I have always admired Deccan Chronicle for its attitude and ‘never say die’ spirit. While in Karnataka the Deccan Herald folded over gently and surrendered to the Times blitzkrieg, DC in Andhra Pradesh has been giving the Times a good run for its money.

Deccan Chronicle advertising attitude too reeks of confidence, cheekiness and a very endearing flavor of rebellion…talk to me, not to my Mom…was a line that kicked off the aggressive DC Campaign many years ago…the Katrina Kaif hoardings simply carried forward the tone of voice with a nice echo of defiance.

So when a couple of days back the Times of India released an ad declaring that it had now displaced DC as the No. 1 English Newspaper in Hyderabad I was surprised yes, but I was already looking forward to the response that DC was sure to provide.

Because, let’s face it…while Times of India has been making inroads into the market for quite a while and Deccan Chronicle (the company) is going through a rough patch I can’t for a moment imagine that DC will someday be relegated to No. 2 position. The generation that believes that only Deccan Chronicle is an authentic local newspaper is still alive and kicking…and has yet to be outnumbered by the readers who come from out of town and may have misplaced loyalties.

But that’s just a sentimental knee jerk reaction. Forgive me for a momentary lapse of reason.

Let’s first look at DC’s full page response. It sums up everything that the newspaper represents…in just two alphabets

But after the applause, the admiration of the spirit and the laughing at the sheer cheek of it all, we need to pause and take stock of the situation.

I am by no means an expert at analyzing Media Figures collected after extensive research, nor am I qualified to pass judgments based on these reports. But the first thing that attracts your attention when you go past the smoke screens in both the ads is the fact that while TOI is quoting ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) figures, DC is falling back on the IRS (Indian Readership Survey) report. As obvious a case of comparing oranges to apples as I have seen.

But then common sense kicks in and we extrapolate…

Circulation is, as I am given to understand…the actual number of newspapers sold. Readership however, I am told is the number arrived at after assuming that every newspaper sold is possibly read by 4 or 5 readers. So if a newspaper says it sold 100 copies, it would be safe to assume that 4-500 people read it, and therefore are its effective audience.

While deviations are expected in any Research Report, when comparing one and the other, these exaggerations and aberrations normally cancel each other out in the final analysis.

So for the purpose of the argument let’s examine the figures quoted by each paper.

The Times of India talks of sales of 2, 53, 749 copies…and makes no mention of the corresponding DC figures.

Deccan Chronicle on the other hand talks of a readership of 4, 93, 000 compared to a TOI figure that they peg at 1, 42, 000 only.

Since comparative figures are available only in the Times case, I have to limit my exploration to only that newspaper.

If we accept the theory of multiple readership and allow a factor of x4 in the calculations…the readership as per ABC’s figures for the Times should be in the 10 lakh category…and as per IRS they should have sold only about 30, 000 copies in Hyderabad.

A general awareness of the market leads me to believe that however No.2 the Times may be in this region their sales are definitely more…much more than just 30, 000. The 10 lakh readership isn’t too bad…is much more believable…but in the absence of a corresponding DC figure it means nothing.

At the end I am forced to leave rationale, logic and exact figures etc. and conclude that on the face of it there is a tough fight going on…that DC seems to be leading…that DC still has an edge…

but more importantly DC still has the kick-ass spirit that makes it a local Dada so to speak and I wish DC and its team all the very best…just as I congratulate my TOI friends for a battle well fought…

and may the war continue…