A Project Report

on

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

OF NEWSPAPERS

A Project Presented in the partial fulfillment of the

Requirements for the

Degree Of Masters of Business Administration

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. AJAY SOLKHE GULZAR SINGH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MBA

USM KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY

[Type text] Page 168

 CERTIFICATE

The following Summer Internship Report titled "CONSUMER

BEHAVIOR TOWARDS MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS” is
hereby approved as a certified study in management carried out and
presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a prerequisite
for the award of Masters of Business Administration for which it has been
submitted.
It is understood that by this approval the undersigned do not necessarily
endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion
drawn therein but approve the Summer Internship Report only for the
purpose it is submitted.

Summer Internship Report Examination Committee for evaluation of

Summer Internship Report
 SUMMARY

OBJECTIVE
Marketing of the magazines so that more and more customers should subscribe the
magazines i.e. to sell the subscriptions of the magazines. To study the suppl8y chain
of Newspaper and Magazines(Femina, Good Homes, Grazia, Hello, Top Gear, &
Film Fare) in Chandigarh which includes printing of newspaper, supply of newspaper
to stores, Distributors of newspaper in market, storage of inventory and supplying
newspaper to customer.

METHOD
Corporate calling: Each and every type of corporate call like bank call, schools,
private offices and shops.
Residential calling: Door to door selling was done in this type of strategy. Most of
the posh areas were covered under this.
Field visits: Visiting dealers and distributors.
Oraganizing a stall in an expo: Organized a stall in J W MARIOTT in Delhi for
Magazines.

Conclusion:
TOI newspaper gets published in New Delhi and is supplied to Punjab, HP,
Chandigarh, Jammu, some parts of Haryana. Magazines of The Times Of India has
established base in complete New Delhi and also in Noida and Gurugram and the
largest sale is of Femina
TOI is therefore, leader in whole country in the media field. Ethics and norms
followed by the company are very strict but straight and equal for everyone. Goodwill
of TOI is very high in the market which can be easily seen by anyone working in the
field..
INDEX
Chapter 1: Company Profile
1.1 Profile

1.2 History

1.3 Management

1.4 H.R Policies

1.5 Industry layout

Chapter 2 : Distribution Channel

1.1 Distribution system

1.2 Newspaper distribution system

Chapter 3 : Services by Times of India

Chapter 4: About Project
1.1 Times of India supply chains

1.2 Raw material

1.3 Distribution and Packing

Chapter 4 : Daily Assignments

Chapter 5 : Consumer Behaviour
Chapter 6 : Newspaper Schemes
Chapter 7 :Data collection
Chapter 8 :Data interpretation and analysis
Chapter 9 :Learnings
Chapter 10 :Limitations
Chapter 11 :Conclusion
Chapter 12 :Bibliography
COMPANY
PROFILE
Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd (The Times Group)

Bennett, Coleman & Co. Limited, is the flagship company

of The Times Group, which has a heritage of over 150 years and is one of India’s
leading media groups. The activities of The Times Group also include publishing
newspapers and magazines, television broadcasting, running internet portals, creating
and distributing multimedia products and music publishing and retailing.

The Times Group is the largest media services conglomerate in India. It is headed by
brothers Samir and Vineet Jain. It reaches out from 11 publishing centers, 15 printing
centers, 55 sales offices, over 7000 employees, 5 dailies including two of the largest in
the country with approx 4.3 million copies circulated daily, 2 lead magazines, 29 niche
magazines reaching 2468 cities and towns, 32 Radio Stations and turnover in excess of
USD 700 million.

The Times of India publishes a daily newspaper in India. The company was founded in
1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce and changed its name to The
Times of India in 1861. The company is based in New Delhi, India. The Times of India
is a subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Co., Ltd. The first edition of the newspaper
appeared on November 3, 1838, then known as The Bombay Times and Journal of
Commerce. The newspaper was published twice a week under editor J.E. Brennan. It
was basically a city paper reflecting the interest of Bombay’s business community.

Its major brands include:

 The Times of India, India’s largest English daily.

  The Economic Times, India’s largest financial daily, and the world’s second
largest after The Wall Street Journal.
 Maharashtra Times, India’s largest Marathi daily and Maharashtra’s No.1
Newspaper.
 Navbharat Times, the largest Hindi Daily in Delhi and Bombay.
 Mumbai Mirror India’s largest circulated compact newspaper.
 Pune Mirror.
 Bangalore Mirror, Bangalore’s first morning compact daily.
 The Times of India – Kannada.

Times Group’s subsidiary companies include:

Times Infotainment Media Limited (TIML) & Entertainment Network India

Limited (ENIL) that together control:

 Radio Mirchi – National network of Private FM stations.

 360 Degrees – Event Management.
 Times Outoors – Outdoor Advertising & Billboard Marketing.
 Mirchi Movies Limited – Movie production, Entertainment.

Times Internet Limited (TIL), which has:

 India times portal

 Times of Money – an online payments portal specializing in remitting money
to India and other parts of the world.

Times Global Broadcasting Limited - This was a Joint Venture with Reuters untill
Reuters exited. The company heads:

 Times Now – A News Channel

 ZOOm – A Lifestyle Channel

Times Business Solutions controls:

 TBSL – corporate website of TBSL.

  Times Jobs – A jobs portal.
 Simply Marry – A matrimonial portal. (earlier known as Times Matri).
 Magic Bricks – A real estate portal.
 Yolist – Free classifieds portal.
 Ads2Book – Online classifieds booking system for print publications.

TIML Golden Square Limited which purchased Virgin Radio (soon to be called
Absolute Radio) in the United Kingdom. This company is a direct subsidiary of BCCL
(not through TIML or ENIL).Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. provides media publishing
services. The company offers newspapers, magazines, Internet, and electronic
commerce information publication services. Its brands include The Economic Times,
Times of India, Femina, Sandhya Times, Times FM, and Filmfare. Additionally, it
provides radio and television programs production and distribution, Web portals
operation, and mobile value added services. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. was founded
in 1838 and is based in Mumbai, India.

Structure of the management

CEO

Managing Director (Mr. B)

Subordinate Managing Director (Mr. C)

General Manager (Mr. D)

Regional Manager (Mr. E)

Branch Manager (Mr. F)

Department Manager

Sales Manager

Direct Sales Force

Executives
KEY EXECUTIVES

 Indu Jain, current Chairperson

 Samir Jain, Vice-Chairman & Publisher
 Ronit Malhotra, MD
 Ronit Malhotra, CEO
 Jug Suraiya (associate editor, columnist, "Jugular Vein," cartoonist, "Dubyaman
II")
 Swaminathan Aiyar (columnist, "Swaminomics")
 R. K. Laxman ("You Said It" editorial cartoon, featuring the famous Common
Man)
 Rukmini Subramanian, Senior Writer
 Bachi Karkaria, columnist, "Erratica"
 Vinay Pandey, Editor-Online
 Vinita Nangia, Editor-Times Life
 Shobha De, columnist
 Jaideep Bose, Editorial Director
 Arindam Sen Gupta, Executive Editor
 Dileep Padgaonkar, Former Editor, currently Consulting Editor and columnist
 M J Akbar, Columnist, "The Siege Within" and former Editorial Team
 Gurcharan Das, Columnist
 Gautam Adhikari, former Executive Editor, Editorial Consultant
 Russi Karanjia, assistant editor during the 1930s
 Trivadi, columnist and humorist well known for his editorials, humor pieces, and
satirical poems.
 Chetan Bhagat, Columnist, Sunday TOI
 Kaushal Thakkar, Sr. Product Manager, Response - Ascent
The Times Group is the largest media services conglomerate in India . It is
headed by brothers Samir and Vineet Jain. It reaches out from:

