A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS DAILY NEWSPAPER WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DAILY THANTHI IN TIRUCHIRAPPALLI CITY *A. MEHARAJ BANU ** R. MALINI ***G. SREERANGAM *Co-ordinator and Assistant professor, Srimad Andavan Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Tiruvanaikovil, Trichy. **Assistant professor, Srimad Andavan Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Tiruvanaikovil, Trichy. ***Research Scholar, Srimad Andavan Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Tiruvanaikovil, Trichy ABSTRACT Newspapers are the most powerful tool to express ideas and information. It is a part and parcel of modern life. It plays vital role by providing information and creating awareness among the people. A newspaper acts an important medium to control corruption and scams. The chief topics of general interest in newspaper include politics, sports, economy, movies and share market. A wide coverage of information is obtained at low cost though newspaper. Newspaper provides us with information collected from around the globe. It also helps to develops new ideas, and at times guides the common man and it also influences the habit of thinking in men. Hence the research work is carried out to know the customer preference towards Daily Thanthi Newspaper. The data were collected from 60 respondents those who actually reading the Daily Thanthi Newspaper. Further the data were analyzed by using one way anova. The test result revealed that there is a significant association between qualification and regular reading and newspaper quality satisfaction by the respondents. Key words: customer, quality, preferences and satisfaction INTRODUCTION: A newspaper is a periodical publication containing news. The newspaper becomes more important than even the cup of tea. Newspapers are also like a potion to which we seem to be so deeply addicted. The main conveyor of news is newspaper. Though there are many other sources of news like magazines and books in print media, radio and television channels and Internet connections in electronic media, words of mouth and telephone and wireless communications etc. no other source ever could come near the newspaper in importance. It is true of the past and the present and it is true of the future also. Neither the advent of the television nor that of the Internet could affect the importance of the newspaper. The reason for this is the width, breadth and the depth of the news provided by the newspaper, its low cost and the ease of providing the news at our leisure and comfort as many times as we desire. Reading newspapers everyday is must for students and adults for growth and enlightenment irrespective of the class or field of their life. Reading newspaper everyday is highly educational for everyone. Hence this study has been undertaken to know the customer satisfaction towards newspaper with special reference to Daily Thanthi in Tiruchirappalli City. www.apjor.com Page 19
SCOPE OF THE STUDY: Newspapers are a mirror of public opinion too. Through their columns, the public can present their views on subjects of national and international issues. Letters to the Editor is one very important part of a newspaper. Business houses also make great use of the newspapers to advertise their products and to reach out to their customers. The alluring advertisements have a great impact on popular mind and that is the purpose of such advertisements. But there is one great responsibility which devolves upon the newspapers. This responsibility is to give the correct news, not to distort it or misrepresent it for some error motive. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Knowledge is power in today s world. There is an increasing demand of knowledge, especially after the economy has opened up the world is becoming one small village newspaper is one effective media which producers relevant information. Newspaper now a days has become one of the most important sources of information for reduce to know things in depth no doubt other media vehicles live television, radio and other sources provided information but they crack inner course of action that is really wanted by the reduce. Besides numerous advantages newspaper has many abuses too. By providing wrong information, it can mislead the people. Newspaper can terrify people by spreading sensationalism. Furthermore, by immoral advertisement and vulgar pictures it can be a severe danger to the moral values of our society. The need of the study areas to know the customer satisfaction towards Daily thanthi and will also help to know the whether this newspaper covers all current affairs in an efficient manner. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To study the demographic profile of the respondents reading Daily Thanthi newspapers in Tiruchirappalli district. To study the customer satisfaction towards The Daily Thanthi. To analyze the customers reading habit of daily thanthi newspapers. To examine the effectiveness of news stated in the daily thanthi. HYPOTHESES: There is no significant association between age and quality information, regular reading habit, reading time, quality satisfaction and news prefer to read. There is no significant association between qualification and quality information, regular reading habit, reading time, quality satisfaction and news prefer to read. