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1. Introduction
The Global Newspaper Industry is facing major challenge for survival. The
escalating competition from other forms of media (IBS World Report 2012). Various
groups of researchers have opined that the Newspaper industry is ailing globally,
On the other hand Indian journey of Newspapers have been long and steady in this
rapidly growing economy and is moving towards increase in Circulation and Advt.
revenue. Media and Entertainment Industry touched US $ 15.7 bn. in 2013 and Indian
Print Media contributes 21% of this growth (FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and
entertainment Industry Report 2014). In one of the report from (FICC and PWC
Report, 2007) it is noted that, Indian Print Media is one of the largest markets in the
Pune - known as the ‘Oxford’ of East - has high literacy rate and higher income group
of Readers who prefer to buy English Newspapers. Everyday more than 300000
copies of English Newspapers are circulated across the city. Times of India, Indian
Express, Sakal Times and DNA are some of the well established brands in
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The Researcher has witnessed the growth of English Newspaper in past few years.
Compared to Global market the Indian Market is growing rapidly and will continue to
grow further.
major reasons behind such growth of Indian Newspapers. Having realized this fact,
this research has been undertaken with a specific focus on Marketing Strategies of
English Newspapers and the Consumers’ response to these strategies with special
reference to Pune.
these areas, but extends to the general understanding of overall business pattern of
Newspaper industry. The research is also inclusive of areas such as Reading habits,
policies.
Newspaper Survival (Paranjoy Guha Thakurta ,2012) and have mentioned the
Binny, May 2006). Newspaper being a part of service industry the Marketing
Strategies are based on Product, Price, Place and Promotion (McCarthy 1960) and
People, Physical Evidence and Process. While some researchers have stated that the
global Newspaper industry is in decline phase (IBS World Report 2012, Kuttner &
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Robert, 2007), other researchers identified the positive side of Indian Newspaper
(Larkin, John, Sabharwal, Binny, May 2006, Philip Meyer 2009, Paranjoy Guha
Thakurta ,2012 ).
The literature review has revealed that there is a dearth of research evidence to prove
empirical relationships between the predictors and dependent variable in the context
of Newspaper survival. Thus, the to fill the research gap is the empirical evidence for
showing progressive signs for the growth in India, but very few literatures have been
stating the reasons behind such growth. There is a dearth of literature on the
Newspaper industry.
growth, the prime significance of this research lies in the very exploration of the
Industry became significant. This research has found empirical evidence for the
relationships between the various constructs of Marketing strategy and Readers’ &
Distributors’ Satisfaction.
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5. Problem Statement
“To identify various Marketing Strategies adopted by English Newspapers’ in the
context of Readers’ and Distributors’ response in Pune market and to identify the
factors influencing on Sustainability and the Growth of English Newspaper. The study
aims to seek empirical evidence for the contribution of Marketing Strategies towards
6. Research Objectives
The research is directed to study of “Marketing Strategies adopted by English
reference to Pune”. To attain this aim, following objectives have been developed.
2. To study the shift in consumer behaviour for obtaining news from Newspapers
Sustainability.
5. To find out the key driving forces of Sustainability for English Newspaper in
the Indian Market.
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7. Statement of Hypotheses
The following Six are the main research hypotheses (or alternative hypotheses) based
Ha1: Service Quality, Newspaper Brand, Distribution, Promotion and People have
Ha2: Readers’ ratings to various media for news extraction differ on the basis of
types of Media.
Ha4: Readers Satisfaction is the key driving force for Sustainability of English
Newspaper.
Distributors’ Satisfaction.
8. Research Methodology
This study covers major commercial English Newspaper Published from Pune
namely,
Language
Commercial Newspapers
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Respondents Demographics
questionnaire for Readers and Distributors. An Interview Schedule had been used to
conduct depth interview with Management Personnel. The metric has been subjected
to standard procedure of validation and reliability test through a pilot study of 110
samples.
Stratified (Area) Random Sampling (or Probabilistic Sampling) has been used as the
basic design of sampling. The strata already created on the basis of geographical
location (29 Distribution centre) by Newspaper organisations have been used for this
study
selected. For this study 500 regular Readers and 44% of Distributors (51 out of 116)
were selected. (Source : Universal Accreditation Board, 2003). The Researcher has
selected all the Four Newspaper organisations personnel for personal interview.
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9. Statistical Procedures and Tools
This research adopts Mean, Standard Deviation, t-statistics, Analysis of Variance,
the tools for the inferential statistics. IBM SPSS 20 has been used for descriptive
statistics; SmartPLS Version 3.1.9 has been used for constructing the relationship
majority were 25-35 years (43%) followed by 15-25 years (35%), Occupation-wise
Majority were Service (81%) and Newspaper Brand-wise majority were Times of
2. Overall Perceptions
Overall perceptions of Readers are studied in terms of the five main constructs. In
Distribution (74.2%), and People (73.2%), have been perceived Satisfactory by the
respondents on the overall basis and a small group of respondents feels that these
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3. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
The path coefficients indicate the increase or decrease in the dependent variable for a
R2 value indicates the practicality of the study i.e. the percentage influence of all
In this study the R2 value is 0.690 which means the independent variable or the
indicators which have been selected have 69% influence on the dependent
This implies that the dimensions or indicators selected for the study are adequate
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11.1 The t-statistic of Integrated Hypothetical Research Model :
Hypothesis
Model t Sig.
