Concept of Media Planning

Media planning refers to an analytical method for making media decisions, and
describes the process of taking the message across to the target audience at the right
time and place, and using the right media vehicle. As we know by now, media
planners work in close cooperation with the creative people. The creative execution
often decides the direction of media planning. Conversely, media planning also
shapes the creative execution.
Media Plan is derived from advertising plan. Advertising plan itself, in its turn, is
derived from the marketing plan. Marketing plan considers the total marketing
environment and sets the marketing objectives. To realise these objectives, we
formulate marketing strategies. There is an action plan to implement these strategies.
Advertising plan is derived from marketing plan, and lays down promotional
strategy as a part of the marketing strategy.
We also set before us advertising objectives in terms of sales and communications.
To realise these objectives, advertising plan formulates the advertising strategy.
Advertising strategy is in other words the message strategy and decides what to say.
This strategy is executed by art directors by selecting proper production values. It is
called creative strategy or execution. The whole advertising plan is to be imple-
mented to a predetermined cost – the advertising budget. Our media plan is derived
from the advertising plan. It sets the media objectives. The objectives are realised
through media strategies. We have to select media vehicles and a media schedule.
Media planning is the series of decisions involved in delivering the promotional
message to the prospective consumers. It is the process of directing the advertising
message to the target audience by using the appropriate channel at the proper time
and place.
The planning should concentrate on:
i. Whom to reach,
ii. When and where to reach,
iii. The total target group,
iv. The frequency of exposure,
v. The affordable cost involvement.
After rationalisation of all the above issues, decisions are taken to formulate the
media plan. Media planning involves the coordination of three levels of strategy
development – a) Marketing Strategy, b) Advertising Strategy, c) Media Strategy.
Based on the marketing strategy, the advertising strategy and media strategy are
generated.
The media strategy involves the interrelated activities like – (i) selecting the target
audience, (ii) specifying media objectives, (iii) selecting media and vehicles, and (iv)
buying media.
Factors Affecting Media Planning
Media planning includes various decisions which are taken in delivering the
promotional message to the prospective customers. It helps the advertiser to
determine the best way to deliver its message to its target audience. The basic goal of
media-plan is to select the suitable media, to find their optimum combination and
thus enable the advertiser to communicate his message in most effective manner to
the largest number of potential customers at lowest possible cost.
Following are the factors affecting media planning:
1. Nature of Product:
Product to be advertised can be industrial/technical product or consumer product.
Industrial/technical products can better be advertised in specific trade-
journals/magazines. Consumer products can be better advertised through mass
media such as television, newspaper, outdoor advertising etc. Similarly, products for
farmers like fertilizers, seeds etc. can be advertised in T.V., radio, wall painting, etc.
2. Nature of Customers:
An appropriate media plan must consider the type or number of consumers, for
whom advertising is to be done. Different consumers differ in their age-group, sex,
income, personality, educational level, attitude etc. On the basis of consumer traits,
consumer groups can be- men, women, children, young, old, professional,
businessmen, high income group, middle-income group, low-income group,
Literate, illiterate, etc.
Some of the consumer traits affecting media selection are described below:
(a) Age – For advertising for kids-products, television is the best for communicating
message. In T.V. ad can be given in cartoon channels. If target audience is young
then television, magazines, internet is suitable. If target audience consists of old age-
group, then newspaper, television will be good choice.
(b) Level of Education – If target-audience is highly educated, then advertisement
should be given in magazines, national newspapers, internet, television etc. If target
audiences are less educated as in rural area then local newspapers printed in local
languages, T.V. etc. are suitable. If audiences are illiterate, then print-media is not
suitable. Here broadcast media is a good choice.
(c) Number of Customers – If number of target customers is more, then mass-media
like television, newspaper will be suitable. If number of target customers is less, then
direct mail- media, tele-advertising (advertising through telephone) are suitable.
3. Distribution of Product:
If the product is to be distributed locally or regionally, then media with local
coverage and reach should be considered like local newspaper, cable-network, etc. If
product is distributed on national level, then media with national coverage like
national dailies (newspaper), national-level T.V. channels will be suitable. If the
product is to be sold at international level, then media having reach and circulation
in foreign countries will be effective e.g. internet, magazines with circulation in
foreign countries, T.V. channels having international coverage like B.B.C., CNN
should be considered.
 4. Advertising Objectives:
The main objective of every advertising campaign is to get favourable response from
