2000 Monkeys or a1 ton Gorilla.

In a just published article in BusinessWeek (click here to read) , Jon Fine ( who also keeps a media blog : FineOnMedia read here ) prophesies the imminent demise of the big-city papers. He still gives a chance to the “national” papers like the New York Times – even if for just a while longer.

It’s probably the latest of a million elegies ( it’s difficult to keep track – with one being written practically every hour ) for a medium that will go down in the history of the universe as the longest occupant of a death bed – giving even the ol’ man Bhishma a run for his record. But, I found his analysis quite interesting – tho’ it is primarily from an US market stand-point.

First, he thinks the main cause of their un-doing would be the dis-aggregation of the local advertisements ( especially Classifieds ) at the low end to “Ultra-cheap” on-line options such as “Craigslist click here ” or at the high-end to the free-monthly glossies.

Second, the content needs ( and consequently - “editorial energies” ) to Blogs or other independent “on-line endeavours” such as “MinnPost” ( which defines its mission “to provide high quality journalism to news-intense people of Minnesota click here to read).

And, for those publications who are still deluding themselves with the hope of garnering revenues from the “sub-classified local segment (such a pizzerias and dry-cleaners) – he quotes the CEO of a Local Media Research firm, who compares local advertisements to “2,000 – two pound monkeys” ( as opposed to a 1 ton Gorilla – therefore making it a very “unorganized and dirty business”).

I am not sure how far the comparison would exactly hold true for a market like India. In any case there aren’t too many “big-city papers” of any significant size left – with the exception of a few ( non – Hindi ) vernaculars and just a couple of English dailies ( The Telegraph and The Hindu - tho’ they may not like to be called Regional or Local) and the same logic may not quite apply to either of these 2 categories.

By the same token, India doesn't have "national papers" like the New York Times, USA Today or WSJ ( tho' MINT is trying to be a bit of the last ). What we have - I would submit - are a bunch of 'multi-local' papers. Even the giant banyan-tree of a ToI - to my mind - is an "umbrella mother brand" under which it houses several localised editions (much like what a Brooke Bond- Lipton or Tatas do in having separate blends of tea for different states under the same brand name). So is the case in the vernacular space with a Bhaskar, Jagran and Hindustan or The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and the New Indian Express in the south. In doing so, all of them try to straddle both ends of the market - wooing the national advertisers at one level and mopping up the local business and classifieds at another.

While this dual pronged strategy may work to hedge the risks for Indian newspapers - at least for sometime to come, I think the real game-changer could be the content back-lash, which Fine talks about. In dumbing themselves down to cater to all consituencies newspapers may be losing their plot to the more interactive media options available today thanks to the net. I am, therefore, a little tempted to quote from the 2 comments posted on the article, which lends support to his thesis.

“…… Big city newspapers have already been replaced by blogs, video postings and discussion forums ~ at least for the news addict demographic. Why read what some edited hack piece says about a political speech when I can review the entire thing online and evaluate it for myself? And why would I want to read it on a piece of dead tree, if I can instead debate it with others who are interested, and follow the links to every piece of pertinent information we can find ?”


“…a former daily reporter I used to pick up the local papers when I traveled around the US -- now I just get the Times, the Journal and the FT when I can find it -- most dailies are trying to be all things and hit lowest common denominator…….”

What do you think ??

When Adults act as Kids !!

Sen ( read comment here ) has drawn my attention to this “straight on the bull’s eye” article of Pramath ( Raj Sinha ) published in this Wednesday’s ( September 23rd ) issue of MINT, which I seem to have missed in the flurry of writing blogs. I agree with practically everything Pramath has said in his piece “Time to grow up ..” ( click here to read the full piece) – and some of it we too have already touched upon in a few of our earlier posts (e.g. Is it only about Eye-balls click here to read ).


Though’ very direct, Pramath – being his urbane and sophisticate self – has still pulled a few punches. He says advertisers – “subsidize” publications. While this may be true in rest of the world – in India it has gone a few steps further. From a situation of 80:20 mix of Advertising to Circulation – thanks to deep discounts, jodis and gift subscription schemes most newspapers have gone to “negative” realization on Circulation (net of Trade Commissions). In the process – publications have become subservient (I am tempted to use a stronger term) to advertisers and Media Buying Agencies.