Testing
Service Quality -> Readers Satisfaction (Ha1) 9.525 .000 Accepted
Newspaper Brand -> Readers Satisfaction (Ha2) 8.527 .000 Accepted
Promotion -> Readers Satisfaction (Ha3) .258 .797 Rejected
Distribution -> Readers Satisfaction (Ha4) 8.269 .000 Accepted
People -> Readers Satisfaction (Ha5) 3.166 .002 Accepted
Distributors
Hypothesis
Model x2 Sig.
Testing
Years of Association -> Newspaper Brand (Ha11) 24.836 .003 Accepted
Sales Quantity -> Newspaper Brand (Ha12) 25.770 .002 Accepted
Promotional Benefits -> Newspaper Brand (Ha13) 6.160 0.406 Rejected
Promotional Benefits -> Year of Association (Ha14) 2.460 0.873 Rejected
Newspaper Brand -> satisfaction (Ha15) 24.352 0.069 Rejected
ANOVA extracted under this study provided evidence for the reliability by
evidence for the reliability and build confidence in the data that has been
collected.
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2. Hypotheses testing revealed that Service Quality, Brand Image, Distribution
indicates that the promotional benefits designed by these organisations are either
not implemented properly, not communicated properly or the strategies are not
satisfaction and lead towards generating more sales volume. The mean values of
almost all the constructs except Credit (1.71), Promotion (2.12) and Participation
(3.43) are considerable and show a positive approach of Distributors towards the
preferred medium by the Readers to extract the news and Indian English
Newspaper Industry has a great potential to grow in the market. This means other
forms of media are not impacting on the growth of Indian Newspaper. (Friedman
Test).
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14.Research Findings and Implications
1. The findings through the descriptive statistics have provided valuable information
about the data gathered in this research. The demographics study revealed that
majority of the respondents in the sample size were male members and in the age
particular Newspaper for Quality and Content of News, Price, On Time Delivery
and People associated with it. The Readers observed to be preferring to read
Headlines, Local news and Supplements in morning time. This outcome will be
useful for the Newspaper organisation for understanding the target audiences
and segment them according to their preference. These findings may provide an
insight of Readers’ choices and preferences for Newspaper and may be used in
2. The findings through the descriptive statistics have revealed certain key aspects
relevant to the research. The first depiction is that five constructs of the study
(Service Quality, Brand Image, Distribution, Promotion and People) have similar
response except Promotion and thus they are related to each other. This study can
be used to conduct Service GAP Analysis and the Readers Perceived Quality
about the service. The Perceived Quality of Readers and the Service Delivery
Quality leads towards Readers’ satisfaction. This study may also provide an
opportunity for the Newspaper organisation to understand the current market
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3. Hypotheses testing revealed that Service Quality, Brand Image, Distribution,
Satisfaction. These findings are important for the strategy managers of the
organizations under consideration as they have not been fully successful in taking
People. Measures may be initiated to look for the right kind of opportunity which
exists in the market and accordingly channelize their resources towards it.
Similarly, a thorough study of the present Readers base and their needs have to be
carried out so that the organization can draw upon the same and Sustain in
market.
questionnaire has also revealed several facts which were substantiated during the
study. There have also been several suggestions which have emerged based on
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15.Contribution to the body of knowledge
This research has made significant contribution to the body of knowledge in the area
of Newspaper Marketing. It has contributed a tested and validated metric for the
For New Start-ups, the research will give insights for understanding the market and
Readers behaviour towards English Newspaper. It will allow them to carry out the
For Current English Newspapers Organisations it will help them to conduct the
competitive analysis. Outcomes of this research would be useful to the policy makers
to formulate new Editorial, Advertising and Printing & Circulation initiatives for
For students, the research shall permit them to Study the Marketing Strategies of
service sector and understand the market scenario. These findings, if supported by
further research, can have considerable impact on the Newspaper Sustainability and
growth. Even though the study is based on Commercial English Newspaper from
Pune, the model can be used for other Language and other types of Newspapers in
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16.Limitations of the Study and Scope for Future Work
Like any other research, this research has its set of limitations. The research includes
both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The qualitative data may affect the
repeatability and reproducibility of the results which becomes a limitation for this
study. The quantitative data being based on statistical procedures, all the limitations of
statistical methods are applicable to this research too. Instruments have been created
and modified to suit the requirements of the research subject which may not be
All the above limitations offer immense scope for future research.
17.Principle Conclusions
The research started with an idea of studying the English Newspaper market has
and Readers’ & Distributors’ Response to such strategies. The research deals with
From the literature review it is concluded that it was relevant to undertake a study for
Distributors’ satisfaction due to the lack of empirical evidence to relate these two
constructs. The sample size of 500 Readers and 51 Distributors based on Stratified
(Area) Random Sampling has been passable for the generalization of results. The
hypotheses testing has indicated that all the four dimensions of Marketing Mix,
Service Quality, Brand Image, Distribution and People have significance influence on
Readers’ satisfaction.
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However; Promotion does not have significant influence on Readers’ satisfaction. The
The Cronbach Alpha value has validated the data and proved that the data is reliable
for the study. This research has contributed a tested and validated questionnaire for
the survey of the data on the constructs of research interest. The Regression Analysis
In this era of digital market, Sustainability has become a major concern to the
Newspaper industry. This research has contributed a model that relates the Readers’
will sustain. The empirical study has also led to drawing the implications to the
take a set of possible future scenarios for the development of competition in their
startups. The research will assist the policy maker (Editorial, Advertising and Printing
and Circulation) to comprehend the market scenario and frame the striking strategies
Finally, this study provides a future scope for research and can act as a guideline for
validate a theoretical model, and thus fill the gap between the theory and practice.
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18. Chapter Scheme
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19.Publications of Author
Journal Publications:
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