customer, but the specific objectives can be different. If the objectives of advertising
campaign are to get immediate result then fast media of communication like
newspapers, banners, pamphlets will be considered. If the objective of advertising is
to build corporate-goodwill and brand-equity, then magazines, television, neon
signboards will be considered.
5. Nature of Message:
If advertising message is informative in nature, then newspaper will be suitable. If
ad- message is to persuade consumers, and potential consumers need to be given
emotional-appeal, rational-appeal, demonstration of product, then television media
will be suitable for advertising. If ad-message is to inform the potential customers of
sale-promotion schemes, discount offers, exchange offer, festival offers, then it can
be advertised through posters, banners, newspaper-inserts and newspapers, etc.
 6. Size of Ad-Budget:
If amount of advertisement budget is more, then costly media like television,
national dailies can be selected. If amount of ad-budget is less, then low cost media
like posters, banners, cable-network, local newspaper, pamphlets will be suitable.
 7. Media Used by Competitors:
While planning for media the advertiser must consider the media used by
competitors and leaders of that industry. If advertiser does not consider competitor’s
move regarding media, then it is possible that advertiser’s market share is taken by
competition. If industry-leader is using T.V. as media, then the advertiser too must
consider the same media. The advertiser must have a close watch on media-
strategies and ad-budget of competitors. However, competitor’s strategies should
not be followed blindly, as it is possible that decision of competitor is wrong.
8. Media Availability:
Sometimes it is possible that desired space for advertisements in print media is
booked by some other advertisers and hence not available. For example, advertiser
wants to issue an advertisement on front page of newspaper or on the cover-page of
any magazine, but this space is already booked by some other advertiser, then this
media is not available to the advertiser.
So the advertiser will have to plan for some other media or he will have to change
timing of advertisement. Similarly if an advertisement is to be issued on television
during a particular programme, then it is possible that it may have been
booked/sponsored by other advertisers. So media-availability must be considered
for media planning.
9. Media Reach and Coverage:
Such media should be selected as has wide reach and can cover our target
customers. If the advertiser has two available media, involving same cost, then
media with more reach and coverage of our target audience will be selected. Media
reach means total circulation/viewership of media in a given period of time, (say,
one day). If ad is given on T.V., then expected audience size of that T.V. programme
in which ad is issued, in a given period of time is called its reach. It measures the
number of persons who are exposed at least once to this media in a specific period of
time.
For example, if advertisement is issued on newspaper, then number of copies
circulated in a given period of time (say, a day) will be called its reach. Media-
coverage means number of advertiser’s target customers exposed to media in a
specific time- period.
It is possible that reach of a media is large, but its coverage for advertiser is poor, i.e.
the media has wide circulation, but it is not popular among the target customers of
advertiser. So such media is not of much use to the advertiser. The advertiser should
select that media whose reach and coverage, both are large. For improving coverage
of target customers, advertisers generally use combination of media (media-mix).
10. Media Frequency:
Media frequency refers to average number of times, the audience is exposed to
media- vehicle in a specified period of time. Higher media-frequency is preferred.
Greater the frequency, more are the chances of advertisement message making deep
impression on the minds of consumers. In case of print media, frequency of
newspaper is very less as the receiver is not exposed to the same newspaper for a
long period of time.
On the next day he will be getting the new newspaper and old newspaper will be
discarded the same day. In case of magazine, media-frequency is more as same
magazine may be opened by audience many a time, as he will get the next issue of
magazine after a month, a fortnight or after a week. Higher frequency will create
better impressions on target audience. So, media with higher frequency should be
selected.
11. Media Image:
Some media-vehicles enjoy better image in comparison to other media vehicles.
Media- image enhances the communication value of advertisement. Good reputation
of editorial board and well established media enjoy better image among public, so
advertisements given in such media enhance the credibility and trust of
advertisements. So media with good image should be selected. Media image also
affects the product image and advertiser’s image. So, we should not select media
with bad image.
 12. Media Discount:
Sometimes some media offer attractive discount schemes. The advertisers consider
these discount schemes while selecting media as it reduces their media cost.
Sometimes some advertisers use only one medium or one class of media regularly so
as to get media discount offered by media to their regular users.
 13. Language:
The advertiser selects that media which communicates in the language well known
to our target customers. Like if ad is given for less educated customers, then ad in
English newspaper will be of little use.

