What are News Agencies?

What are News Agencies?

A news agency is a body that collects reports and exports (sells) news to various news organizations.

The bodies that largely form the circle of subscribers are:

Newspapers
Magazines
Radio Channels
Television Broadcast Channels

The major Indian News Agencies which provide news from India to foreign Countries are:

Asian News International
Free Press of India
Hindustan Samachar
Knowledge and News Network
Kerala Press
India Asian News Services
Press trust of India
Press Services of India
Press Information Bureau

What is ABC?

“Audit Bureau of Circulation” is a nonprofit circulation auditing organization founded in 1948. It has its headquarters in Mumbai. “Audit Bureau of Circulation – India” is a sub branch of “International Federation of Audit Bureau of Circulation” (IFABC) which is functional in 35 countries around and world including many countries in Asia.

In India, “Audit Bureau of Circulation” was founded in 1948 by a group of National Advertisers and Newspapers to measure the credibility of readership in the country. Any newspaper is eligible to enroll itself in the “Audit Bureau of Circulation Survey” if it is a member of the “Indian Newspaper Society” and registered under the law.

The Bureau certifies circulation figures of member publication every 6 months that is January – June and July – December. The certificate figures are based on surveys conducted by “Chartered Accountants”.

What is IRS?

“Indian Readership Survey” is a survey conducted by the said body to measure the circulation and readership of a newspaper in the country. In its past surveys past survey “Indian Readership Survey” has sampled

70 Cities
1178 Town
2894 Villages
2, 56,000 People
2, 35,000 Households

Methodology

Both “Audit Bureau of Circulation” and “Indian Readership Survey” follow different methods of conducting their surveys. The survey methods contain transparency in its operations and thus the certificates awarded are credible. In spite of having a different approach to conduct the survey both “ABC “ and “IRS” have some similar links which can be mentioned as follows:

District Clustering
Audio Recording Back check
Real Time Workforce Checking
Telephonic Quality Check
On – the ground Quality Check
Quality Assurance
Data Fusion
Individual Data Reporting
Data Capture
Coverage and Reporting
Sampling
Recheck and Surprise Check

Information Obtained

Every six months “ABC” certifies a newspaper a record of its distribution, circulation and readership. Through the survey one also comes to know about the following:

Net Paid Circulation – It gives us the actual revenue obtained that is out of 100%, 40% of the revenue earned is given to the vendor for his task of distribution.
Readership – The survey helps the firm to understand the number of readers reading the respective newspaper. “Readership” and “Circulation” are two different aspects and are not related
Geographical Distribution – In which area particularly has the newspaper been told more when compared with another area?
Days of distribution – Helps understand the distribution with respect to particular days
Season of Distribution – Distribution with respect to a particular season or occurrence of a festival during that season
Demographic and Psychographic Information of the reader – Helps us to know the age, sex, likes/dislikes, culture of the viewer form his/her record of readership.
Cross Media Comparison – helps the firm to know how other newspapers are performing on a national scale.
Media Habits – Helps understand media habits across press, TV, Radio, Cinema, internet and other media outlets.

Benefits

Being a member of the “ABC” or the “IRS” is highly beneficial to a newspaper firm. It helps attract attention of media buyers and sellers. It is beneficial not only to newspapers but also to: