"We've recommended that the government only advertise in papers with ABC certificates" - Shashi Sinha, Chairman, ABC

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), a non-profit industry body for measuring and auditing newspaper and magazine circulation in the country, plans to start measuring digital audiences. To drive this project, ABC recently announced the appointment of Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands as Chairman. We caught up with him to understand the road ahead for ABC. Edited excerpts:

Edited Excerpts

Media Research Users Council (MRUC), the parent body of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), and ABC have come together, and now ABC owns 50 per cent of IRS. On all measurements, including print, our desire is to have as many common metrics as possible rather than have conflicting bodies. IRS's revival has got delayed for various reasons, but MRUC and ABC will work together to get the new system off the ground.

The brand name is owned by MRUC, but the partnership is 50-50. The aim is to ensure that industry bodies work together. We needed better technology with a larger sample - we are looking at a 33 per cent increase in sample size at 3,30,000, proper back-checks, and a host of other features The field work for IRS 2016 should start in the next two to three months.

Nothing in India can be foolproof, and these are indicative measures. So, on the ABC front, we are looking at a couple of things. Last year, even before I took over as chairman, we made the ABC process robust. Earlier, we used to have things like self audits and surprise audits, which we have done away with now. To make this more transparent, we've implemented a process where every audit is done by an independent third party, comprising three auditors.

The issue remains that some planners use IRS, while the government uses ABC; some people don't subscribe and when the data is not favourable some get out and then come back again. Also, currently, ABC and IRS data sit separately, on different websites and platforms. So, what we are recommending, and shall hopefully succeed in, is to have ABC and IRS data side-by-side on the same platform, to enable a mental co-relation. By doing this, one can make more informed choices.

Overall, readership is the best measure, but circulation is proof of that readership. So, you can't have a situation where circulation is higher than readership. You also can't have a situation where, let's say, the circulation to readership ratio in a certain genre is 1:4, on an average, and suddenly one paper comes to 1:15. The desire here is to not combine the two, but put it all on the same software platform, and provide checks and balances that will help planners and advertisers decide better. This is the first big step, and many might object to it, but we will talk to everyone and make them understand the advantages.

The ABC board has agreed to viewing both data on the same platform, the MRUC board has still to agree.

Today, for print, the largest advertiser is the government. So, we've made a recommendation to the government that it should not advertise in papers without ABC certificates. In effect, we are asking to make ABC mandatory for government-related advertising. Print is a strong lobby and it all depends on whether the government agrees to this, but this is a big initiative which, if it actually happens, will suddenly make ABC the big currency.

It's a bit premature to say that digital will take over. Regional is going strong and as for English print, they are all morphing into content producers. Be it physical or digital, the point is to have quality eyeballs. The advantages here are that measurement can indicate content capabilities and provide credibility. Advertisers, especially global companies, die for metrics. In the long run, measurement systems like this help and grow the industry.

When publishers said to us that today their content is being read online, and they have ads on e-papers and sites, they wanted us to measure them. We have got Nielsen in for the technology aspect and the starting point is to certify both e-paper data alongside print-runs.

Yes, beyond the count of 'hits'; we will go slightly beyond the ABC charter and set up a panel for mobile and desktop readership profile. The Nielsen mobile panel will say 'who is the one reading'.

For mobile and web, for the 'hits', they'll put cookies that will be dropped the minute you hit a site. This enables tagging. Within that, there is a sample panel, whose data can be extrapolated, just like panels for television. So, along with the ABC print certificate, we will give a separate statement of the profiles of the e-papers. For tablets, we are looking at a separate panel eventually. The back-end discussions and commercials are over, so we hope to launch in the next three to four months.

Transparency is the big advantage of having an industry body do this. In the case of comScore, no one really knows how it works. In fact, the only reason TAM was criticised was because of lack of transparency.

In digital, the first big challenge is pricing. Unlike print measurement, where publishers make enough revenue to invest money on ABC's subscriptions, there's not much money being made here. This is an investment in technology where, for the first one or two years, you need to invest enough upfront to make it happen. So, we have a deal with Nielsen where they will fund this for now, and get benefits in some years. This enables attractive pricing for our partners.

The secondary challenges include the need for safeguards and issues like data being corrupt or getting out from within. The system should also tackle 'bots', a global menace, which create artificial hits. Nielsen is getting this back-end together and will complete it soon.

The possibilities are huge, and we want to look at the big picture. We are only looking at publishing currently and what can be read online, and not looking at videos, for instance. Outside my ABC mandate, in general, the industry bodies together will be looking at end-to-end web measurement.