Advertising in Top National English Dailies: Which Newspaper is Winning The Brands?

Abstract

Newspapers are everywhere so the advertisements. Though challenged by the Internet, the print continues to be a credible media for the advertisers. The present media environment suggests that marketers and audiences have more choices and options than in the past. While the print industry suffers the onslaught of online journalism, the outlook for Indian print media remains favourable and vibrant. Newspapers still enjoy the trust and patronage of advertising brands. The leading national dailies are inundated with advertisements on every page and more recently even the very first page that is confined for breaking news and hard stories also carries the advertisements. The present study aims at looking the trends of first page advertisements of the leading national dailies of India as per the Indian readership Survey 2012 Q4. IRS numbers are meant to reflect the number of readers per copy of a publication. The IRS is also a metric used by advertisers to choose newspapers to push products. On the basis of the survey, three top English newspapers, The Times of India (TOI), The Hindu (TH), and Hindustan Times (HT) are selected for this study for the duration of two weeks in February 2013. A quantitative content analysis of all the advertisements that present on the first page of the selected newspapers under the proposed time period is done comprehensively. Each advertisement is analyzed for specific parameters like size, placement, presence of logo, social network linkages, product category, visual, and celebrity endorsement. The study finds some interesting facts of first page advertising trends specially the full page ad, type of placement, product category, visual and celebrity etc. The study also reveals the most advertised brands and their choice of newspapers and which newspapers get the maximum ads representing the specific category.