 11 publishing centers
 15 printing centers
 55 sales offices
 Over 7000 employees
 5 dailies including two of the largest in the country with approx 4.3 million
copies circulated daily
 2 lead magazines
 29 niche magazines
 Reaching 2468 cities and towns
 32 Radio Stations
 2 Television News Channel
 1 Television Life Style Channel
 Turnover in excess of USD 700 million

Its major brands include:

 The Times of India, World's largest English-language broadsheet daily

newspaper in terms of circulation[3]
 The Economic Times, India's largest financial daily, and the world's second
largest in terms of circulation after The Wall Street Journal
 Maharashtra Times, India's largest Marathi daily
 Navbharat Times, the largest Hindi Daily in Delhi and Bombay
 Mumbai Mirror India's largest circulated compact newspaper
 Pune Mirror
 Bangalore Mirror, Bangalore's first morning compact daily
 The Times of India - Kannada
SUBSIDIARIES: Its subsidiary companies include:
ENIL & TIML

Times Infotainment Media Limited & Entertainment Network India Limited that
together control

 Radio Mirchi National network of Private FM stations

 360 Degrees Events
 Times Outoors Outdoors
 Mirchi Movies Limited Filmed Entertainment. Producers of BEING CYRUS,
VELLITHERAI, MANJADIKURU

TIL

Times Internet Limited which has

 Indiatimes portal
 Times of Money - an online payments portal specializing in remitting money
to India and other parts of the world

Times Global Broadcasting Limited

This was a Joint Venture with Reuters. No longer a joint venture as Reuters has
exited.

 Times Now A general interest news Channel

 ET Now A business news channel

A new business channel which is the broadcast version of Economic Times will be
launched early in 2009.
Times Business Solutions

 TBSL, corporate website of TBSL.

 Times Jobs, a jobs portal
 SimplyMarry, a matrimonial portal
 Magic Bricks, a real estate portal
 Yolist, free classifieds portal
 Ads2Book, online classifieds booking system for print publications
 PeerPower, a top level professional networking portal

World Wide Media

World Wide Media - A magazine joint venture between BCCL and BBC magazines

 Filmfare
 Filmfare Awards
 Femina
 Femina Miss India A Beauty Paegent
 Top Gear India
 Hello
 BBC Good Homes
 Femina Hindi
 Grazia
 What to Wear
 BBC Knowledge
 Trends
 Lonely Planet

VPL

 VPL, Bangalore Publisher of Vijay Karnataka

Times Private Treaties

Times Private Treaties is a barter program in which Advertisement space is bartered

for equity stakes in new and established companies.

TIML Radio Limited

TIML Radio Limited which purchased Virgin Radio (and renamed to Absolute Radio)
in the United Kingdom[5]. This company is a direct subsidiary of BCCL (not through
TIML or ENIL) [6]

Times Syndication Service

The syndication division of The Times of India Group, grants reprint rights for text,
images, cartoons/illustrations, audio/video and microfilms drawn primarily from
Times Group publications.

Brief History Of The Times

1838: The first edition appears on November 3, 1838, known as The Bombay Times
and Journal of Commerce. The newspaper is published twice a week under editor J.E.
Brennan. It is basically a city paper reflecting the interest of Bombay's business
community.

1846: The newspaper changes hands and Dr. George Buist is appointed editor.

1850: Shareholders decide to increase the share capital and the paper is converted into
a daily.

1859: Bombay Standard and Chronicle of Western India merges into The Bombay
Times and Journal of Commerce to form Bombay Times & Standard
1861: Editor Robert Knight amalgamates The Bombay Times & Standard and
Bombay Telegraph & Courier to form The Times of India and gives it a national
character.

1880: The Times of India Weekly Edition is launched. This was later called The
Times of India Illustrated Weekly and finally as The Illustrated Weekly of India in
1923.

1890: Editor Henry Curwen buys The Times of India in partnership with Charles
Kane.

1892: Following the death of Henry Curwen, T. J. Bennett becomes the editor and
enters into a partnership with F.M. Coleman to form a joint stock company - Bennett,
Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL).

1907: In the newspaper's first price war under editor Stanley Reed, the price is cut
from 4 annas to 1 anna, and circulation rises 5 times.

1946: For the first time, the paper transfers to Indian ownership. Ram Kishan Dalmia
buys out Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd for Rs. 2 crores. Partly, the takeover is funded
by illegal money transfers from other companies, and Ram Kishan was imprisoned
after the matter was raised in parliament by Feroze Gandhi in 1955.

1948: Sahu Jain Group become the owners of the company after Dalmia sells the firm
to recover 2.5 crores he needs to pay back to an insurance company. Shanti Prasad
Jain, son-in-law of Ram Kishan Dalmia, becomes the first chairman of the group.

1950: Delhi edition is launched with K. Gopalswami as the first Indian editor.

1952: Filmfare launched.

1959: Femina is launched.

1960: Sahu Ramesh Chandra Jain joins BCCL

1961: The Economic Times is launched.

1984: Samir Jain and Vineet Jain join BCCL.

1987: Printing of The Times of India from Kandivili Press.

1990: The Times School of Marketing is established as an in-house training school to

feed the group

1991: BBC features The Times of India among the world's six great newspapers.

1993: BCCL starts production of television software.

1996: The Times of India crosses 1 million mark in circulation.

1998: BCCL enters into music market with Times Music.

1999: Indiatimes webportal launched; BCCL enters music retailing business with
Planet M.

2000: The Times of India crosses the 2 million mark in circulation.

2000: Timesofmoney - JV with Citibank.

2001: Radio Mirchi - Nationwide Private FM Broadcasting.

2001: 360 Degrees - Event Management Arm launched.

2002: Times Outdoor - Outdoor Advertising & Billboard Marketing.

2003: Times Classifieds - Classifieds site catering to web audiences, the group
publications and also publications from other countries like Sri Lanka.

2004:

 Launch of the Times Private Treaties - The Innovative Branding Solution from
The Times Group stable.
 Launch of the Jobs portal Times Jobs.
 Television Business launched with the launch of a lifestyle and entertainment
channel called Zoom.
2005: Launch of a Matrimonials website TimesMatri

2006:

 Launch of a television News Channel called Times Now in collaboration with

Reuters.
 Radio Mirchi holding company ENIL (Entertainment Network India Limited)
lists on the Indian stock markets. It is the first Times Group company to List
on the bourses.
 Launch of a Property services Portal Magic Bricks
 TimesMatri is rebranded as Simply Marry
 A new holding company by the name of TBSL is created. This company
controls the brands TimesJobs SimplyMarry (earlier called TimesMatri) and
MagicBricks
 TimesofMoney launches Remit2Home, to cater to Global Remittance Market

2007:

 Launch of The Times of India - Kannada

 Launch of Bangalore Mirror
 Launch of Ahmedabad Mirror

2008:

 Launch of SimplyMarryZine.com
 Launch of The Times of India, Chennai Edition [13]
 Launch of Pune Mirror
 Acquisition of Virgin Radio (now known as Absolute Radio) in the UK

2009:

 Launch of ET Now - A business news channel

HR Policies
Human Resource Planning :-Human resource planning basically ensures the
availability of right resources at right place to match the future organizational needs.
Main objectives of HRP are:-
1.To maintain the required quantity and quality of human resources required for a
smooth functioning of the organization.

