INS initiates second phase of Impact Multiplier study

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has initiated the second phase of the Impact Multiplier study, which measures how print and television work on the basis of the Impact Multiplier theory.

The theory assumes that when two media are taken into account the combined impact is more than the sum total of the individual impacts of the two.

The findings of the first phase of the study was released a year ago by research agency IMRB, which was commissioned to work on the project by INS.

This year, however, WPP agency srs-icon has been commissioned to work on phase two, which will endeavour to quantify the impact multiplier phenomenon.

"Phase one," says Bharat Kapadia, editor and associate publisher, Chitralekha, who is the chief mentor of INS's Project Press, which is pushing the Impact Multiplier study among initiatives, "ratified the existence of the phenomenon. Phase two will go a step further and provide some figures. Or, in other words, quantify the phenomenon."

What is interesting about INS's Impact Multiplier study is that it is conducted in live or actual market conditions, as opposed to a controlled environment in which studies of a similar kind have been done across the world.

"Almost 60 impact multiplier studies have been initiated across the world," says Kapadia. "But none have gone beyond a controlled environment."

The second phase of the INS study will be completed in a year's time and like in the first phase, a set of brands, which numbered six in all then, will be used to track and quantify the phenomenon.

Meanwhile, in another development, the INS has elected new office bearers for the year 2004-05 at its 65th annual general meeting (AGM), which was held in Mumbai after a gap of seven to eight years on September 23.

Pradeep Guha, head of the Times of India Group, was voted as the president of INS, followed by Jacob Mathew of Malaya Manorama, who was elected the deputy president. Gulab Kothari of Rajasthan Patrika was voted as the vice-president and Mahendra Mohan Gupta of Dainik Jagran, Kanpur is the new treasurer of the apex body.

Elections for berths in the executive committee, which number 35 in all, were also held at the same time. And some of the elected representatives include Pratap Pawar of Sakal Newspapers, Vijay Darda of Lokmat, Mammen Mathew of Malayala Manorama, M J Akbar of the Asian Age and Girish Agarwal of the Bhaskar Group.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!