A study of tabloids in india

A STUDY OF TABLOIDS IN INDIARahul Kumar JhaIMT GhaziabadSummer Internship @ Ogilvy & Matherwww.indiantabloids.com

04/08/2023Summer Internship Presentation : Rahul Jha

2Agenda

Introduction History of Tabloids in India

Study of leading tabloids

Tabloids in Social media Survey

Result & Recommendati

ons

Constraints Chennai Reading Habit Bibliography


3Introduction

• tab·loid: noun /ˈtabˌloid/ A newspaper having pages half the size of those of a standard newspaper, dominated by headlines, photographs, and sensational stories.

• Objective: Analyze the most successful English tabloids including

1. Design forms : layout, color pattern, formatting2. Advertisement space allocation and the brands using

that space3. Innovation4. Tabloid buying and reading behavior5. Distinguishing features of individual tabloids


4

History of Tabloids in India

• Historically, tabloids were never big in India• Tabloids thrive in places inhabited by celebrities• Majority of tabloids comes out in afternoon

Post noon Hyderabad started in

2011

Mail Today : 2007 from

Delhi

TOI : 2005 Mumbai Mirror

Mid Day : 1979 from Mumbai


5


Boston Herald Mumbai Mirror


6


Mail Today Mid Day


7Mid Day

• Dominant color : Blue• Highly illustrated• 23 million page views per month @www.mid-day.com• highest variation in the pricing• 5-7 full page ads• Provision of saving E paper as PDF• Flexibility for full page Ads• Inconsistent Sections : Metro | MONeyDAY | Nation | World

| Comment | Sports | B2B: Brief to Brand | Big Break | Classifieds | Films | Centre spread | Hit List | The Guide | Photo feature


8Mumbai Mirror

• Leverages combined pricing strategy with TOI• Dominant color : Red• Different color schemes for different sections• Consistent sections : Front Page | City | World |

Nation | Sport | Sci Tech | You | Film | Unwind | Movies | Chai Time | Editorial | Fun zone

• Lesser pictures • PDF not available for E paper. “To Protect the privacy of our

esteemed advertisers we have decided to stop the pdf downloads for this page. We regret the Inconvenience caused.”


9Boston Herald

• Visually unappealing yet very functional website• “Playing Online” section to push offline readers

to online• Dominant color : Black & Maroon• Highest variation in number of pages• Sports headline on back page• Ranking system to rank articles online• Differential pricing according to the geographic

location• Only tabloid to feature Obituaries• None of the ads by global brands


10Mail Today

• Dominant color : Blue & Red• Mostly, front & last page features a full page

ad from well known brand • Fixed Pages throughout the week • Consistent pricing. Sunday edition costs INR 4• Consistent sections : News | Views | Business

| Features | Coffee Break | Sports | Switch


11

Chennai Reading Habit

• Higher literacy than other metro (91%)• Tamil is a dominant language of newspaper• No English tabloids currently• CCD collaborated with Deccan Herald to

come up with CCD chronicle• Local train stations and bus stands carry

Tamil paper• Increasing population that travel more than

20 minutes to work, effective target group• No paper caters exclusively to youth


12

Survey #1

• 160 respondents | 50 questions• Topics covered : Reading habit | Need for

tabloid | Demography | Reading Experience | Brand loyalty | Advertisement effectiveness | Ads location & relevance|

• Keyword associations• Categorical Questions (Yes/No)


13Survey #2

• Rating of tabloid websites• Rating of front page of print edition• Scale of 1 to 7 used• 53 respondents• 7 website templates compared• 6 print layouts compared


14

Interest across section


15

Result & Recommendation

• More than half of newspaper readers read tabloids

• Time of reading the broadsheets : morning (65%)

• Reading time of tabloid is evenly spread out among morning, after noon and evening.

• Hence, important to streamline tabloid supply chain to meet demands which is evenly spread throughout the day and not just morning.


16


• Top keywords associated with tabloid : Colorful | Gossips, | flashy | Page 3 | sleazy | Latest | Interesting | youth• Focus on positive tabloid associations • Majority of the youth feel the need of a

tabloid• English : Preferred language• Even in tabloids, content is the key, not

pictures or sensational scandals.