2.To plan to meet organizational human resource needs at the time of expansion or
diversification.

3.To develop the existing human resource to match the human resource requirements
of future.

Job analysis and Job design:-

Job analysis is the process of determining and recording all the pertinent information
about a specific job, including the task involved, the knowledge and skill set required
to perform the job , the responsibilities attached to the job and the ability required to
perform the job successfully.
Job design: -
It determines the way in which work should be performed which inturn affects the
degree of authority of an employee over the work , scope of decision making by the
employee, the number of task an employee has to perform and employee satisfaction.

Recruitment :-
Requirement is the process of seeking and attracting the right kind of people to
apply for a job in an organization. There are various sources of recruitment available
for an organization but we are decided to take the main power from external sources
like campus recruitments, advertisement and employment agencies.
Selection :-
The process of choosing the most suitable candidate for a job from
among the available candidates is called selection. It is the process of ascertaining the
qualification, experience, skill, knowledge etc. of an applicant with the purpose of
determining the suitability for a job. Following are the steps which we are taking into
consideration during selection process:-

Training:-
Training enhances the skills and capabilities of the individuals in an
organization. Training is an essential part of the orientation program for new recruits
in an organization. We are imparting training to the employees.
By keeping the following objectives in the mind:-
 Improving Employee Performance

 Updating Employee Skills

 Avoiding Managerial obsolescence

 Retaining and motivating

 Creating an efficient and effective Organization

Motivation :-

In essence, as industries evolve, employers have to ensure that apart from the basics
of ‘roti, kapda and makaan’, employees also expect job satisfaction, learning and
development facilities. Motivation no longer comes from just a lucrative pay package.
INDUSTRY LAYOUT:

Printing of the newspaper

Quality testing

Stores
Quality testing and transportation

DISTRIBUTERS Transportation

DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION
CHANNEL
 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
Marketing-channel decisions are among the most critical decisions facing management.
The channels chosen intimately affect all the other marketing decisions. The company's
pricing depends on whether it uses mass merchandisers or high' quality boutiques. The
firm's sales force and advertising decisions depend on how much training and
motivation dealers need. In addition, the company's channel decisions involve
relatively long-term commitment to other firms.

A distribution system is a key external resource. Normally it takes tears to build, and
it is not easily changed. It ranks in importance with key internal resources such as
manufacturing, research, engineering, and field sales personnel and facilities. It
represents a significant corporate commitment to a set of policies and practices that
constitute the basic fabric on which is woven an extensive set of long term relationships.
Intermediaries smooth the low of goods and services. This procedure is necessary in
order to bridge the discrepancy between the assortment of goods and services generated
by the producer and the assortment demanded by the consumer. The discrepancy results
from the facts that manufactures typically produce a large quantity of a variety of goods.

CHANNEL FUNCTIONS AND FLOWS

A marketing channel performs the work of moving goods from producers to consumers.
It overcomes the time, place, and possession of goods and services from those that need
or want them. Members of the marketing channel perform the following functions:

 They gather information about potential and current customers, competitors. And
other factors and forces in the marketing environment.
 They develop and disseminate persuasive communications to stimulate purchasing.
 They reach agreement on price and other terms so that transfer of ownership or
possession can be affected.
 They place orders with manufactures.
 They acquire the funds to finance inventories at different levels in marketing
channel.
 They assume risk connected with carrying out channel works.
 They provide for the successive storage and movement of physical products.
 They see the buyer’s payment of their bills through banks and other financial
institutions.
 They oversee actual transfer of ownership from one organization or person to other.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

EDITORIAL
 PRESS

DISTRIBUTION

DEPOT

WHOLESELLER

VENDOR

CASH SALE
POINT HAWKER

READER

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL:
Distribution means the transfer of goods from producer to consumer. In a distribution
system we have, first find out what kind of distribution channel is to select as the firm
can get a convenient supply and economic maintenance of profit.
In newspaper industry where the flow of goods matter a lot, it must to consider
the following points very carefully.

 Selection of channel for distribution.

 Warehousing and transport

 Operational research

 Logistic mix

Let’s explain each of the above points one by one in a detailed manner:
1. SELECTION OF CHANNEL FOR DISTRIBUTION
For selecting a channel for distribution following points are to be considered.

a) NATURE OF PRODUCT:
Newspaper are daily use item and are constantly in demand, Time factor is very
important in this industry. Once a consumer doesn’t get the news in time had many
options to instantly choose at least for trail and here begins the decrease of market share.
Newspaper should reach to the customers in time to retain its customers and to build a
good image.

b) VARIETY OF THE PRODUCT TO BE SOLD:

More the variety of the product more the responsibility of marketing departments of the
company.

2. WAREHOUSING AND TRANSPORT

 Warehousing
 Transport

Warehousing and transport are essential part of distribution system. Warehousing

should be done in a manner minimum maintenance of cost
should occur. That should be source of quick supply to consumer because from their
place basic supply starts. Transport is costly. So decision should be taken as to whether
warehousing are to be centrally situated or decentralized. To maintain economical
support, control of cost of vehicle is essential and shipment must be planned so those
vehicle are effectively employed.

3. OPERATIONAL RESEARCH

Operational research is valuable in improving aspects of distribution process:

a) By mathematical representation of whole distribution system.

b) Noting and comparing transport cost.

c) Measuring warehouses operation costs.

d) Measure stock level.

4. LOGISTIC MIX
There has been little close examination of possible savings in area of physical
distribution, now known as logistic. “Consumer wants product available at the right
time, and right condition.”

This is possible, if 5 key decisions are co-ordinate: –

1-Facility
2- Inventory
3-Communication
4-Utilization
5-Transport.

It is important to remember that physical distribution management refers to the flow of

goods from end of production time to customer. Logistic incorporates the flow
of information through out the system
 NEWS PAPER
SUPPLY CHAINS

POST PRESS PACKAGING & LOGISTICS

A discussion of how “End-to-End Supply Chain

Management” principles apply to the newspaper
industry.
 INTRODUCTION

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)

In today's world, no one is an island. Every individual, every department, and every
company is part of a larger value chain that includes customers, suppliers, partners and
even competitors. The past few decades had brought about a major change in the way
companies manage their supply and delivery channels.

Various concepts like Just-in-time and Zero Inventory were finding acceptance and
implementations among the manufacturing industries. The term 'supply chain'
came into existence, denoting the various channels that existed inside and outside the
company in terms of supply, work-in-progress, inventory and delivery channels.

WHY SCM?

Organisations now have to efficiently manage these supply chains. Any mishaps lead
to losses. A supply chain management tool utilizes technology to allow you to manage
the supply chains. It allows better utilization of resources and improved operational
effectiveness.

UNDERSTANDING THE NEWSPAPER SUPPLY CHAIN

In India, newspapers are published in about 100 regional languages and dialects other
than Hindi and English. Over the years, the number of dailies has steadily increased.
Their number increased to 5638 in 2001 from 5364 in the previous year, i.e. by 5.11
per cent. The total circulation of daily newspapers was 5,78,44,236 in 2001.

In 2001, The Hindu, an English daily, published from Chennai was the largest
circulated single edition daily with claimed circulation of 9,37,222 followed by
Hindustan Times, English Daily, published from Delhi with a circulation of 9,09,278.
Anand Bazar Patrika, Bengali Daily, came third, whereas The Times of India, English
Daily, was fourth.

