Print advertising by dotcoms biased, says IIMC report

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI, July 27

An exploratory research on print advertising by dotcoms has revealed some startling facts. It has shown that while some newspapers with high circulation get few dotcom ads, smaller newspapers fare much better in space selling to dotcoms.

The research was conducted by IIMC Professor Dr Jaishri Jethwaney over the month of April 2000. In all, 360 issues of the following publications were surveyed - The Times of India (ToI), The Hindustan Times (HT), the Asian Age, the Pioneer, The Hindu, The Statesman, The Economic Times (ET), the Financial Express (FE), the Indian Express (IE), the Deccan Herald and two Hindi papers, the Hindustan and the Amar Ujala.

The publications were scanned both for the total ad space occupied by the dotcom ads as well as the subject matter of the ads. The latest media resource book IRS 2000 was consulted to match the readership profile of Delhi youth in three age groups, namely 12-14 years, 15-19 years and 20-24 years.

These three age groups were identified as the target for most dotcom ads, while these were the same guys reading the newspapers in question.

The highlights of the findings of the research were as follows:

As expected, the two giants The ToI and The HT, were the most widely read newspapers among all the three age groups. However, while The HT had 40,000 more readers than The ToI, the latter was able to sell 12,500 column cm of space to dotcoms, compared with HT which could sell only 2,000 column cm.

Similarily, while The Statesman had 17,000 more readers than the FE in the three age-groups, The Statesman could sell only 400 column cm compared with FE's 6,000 column cm.

What could be the reason for such inverse relations between readership and ad revenue? The answer lies in the profile of the newspaper conerned.

According to industry estimates, about 200 web sites are being launched in India everyday, and the number is growing. The name of the website and the advertising and marketing efforts are key in arresting the attention of the ‘Generation Net'. Hence, window-dressing becomes a must. Better the window, more the eyeballs.

In such a scenario, Jethwaney believes that a mix of better marketing strategy and a modern image was the winning factor for the ad rich papers. And Jethwaney is of the opinion that the trend is here to stay.

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