Illustrative engagement. A representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work in news media. It does not describe a specific client; outcomes are described qualitatively.
Industry overview
What is shaping news media
News publishers and broadcasters are rebuilding trust and revenue through subscriptions, regional coverage and new formats.
- Trust is a competitive advantage
- Subscriptions need a clear value proposition
- Regional news has loyal audiences
Client background
A regional newspaper, working in Uttar Pradesh. This is an illustrative engagement: a representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work, not a named client project.
- Organisation
- A regional newspaper
- Sector
- News media
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- Offline data collection (CAPI), Quantitative research
Client challenge
The newspaper wanted to understand its readers to support advertising sales.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: readership research for a regional newspaper.
- Design around the real needs of households.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 3,000 households.
- households3,000
Audiences we typically reach in news media
Readers and viewersSubscribers and lapsed subscribersRegional audiencesAdvertisersYoung news consumers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Uttar Pradesh. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Household survey
- 3Insight
Interviewers surveyed households about readership, sections read and digital use.
Offline data collection (CAPI)Quantitative research
Sampling strategy
- households
- 3,000
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Local news pages were the main reason to buy.
Local news is the core product.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: local news is the core product.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: local news pages were the main reason to buy.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The paper expanded district editions.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how much do readers trust us?