The 2006 National Readership Survey findings show the largest read local language
newspapers to be Dainik Jagran (with 21.2 million readers) and Dainik Bhaskar (with
21.0 million readers), both published in Hindi. The Times of India is the most widely
read English newspaper (7.9 million), followed by The Hindu (4.05 million), and
Hindustan Times (3.85 million).

With such huge number of newspapers and such enormous circulation, the supply chain
model for the newspaper industry is a challenge in itself.

Moreover, due to the perishable nature of the product, its distribution needs all the more
importance.
DISTRIBUTING A PERISHABLE PRODUCT

The newspaper production/distribution problem is an example of a perishable-good

production and distribution problem. A perishable good is one that either loses
significant value if stored or a good that will cause economic loss if delivered late.

There are three main categories of perishable goods: Goods that are perishable only
when considered by the customer; Goods that are perishable only to the manufacturer;
and Goods that are perishable to both the manufacturer and the customer. Newspapers
fall into this later category. Newspaper companies cannot print the news sections of
the newspaper in advance because of the requirement that news be timely.
Additionally, with the increase in commuting times, especially in the large,
metropolitan markets, late delivery is also not entertained. Therefore, newspaper
production/distribution is the problem of distributing highly perishable products under
severe time constraints.

The distribution channel consists of stages involved in fulfilling consumer

requirements. The channel includes manufactures, suppliers, transporters, vendors and
customers. The distribution channel of a typical newspaper can be represented
through the following flow diagram:

Printing

facility

Salesman

Newspaper

Distributor

Vendor

Hawker

Bookstalls and then Readers

RAW MATERIAL

Raw material for the newspaper industry, news, is supplied by the editorial, which is a
functional area in the newspaper office itself.

The editorial is fed with news from various places by reporters, correspondents and
news agencies. The final news is sent to the printing facility where the newspaper is
printed.

The printed newspaper is dispatched to various distributors across the country through
transportation. Transportation is normally through private contract carriers within local
area, public transport in case of longer distances and through couriers in other cases.

The newspaper distributor has sole rights to distribute the newspaper in his area. His
revenue is based on a commission on the sale of every newspaper. He achieves
circulation through salesmen appointed and salaried by him, who in turn pass it on to
hawkers.

Hawkers, vendors and book stall owners are the last link of the supply chain before
newspaper reaches readers. The hawkers remuneration is based on a commission
system and is the highest in the entire supply chain.

The most important issue to deal with in distribution of newspapers is the distribution
of newspapers to subscribers at minimum costs all the while presenting the correct
edition of the paper to each subscriber on time.

For a major metropolitan morning newspaper, it is a daily task of producing a total of

several hundred thousand newspapers in many editions and delivering them to home
delivery customers in approximately six hours. The key timing parameters are the start
of the press run, say at midnight, and the requirement that each customer receives
her/his paper before, say, 6 a.m. In order to better serve their advertisers and
subscribers, newspapers produce many editions of the newspaper for different
demographic/ geographic regions. The products may differ in editorial content, in run
of paper advertisements, and in advertising inserts. The design of the distribution
system involves solving several location-allocation routing and clustering problems.

Responsiveness and efficiency play an important role in newspaper distribution

channel. Responsiveness includes supply chain ability to respond to wide a range of
quantity demanded (due to demand fluctuations) and meet short lead times. On the
other hand efficiency is the cost of making and delivering the newspaper to its reader.
Thus on the basis of the analysis so far, one can say that newspaper supply chain should
have high responsiveness than efficiency

The cost in such a case is high, which is what is happening in the newspaper industry.
However, the reader is not burdened to recover these costs. In fact these are recovered
through the advertisements that newspapers publish in their editions.
DRIVING THE NEWSPAPER SUPPLY CHAIN

The main drivers of supply chain are inventory, transportation, facilities and
information.

Inventory exists in the supply chain because of a mismatch between supply and
demand. Applying this to the newspaper industry, inventory of the raw material i.e.
newsprint is maintained based on the safety inventory model. This model states that
inventory is held just in case demand exceeds expectation, i.e. it is held to counter
uncertainty.Moreover, even some of the news items can also be considered as
inventory. These may include special columns, weekly columns etc. Since these are to
be published periodically, they need to be worked upon well before in time. Also, some
articles should always be ready with the newspaper, just to cover up some free space
that might creep in any edition.

Transportation moves the product between different stages in a supply chain. It bears
a large impact on both responsiveness and efficiency. Faster transportation allows
a supply chain to be more responsive but reduces its efficiency. As stated earlier,
responsiveness is more important for newspaper than efficiency and hence the need for
a faster transportation.

Normally newspapers use private carriers to transport the product from publication
facility to various agencies in the region. In case it is required to transport the product
across states, public transport such as rail and air are used.

Deciding where a newspaper should locate its facility constitutes a large part of design
of a supply chain. The tradeoff here is whether to centralize to gain economies of scale
or decentralize to become more responsive by being closer to the customer. In case of
newspaper industry, the second option is desirable. Warehousing in newspaper industry
follows cross-docking model to a good extent. The product from printing facility is
carried to the agents from where it is further transported to salesmen and hawkers.

The design process of a newspaper supply chain is based on push mechanism, where
everyone is vying for the same pie. The competitive environment pushes players to
increase their market share, which is rule of the game. Moreover, due to very nature of
the product, use of information technology can cater to the need of high
responsiveness. Increasing varieties of the product with respect to demand for
regional, linguistic, special articles in newspaper is an obstacle towards optimizing
entire supply chain. Newspapers have resorted to mass customization in terms of
regional editions of national dailies to overcome this obstacle

Fragmentation of supply chain ownership is another cause of concern in the newspaper

industry. The private carriers, the agents and the hawkers have different set of
objectives which might not always suit the objective of the overall supply chain
resulting in reduction of overall profitability. In case of newspapers, demand is
forecasted on the basis of past data. Projection for the forthcoming week is also
based on estimates given by the hawkers. In addition to this the circulation manager
has to formulate his own projections. The company alone has to the loss arising out of
any demand irregularity or failure in demand estimation. There is also a seasonality
factor attached to the newspaper demand forecasting. Normally the demand falls
during vacations as families move out.

There are also two sequencing problems. Since the printing facility produces several
different products, there is an ideal sequence in which the production would take place
in order to minimize total (including time spent on set up) time spent on production.
On the other hand, some distribution centers may be farther from the printing facility
than others. The geographic locations of the distribution centers suggest a preferred
sequence in which the distribution system receives papers. For example, Distribution
would prefer that Production produce papers for the most distant distribution center
first. However, this production plan may not be consistent with Production's preferred
sequencing. Consequently, the production and distribution operations are tightly
coupled and must be modeled as such. This makes the problem substantially more
difficult than if the production and distribution operations could be treated
separately.

The communication of news between various offices of a modern newspaper is

achieved through networking. The master newspaper is designed and finalized at the
head office of a newspaper. It is then made available on the intranet of the newspaper
company. The local editions are normally generated by making suitable changes to the
master copy on the intranet itself. Even the printing of various editions is done at a
common printing facility, to save on additional costs.

This shows the critical role information technology plays in modern day newspaper
printing. It is evident that without this usage it will be extremely difficult to print
multiple editions of a newspaper from various locations. Moreover, Information
technology also plays an important role in designing of a newspaper, including its
layout. It also saves on critical change over time during printing.