Media Planning Process

Following are the steps which are involved in media planning are:
Step 1. Market Analysis:
Every media plan begins with the market analysis of environmental analysis.
Complete review of internal and external factors is required to be done.
At this stage media planners try to identify answers of the following questions:
i. Identification of the Target Audience:
Which is the audience for our product? This happens to be the most important
consideration in the media decisions. We first examine our market plans and
advertising plans. These provide us details about the audience for our product.
Detailed studies of our audience can be made. We can describe our audience in
terms of age, religion, sex, education – these are demographic characteristics. We can
describe it in terms of their income and occupation.
Audience can also be described in psychographic terms – activities, interests,
opinions forming a lifestyle, personality traits, brand preferences. After having a
complete picture of our target audience, we undertake the study of the media’s
readership in terms of demographic, economic and psychographic terms.
ii. Study of Factors Affecting Media Planning:
There are various factors which affect media planning.
(a) Internal Factors – Internal factors are those factors which are directly related to
company like size of company, advertising budget, size of organization, distribution
strategy of organization, potential market area etc. Advertising budget is very
important factor, while selecting media planning. If size of ad-budget is more, then
costly media like T.V. can be selected. If size of ad budget is small, the cheap media
will be selected.
(b) External Factors – External factors includes media coverage, media image, media
adopted by competitors etc. while selecting the media, the advertiser must consider
the media selected by competitors and leaders of that industry. Along with cost of
various media should be compared.
iii. Identifying the Geographical Area:
Total geographical area of target market is identified. Those areas, where the sale of
the company’s product is more, are identified. For low potential market area, smaller
advertising budget is allocated. The geographical area also includes whether
advertising should be done at local level or national level or international level.
Step 2. Message Distribution:
The first step in the setting up of objectives was the definition of the target audience.
The next step is the distribution of message to this audience. The number of
messages and the frequency of their appearance matter a lot.
We have to decide whether a single message is sufficient or there should be several
repetitions of the same. These lead us to the concepts of reach and frequency, which
are to be balanced.
The overall constraint on both these concepts is the advertising budget. We also have
to calculate the total message weight of the campaign.
i. Reach:
Reach indicates a percentage of target audience who is exposed at least once in a
given period to a particular media vehicle. It does not matter how many times they
actually see or hear the ad message.
ii. Frequency:
Frequency indicates the number of times people in the target audience are exposed
to a media vehicle during a given period of time. Average frequency gives the
average number of times people or households in our target audience are exposed to
a media vehicle.
iii. Message Weight:
The sum of the reach number of specific media vehicles in a given media plan gives
the message weight. Here, while summing the reach, duplication or overlapping is
ignored. Message weight is expressed in terms of gross impressions or gross rating
points (GRP).
Step 3. Selecting Suitable Media:
For selecting appropriate media, different media are compared on the basis of cost
per reader, cost per viewer, media-image, etc. While selecting media, the advertiser
should ensure that media matches with features of target audience. The selected
media should match with message-requirements, e.g. If message involves
demonstration, then media with audio visual effects will be selected. While selecting
suitable media, availability of media should also be kept in mind. It is possible that a
particular media suits our requirements, but it is already booked, so some other
media will have to be selected.
Step 4. Selecting Optimum Media-Mix:
If the advertiser feels that no single media is sufficient in itself in achieving
advertising objectives then different media can be used in combination and their
optimum mix is decided by the advertiser. By combining different media, advertiser
can increase coverage and improve the chances of achieving advertising goals.
Overall ad-budget also influences the ration of different elements of media mix.
For example, to achieve advertising objectives and after considering advertising
budget, the advertiser may decide a mix of 45% television, 20% newspaper, 10%
magazine, 15% outdoor media and 10% internet media. Different advertisers may
decide different media-mix depending upon their requirements, but media-mix
should be such that advertiser can communicate advertising-message to the target
audience most effectively and at lowest possible cost.
Step 5. Selecting Suitable Media Vehicle within Each Selected Media:
After selecting media, appropriate media vehicles are to be selected. For example,
after deciding that advertising is to be done through newspaper, it is decided that in
which newspaper it is be done-whether through Indian Express, Tribune, or
Hindustan Times, etc.
If it is decided that advertising is to be done through magazine, then out of various
magazines, appropriate magazine/magazines are selected. If advertising is to be
done through television, then it is decided that at which T.V. channel or in which
T.V. programme advertisement is to be given. Suitable media vehicles are selected to
attain media objectives.
Step 6. Media Scheduling:
In media scheduling, decisions regarding date or time when these advertisements
are to be shown are taken. In media-scheduling, time-gap in two advertisements is
also decided. Purpose of media-scheduling is to issue advertisements at appropriate
time with appropriate frequency so that target audience can be contacted at
minimum advertising cost.
It helps to control wasteful advertising expenses. If advertisement is related to
product to be used by school/college going children, then it is better to show the
advertisement in the evening time in T.V. programmes. If the product is of seasonal
nature, then ad should be shown more frequently in the season period and less
frequently in the off season period.
Step  7. Executing Advertising Programme:
After selecting media and deciding its schedule, advertising department is given the
task of designing suitable advertising copy and executing it in the selected media.
Some companies assign this task of designing advertising to professional advertising
agencies.
Step 8. Follow-Up and Evaluation:
After implementing advertising programme, advertiser evaluates its effectiveness to
know whether media objectives have been achieved, whether media-plan has
contributed in achieving overall advertising-objectives. Answers to these questions
help the advertiser to know success or failure of media strategy. If our media
strategy is not effective, then corrective actions will be taken for future media
planning, so that in future, better media-plans can be made.

