Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I.

Issue XXVI, April 2015

ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793

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
Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I. Issue XXVI, April 2015
ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793

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
Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I. Issue XXVI, April 2015
ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
TABLE NO. 1: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS
DEMOGRAPHIC PARTICULARS RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE
PROFILE
Below 20 years 3 5.0
21-30 years 24 40.0
AGE 31-40 years 14 23.3
Above 40 years 19 31.7

Male 29 48.3
GENDER Female 31 51.7
School level 17 28.3
UG 3 5.0
QUALIFICATION PG 21 35.0
Professional 19 31.7
Student 13 21.7
House wife 16 26.7
Employed 15 25.0
OCCUPATION Business 16 26.7

Married 37 61.7
MARITAL STATUS Unmarried 23 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
YES % NO %
PARTICULARS (no. of (no. of
respondents) 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
Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I. Issue XXVI, April 2015
ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793
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 df Mean square F Sig

squares
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
Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I. Issue XXVI, April 2015
ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793
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 self-
employed.
 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
Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I. Issue XXVI, April 2015
ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793
 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