Information technology helps gather news and advertisements from all sources across
the country and put to one newspaper edition. If said in one simple sentence, use of
information technology has made the life of newspaper industry much easier and
simpler.

OPTIMIZATION MODEL

The overall distribution problem can be viewed similar to the traveling salesman
problem. The entire distribution network can be segregated into various hawker points
and an optimized route proposed for each of them, based on the vehicle capacity
constraints
Starting at the first hawker, newspaper requirements are accumulated until the vehicle
limit is reached. At this hawker, another vehicle route is begun. The procedure is
continued until all the hawkers are included in some route

After the routes that include all the hawkers and that satisfy the vehicle capacity
constraints have been constructed, the time constraints must be checked. The routes
describe the distance the vehicle must travel on each route and the sequence in which
hawkers on that route are visited. For each route, the distance along the route, from the
production facility to the last hawker point visited can be calculated. The time the
vehicles stop at each hawker also needs to be considered.

The production schedule can be deduced by arranging the routes in a sequence that will
ensure delivery of all the newspapers by the prescribed time. This sequence can be
developed by arranging the routes in descending order of the total route length distance
from the production facility to the last hawker. Usually, newspapers for the farthest
hawkers are produced and shipped first since the total delivery time is greater.

Costs can be divided into two major categories: costs associated with the actual
production and distribution activities, and costs directly attributable to the perishability
of either an input or an output. The latter costs will be accrued only if the schedule is
not feasible. In the newspaper problem, an infeasible solution would be one in which
not all newspapers are delivered by the deadline. The costs associated with this
infeasibility may include the cost of the newspaper, a lost opportunity and the cost of
processing the complaint.

The distribution of perishable commodities has a number of features distinguishing it

from other distribution operations. For example, the commodities cannot be produced
or purchased in advance for inventory. Distribution centers rather than warehouses
play an important role, and production and distribution are necessarily intimately
related.

In addition, the total time devoted to both production and distribution may be severely
limited thereby further tying together the design and operation of the production and
distribution functions. These distinguishing features increase the complexity of the
production/distribution problem for perishable goods. It is also a problem that has not
been adequately addressed in the operations research or supply chain literature

TIMES OF INDIA SERVICES:

ENGLISH NEWS SERVICES
Available in two forms. The ‘core’ service covers major developments in diverse fields
in a compact form. A more comprehensive segmented service allows papers to pick
additional inputs from segments of their choiceNational/Regional,
Economic/Commercial, International and Sports. Core service puts out about 40,000
words and the full segmented service upto 100,000 words per day.

BHASHA
Bhasha is the Hindi language news service of PTI. With its own network in the Hindi-
speaking states and drawing on PTI files, Bhasha puts out about 40,000 words per day.

STOCK SCAN
A screen-based service providing stock market information from major stock
exchanges of the country.

DATA INDIA
A reference weekly providing a digest on the happenings in India, in a user-friendly
alphabetical listing.

ECONOMIC SERVICE
A fortnightly journal providing analytical reports on the state of the Indian economy
and trends in the corporate world.

PTI MAG
A weekly package of eleven special stories on topics ranging from arts to business to
science Available through the wire service as well as through mail.

SCIENCE SERVICE
Reports on the developments in the fields of science and technology with
particular reference to India in a fortnightly journal.

PTI FEATURE
A package of four weekly features on topical national, international and
general events PTI-TV Provides spot coverage and makes corporate documentaries on
assignment basis.

PHOTO
Available in two packages to suit the needs of small and big newspaper. PTI Photo
provides pictures on the national, foreign and sports scenes via satellite,
ASIA PULSE
An on-line data bank on economic developments and business opportunities in asian
countries. Formed by PTI and four other Asian media organisations, Asia Pulse
International is registered as a company
 ABOUT

PROJECT

NEWS PAPER SUPPLY CHAINS — AGENDA

• NEWSPAPER CHALLENGES
• NEWSPAPER SUPPLY CHAIN

• FINDING THE VALUE—NEWSPAPER SUPPLY CHAINS

• PRESS OPERATIONS
• PACKAGING OPERATIONS
• DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONS
• MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

• TYING IT TOGETHER— SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT — NEWS PAPER CHALLENGES

Newspapers are a difficult fit for traditional supply chain models and suppliers.

• Newspapers speak a foreign language, with each property adopting its own dialect.
• Complex inbound strategy for raw materials is replaced by commodity buying of
newsprint and ink.

• The intangible and unpredictable flow of news and information defines production
parameters.

• Product size, shape, and configuration vary from day-to-day and week-to-week.

• Time available from production to useful consumer delivery is shorter than any other
industry.

• All critical distribution is performed at night, in predominantly short shifts.

NEWS PAPER SUPPLY CHAINS — FINDING THE VALUE

Newspapers require unique definition of their product, information, and financial flows
to be adapted to supply chain and other quantifiable management programs.

The primary supply chain flow for newspapers is the outbound product flow and its
associated information flow.

Newspapers have successfully separated subscriber and advertiser cash flow timing
from product delivery. As such, all financial flows within the newspaper supply chain
are either discretionary (how much newsprint and ink inventory is carried), or direct
costs resulting from the supply chain in place.

The primary components affecting the total supply chain cost for a newspaper are:

• Inbound Information: advertising, news, editorial, pagination.

• Press Operations: platemaking through pressing.

• Packaging Operations: handling, insertion, storage, package design & flow.

• Distribution Operations: transport mode, timing, locations, and handling.

BASIC NEWS PAPER SUPPLY CHAIN

NEWS PAPER SUPPLY CHAINS — FINDING THE VALUE

Each link in the newspaper supply chain requires scrutiny, both in how it performs its
task, and how its results affect the performance and cost of the entire chain.

Before evaluating the total potential for improvement within a newspaper supply chain,
each component’s potential must be defined.

• What is the gain in changing the process?

• How easy is the process to change?

• What controls the start time for the process?

• What controls the duration of the process?

• What controls the end of the process?

• How does this process interact with other pieces of the chain?

FINDING THE VALUE- ADVERTISING & NEWS

Unlike virtually any other manufacturing supply chain model, the inbound raw material
that controls the start time of critical manufacturing processes is intangible. News
happens without regard for newspaper deadlines. News deadlines are set to provide the
latest possible news to the subscriber, while advertising deadlines are set to allow the
widest possible purchasing window for advertisers. Both deadlines must allow
necessary time for the remaining links in the supply chain to process any packages
fronted by these start times, and backed by consumer delivery deadlines.

Since service in this model is an absolute requirement, all necessary assets and
resources are defined by the time available to complete the tasks essential to good
service.
 Most supply chain models are tuned to balance service and cost. This model doesn’t
work for newspapers, since service must be a given.
For example:
The typical supply chain model, forced to represent service as fixed, will balance time
and cost.

The newspaper supply chain model must dramatically add cost to compensate for the
small amount of time available while balancing service.
For the purposes of this discussion, we have ignored the complexities
involved in the editorial and pagination processes. While these areas lend themselves
to great potential gains, the following is assumed about these processes:

• Pre-press formatting has received a great deal of attention, both in terms of process
and technology over the past 10 years.

• Gains to these processes are largely driven by technology and asset purchases that
enable greater efficiency.

