING

DEPARTMENT

Business Standard

The main task of this department is to edit the story. This department

plays the role of parents in the publication. It is responsible for providing

the news for the newspaper.

There are three types of persons in the editorial department :

1. Reporter

2. Desk

3. Photographer

Reporters produce the stories from different fields.

They collect the news on their own and from various news agencies like

PTI, AP, AFP, Rolta, PR agencies of the companies. Reporters file the

stories and sends for final editing to the desk at Mumbai.

Reporters of all the seven cities file the stories and

send them to the desk at Mumbai and Delhi. The Desk decides which

stories should be printed and what should be the title of the news, these all

fall under the functions of the Desk.

Photographers take the photographs at various

places as and when required.

How does this department work?

This department collects the news and then edits the content and sends it

to Mumbai and Delhi for the adjustment in the page. After allocating the

space for advertisement it adjusts the remaining space for the article. For

national dailies, the editorial versus advertisement ratio is 60:40.

EDITORIAL

DEPARTMENT

Business Standard

It is linked with V-SAT and with the dedicated leased lines with its all

seven branches and head office, for Ahmedabad edition it links by leased

lines to only two cities Mumbai and Delhi, and all seven editions news

are obtained from these centre

This line is opened 24 hours connected with BSNL and ISDN use when it

is necessary to take data from Mumbai or Delhi.

Components of System Department

2 personal computers

Delta tower-manages the speed between computer and Duo

setter, because the speed of the computer is lower compared to duo setter

Duo setter-produces the cassette of the positive to be

printed at the production department.

How the system department works?

It uses the software called Quark Express. The final pages come from

Delhi which is automatically saved to the computer. The people in this

department checks the pages and saves it to the computer, then these pages

are send to the Duo setter to make the cassette for printing positive image.

The most important job is to receive a facsimile copy of newspaper and

forward its print to the production department.

SYSTEM

DEPARTMENT

Business Standard

After receiving the facsimile copy from the system Department on butter

paper or on a positive, this positive is framed on the aluminum plate. This

plate is then fixed in the printing machine and then as per the printing

orders, the printing starts.

Raw material for this department is paper, aluminum plates, ink, etc. while

the task of the printing is on the contract basis with Pearl Energy &

Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. formerly known as Sambhaav Press for

Ahmedabad edition. Newsprint comes in reel form. The weight of one

reel of Salmon Pink paper is 400 kg and it costs Rs. 30,000 and it prints

about 4000 copies of newspaper. Per 1000 copies machine charges Rs.

800 counting all other overhead costs. Per copy cost comes about Rs. 15.

Facsimile copy

↓

Positive↓

Aluminum plate

↓Printing machine

Business Standard

It is responsible for the overall administration as well as the Finance and

HR activities are also synchronized and looked after by this department.

Talking about the Finance Department the Equity base stands at around

Rs. 50 Crores. This department is responsible for overall administration in

the branch and also for book-keeping of various accounts and other

expenses. BS is an unlisted company, so it is confidential about all the

financial conditions. It also not gives its Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss

Account to its branches.

Its income comes from circulation, space marketing and others (like

Scrap). BS has two accounts in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

At Ahmedabad branch, the HR department doesn’t have a core function

but still it takes care of certain activities like :

Recruitment – HR department recruit people from two sources

1. External – BS gives advertisement through

ad agency and in BS also.

2. Internal – It recruits people on the basis of

employee recommendation also having specified set of skills.

Employee attendance – They make sure that every employee

comes on time, if an employee is late, one red mark will be made and for

every six red marks the employee will be punished with cut-off in one

day’s salary.

Rewards – BS gives its employees good increments on the basis of

their performances and target achievement.

ADMIN

DEPARTMENT

Business Standard

STRENGTHS:

Associated with Financial Times.

Competitive cover price of Rs. 2.

Quantitative and qualitative content.

Diverse supplements.

Unmatched editorial team.

WEAKNESSES:

Low Brand Awareness.

Third Party Publication.

Product features- small font size, NAVs are not latest.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Great market potential.

Tie-up with different national newspapers.

Increasing literacy and incomes.

THREATS:

Competitors like Economic Times, Business Line, Financial

Express etc.

Threat from TV News channels.

Entry of foreign Players.

Access to online analysis.

S

W

O

T

Business Standard

A. Introduction

Marketing research is the tool in the hands of the marketer either to find

out the solution of any managerial or market related problem or to find the

new opportunities and threats that are prevailing in the market. Marketing

research is the systematic gathering, model building and fact finding

process to solve the problem relating to marketing of goods and services.