Vanita Kohli writes in her book “The Indian Media Business” (Page 39, 2nd Edition ): “……It is routine for advertisers to pull out entire campaigns if there is even a mildly objective reportage on them”. Those of us who have worked in publications know the extent to which this practiced and how publishers (with a few rare exceptions – that too selectively applied) tamely give in to such pressure plays.

I had written about my newspaper vendor not bothering to collect his bills for months - because now he earns much more from trade commissions and schemes. The other day, a friend from the circulation department of a leading newspaper group was telling me, how they no longer see the “dips” in sales during holiday seasons as before. This is because there is a “negative incentive” for the reader to ‘stop’ the copies – while the family is on holiday, as with the price they pay for the paper being next to nothing they would lose out much more from “Raddi” realization.


It was an interesting realization for me (a fact which one always knew but never thought of it) that, one cannot compute the actual “all India” circulation of practically any newspaper group from the published ABC figures, because at any point in time – some edition or other of theirs will be out of ABC.

The Readership Surveys make up another story altogether. NRS, which was actually a creation of the publishers themselves ( a joint initiative of INS and ABC) has been given almost a quiet burial (though’ I believe there are some murmurs of reviving it again – because IRS is becoming inconvenient for some ). We remember the shameful litigations that happened over it – after editors (of the same publications which had filed the ‘proxy’ law-suits) had written signed pieces upholding NRS as the “gold-standard” of the industry ( when their papers were trounced by competition in the IRS ). Then it was amazing to see a section in the INS going to embrace the IRS - over-ruling objections from some industry veterans ( IRS was seen as a rival survey – as it was the product of a reactionary move by advertisers and agencies against the NRS) - in what looked like a Indo-Pak peace mission to the Attari Border - only to denounce it later.

So, is the Advertiser getting fooled by the “smoke and mirrors” (to borrow Pramath’s term), which we hold before them. I am not sure. I think both advertisers and media buyers have become much more savvy to separate the chaff from the claims and have developed their own metrics ( however, approximate they might be) to get a sense of the real numbers. A case in point would be the very publication in which Pramath’s piece appeared. For all it’s tall claims of being the undisputed No 2 Financial paper in the country with a circulation of 120k and readership of 1.6 (higher than ET – read Samil’s Comment on the ‘I-Pod Effect’ click here) you have to only turn its pages to see the volume of ads it is managing to get after 18 months of its launch.

So it could well be that in trying to fool others, the publishers are being a bit “clever by half” and might end up fooling themselves. Something, I feel, the PE bankers who are waiting in queue to be part of the ‘big growth story’ of Indian Print media should take note of.

Let’s debate this further. For the moment I just wanted all of you to read this very positively provocative article.

The Great Innovation Revolution

Robiin Jeffrey’s seminal work – India’s Newspaper Revolution, tracing the journey of Indian newspapers over the decades - is a fascinating read.

American newspapers had from the very beginning seen advertisements as the life-blood of their publications. Doyens like Otis Chandler (owner of the LA Times) had declared, “The economics of American Newspaper publishing is based on…advertising…not circulation”. (Though it’s another story - how his newspaper was run nearly to the ground by the professional managers he had hired from Consumer Product giants like General Mills – forcing him to come-back from retirement and reassume the reins of the company to undo the damage wrought by the “break fast cereal” marketers – (Read the Blogkeeper’s Note at the bottom of the post)

Indian publishers, on the other hand, for a very long time had shunned advertisers with almost a sense of contempt. Advertisements were considered an encroachment not just into editorial space but also – by some – as a compromise of editorial independence and integrity. This was, of course, partly a carry over of the pre-independence nationalist and the post-independence socialist ethos of the country.

But, all this makes me wonder – if we are displaying the same prudishness in our resistance to accepting today’s trends of so-called “Innovations” in advertising.

