HT’S growth story is valid and accurate, says audit review

NEW DELHI: After a careful and thorough process of validation and independent audit, four media industry bodies have collectively declared that the Indian Readership Survey Findings (2013), conducted under a new methodology, was accurate and would now be available to all users.

This puts at rest, once and for all, the debate over the past six months wherein some readership figures had witnessed a dip compared to past surveys, thereby prompting some publishers to raise questions about IRS’ accuracy. The fact that four umbrella bodies — Media Research Users Council (MRUC), Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) — have all accepted these findings highlights overwhelming industry consensus and support for IRS 2013.

An MRUC press release explained the steps of the review process. RSCI, constituted by both MRUC and ABC, had embarked on a revalidation exercise after differing views on the survey’s accuracy, and asked subscribers to hold the study in abeyance till then.

A subcommittee with two co-chairs — representing publishers and advertising agencies — was constituted, and this body held that the

HT

TOI

DNA

Dainik Jagran

Hindustan

Dainik Bhaskar

methodology adopted was correct. The statement said it had then commissioned a process audit, and awarded it to Praveen Tripathi, “one of India’s foremost experts on large scale studies of media consumption behaviour”.

This audit was conducted in two stages. “Stage one involved direct back-checking of respondent homes.” The second step was “a much broader and deeper Forensic Statistical Analysis exercise”, which identified and isolated “both fieldwork compliance deficiencies and incidence of the occurrence of Unusual Publication Incidence in respondent interview records”. The audit “conclusively and unequivocally” judged that statistical deviations had not impacted study results and crucial readership outputs.