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The whole study has been conducted with the help of both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. The secondary data were collected from various books, journals, magazines and websites. SAMPLE DESIGN: The researcher used convenient method of sampling. The sample respondents selected for this study was 60 those actually reading The Daily Thanthi newspaper in Tiruchirappalli City. TOOLS USED: The Data were analyzed by using SPSS. The various statistical tools used for this study were percentage and one way anova. www.apjor.com Page 20
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION TABLE NO. 1: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE PARTICULARS RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE AGE Below 20 years 21-30 years 31-40 years Above 40 years 3 24 14 19 5.0 40.0 23.3 31.7 GENDER Male Female 29 31 48.3 51.7 QUALIFICATION OCCUPATION School level UG PG Professional Student House wife Employed Business 17 3 21 19 13 16 15 16 28.3 5.0 35.0 31.7 21.7 26.7 25.0 26.7 MARITAL STATUS Married Unmarried 37 23 61.7 38.3 The above table no. 1 shows that 40% of the respondents reading Daily Thanthi newspaper are in the age group of 21 30 years, 51.7% of the respondents are female, 35% of the respondents are post graduates, 26.7% of the respondents occupational status are self employed and the same percentage of the respondents are housewife and 61.7% of the daily thanthi readers respondents are married. TABLE NO. 2: CUSTOMERS OPINION ABOUT DAILY THANTHI PARTICULARS YES (no. of respondents) % NO (no. of respondents) Regular reading habit of newspaper 48 80 12 20 Newspaper contains quality newspaper 56 93.3 4 6.7 Effectiveness of Social news 58 96.7 2 3.3 Availability of extra news 46 76.7 14 23.3 Satisfaction towards classified advertisement 43 71.7 17 28.3 Coverage of current affairs 51 85 9 15 Recommend others 48 80 12 20 The above table no. 2 reveals that 80% of the respondents have regular reading habit of daily thanthi, 93.3% of the respondents agreed that the daily newspaper contains quality news, 96.7% of the respondents agreed that the daily thanthi newspaper covers social news effectively and 85% of them satisfied with the coverage of current affairs information in Daily Thanthi. TABLE NO.3: TIME SPENT FOR READING NEWSPAPER Reading time Frequency Percentage Below 1 hours 43 71.7 1-2 hours 8 13.3 2-3 hours 2 3.3 Above 3 hours 7 11.7 Total 60 100.0 www.apjor.com Page 21 %
The above table no. 3 reveals that 71.7% of the respondents usually spent below one hour for reading the newspaper, 13.3% of the respondents spent 1-2 hours for reading and 11.7% of the respondents spent above 3 hours for reading the Daily thanthi newspaper. TABLE NO. 4: NEWS PERFERRED TO READ Newspaper Frequency Percentage Political 13 21.7 Education 22 36.7 Sports 5 8.3 Commercial 20 33.3 Total 60 100.0 The above table no. 4 reveals that 36.7% of the respondents preferred to read the educational related news in Daily thanthi, 33.3% of the respondents to read commercial news, 21.7% of the respondents preferred to read political news and only 8.3% of the respondents preferred to read sports news in Daily thanthi newspaper. TABLE NO.5: Anova Table for Association between Age and Quality Information, Regular Reading and Quality Satisfaction Null hypothesis: There is no significant difference between age and quality information, regular reading habit, reading time, quality satisfaction and news prefer to read. CUSTOMER PERCEPTION GROUPS Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig Between group.186 3.062 Quality information Within group 3.548 56.063.977.410 Total 3.733 59 Between group.258 3.086 Regular reading Within group 9.342 56.167.673.673 Total 9.600 59 Between group 9.132 3 3.044 Reading Time Within group 51.718 56.924 3.296.027 Total 60.850 59 Between group.324 3.108 Quality satisfaction Within group 2.526 56.045 2.392.078 Total 2.850 59 Between group 29.357 3 9.786 News prefer Within group 51.576 56.921 10.625.000 Total 80.933 59 From the above table it is clear calculated is greater than the table value for quality information (.410), regular reading habit (.673) and quality satisfaction (.078). Hence it is concluded that there is no significant association between age and quality information, regular reading habit and quality satisfaction. The above table also revealed that calculated value is lesser than the table value for reading time (.027) and news prefer to read (.000). Hence it is concluded that there is a significant association between age and reading time and news prefer to read by the respondents. www.apjor.com Page 22
