Media Terminology

Some Terms oftenly used in Media and Advertising.

IRS: Indian Readership Survey. IRS data is used by media planners to create their media plan. IRS data contains readership figures of newspapers in all categories of society and city.

NRS – National Readership Survey. NRS is similar to IRS, it also provides readership figures. NRS is organized by National Readership survey council.

AIR – Average Issue Readership. AIR figure states those readers who read newspaper in last day. Anyone who has read the publication within the interval between one issue and the next is counted as an average issue reader

MRUC: Media Research Users Council. MRUC is joint body of Advertisers, Publishers and Ad agencies. MRUC organizes IRS, which is widely used for media planning. 

Readership – Readership is the term which is considered now for creating media plan. Readership of a newspaper means how many readers read that. It is not related to sales of newspaper.

Circulation – How many copies of a newspaper are sold is known as circulation. Earlier circulation was criteria for advertisements, now its readership. Still government agencies advertise on the basis of circulation figures.

ABC – Audit Bureau of Circulation. ABC certifies the circulation of a newspaper. They have certain terms and conditions to give circulation certificate. If not followed, ABC will not give certificate to publisher.

TAM – Television Audience Measurement. TAM analyses tv viewership in India. It also monitors the Advertisement Expenditure by companies with media.

People meter - A people meter is a tool used to measure the viewing habits of TV and cable audiences. The People Meter is a “box”, about the size of a paperback book. The box is hooked up to each television set and is accompanied by a remote control unit. Each family member, in a sample – panelist – household is assigned a personal “viewing button”. The “viewing button” identifies each house member’s age and sex. If the TV is turned on and the viewer doesn’t identify themselves, the meter flashes to remind them. Additional buttons on the People Meter enable guests to participate in the sample by recording their age, sex and viewing status into the system.

Supplements/ Features – Supplements/ Features are part of newspaper that covers a certain section of news. Unlike main newspaper, supplements are based on city news or special topics. For e.g. HT City, Delhi Times, City Bhaskar are supplements based on local city happenings. Weekly supplements are also published by newspapers on several topics like health, career, woman, real estate etc.

Tabloid – Tabloid is smaller format of newspaper. Mail Today, Mid Day, Mumbai Mirror, all are tabloids. Tabloids are known more for sensational and spicy news

Broadsheet – Broadsheet is larger format of newspaper in size. TOI, HT, Jagran, Bhaskar are broadsheets.

DAVP – Directorate of Audio and Visual Publicity. DAVP is the nodal agency of the Government of India for advertising by various Ministries and organisations of Government of India including public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies. Publications give discounted rates to DAVP for govt. undertakings and ministries which are known as DAVP rates.

CC: Column centimeter. Normally size of a column in a newspaper is 4.012 cms. If someone is saying 40 cc ad, then it means this ad can be 10cm x 4 coloumn or 5 cm x 8 columns. This is a confusing term until unless you don’t clarify the size in cm & columns.

Commercial: means to an audio or visual advertisement that carries the advertiser’s message in different media like TV or radio.

Copy: An ad is made up of different elements and copy refers to the textual matter or the written word in an advertisement.  

Insert: Also known as pamphlets. Inserts are again a form of advertisement on printed sheets. These are inserted into magazines and newspapers. Many companies use inserts to reach their target audiences.

Jingle: Jingle refers to a musical piece of advertising message that is played on the radio or television and are meant to catch the attention of listeners.

Voice over: Voice over is the voice behind an ad in radio or TV

ROI: Return on Investment is a very important determent for knowing whether the revenue generated by an ad exceeds the cost of producing it.

Media planner: Media planners work with advertising agencies mostly. Some big corporate house hire for them also. These people selects an optimum mix of media vehicles, which will provide maximum ROI to the client in terms of visibility to the ads of client.

Account : Account word here refers to the client of the ad agency. It’s an organization or a corporate, which appoints the advertising agency.

Ad agency: Ad agency works independently for its clients. Main job of ad agency is to create advertisements, planning & getting the promotional work executed for the client to promote their brand. Now ad agencies also handling only media buying for clients to expand their business.

Cost per thousand: This is again an online advertising term. CPM is the cost incurred per 1000 displays of an ad. Rates are finalized on the basis of 1000 display of ads.

Click-through rate (CTR): This term is used for online advertising. This refers to the number of times visitors click to an ad in comparison to number of times ad was displayed. If an ad is displayed for 100 times and it was clicked 30 times then the CTR will 30%. CTR is presented in form of percentage.

Pay Per Click (PPC): This is again an online advertising term. In this system advertisers pay to website owners for each click on their ads. You must have heard about google adsense. Adsense is the same system.

Note: These terms are written for beginners. Some information may not be complete. This all is on basis on my knowledge in Media industry.