• Transforming information to ‘ready for press plate’ news takes a fixed amount of time
from the start point, the news or advertising deadline. This leaves the advertising
and news deadlines, the start points, as the primary focus for supply chain efficiency
gains

FINDING THE VALUE: PRESS OPERATIONS

In general, the critical time for press operations is the fixed run time. Papers per hour
output is limited by the speed of a press and the number of presses. The number and
type of press is difficult and costly to alter.
Remaining opportunities inside press operations involve eliminating any barriers to
maximum sustainable speed. The value of each stop and start, each edition change, or
once weekly collect run, should be assessed versus its total cost to the supply chain.

POTENTIAL SUMMARY—PRESS OPERATIONS

Overall Potential Rating—Odd production days and unnecessary edition

breaks can add time and cost to the supply chain. However, unless all current final
production runs deliver directly to stackers rather than to the mailroom for additional
processing, value can best be derived from other areas of the newspaper supply chain.

FINDING THE VALUE — PACKAGING OPERATIONS

Packaging and Mailroom process, flow, and timing are the keystone to huge potential
cost gains to the total supply chain, especially for newspapers unable to increase value
at other links in the chain. Speed and accuracy during the final production process are
the typical focus for packaging and mailroom management. A broader view of the
interactions between packaging and the downstream supply chain can add dramatic
value to the entire system.
Strategy, equipment, advertisers, history, page count, draw, building configuration,
available resources. All factor into how and when a mailroom operates. The most
important value packaging operations bring to the supply chain is balance.
The mailroom must balance the restrictions of the fixed processes before it with the
fixed time window behind it. Each newspaper’s situation and solution are necessarily
unique; however, the key considerations remain constant.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS—PACKAGING OPERATIONS

BOTTLENECK
Is the packaging operation slowing down the supply chain? The fastest piece of
production equipment for a newspaper is the press. If this rate of production is slowed
by any downstream mailroom processing, the value of this activity versus its
alternatives must be measured and balanced in terms of cost, speed, and accuracy.

WORKFLOW
The packaging link in the supply chain controls the work flow not only for itself, but
for each downstream element in the supply chain. It is especially key to ensure that
packaging improvements translate through distribution. Faster in one area of the supply
chain does not necessarily add time, reduce cost, or build balance.

Package design, count, timing, and handling must act to balance workflow for
packaging and distribution to achieve the lowest possible cost.

Mailroom headcount and shifts, packaging equipment type and quantity, handling
methods, storage needs, distribution operations management needs, vehicle type and
number, driver type, count, and shifting, carrier count and route length—all of these
factors must balance for maximum gain.

Each newspaper will have different needs and priorities, requiring a customized model
and considerations; however, the focal point for this balance is the largest cost in the
system, the human resource availability and prevailing wages in the local market place.

• Will more daylight shifts improve my pool of resources? My wage base?

• Are new DOT restrictions on part-time driving hours placing the operation at legal
risk?

• Are hourly rates at a premium due to short shifts?

• Can fewer, better scheduled employees perform the same tasks for less cost more
accurately and efficiently?

• Can full-time wages, turnover rates, training needs, worker’s comp claim rates, and
productivity offset the cost of benefits?

Analysis of the ideal packaging operations for any newspaper involves balancing
packaging and distribution operations for maximum gain to the system.
While time critical operations can yield the most noticeable impact, workflow for both
packaging and distribution can also be improved by proper integration of pre-packaged
product into the entire supply chain workflow.

FINDING THE VALUE —DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONS

Distribution operations for most newspapers are reactive. They receive product by time
“x” and must complete operations by time “y”. All delays in earlier supply chain links
must be compensated for by distribution, or the consumer suffers.
These parameters can dramatically be altered by changes up stream in the supply chain,
but solutions inside the distribution link can still bring broad value to the overall cost
of the newspaper supply chain.
In order to assess the potential for improvement within a newspaper’s distribution
operations, the activity must be divided into two parts: Bulk Distribution and Carrier
Distribution. In some cases, these areas must also be subdivided by home delivery and
single copy. Newspaper treatment of each subset of distribution will dictate the
applicability of value considerations.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS—DISTRIBUTION

Compliance & Risk

• Recent changes to D.O.T. hours of service regulations have exposed many newspapers
to the risk of non-compliance from part-time drivers.

• In order to simplify driver hiring, many newspapers use trucks rated below 26,000
pounds gross vehicle weight. At the very most, these trucks can haul 10,000 pounds
worth of product. (For newspapers, this means five (5) pallets, ten (10) carts, or about
350 bundles).

• Tail-Loading the practice of placing smaller straight truck loads onto the tail of the
bed to speed unloading. This practice, combined with light springs and single rear
axles, leads to the dangerous situation of headlights projecting too high on outbound
loads, and too low on return.
.
• The combination of an illegal driver, an overweight truck, and an accident can be
extremely costly.
Information is the thread that binds the entire newspaper supply chain.
Newspapers have historically been leaders in information exchange process and
technology inside the walls of the production facility.

Unfortunately, this technology and process usually leaves distribution with a printout.
Because each newspaper has different strategies, needs, and priorities, information is
the key to improvement within the distribution link of the supply chain. Until recently,
only two measurements were common or necessary within newspaper distribution: 1)
Did the job get done? ,and 2) Did they meet budget? Further integration of the
information flow was simply too costly to be warranted.

The best place to start is bulk distribution, where first-rate data, combined with
measurements to form management information, can yield fast results. Starting at this
point makes the information set manageable. This first step also allows experience
with what type of information will be most valuable when considering an expansion of
measurement inside the distribution link.

TYING IT TOGETHER — SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION

While individual value can be gained from examining each link in the newspaper supply
chain, the real value is in the big picture.

BASIC NEWS PAPER SUPPLY CHAIN

Balancing time and workflow across the supply chain will yield the largest results. The
key to unlocking this potential is the availability of information. While efficient, system
wide information capture will take time and a step-by-step approach, gains will be
realized each step of the way. A dynamic cost and process flow model of the newspaper
supply chain will be essential in keeping pace with changing needs and demands within
the newspaper industry.
 DAILLY
ASSIGNMENT
 PROCEDURE OF THE PROJECT

i. Company assigned me the areas for daily visit.

ii. Visit at assigned area to meet customers.

iii. Tell them about the schemes of the company regarding newspaper and
magazines.

iv. Take the feedback of the customers about the newspaper they are already
reading.

v. Booked the order of the customers if they are interested in any scheme.

vi. Renewal the order of the existing customers.

vii. Making daily report of the competitor’s strength and weaknesses.

viii. Note down the complaints and views of the customers

ix. I did residential and corporate calling for magazines and newspaper
subscriptions.

x. The Times of India participated in an expo organized at J W Mariott hotel in

Chandigarh. We put a stall for Times of India newspaper and magazines
subscription. It was a direct Marketing for Magazines.
 SEVEN SECRETS.

The seven secrets of successful selling can be summarized as follows:

1. Know your customer
2. Know your product
3. Know the process of production, manufacture and distribution
4. Know your costs
5. Know your competitive edge
6. Know the communication process
7. Know yourself

Simply put the process of successful marketing stems from sound knowledge, good
products, innovative distribution channels and successful communication processes.
Very often potential customers may be grouped together to form market sectors or
segments. It is important for the marketer to be able to identify how different sectors
of the market vary from each other, and how the different requirements of each sector
may be targeted using specific selling techniques.