So I asked a veteran of the industry for his views. Having worked for 3 media majors over 3 decades – he is one of those who has seen it all and done it all. On strict conditions of anonymity he agreed to write this “no ‘edit space’ barred” piece for ‘Deceptively Simple’, which could well be an addendum to the chapter on Indian Newspaper Advertising in Jeffrey's book - which stops at the end of the 90s.

While – being oath bound - I can’t provide any clues, there aren’t any prizes either for guessing his identity. Read on:


The Innovation "Bloomers" !!

Well, this mysterious article was to be on Innovation in Print Media. Is there a true innovation? Or are there other factors that are masquerading as Innovation? We shall examine it.

Applying the definition/meaning of innovation as an idea that is perceived by advertisers as new, I looked around for such examples. There were plenty available – from bubbles in the center of pages, beautifully ‘decorated’ by content to oil pipelines zigzagging through each page of the newspaper to colouring the content in yellow ( click here to read) – in ‘rich’ homage to a telecom service provider. Later generations will, no doubt, debate on whether the choice of the colour was an accurate description of the prevalent state of print journalism. But that’s another story.

But does a creative rendition of an idea necessarily mean the commercial message must intrude on the content? Can’t there be excellent renditions of creative ideas within the boundaries of advertisement space - as we had in the past?

Bubbles and Phallic Symbols

To understand this development we need to rewind. The availability of higher disposable income, rise in consumer base, opening up of lucrative markets tiers beyond the metros, as well as - fragmentation of media and multiplicity of media options has created an increase in demands for consumer brands. This lead a tendency to spend more on FMCG brands and a profusion of brands are clamouring to be seen and heard. As in a crowded marketplace, what does the marketer do - Shout as much as possible (read big budgets) ? But with multiple full-page ads in a single day’s paper, the full-page no longer created the desired impact. There were pressures on the media buyers who devised (or thought they had devised) a clever route. Just pirate into the content. Steamroll it but ensure its noticeable. So that’s how you see a car swirling within the page or mobile phones protruding like phallic symbols. Sure it’s noticed. Whether it will carry a positive connotation in the reader/consumers mind is really not the point, as the objective is to ensure the message is noticed.

And why don’t the newspaper refuse such blatant intrusions on the content? Obviously, it’s the revenue that comes with such demands. In a scenario where the sale price don’t even cover the delivery cost from the printing press to the readers’ home; such additional revenue is highly coveted. The irony being, the ad sales executives themselves keep coming up with devious strategies of destroying the editorial columns and presenting them to the advertisers. After all, they too have high targets to accomplish.

However, like all good things, which are overdone, such innovative tactics too soon lost its novelty value. Now, everyone could be innovative – protrude the end of your product into content and if that wasn’t satisfying enough, why not ‘buy’ your own cover page – create a full four cover pages or just restrict it to half its size. It was getting monotonous and the fear of a negative impression in the consumers mind was feared. So it was time to innovate once again – after all, isn’t ‘NEW’ the perennial favourite slogan of advertisers?


The Space Pirates

They did not have to look around much. A market savvy multi-media group came up with a perfect solution – why just ‘pirate’ into content – why not ‘create’ the content? And thus another innovation was created. The ‘promise’ was to get a cynical reader or consumer to see your message and intrusion was not a great way, it was being increasingly felt. Great, so what’s the delivery mechanism of this promise? Simple. Do away with those old-fashioned ‘advertorials’ (the problem with them being the addendum ‘advertisement’ being scribbled in one corner to separate it from news content), intrusions etc. Instead, present the ad message as content, without creating any visible distinction of separation from news. It was presented as news itself. After all, this innovation touted to ‘provide editorial coverage for your products, services and events, with true news value’. In case the advertiser was still dumb enough to comprehend what he’s reading, it goes on to state ‘ we mean real newspaper articles….., not advertisements’ (emphasis not mine). Wow, here was the real thing and like American journalists covering the Iraq war, the message read ‘ an editorially conceptualized brand message embedded in news/feature articles……’ (emphasis mine). The perfect solution was found.