Media selection

Media selection is finding the most cost-effective media to deliver the desired
number and type of exposure to the target audience.

For an effective media selection a firm must take the following factors into
consideration:

a) Budget: A firm with a limited budget for promotion and advertising needs to
limit the coverage amount a specific media will provide. It should keep a
balance between its budget and the coverage amount.
b) Objectives of the Campaign: The campaign’s objectives are one of the factors
that will affect the budget and the amount of coverage. If the campaign
objective is raising the firm’s brand awareness among the youth market then
it will affect any decision the firm makes above. In this case, the firm needs to
spend more on specific publications to meet the objectives.
c) Target Audience: The media the firm selects is certainly influenced by its
target audience. The firm needs to select the media that its target audience is
 related to such as the newspapers or magazines, they read or the social media
sites they use.
d) Concentration: The firm’s campaign message’s concentration or focus should
also be considered whether it should be emotional or clear cut.
e) Media’s Readership: Readership means the number of times readers have
read the publication.
f) Media’s Circulation: A firm needs to calculate the total circulation of the
chosen media.
g) Timing: The firm will also consider when it wants to start the promotional
campaign while media selection.

Purpose of Media Planning

Media planning helps the advertiser in selecting most appropriate media, media
mix, and in deciding time and space in various media so that available resources can
be utilized in an optimum manner. Media planning helps to control wasteful
advertising. In the absence of media planning the advertiser may select
inappropriate media, or may issue the advertisement at the wrong time and thus the
advertising message may not reach the largest audience. It will result in wasteful
advertising. The purpose of media-planning is described below:
1. Optimum Utilisation of Resources:
Advertising involves huge cost. Through media planning, the advertiser can use
available resources in an optimum manner. In media planning, such combination of
media is selected and such time is selected, that helps the advertiser in
communicating the advertising message to largest number of target audience at
lowest possible cost. In the absence of media planning, the advertiser may select
costly media which may not have good coverage of target audience.
2. Helps in Achieving Advertising Objectives:
Media plan is a part of overall advertising plan. Media planning is designed so as to
achieve marketing and advertising objectives of the organisation. Media planning
includes all such decisions like selecting appropriate media, appropriate media mix
and deciding the scheduling of advertisement. All these decisions help the
organization in achieving advertising objectives, i.e. to communicate the message to
target audience and thus to promote sales.
3. Selection of Appropriate Media:
In media planning, different media are compared on the basis of cost per reader, cost
per viewer, media-image, media-coverage, media-rating etc. While selecting media
the advertiser ensures that selected media matches with the features of target
audience.
For example, if our target audience are teenagers, then television will be appropriate
media; if target audience are literate, then print-media can be selected; if target
audience is a specific professional group, then professional journals and magazines
will be appropriate media. Media planning also ensures that selected media is as per
the message requirements e.g. if message involves demonstration, the media with
audio-visual effects (viz. T.V.) will be selected.
4. Selection of Optimum Media Mix:
Media planning helps to select optimum media mix. Using different media
combination ensures wide and intensive coverage of target audience. It improves the
chances of achieving advertising objectives. A single media may not ensure
communication with all the target audience. A well-planned media mix ensures
wide coverage of target audience at minimum cost.
5. Helps in Allocating Advertising Budget:
Media planning helps to decide the amount to be spent on different media. It helps
the advertising manager in allocating the ad-budget among different media
types/media vehicles. Media plan decides the optimum media mix; this helps the
advertising manager in allocating the total ad-budget on different media in a
scientific manner.
6. Ensures Appropriate Timing of Advertising:
Advertising can ensure best results only when ads are shown at the right time.
Media planning includes media scheduling i.e. it decides the time and space of
advertisement in media. It decides the month, day and time of advertisement. It
ensures that advertisement is shown more frequently in seasonal months and less
frequently in off-season months. It also ensures that advertisement is shown at that
time when more target audience can be contacted e.g. if ad is for school going kids, it
is not shown in the morning or before noon time.
7. Helps in Controlling:
In media plan some standards of performance are fixed. These standards are with
regard to coverage of target audience. Such standards help the management in
evaluating the effectiveness of media, i.e. actual coverage is in accordance with the
standards or not. If coverage is less than standard, then it points to the inefficiency of