Marketing research can be of three types;

1. Descriptive research

2. Exploratory research

3. Causal research

As part of our summer training, we first wanted to have an overlook at the

present market conditions. So we first decided to do a pilot survey and

based on that to make some strategy to enhance the awareness of Business

Standard brand and to penetrate the BS relative to competitors. So we

first took the sample of 100 respondents as a base and did the survey with

the help of a questionnaire, which is displayed in the annexure. The

results of the survey are discussed later in this section.

B. Objectives of the Research:

Following are the major objectives of our pilot survey;

1. To know the reading habits of people

2. To judge the awareness level about Business Standard

3. To make a market development strategy for Business Standard

4. To find the purposes for which people read financial dailies

5. To know the factors that is considered important for subscribing to any

financial daily

MARKET

RESEARCH

Business StandardC. Research Methodology:

Research methodology is the most important part of marketing research

which consists of the research design, sampling, data collection and data

analysis parts. These are described hereunder.

(a) Research Design

Research design is the planning of how to do the research. It consists of

all necessary answers to questions such as what should be the sample size,

sampling method and the method of data collection. As Business

Standard is the financial newspaper we had to be very specific in our

research design because our target audience had to be selective.

(b) Target audience

The financial newspapers generally cater to the following target audience:

Ÿ Corporate executives

Ÿ Stock brokers

Ÿ Businessmen

Ÿ Bankers

Ÿ Management students and professors

Ÿ Investors

Ÿ Chartered Accountants & other Professionals

CONT....

CONT....

Business Standard(c) Sample size

As we just wanted to do a pilot survey, we took the sample of only 200

respondents. As the target audience is very specific we decided to go by

Judgmental sampling method in which we included the respondents from

all the audience classes described above.

(d) Data collection

Since, data collection signifies a very crucial place in a pilot survey, we

have collected primary data by personal interview through structured

questionnaires.

(e) Data analysis

The actual work of researcher starts after the collection of data, because

only heaps of data does not serve the purpose of marketing research. The

data are to be classified and analyzed properly so as to get the deep

insights into the problem or the prospects of the opportunity. On the basis

of our questionnaire we are presenting the following facts and analysis.

Business Standard

1. Do you read financial dailies?

The graph shows that out of 100 respondents 88% read financial dailies.

So in our target audience there is a significant readership of FNPs.

2. What are the financial dailies that you are aware of?

The classification shows that approximately 30% of the readers are

aware of the Business Standard brand.

ANALYSIS

Business Standard

3. Do you subscribe to any financial daily?

The graph shows that The Economic Times is the market leader with

approx. 45% share and Business Standard stands at the Second position in

the market with approx. 22% share.

4 How much time do you spend on reading financial dailies?

From the graph it can be seen that most of the people read the newspaper

for less than 20 minutes and as per our interviews with them they are

mostly concerned either with the stock values or business related news and

they generally take a glance look at the financial dailies because of time

their busy schedules.

< 20 Min62.2%

>= 20 Min26.7%

NA11.1%

< 20 Min>= 20 MinNA

5. What is your main purpose of reading a financial daily?

CONT....

CONT....

Business Standard

The graph shows that for the economic news most of the readers

preferred The Economic Times while Business Standard stood at

the second position.

-

BS25.0%

ET61.4%

FE9.1%

BL4.5%

BSETFEBL

a. Economic News

From the chart we can see that for the purpose of having the

information on business related news majority of the people prefer

The Economic Times and secondly they prefer Business Standard.

BS26.0%

ET57.0%

FE12.0%

BL5.0%

BSETFEBL

b. Business News

CONT....

Business Standard From the chart we can observe that for the purpose of having

information about the mutual fund NAVs Business Standard and

Economic Times are almost at the similar positions. Also some of

them appreciated the fact that Business Standard provides Stock

and Mutual fund related information in the separate supplement

called the MONEY AND MARKETS & SMART INVESTOR are

really very helpful to them.

BS41.2%

ET47.1%

FE5.9%

BL5.9%

BSETFEBL

c. Mutual Fund NAVs

The chart shows that as far as the stock market information is

concerned BS is having upper hand as far as quantity is concerned

but getting down as far as the font size is concerned. Many of the

respondents told us that the information is really very good but due

to more information the font size is not even readable sometimes

and because of this they prefer to read ET for this aspect.

Business Standard

BS26.0%

ET53.3%

FE13.0%

BL7.8%

BSETFEBL

d. Stock Market

6. Do any schemes attract you to buy a financial daily?

From the chart we can observe that majority of the respondents gave high

weight on discount as the factor for considering whether to subscribe any

financial daily for the year. Also the gift as a factor had reasonable level

of weight.

7.

Would you consider shifting to any other financial daily?

The chart shows that majority of the respondents denied to shift to another

financial daily, but it is interesting to note that approx. 24% of the

respondents were likely to shift to another financial daily if some incentive

is provided and approx. 24% were not sure whether to shift or not.