1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

The customer may be an end user, a processor or a manufacturer. The marketer
must have an understanding of the requirements of each end user, processor, and
manufacturer and in terms of:

 Product quality specifications

 Product volume
 Product appearance and finish
 Product supply consistency

Understanding the needs of the customer requires the marketer to develop empathy and
trust for the customers business and I or personal requirements. This has been recently
termed, "relationship marketing. " A marketer with a similar product and an
established relationship with the customer have a distinct competitive advantage.

2. KNOW YOUR PRODUCT

In order to successfully market a product or service, the seller must be able to define
the benefits of the products over those of the opposition's products. Benefits are
different to advantages in that benefits relate to the specific needs of the individual
customer, rather than the strengths of one product over another.

The seller should also have a comprehensive knowledge of the disadvantages of their
products in particular processing or utilization situations (for example, the use of
untreated pine products in exposed situations as opposed to treated products). The
better the marketer knows and understands the product and its idiosyncrasies, the
greater the level of service afforded to the customer, and the more trust created between
the parties.
3. KNOW THE PROCESS
Getting the product to the customer can be one of the more trying exercises for the
marketer. The marketer of farm forestry products should possess some knowledge of
the species, site, silvicultural harvesting techniques, sawing, processes, transportation
and distribution required for the product to get into the hands of the customer. The
more information that the marketer has to assist the customer in the decision making
process, the greater the chance of the sale.

4. KNOW YOUR COSTS

Without understanding the fixed and variable costs of production, it is difficult to
successfully plan for profitability and sustainability of production. Consequently the
marketer must place a sufficient margin on the product to cover the costs of all
processes and Labour, whilst remaining competitive in the marketplace. Understanding
the costs and desired profitability level will also allow some flexibility in the
marketplace, should a situation of price warring occur.

5. KNOW YOUR COMPETITIVE EDGE

The greater the understanding of the marketing chain and the product, the more likely
the relative strengths may be ascertained. The strengths or competitive advantages
commonly relate to price, product, positioning, perception and process. In the
traditionally conservative timber industry, competitive strengths are achieved through
proximity to the resource, ease of harvesting and processing and proximity to
marketplace.

6. KNOW THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Some customers enjoy regular contact from marketers, whereas other customers prefer
to be in control of the event. It is important for the marketer to understand the
preferences of the customer, to know how often the customer prefers to receive
information and through which media. For example, using current technology, it is
possible to sell products using photographs and text on a website. However, this may
only attract business from a certain sector of the market.

7. KNOW YOURSELF
It is extremely difficult to sell products and services that one doesn't believe in or doesn't
understand. It is also difficult to sell products if one does not believe in oneself! To be
a successful marketer, appraise your own strengths and weak-nesses in order to present
the selling opportunity to your customer in a way that works for you. This will usually
occur in a situation where all parties are comfortable and relaxed, able to
understand and relate to each other's situations and requirements. It's fun, enjoy
it.
 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING STRATEGY

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve. Their marketing
strategies by understanding issue such as how

 The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different
alternatives (e.g., brands, products).

 The psychology of how the consumers is influenced by his or her environment (e.g.
culture, family, signs, media).

 The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions.

 Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence

decisions and marketing outcome.

 How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that
differ in their level of importance of interest that they entail for the consumer.

 Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends’
influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the
job make decisions as to which products the firm should use).

 Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study
of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer,
because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can
encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from
product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the
recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.

 Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.

 How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing
strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

Understanding these issues helps us adapt our strategies by taking the consumer into
consideration. For example, by understanding that a number of different messages
compete for our potential customers' attention, we learn that to be effective,
advertisements must usually be repeated extensively. We also learn that consumers
will sometimes be persuaded more by, logical arguments, but at other times will be
persuaded more by emotional or symbolic appeals. By understanding the consumer,
we will be able to make a more informed decision as to which strategy to employ.

One "official” definition of consumer behaviour is "The study of individuals, groups,

or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of
products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these
processes have on the consumer and society."
FOUR MAIN APPLICATION OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:

The most obvious is for marketing strategy-i.e., for making better marketing
campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food
advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the
afternoon. By understanding that new products are usually initially adopted by a few
consumers and only spread later, and then only gallfly, to the rest of the population, we
learn that
(1) companies that introduce new products must be well financed so that they can stay
afloat until their products become a commercial success and
(2) it is important to please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many
subsequent customers’ brand choices.

There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in this
course is the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own firm's strengths
and weaknesses and those of competing firms. To assess a competing firm's potential
threat; we need to examine its assets (e.g., technology, market knowledge, and
awareness of its brands) against pressures it faces from the market. Finally, we need to
assess conditions (the marketing environment). For example, although we may have
developed a product that offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand
dramatically.
 HALF YEARLY SCHEMES
ON
NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION
TRICITY
 SCHEMES

THE TIMES OF INDIA

SIX MONTHS SCHEME

PERIODICITY: Daily

COVER PRICE : 2 Rs. on weekdays and 4 Rs. On Saturday and Sunday

SIX MONTHS RATE: 249

DURATION: Six months

ASSURED GIFT: 50% off on cover price, No Gift

 DATA COLLECTION
After defining the problem and deciding about the sample and its size we need to collect
data to further carry out our report work. The gathering of data may range from a simple
observation at one location to a grandiose survey of multinational corporations at sites
in different parts of the world. The main method of data collection adopted here are-

PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION

Primary data are those data, which is originally collected. This methodology is used for
the proximity to the truth and control over errors. These are several methods of primary
data collection like questionnaire, interview, observation etc. The method used by me

is Questionnaire.

It is considered as the heart of survey operations and therefore should be very carefully
constructed. It consists of a number of questions printed or typed in a definite order
which is filled by the respondents on their own. A good questionnaire should be
comparatively short and simple and the sequence shall be from easy the difficult ones.
Questionnaires have many positive features like:

a) They are economical.

b) They are free from the biasness of the interviewers.
c) Respondents have adequate time to give well thought to their answers.
d) Respondents can be reached conveniently.

SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data are those data which are collected and which has been passed through
statistical research. The source used in this case are-

 Books.

 Magazines.
  Newspapers websites

In this project, primary data has been collected from the respondents.

Data analysis and interpretation

1)Which newspaper do you like to read?
a)Times Of India b)Hindustan Times c)Tribune d)Denik Bhaskar e)Amar ujala f)
Others

Option Number Percentage(%)

Times of India 49 16.3
Hindustan times 56 18.7
Tribune 85 28.3
Denik bhaskar 59 19.7
Amar ujala 32 10.7
Others 19 6.3

a)Times Of India-16.3% b)Hindustan Times-18.7 c)Tribune-28.3 d) Denik

Bhaskar-19.7 e) Amar Ujala-10.7 f) Others-6.3

Times of India
Hindustan times
Tribune
Denik bhaskar
Amar ujala
Others

Comments:
Maximum number of people in chandigarh region prefers to read tribune because of
its more coverage on regional news and bigger fonts than other newspapers.
After tribune, denik bhaskar (Hindi Newspapre) is on the second position and among
first in Hindi Newspapers. Times of India is at the 4th position after Hindustan times.

2)What do you like the most in your newspaper?

a) Content b) Presentation c) Language d) Any other

Option Numbers Percentage

Content 69 23
Presentation 143 47.7
Language 88 29.3
Any other 0 0

a) Content-23% b) Presentation-47.7% c) Languge-29.3%

d) Any other-0%

content
Presentation
Language
Any other

Comment:
Most of the people likes the way of presentation in their newspaper. 88 pepole said
they like the language of their newspapers in this maximum people are tribune and
dainik bhaskar readers, they like language of their newspaper and rest of the people are
impressed by the contents or matter provided in their newspaper in this maximum
people are Tribune, Times of India, or Hindustan Times reader.