17


• Why no tabloids ? • Top 2 reasons : 1. Too much sensationalism 2. lower standard of journalism• Employing a high level of journalism and

positioning as a tabloid for the intelligent youth will establish credibility

• Roping in a celebrity to endorse tabloid not enough

• Only 30 % want hot steamy pictures in the tabloid.


18


• People are aware of tabloid size• 46 % bought a tabloid recently• Half the respondents prefer online version; the other

half print.• Better printing quality : Critical differentiation• Majority of the readers will try the mobile app of the

city tabloid• Design of the tabloid influences readers to buy• Font is more important to readers than color pattern• Blue and Black is the recommended color pattern


19


• Allocating a large print space in the tabloid to accommodate as many opinions as possible to help spread word of mouth.

• 58% will prefer online version of the city tabloid.• 70 % read newspapers online at least once or more a day.• Home delivery is the most popular (86%) method of

getting a newspaper.• Newspaper brand gets stronger with its app presence in

the smartphone ecosystem.• Strong integration with social media like twitter and

Facebook required


20


• Correlation of brand type with news topic on that page is recommended

• Shorter condensed news piece is preferred by 73 % of people

• Life style, Auto and Events are the most liked ads• Color association with newspaper is reflected strongly • Even if a friend recommends a different newspaper,

they are unlikely to switch their brand• 60 % have bought something based on advertisements

they saw in the newspaper overt the last few months


21

#3. Bonston Herald

• Non intrusive ad placement on top

• 3 column layout

• Blue color fonts• Video section• Navigation bar


22

#2. www.livemint.com

• Clean and crisp• Ads in same

color family and square blocks

• Non intrusive ad placement on top

• 3 columns• Naviagation bar


23

#1. www.sunday-guardian.com

• Non intrusive ad on top

• Navigation bar style borrowed from guardian.co.uk

• 2 columns text and a large picture in middle


24#1. www.nydailynews.com

• According to mode, the top website changes to NY Daily news.

• Non intrusive ad bar on top

• Navigation bar• One headline

only along with picture stripe


25Demography

• Male : 75% and Female : 25%• 80 % were between 23-28 years of age• Respondents who stay with family = those

who stay away• 88% of them were single. 10 % married• Respondents were from various metro cities


26

TABLOIDS IN SOCIAL MEDIASocial Media is a major platform to reach out to the consumers.Why social media is dominated by broadsheet brands ?


27www.mid-day.com

• Leader on facebook with 57k likes.

• 5-8 posts a day• All posts

related to celebrities

• No local news posted on social media


28

epaper.timesofindia.com

• One of the most neglected facebook page of any tabloid on facebook.

• Less frequency of posts

• Do no regulate what others are posting on their facebook page.

• 3018 likes !


29epaper.mailtoday.in

• 3 digit likes on facebook

• Completely lost on social media

• Placing media training ads on timeline hurt its credibility.

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/


30The Onion

• One of the most liked pages on Facebook, onion makes a mockery of every worthy news with its stinging sarcasm.


31NY Daily News

• Even after winning awards for its journalism, NY Daily news has below 44k likes.


32Boston Herald

• Popular tabloid like Boston Herald fails to get a fan base on social media. Being local is a curse ?


33

Guardian App on Facebook

• The guardian leads the innovation by launching a facebook app that makes reading news social.


34Times of India

• Being the world’s third largest circulated newspaper in any language, Times of India has a huge fan base.


35Constraints

• Short research duration• Online surveys• Cultural unawareness• Categorical questions limiting statistical

treatment• Limited interaction with Chennai youth• Respondents from all over country, not just

Chennai• Lack of domain expert opinion


36Bibliography

www.wikipedia.comE papers of various tabloids

E-reading Habits of Public Library Users in Erode Corporation, Tamilnadu, India: A Survey PROMOTING READING HABITS AND CREATING LITERATE SOCIETY Dr. K. K. Palani,

http://www.wikipedia.com/