In 2002, after spending most of my life in the Consumer Goods industry, I moved to Media as senior executive in a leading newspaper group. Coming in from the cold, as it were, it was quite shocking to discover that there was 'next to nil' reference material available and all the knowledge came thru' 'jungle-lore' - the basis or authenticity of which - and more importantly their currency was often questionable.
And, as I spent more time in the industry the gap of information seemed to be most limiting when I witnessed innumerable new entrants joining the organizations I worked in with absolutely no idea of Media being thrown into the deep end of the pool.
This feeling was further reinforced when I was invited to take a course on the Business of Print Media at MICA ( which I have been doing for the past 3 years ) and I found there was no published study or reference material on the subject.
Probably the most appalling impact of this lack of media experience, I observed at very senior levels. Professionals drawn from other industries and a non-media background often approach media with a degree of arrogance and a rather simplistic notion that what work for Soaps, Soft-drinks, Washing Machines or Telecom can be blindly applied to media, often treating with a degree of contempt both the old wisdom and people within the organization in their eagerness for radical change. Before long they discover that - media is far more complex and has many more layers, variables and finer nuances that are not visible on the surface.
Therefore my favourite quip is: "Media is deceptively simple".
I do not suffer from any delusions of being an authority or expert on media by any stretch of imagination. But, I can admit to having been bitten by the media-bug – due to which even after quitting the scene almost a year back, I remain deeply interested in Media and a compulsive Media-watcher. And at the risk of sounding presumptuous - I might say that, my personal experience and now being away from Media (at least for the moment) probably gives me a better perspective and also the independence to take a more neutral and objective viewpoint.
And, as I spent more time in the industry the gap of information seemed to be most limiting when I witnessed innumerable new entrants joining the organizations I worked in with absolutely no idea of Media being thrown into the deep end of the pool.
This feeling was further reinforced when I was invited to take a course on the Business of Print Media at MICA ( which I have been doing for the past 3 years ) and I found there was no published study or reference material on the subject.
Probably the most appalling impact of this lack of media experience, I observed at very senior levels. Professionals drawn from other industries and a non-media background often approach media with a degree of arrogance and a rather simplistic notion that what work for Soaps, Soft-drinks, Washing Machines or Telecom can be blindly applied to media, often treating with a degree of contempt both the old wisdom and people within the organization in their eagerness for radical change. Before long they discover that - media is far more complex and has many more layers, variables and finer nuances that are not visible on the surface.
Therefore my favourite quip is: "Media is deceptively simple".
I do not suffer from any delusions of being an authority or expert on media by any stretch of imagination. But, I can admit to having been bitten by the media-bug – due to which even after quitting the scene almost a year back, I remain deeply interested in Media and a compulsive Media-watcher. And at the risk of sounding presumptuous - I might say that, my personal experience and now being away from Media (at least for the moment) probably gives me a better perspective and also the independence to take a more neutral and objective viewpoint.
And, why print ? because a) that's an area I can pretend to know something about; b) print still remains the largest constituency of Indian Media and c) despite, dooms-day phrophets ( more on that in my next post ), print is here to stay;
I know that a number of popular media blogs are already in circulation (and, I am a regular reader of some of them). But, most of those are on the content and journalistic side of media. I am not aware of any that focuses exclusively on the management and business issues. While the blog is not intended to be a primer on Print Media Management, I hope it would provide an interactive platform for media professionals from either side of the LoC ( "Editorial" and "Marketing" - to use an old industry parlance; at my first employers' it used to be referred to as the "North Block" and "South Block" and at the last it was "1st Floor" and "2nd Floor" ) to debate and discuss topics of mutual interest and relevance.
So do write in - not just with your comments but your views, raising issues, kicking off debates, stirring controversies, starting cross-fires and, above all providing answers, ideas and solutions to make this truly a forum for meaningful professional interaction.
16 comments:
Dear Sandip,
A great initiative -- if you can keep it going. Having known you fron close qaurters, I am quite sure that you will indeed to be able to lend some sound thinking to this subject.
I loved the LOC bit! To be honest -- whether for right or wrong reasons -- this divide, just as it lends some degree of dynamics (and the adrenaline going at times) to the business of media at an internal level, has also led to misguided perceptions of what the media is all about. Should I not know after spending almost three decades in the best of class media organisatons? One allowed greater leeway perhaps to the editorial blokes (you know the place, I have been there too) while the other is quintessentially market-driven.