media. So in future, advertising manager can think of some other media type/media
vehicle. Or take other necessary action. Thus, media planning helps in exercising
control over media.
Problems of Media Planning
Media planning is a complex task and it requires a lot of skill. Media planning
requires lot of information about market, target customers, various media, etc.
Moreover, data used in media planning like cost per reader, cost per viewer, media
rating is continuously changing. Selection of media, media mix, media scheduling
etc. involves various difficulties.
The main problems in media planning are as follows:
1. Insufficient Information:
Media planning requires lot of information regarding nature of target customers like
their age, education level, their geographical concentration, their size, etc. It also
needs information about competitors, media strategies of competitors; information
about media like their rates, Image, rating etc. Collecting all such information is a
tedious job. Sampling technique is used for collecting all such information. If this
information is not sufficient or is incorrect then whole process of media planning
will fail.
2. Time Pressure:
Sometimes environment changes are sudden and quick. These sudden changes
require immediate decisions regarding advertisements. In such case, media planning
decisions are made without proper analysis of various factors affecting media
planning e.g. change in media strategies of our immediate competitor requires
immediate counter media strategies. It exerts a lot of time pressure on media-
planners, to take quick decisions. So decisions taken in a hurry may be wrong.
It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of a particular media for conveying relevant
message through the media. The reach of the media to the target audience cannot be
measured accurately. The study regarding the readership or exposure to the viewers
are conducted only for a limited period and the limited study cannot reflect the total
effect of exposure; through a medium.
3. Difficulty in Audience Measurement:
Audience measurement here refers to number of persons who are exposed to a
particular media. It is very difficult to measure the number of audience of any media
especially broadcast media. For example, it is very difficult to ascertain how many
persons watch a particular television programme. If the number of viewers of a
media is ascertained, even then it is very difficult to ascertain the number of target
audience out of total number of viewers. Audience measurements are a key element
in selecting media. In the absence of this information, media planning may be
wrong.
4. Difficulty in Cost Comparison:
While evaluating the relative effectiveness of different media, cost comparison of
different media is done. But cost of different media is available on different basis.
Like in case of print media, cost per word or per square centimetre is known; in case
of broadcast media, cost per second is known, in case of outdoor media, cost per sign
board/sky balloon, etc. is known. All these costs are on different basis. Hence, cost
comparison of different media is very difficult. In the absence of proper cost
comparison, selection of appropriate media is difficult.
5. Changing Environment Factors:
Media planning is a continuous process. Data used in media planning is affected by
external environment factors, these environment factors may change at any time. For
example, if at present a particular T.V. programme is very popular, but soon its
popularity may decline with the launch of another popular T.V. programme at the
same time in another T.V. channel. So the viewership of first T.V. programme may
decline. Similarly, other environment factors viz. competitors’ media strategy may
change. These fast changing environment factors may render the media planning
less effective.
6. Media Decisions Based on Guess Work:
All media decisions are not quantitatively determined. Many media decisions are
based on judgment of ad-manager e.g. mangers have to make guess regarding image
of a particular media in the market. Sometimes these guess works are made without
adequate analysis. So these guess works may be wrong.
7. Inadequate Expertise:
The work of media planning requires the services of talented, experienced and
skilled ad- mangers. If the ad-manager does not have sufficient exposure,
knowledge, experience, talent then media decisions may go wrong.
8. Confusions Regarding Different Terminologies:
Different terms are used for measuring different forms of media. It is difficult to
measure the total effect of the advertisements, focused through different media. For
example, in print media the effectiveness is calculated on the basis of cost to reach a
thousand people i.e., cost per thousand or CPM.
In broadcast media like TV or radio, the effectiveness is calculated on the basis of
cost per ratings point or CPRP. But the media planner should be interested to know
the reach and the coverage of a particular medium to assess the ultimate
effectiveness of the exposures.
9. Immediate Action:
Considering certain pressures, the advertiser sometimes may be compelled to release
advertisements, through different media, without any proper media planning. Some
situations like, in case of any important urgent announcement, any particular offer
for a very limited period, to take advantage of certain eventualities etc. may inspire
or compel the advertisers to release the advertisements through different media
without proper planning.

