Varghese Chandy, senior general manager, marketing operations and Tomson J Thundathil, manager, market research of Malayala Manorama have won an award for the best research paper titled "Reading India Right" at the 14th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium held in Valencia, Spain from 10 October to 14 October 2009. 54 papers were shortlisted from across the world after a rigrous process. This was the only paper selected from Asia.
The paper dealt with the huge diversity of India and the problems in readership estimation. A new sampling and weighting methodology was proposed and the hypothesis was tested in a pilot study in Kerala. The results of the pilot study were in line with market reality and this forms the basis for a new readership survey in India. The paper won the best paper award in the category of first time presentations. The award was given away at a gala dinner in Valencia by Dawn Mitchell, president, WRRS.
