Double trouble: MRUC now faces flak from magazine publishers

The Association of Indian Magazines has written an open letter to MRUC pointing out the anomalies in the survey and has urged it to withdraw the survey.

The association has written an open letter to the MRUC in this regard. It points out that 141 magazines have not been reported individually and have been put under others category that include 61 English and 24 Hindi language magazines.

Other anomalies pointed in the letter include Business Today, the only business magazine reported in the survey, which shows dropped readership of 2.64 lakh (from 4.03 lakh). The magazine in previous rounds of IRS was reported to be growing on readership. Reader's Digest has de-grown to a readership of 3.62 lakh (from 9.68 lakh).

Though India Today has registered growth in readership according to the survey, the letter claims that its growth in regions such as Bihar, Kerala and UP is beyond logic. Similarly, Outlook has registered growth but with no readership in Hyderabad and thrice the previous readership in Bihar.

The Week magazine has seen a downfall in readership from 4.2 lakh to 2.5 lakh, with no readers in Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Junior Vikatan, Naanayam Vikatama and Meri Saheli have lost a large number of readers, while Time, SportStar and Chuti Vikatan have shown unprecedented growth.

The governing body of AIM includes several members such as Delhi Press, India Today Group, Anand Vikatan, Network18, Outlook Group, Pathfinder Publication, Spenta Multimedia and many others.

Magazines have always had an issue with the IRS survey reports as apart from the most popular magazines, the niche magazines have a large number of their readers segregated, which are extremely difficult to locate and identify.