Offers and discount

Sometimes some media offer attractive discount schemes. The advertisers consider
these discount schemes while selecting media as it reduces their media cost.
Sometimes some advertisers use only one medium or one class of media regularly so
as to get media discount offered by media to their regular users.
Chapter 8

Newspaper in nepal

Nepal’s newspapers have a history of over a hundred years but the first private
commercial daily newspaper began publishing in 1993. Since then, the circulation of
newspapers has increased, contrarily to many developed countries where the
publishing industry has experienced a slowdown in sales because of the emergence
of Internet. Nepal’s digital media market is yet to be matured to have that kind of
impact and due to growing literacy rate, infrastructural development making
distribution of newspaper easy, and information hunger among citizens,
newspapers should see a steady rise in sales for at least a few more years. 
Since there is no reliable data from the publishers and the audit bureau of circulation
is absent, it is hard to put circulation and sales in numbers. Nepal’s largest daily
newspaper, Kantipur, claims a daily circulation of 360,000 copies, whereas its sister
publication, the English-language daily The Kathmandu Post, claims a daily
circulation of 82,000. Other media houses claim their circulation of Nepali-language
dailies at up to 200,000 per day. Publishers often exaggerate their claimed
circulation. The top circulating dailies are generally oriented towards the centre of
the political spectrum, but no newspapers in Nepal publicly declare their political
leaning. 
According to an audience survey conducted by Sharecast Initiatives in 2017, only
around 40 percent of the population read newspapers. Kantipur’s readership is more
than half of it, whereas Annapurna Post, Gorkhapatra and Nagarik are behind by a
huge margin taking between 4 percent and 7 percent of the readership. 
In a 2013 article, Understanding Advertising and Public Relations: Effects on News Media,
media researcher Ujjwal Prajapati wrote that the print media still are the biggest
media sector in generating advertisements revenue, covering up to 47 percent of
shares. In term of economic power, the most important media companies are: the
Kantipur Media Group with 36 percent of all print advertising revenues; Asia-Pacific
Communication Associates Nepal Pvt Ltd whose advertising data is not available,
state-owned Gorkhapatra Corporation with 13 percent; and Nepal Republic Media
with 10 percent print advertising share in 2011. 