As a top-notch manager of Lever vintage, your inputs should be of great value especially since, being a true Bong, you have shown a great respect of what the heathens on the other side of the LOC do.
As for me, I have never quite come to grips with the notion that if one can sell soaps, he can sell newsapers too equally efficiently. I don't think it always quite works that way. That is why Pradeep Guha is the best professional manager that the media industry has known in contemporary times. Why? Because PG began as a media executive thirty-odd years ago. He really never sold Whirlpool fridges or Electrolux refrigerators or Colgate toothpaste.
Is that an argument agaisnt the likes of thinking manager-buddies like you? Not at all. At the heart of it, I think the issue really is one of arrogance -- on both sides actually.
We can add to this debate over the coming days and weeks. As for now -- it is already well past midnight at my end -- I sincerely think this blog is a great idea.
Cheers!
Kalyan Kar
Sandip
Looking forward especially to insight on regional (non-English) newspapers - presumably the growth area in India.
Aakar
(First floor)
I think every industry has its own dynamic. Sure you can't run media like you do soaps and suds, but that's no reason not to take some lessons from those. I believe too many media women and men tend to think of it as an isolated one-in-a-million business. The rules for success are surprisingly the same - a good product, well-targeted with the right marketing mix. Sure, there will always be aberrations and so the not-so-best product will, for a while, be the leader. But that happens in every marketplace as you'll know only so well.
I think this is a great idea for a blog particularly if non-media folks add their two bit.
It would be a great idea to have some of the bloggers' response to whether we need the LoC in media at all. Especially, when the trend, it seems, is that it is disappearing fast from one organisation after another. I personally believe media gets commoditised and biased (sometimes without people realising it) when this happens and then that scenario really throws up an opportunity for a non-biased media to emerge.
Hi Sandip,
Interesting that you bring it up but there is no real meeting point between the two blocs. Just as well. Having straddled both domains of the media industry, I have come to believe that the creative juices (!) cannot flow in parallel to money-making ideas. So the twain shall never meet.
Having said that, surely we can continue to debate and see where it takes us.....
Indrani
Sandipda,
A great initiative and one that I will be following religiously.
My two bit about the LOC is that there is arrogance on both sides and there is zilch communication.
And as far as Media specialists are concerned I dont know as when i started working in the Print media there were doyens like SK Mehta (MKD) who were from the Cigarette industry who was driving the marketing of TOI.
Hi Sandip,
A good start. Keenly awaiting future writeups about your insights on the media industry.
RK
Sandip,
I must call that a wonderful start--and much needed. And I hope your business orientation with a sensitivity to editorial content will complement the kind of stuff I write in my media blog, which looks at the business but reflects my content origins.
Media has a lot in common with consumer goods but to draw the analogy or approach beyond a point would be naive -- and counter-productive. I do hope to discuss that sometime. And I hope you will find the time to browse my archives which does touch upon some issues that may be of interest to you.
I loved both the "jungle lore" and "LoC" part -- expressions that could do a journo proud!
Hi,
It's a jungle out here, yes, with lores that bore after a point of time. You know better about what that 'point of time' is. Few care about sense-making when throwing in banal theories is easier. Pundits produce many brand-new myths before you demolish one. You've been there, here and there again, now better placed to tell the pundits how they look. May the Force be with you. Looking forward to more Deceptively Simple ideas.
Cheers
k
Dear Sandeep,
The thin red line between the Church and the state is as much an imaginery line as the LOC. There is a certain amount of transparency required to run any business profitably and demarkations of responsibility and brief is as important as the wheels which turn the rollers in a printing machine to deliver a complete news paper. If one wheel is defective "God " help the timing of distribution of the paper .
It does make sense to take stock once in a while but how serious are we about this ?
Great begining . Like Kalyan said hope it carries on.
Cheers
Beekaycee
Hi,
You are so right about the knowledge void in the print media world!
However, I will remain true to the adage of being an argumentative Indian (which you have had to bear with, as a colleague, in the past), and disagree to some of your POVs.
One, I find no reason why soap-sellers or handset-vendors should find managing media so difficult! After all most of them were, in the first place, trained to become engineers!
If they could chuck all the nuts & bolts to drive up volumes of detergents with publicly acknowledged levels of success (as revealed by the premiums generally commanded by these professionals), I would presume it's not that difficult to "wash" their soapy hands off & sell vacant spaces of the fourt-estate!
Isn't an MBA icing, on top the engineering cake supposed to prepare the cat-people for any "business" on earth?