3) Which is your favourite column in newspaper ?

a) National/International b) Sports c) Business d) Editorial e) Any other

Option Number Percentage

National/International 236 78.7
news
Sports 23 7.7
Business 14 4.7
 Editorial 11 3.6
Any Other 16 5.3

a) National/International-78.7% b) Sports 7.7% c) Business 4.7%

d) Editorial 3.6% e) Any Other-5.3%

National/International
news
Sports
Comment:
Generally people read newspaper for national and international news 78.7 percent of
Business
the people read only national and international news while some are interested in sports,
business, editorial and some other columns like horoscope, Editorial
travel, health and fitness,
religion etc.
For education mostly people reads Times of India, for business they prefer economic
Any Other
times which is also Bennet & Coleman publication.

4) Do you go through additional supplements that are provided with the

newspaper?
a) Yes b) No

Option Number Percentage

Yes 196 65.3
No 104 34.7

a) Yes-65.3% b) No-34.7%

Yes
No

Comment:
More than half of the people in the survey go through the additional supplements
provided in the newspaper and rest of them doesn’t like to read additional supplements.
Times of India’s most popular supplement is Education Times regarding education of
the students and Times Ascent regarding jobs available in the market.
Hindustan times popular supplement is Brunch regarding fashion, cinema, lifestyle.
Tribune’s popular supplement is Spectrum and Lifestyle

5) Does your newspaper satisfy your educational queries?

a) Yes b) No c) Doesn’t read

Option Number Percentage

Yes 187 62.3
No 74 24.7
Doesn’t read 39 13

a) Yes-62.3% b) No-24.7% c) Doesn’t read-13%

Yes
No
Doesn’t read

Comment:
Most of the people are satisfied with the education column in their newspaper while 24
percent of the people are not satisfied and rest of the people doesn’t go through
education column, people who are satisfied with education column are times of India,
Hindustan times, dainik bhaskar and tribune readers and people who are not satisfied
are mostly amar ujala and punjab kaisry readers
6: Does your newspaper provide you all the essential business information?
a)Yes b) No c) Doesn’t read

Option Number Percentage(%)

Yes 78 26
No 49 16.3
 Doesn’t read 173 57.7

a) Yes-26% b) No 16.3% c) Doesn’t read-57.7%

Yes
Comment: No
Maximum number of people doesn’t go through business column in their newspaper,
Doesn’t read
Mostly business man and the students for their general knowledge go through this
column and 26 percent of the total people in the survey are satisfied with the business
information provided in their newspaper. Mostly people prefer economic times for
business queries.

7: Does your newspaper fulfill all the job related queries?

a) Yes b) No c) Doesn’t read

Option Number Percentage(%)

Yes 147 49
No 86 28.7
Doesn’t read 67 22.3

a) Yes-49% b) No-28.7% c) Doesn’t read-22.3%

Yes
No
Doesn’t read

Comment:

Almost fifty percent of the people are satisfied with the job information provided in
their newspaper in this mostly are times of India and Hindustan times reader. 28 percent
of the people are not satisfied with job information provided in their newspaper it
includes dainik bhaskar, amar ujalla, Punjab kaisry
Times education is most popular among students especially preparing for competitive
exams.

8: Has the information from classified section been able to resolve your queries?
a)Yes b) No c) Doesn’t read

Option Number Percentage(%)

Yes 97 32.3
No 65 21.7
Doesn’t read 138 46

a) Yes-32.3% b) No-21.7% c) Doesn’t read 46%

Yes
No
Doesn’t read

Comment :
A large number of people from the survey doesn’t read classified section.
32.3 percent of the people are satisfied with the classified section it mostly includes
Tribune, Times of India, Hindustan Times reader.
Rest of the people are not satisfied with the classified section it includes Dainik
Bhaskar, Amar Ujjala, Punjab kaisry reader.
 Learnings
From the feedback of the people we concluded some of the findings, all the findings
are based on chandigarh region

 Tribune has maximum reader in the chandigarh region due to more regional news.

 Times of India is at the third position.

 Maximum number of Times of India reader are youngsters, businessman and people
interested in reading International news.

 Times of India is most popular among students preparing for highly competitive
exams.

 Times Of India’s strength is the contents and weakness is presentation.

 Times of India most popular supplements are Education Times and Times Ascent
and Times Life.

 Hindustan Times strength is its presentation and weakness is contents.

 Hindustan Times most popular supplement is Brunch and HT Jobs.

 Times of India has very close competition with Hindustan Times.

 Hindustan Times has done a lot of improvement in recent time due to its
promotional schemes.
 LIMITATIONS
VIEWS AND COMPLAINTS

In my daily sale calls ,my work is also to note down the complaints of the people

 Regional news is comparative less than other newspapers

 Fonts used is smaller than other newspapers\.

 Students said that the advertisements of competitive exams does not come in the
Times of India

 Schemes of the newspaper are also not good comparative to other newspaper.

 People don’t like the gift of the newspaper in the yearly scheme.

 There are also complaints that people don’t get gifts with the subscription.

 Sometime vendors don’t come and readers do not get the newspaper.

 Most of the complaints were regarding magazines delivery

 CONCLUSION

Marketing Research is the most crucial activity in the field of marketing to assess the
consumer behavior towards any company or brand. How far does the psychology of
the consumer affects the performance of any product was practically witnessed by me?
I tried my level best to present all the facts correct but as marketing research is not a
true science hence certain degree of alterations are possible in the research report.

The project gave me immense opportunity to give myself exposure and ideas in the
field of marketing. I came to know about the behavior of human being, which fluctuates
in different situations and times. My project findings are:

Most of the readers like to read regional news with good presentation that is why
Tribune is number one in Chandigarh region . Times Of India is week in these two
aspects that is regional coverage and presentation. All over it is the highest selling news
paper in India according to 2006 survey. But to be number one in Chandigarh region
it needs to work on these two aspects.

In the year 2008, the newspaper reported that (with a circulation of over 3.14 million)
it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (India)as the world's largest selling
English-language daily newspaper, placing as the 8th largest selling newspaper in any
language in the world. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2010,
the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership
of 70.35 lakhs (7.035 million). This ranks the Times of India as the top English
newspaper in India by readership. According toComScore, Indiatimes (and not TOI
online) is the world's most-visited newspaper website with 159 million page views in
May 2009, ahead of the New York Times, The Sun, Washington Post, Daily
Mail and USA Today websites.

Supply chain of Times of India is more professional and more systemized as compared
to other newspapers.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Beri, G.C. - Marketing. 2006

Publication, Chapter 1-5
2. kotler Philip - Marketing Management Tenth
Edition, Publisher- Prentice-Hall, Chapter 1-10
3. Meindl Peter, Chopra Sunil - Supply Chain Management Strategy Planning and
Operation 2004 Publication, Publisher-
Prentice Hall, Chapter 1, 3 and 8
4. Watts A.M, Holt J.N - Vehicle Routing and Scheduling in the Newspaper
Industry 2004 Publication,
Publisher- Elsevier Science, Chapter 1, 3-7

WEBSITES

www.google.com

www.hindustantimes.com

www.tribune.com

www.indianexpress.com

www.thehindu.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.indiatimes.com