51.7%37.9%

4.6% 5.8%

DiscountGiftsLucky DrawsBOG

The Law of Singularity: In each situation only one move will produce substantial results.

CONT....

Business Standard

Yes24.1%

No51.9%

May be24.1%

YesNoMay be

Readiness to Change

Following are the limitations of our pilot survey:

1. As we just wanted to get an overview about the prevailing market

conditions, we used judgmental sampling and took a sample of only 100

from a huge population.

2. The region covered is only west part of India and that too only

Ahmedabad city. So, it may not be fully representing the whole population

of business newspaper readers in India.

3. Time Constraint: We had only a week’s time to carry out this pilot

study.

LIMITATIONS

Business Standard

PROMOTIONAL TOOLS

On the basis of our analysis, we found that around 60% of target audience

will shift to other news paper ,if they are facilitated with some discounts

and gifts . So we worked on this aspect and after much discussion and

brainstorming we come to the conclusion that company should provide

cash discount on annual subscription and a total business solution

considering our target audience. This business solution includes executive

bag cum one day travel bag and business planner. After this, we proposed

our project in-charge and deputy manager to launch the scheme.

Fortunately, our proposal got approval from Head Office.

With this approval, we were given a target of 250 subscriptions. But our

performance was so outstanding that we over-achieved the target and

booked more than 300 subscriptions within 10 days.

By looking at our performance, our national head had thrown a new

challenge of doing the market development work also in Baroda city with

the target of 150 subscriptions in a week.

Though the time was less and target was high, our team was so confident

about the performance that we accepted the challenge and over-achieved

the target by booking around 200 subscriptions.

STRATEGY

Business StandardOverall, we booked more than 500 subscriptions which was a great

achievement in itself. The national head was so impressed that he

personally came to congratulate the team for this remarkable performance.

Being a summer trainee, we got a chance to be a part of strategic decision

of the organization which itself is the rarest of the rare thing. Pleased with

our performance, they arranged a one-day picnic for us and also a farewell

party which were the memorable moments of our life.

To expand the readership base, Business Standard uses the market

segment to identify homogeneous clusters within the readers and linked

this information to reader’s loyalty. Then it is applied to non Business

Standard reader base and designed relevant offers targeted to look alike

prospects. The results identified different lifestyle cluster, each with a

different profile. Promotional Schemes are tool for the Marketing

Department to increase the readership base with various tactics like mass

subscription, prepaid card, sponsored copies.

REGULAR SUPPLY

As per the goodwill of the Business Standard in readers it has regular

circulation of more than 150000 copies all over India with its seven

editions. Regular copy of B.S is supplied through the existing channel of

hawkers and agents. Readers of B.S can get their copy early in the

morning from the hawker or they can buy from the newsstand.

Regular cover Price of B.S newspaper is for Monday to Friday Rs. 2 /- and

for Saturday copy Rs. 6 /- of Ahmedabad Edition.

Business Standard

INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIPTION

In individual subscription a person who wants to subscribe B.S has to pay

amount for 6 months or 12 months in advance to any authorized agent of

B.S.

Generally subscription rate are lower than its cover price of the particular

edition and ABC rules.

MASS SUBSCRIPTION

To attract of special people towards the B.S the company launches

scheme. e.g. B.S has special subscription for management student that

they can get copy of B.S at their institute at very low price then the others.

In organization point of view this offer can give marginal increment to its

daily circulation.

JOINT SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

This attractive offer is specially made for the management students as well

the Management Gurus. They can get 12 copies of Indian Management

(Monthly) + B.S Newspaper daily at their home @ 33 % discount. This

offer helps Business Standard Ltd. To increase the subscriber base for

both the products simultaneously.

PENETRATION

Business Standard

PREPAID CARDS

This offer is available to the corporate worlds that want to give B.S

Newspaper as a gift to their stack holders. Business Standard will supply

the copy to the home of that particular that has prepaid card in their hand.

B.S also put a striker on the front page displaying the advertisement of the

particular corporate. In this way Corporate give an excellent gift to their

employees, agents or Customer.

E.g XYZ Pharmaceuticals Company can purchase 100 prepaid cards of 1

month and then cards distribute to the Doctors. Doctors will get copy of

B.S at their home for one month with the sticker of XYZ Pharmaceutical

on the right top corner of front page.

The price of prepaid card is equivalent to the cover price of B.S which

includes the cost of printing and pasting of the striker on the Newspaper

and its distribution cost.

From B.S point of view this offer will help to increase the figures of

average circulation and promote it on lower cost.

SPONSORED COPIES

CONT....

Business StandardThis scheme is specially made for those corporate who want to give their

advertisement in the newspaper in the way to save the cost. A corporate

will get the copy of B.S to the target audience of sponsored company. In

this way corporate get economical way of advertisement.