TABLE NO.6: Anova Table for Association between Qualification and Quality Information, Regular Reading, Reading Time, Quality Satisfaction and News Prefer To Read Null hypothesis: There is no significant association between qualification and quality information, regular reading, reading time, quality satisfaction and news prefer to read. CUSTOMER GROUPS Sum of Df Mean F Sig PERCEPTION squares square Between group.134 3.045.697.558 Quality information Within group 3.599 56.064 Total 3.733 59 Between group 1.249 3.416 2.792.049 Regular reading Within group 8.351 56.149 Total 9.600 59 Between group 2.622 3.874.841.477 Reading time spend Within group 58.228 56 1.040 Total 60.850 59 Between group.379 3.126 2.867.045 Quality satisfaction Within group 2.471 56.044 Total 2.850 59 Between group 8.397 3 2.799 2.161.103 News prefer Within group 72.537 56 1.295 Total 80.933 59 The above table revealed that calculated value is greater than the table value for quality information (.558), regular reading time (.477) and news preferred to read (.103). Hence it concluded that there is no significant association between qualification and quality information, regular reading time and news preferred to read. The above table also revealed that calculated value is lesser than the table for regular reading habit and quality satisfaction. It is concluded that there is a significant association between qualification and regular reading and newspaper quality satisfaction by the respondents. FINDINGS: Majority of respondents belongs to the age group of 21-30 years. One third of the respondents reading Daily thanthi newspaper are post graduate. 26.7% of the respondents are house wife and the same percentages of the respondents are selfemployed. 80% of the respondents agree that they reading habit of the Daily thanthi newspaper. 71.7% of the respondents usually spent one hour for reading the newspaper particular time. 93.3% of the respondents agreed that the Daily thanthi newspaper contains quality information. 96.7% of the respondents satisfied with the Daily thanthi newspaper regarding the coverage of social news. One third of the respondents with the extra news available in the Daily thanthi newspaper. 71.7% of the respondents satisfied with the classified advertisement in Daily thanthi newspaper. 93.3% of the respondents agreed that mass media advertisement essential in the Daily thanthi newspaper. 36.7% of the respondents preferred read the educational related news in Daily thanthi newspaper. 80% of the respondents recommend others to particular newspaper. 85% of the respondents agreed that the Daily thanthi newspaper covers current affairs effectively. There is a significant association between age and reading time and news prefer to read by the respondents. www.apjor.com Page 23
There is a significant association between age and reading time and news prefer to read by the respondents. SUGGESTIONS: The following are some of the suggestions made in this study: This newspaper should cover the international news more and more level. For the benefit of the student the paper should publish the past years question with answers at the beginning of the years usually publish it nearly to the exam time. It should cover less political advertisement even though they charge such amount for it. It should try cover less miscellaneous news. It is better to publish all the news in the reasonable pages at the reason noble price, because more paper creates wrong thinking about the news and the newspaper. The Daily thanthi newspaper should increase the quality of papers. CONCLUSION The Daily thanthi has been playing an important in the communication department and improvement of knowledge, it services to the society is wonderful and splendid. It develops the business and employee and employer student and all knowledge fully the Daily thanthi has to do such social oriented activities like free employment benefit. Their service is reasonable to all the class people and in future to it has to the developed in the entire field to survive and face the competitors. From this study the Daily thanthi alter such changes definitely it can capture full share of the market. The project has given me an idea about the operation of the Daily thanthi newspaper and their circulation. The experience gained in the project given me an opportunity to build up brings between the theoretical knowledge and practical functions. References: 1. E. F. Larkin and G. L. Grotta, Consumer Attitudes toward and Use of Advertising Content in a Small Daily Newspaper, Journal of Advertising, 5(1), 1976, 28-31. 2. P. Fendrick, Newspaper reading interests of high school and college Students, The Journal of Educational Research, 34(7), 1941, 522-530. 3. V. S. Sivankutty and J. Sudhakaran, The use of online newspapers among librarians in India, Library Hi Tech News, 28(1), 2011, 10 12. 4. C. Flavián and R. Gurrea, Users' motivations and attitude towards the online press, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 26(3), 2009, 164 174. www.apjor.com Page 24