I am in agreement with Kalyan's views to some extent here. Let's also not forget how completely non-media managers (yours truly included) managed to bring about a much required sea-change, not very long ago.
Two.
Just like LOC or the invisible iron-curtain of yore, this intangible line separating the "content creation" side from the "never-content" side, is not truly universal.
We can look at print behemoths within our own borders or beyond and see many publishers who treats consumer media as just any other FMCG.
The line is very blurred in such cases!
Thanks for your initiative.
We'll argue again, soon.
Hi,
There are issues on both sides of the LOC, let me start with the editorial side, the other side, as they always behave like mujahideens ready to blow themselves up for reasons we will never know
Editorial:(1) Their greatest joy comes from peer feedback, which ( as quoted to me) is always like this..WOW that was a great story. You brought out some really interesting insights. BOY you've hit BULLS EYE. I thought that the design team should have done a better job with the layout. If other articles in the same issue were of this calibre, then this would have been a collector's issue. Which they normally agree to( though it is likely that they have not read any article in the magazine other than their own).
Note: Incidentally their peers never include their colleagues in that publication
Consumer (Reader) to them does not exist, it's only role in their mind is to ensure that when the NRS/IRS surveyors come. then they should report that I read the magazines/ newspaper religiously. And that is why there are a lot of so called great products out in the market, which are doing poor business
Circulation Sales:
Sales: Ask a sales guy, when did he last read an issue of the magazine he sells, and chances are that he will not know. As far as he is concerned the centre spread in the magazine every week/fortnight should be from PLAYBOY so that he gets very few unsolds from his agent. Hopefully this will help the ABC circulation figure to improve every 6 months. Circulation sales is about three things (a) Supply Chain (b) Visibility at the retail counter (c) Availability in more places then your competition. But a typical circulation person has very little idea on how to manage these three issues. Let me start with the first point (a) Supply Chain: All they are keen on is to make sure that the issue reaches their agents in time on Friday/ Saturday. After that it is on god's mercy ( most of the times). (b) Visibility - Some magazines do a better job at this purely through spending loads of money in this area, but a typical circulation sales person, will not do much about it. Contrast this with an FMCG sales scenario, where there are strict norms on visibility and are measured pretty regularly
(c) New Outlets: Increasing distribution and reach, though talked about furiously is usually never done with even a basic level of commitment
Therefore one will always find circulation people hoping for more speacial issues and freebies in the magazine(booklets et al). My friends in circulation will call me a turn coat, but I strongly feel that if they did a better job at this, then most magazines will be able to charge more for their product and not give it away for pennies like in most cases in India, and thereby making the circulation sales a department as important as Ad Sales and not treated like a step child.
Dearest Sandip,
I think your True Calling is of a journalistic nature and you should consider writing on a Daily Basis a Column in a newspaper .... Who knows maybe your Second Stint at HT will be as EDITOR ! On the good side you wont have to Report to the Whirlpool Brigade !
Keep Writing - Farhad
This is more for Robin, than anybody else!
You have really managed to nail down the "circulation" guy Sir & rightfully so.
After spending half my life with very successful FNCG giants, it was a huge shock when I took over circulation for TT & ABP!
At times I really felt like I was losing it.
However, in spite of the corinthian conservative pillars who managed to bludgeon everyone looking outside the beaten path, things changed.
Albeit for a limited period.
Fortunately non-lifers like us (who had little to gain from getting "personally" close to the leviathans) managed to pave fresh new roads & fly-overs on record time, to make the elephant zoom ahead on.
The mammoth has, however, settled down again.
Alas, the systems & approaches (to circulation) is not very different with other publishers either!
The "institutional" sales manager (circulation) remains the blue-eyed resource, thanks to the "significant" contributions to copy growth.
As to who "reads" them is beyond me.
May be that's the reason I decided to step out of the vicious "circulating" circle.
Incidentally, last weekend, about "4- FOUR" copies of a prominent tabloid were thrown in, deftly through my car's rear window.
As it was already dusk, I naturally asked why this exercise was still being done! The answer is given below, verbatim:
"We have a target of throwing IN (thankfully not OUT) 3 thousand copies per head. Now the copies reach us at this mall only at 3PM. Most cars drive in with AC on till 6:30. So we start to throw around 6:30 & manage to cram in as many copies as possible, into each vehicle".
Have you caught some, lately?
sandip a very good initiative . am sure it will evoke a lot of comments from the numerous media pundits
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