E.g Hitachi has sponsored the copies of B.S and it was distributed in

various residential areas.Corporate and to the Western Parts of

Ahmedabad and to the Airport for the outgoing passengers in Security

halt.

This scheme is beneficial for both the sponsored company and the B.S to

promote the daily in Economical way. The sponsored copies were also

increase the average circulation figure of the company.

ROAD SHOW

To promote the B.S the company has conducted a Road Show with the

summer trainees in order to have awareness in the people of Ahmedabad.

Almost whole of the Ahmedabad is covered during the Road Show and

emphasize was on the Big Commercial areas.

MOVIE SHOW

It was a good learning when we the summer trainees along with our

project in charge have gone to see the movie by wearing the T-shirts and

caps of Business Standard so the people can directly came to the know

the Brand and some of the people have actually Respondent on seeing

this Behavior .

PROMOTION

Business Standard

Business Standard

ONE DAY AT MDD:

We learnt that the media looks glamorous only from outside but when you

know the inner story, you find the hectic work conditions. This sector

provides infotainment and not entertainment so, there lies many social and

ethical responsibilities which should be fulfilled. So, they have rightly

written on their Notice Board:

“ Sach woh hai jise dekh awaaz uthe

Na ki ek atpata sannata chha jaye

Ek Jagrut desh chahate hai hum

Is liye uttejana nahi sach dikhate hai hum ”

10:00 p.m. Printing started

10:30 p.m. Printing completed

11:00 p.m. Up country dispatch

01:30 a.m. Dispatch Completed

02:00 a.m. Ahmedabad Dispatch

03:30 to 06:30 a.m.: Distribution Center

09:30 a.m. Reporting to office

10:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. Editorial and space department work

06:00 to 06:30 p.m. Pagination and Scheduling

07:00 p.m.

Business Standard

From the study carried out and the analysis of the result obtain from the

survey , the following suggestion and recommendation can help the firm

to improve upon the product.

1) Increase the number of centers from where the news paper is

available

2) Regarding news content.

a. Give more values to foreign exchange rate.

b. Increase the font size of stock details.

c. Provide the separate columns of Banks and Insurance news.

d. Cover all the scheme of Mutual Funds.

e. Provide script code of BSE and NSE.

f. Provide information of appointments and education abroad.

3) Management should design a vendor Relationship Management

programme and should come up with some motivational aoffers

and scheme for the vendors, so that they are self motivated and

hance will push Business Standard from their side and would help

in increasing the trade sales.

4) Business Standard as a newspaper can improve a MIS and keep a

track of BS readers. Though this MIS business standard can focus

on their existent readers and can work for customer retention and

increase the circulation through word of mouth.

SUGGESTIONS

Business Standard

From the pilot survey we found that most of the customer

regularly read this newspaper and they are satisfied with all the

contents provided by the Business Standard.

Looking at over all publication process, we came to know the

whole process of printing till the final delivery of the

newspaper. Understanding the theoretical aspect makes it look

much easier but practically the publication process is very

difficult and requires integrated efforts from all the

departments.

The distribution channel plays a very important role in

newspaper industry. The distribution channel of Business

Standard is similar to the other print industry. After completing

the printing work of the newspaper dispatch officer sends the

copies to the various cities, the agent of the various cities

collects the copy and sells to their vendors and book stalls. A

vendor sell their copy to the end user.

As a part of promotional activity performed by business

standard, subscription scheme at discounted price is offered to

customer. The main objective behind this is to attract the non

BS reader and make him try the newspaper. By doing so the

company is able to increase the circulation with maximum

customer retention after the scheme period.

Finally looking at the acceptance of promotional scheme of

Business standard, I conclude that the scheme offered was

mostly liked by the readers and ultimately most of them were

subscribing to it.

CONCLUSIONS

Business Standard

1. Time and Money factor.

2. Lack of Professional Approach since Researcher is a student.

3. The number of respondents of the survey was only 100 which is far

lower than the actual population of the Business Newspaper Readers.

4. Respondents are biased in some questions while filling up the

questionnaires.LIMITATIONS

Business Standard

We took the help of following resources to make this report, addition to

our learning and experience during the summer training

Business Standard brochures

IRS figures

NRS figures

The 22 immutable laws of marketing- Al ries and Jack Trout

www.Auditbureau.com

www.businessstnadard.com

wwww.unica.com

BIBLIOGRAPHy

Business Standard

ABC Audit Bureau of Circulation

BS Business Standard

BL Business Line

DSR Daily Supply Report

ET The Economic Times

FE Financial Express

IRS Indian Readership Survey

MDD Market Development Department

MDS Market Development Strategies

NRS National Readership Survey

ROI Return on Investment

SMD Space Marketing Department

YSR Yearly Supply Report

APPENDIX

Business Standard

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