Media associations join hands
Two major media associations that have long been at loggerheads are on their way to a rapprochement. The move could have significant repercussions for readership surveys in India.
The Media Research Users Council (mruc) a non-profit body that conducts the Indian Readership Survey looks set to patch up with the Indian Newspaper Society (ins). The latter along with representatives from the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Audit Bureau of Circulation a body of advertisers and media companies, conducts a rival survey, the National Readership Survey. Advertisers have often felt chaffed at this survey; their grouse being that it's partly controlled by print media companies. There were also concerns about the validity of ins data. mruc was formed in 1994, largely in response to these concerns. Relations between it and ins have been strained in the past, usually over the findings of the survey it instituted.
But now the newspaper society seems to have rethought its position. It's new found interests in the council is being seen by a lot of media experts as a sign of disillusionment with the National Readership Survey.