The print media published by each of these publication houses are outlined below: 
 Kantipur Media Group: Kantipur (daily), The Kathmandu Post (English
language daily), Nepal (weekly magazine), Saptahik (weekly tabloid)
and Nari (monthly specialised magazine).
 Nepal Republic Media Private Limited: Nagarik (daily), Republica (English
language daily), Sukhrabar  (weekly tabloid) and Pariwar (monthly specialised
magazine).
 Gorkhapatra Corporation: Gorkhapatra (weekly), The Rising Nepal (English
language daily), Madupark, Muna and Yuvamanch (monthly specialised
magazines).
 Nepal News Network (3NI) Private Limited: Annapurna Post (Nepali
language daily), and Annapurna Express (English language weekly tabloid). 

All of the above media houses, except state-owned Gorkhapatra Corporation, have
cross-media ownership. Kantipur Media Group also owns a radio station, a popular
television channel and a subsidiary, Kantipur Digital Corp, that has investment in
technology companies and runs all digital news operation of the publication; Nepal
Republic Media owns a radio station; whereas 3NI owns a radio station and a
television channel. 

According to the Press Council of Nepal, there are 3,865 registered newspapers
across the country with 655 dailies, 30 bi-weeklies, 2,778 weeklies and 402
fortnightlies. Among them, 1,640 are registered in the Kathmandu Valley. But not all
of those registered newspapers are published. The state cannot unregister any
newspaper because of the law and the number keeps on increasing. Among the
registered newspapers, less than one-fourth or 863 were published last year and only
607 off them were regularly published all issues. 

In total, 189 newspapers are published every day in Nepal but only the top few
mainstream Nepali- language newspapers published in the capital Kathmandu have
agenda-setting strength. Those media usually have correspondents all over the
country and are printed in multiple locations for easy and quick distribution in main
cities. Recently, many of them have started publishing provincial editions but the
editions are still managed by the newsrooms in Kathmandu. Many of the dailies are
regional or local, not having the national-wide distribution, and are thus weak in
their coverage, revenue and impact. 
Compared to daily newspapers, weekly newspapers are highly political in their
contents and mostly read by political activists for understanding their party’s stances
and opinions. However, two weekly newsmagazines – Nepal and Himal, are
commercial publications that are popular and are agenda setters. The most popular
and highest circulated weeklies in Nepal are tabloids targeting young readers, with
contents focusing on sex, gossip, entertainment and sports. These
include Saptahik and Sukrabar, claimed circulation of both standing at around 200,000
copies per issue. There are no freesheets published in Nepal.

Advertising Association of Nepal(AAN)

Advertising Association of Nepal (AAN) is the umbrella organization of advertising
agencies in Nepal. Registered in 1990 under the Non-governmental Organization
Registration Act, it was initially called the Advertising Agencies Association of
Nepal. It emerged into its present set-up with the current name in 2006 following an
amendment in the constitution. In addition to advertising agencies, it also
coordinates with other related media organisations to promote professionalism in
the advertising sector of Nepal.

AAN is also represented in other professional organisations such as the Audit

Bureau of Circulation of the Press Council Nepal and Federation of Nepalese
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI). AAN is also a regular member of the
Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA).

MISSION

To upgrade the standards, ethics and practices of the advertising profession so as to

provide a meaningful contribution to the regional and national socio-economic
development of Nepal

OBJECTIVES

• To protect the rights and interests of advertising agencies, professionals and the
stakeholders involved in the advertising sector.

• To coordinate between and maintain harmonious relations among the various ad

professionals, agencies, media houses and other stakeholders.

• To maintain cordial relations between the advertising agencies and the media
houses of Nepal.

• To uplift the nation’s economy through advertisement.

 • To establish and operate a training institute with the objective of imparting skills
and knowledge about the advertisement business.