15 minutes of fame

While both the advertiser and media owner were happy with the unexpected revenue source welling up, the casualty was the consumer. After all, if there were glowing references to a product by a leading newspaper, perhaps it merited purchase. It was a different matter that the product was not tested , before endorsement. Since the ‘purchased coverage’extended to individuals too, there remains a clamour to feature ‘my party’ – simply because I can buy its coverage. So readers were soon deluged by P3 personalities ‘born’ daily – 15 minutes of fame as Warhol put it.

So where do we go from here? As a logical next step allow the brand managers of a large spender to edit (or would take-over be a appropriate term?) the newspaper for a day. For a fat consideration, of course.

News as a Commodity

Perhaps it’s not so bad as it appears. With a highly cynical populace living in a world where information and entertainment are indistinguishable , maybe it’s difficult to believe anything. After all, who defines the meaning of news ? If news is a commodity, why can’t it be purchased like any other commodity?

At the end of the day, what matters is profits. If the news columns too can be made profitable as the ad columns, it’s a double whammy. After all, innovation is expected to add value, and if this is not value creation, what is?

Let a thousand innovations bloom !


Blog-keeper’s Note:

After the LA Times scandal ( where the newspaper had entered into a reveue sharing arrangement with one of its advertisers – Staples – for a ‘co-produced’ Sunday Magazine of the paper ) a commentator wrote –

“Newspapers are always dying, and someone is always killing them . radio was supposed to bury them. So was Television……..So was the Internet.

“But the latest murderer is the corporate bean-counter. He breaches the Chinese Wall between business and editorial….cares more about stock-prices than about the front-page lead…..”

So who will be the Otis Chandler of India ? Anyone willing to take a bet on that ?

Weekend with Vidya

After spending years with staid Business Magazines (Businessworld, Outlook Business) Vijaya Saran has taken up a job that many of us would give an arm and a leg for :-) She gets to photo-shoot Vidya Balan in Bed and the likes of Katrina and Bips. Vijaya is the Associate Publisher of FHM India and here she shares her experience in the very very different world of Men's Lifestyle Magazines.


Thought that would be a nice change for the weekend - after chewing Mint for the better part of the week.

Addictive

What is it about being part of media that is so addictive? It can’t be phenomenal profits , as any media veteran will tell you. Its definitely not about stimulating work environment. With a few exceptions, most media companies today suffer the ‘lala’ syndrome, where years of ‘loyal’ service is preferred over competence.

And the less said about the revenue model the better. Where every sneeze in the economy spells pneumonia for advertising. Where it is not the product, which makes money, but rather the perceived product.

the aphrodisiac

Having said that - it is an aphrodisiac where you can take a person out of media but cannot take media out of the person.

Talking for myself – twelve years with business magazines – It let me get a ringside view of the tsunami called liberalization, which hit the moribund Indian economy in the nineties and early part of this decade.

More so, as the association was with strong home grown magazines like Businessworld and Outlook Business. The perspective was uniquely Indian and there was clear pride in our voices when we spoke about how we often had the lead over international magazines when it came to getting the best business stories or perspective.

And then came the glut of business media, both print , internet and television . With international affiliations coming in. The uniqueness was lost , and almost every product came out with more of the same.

Media is after all a product of the times. The socialist era meant the emergence of strong political and social media to reflect the people’s frustration with the lack of accountability and conscience in the four pillars of Indian democracy.

the awakening

Then came the ‘awakening’ – that we as individuals could do our bit to improve our lot. Business media boomed and how. Everyone had a right to make money , and make money they did!

And now we have the money. How do we spend it? In came lifestyle and special interest media. Which is where I chose to be. Being with FHM, one of the world’s leading men’s lifestyle magazines , has its own perks and drawbacks . The perks, of course, are that its fun to figure out whether SRK, Kareena, Katrina or Deepika will work best on the cover. Way more fun than gloomy stock market forecasts.

Then editorially there is a huge difference. The Chinese wall between edit and marketing which was fundamental to a credible business magazine is blurred in lifestyle media – reputed groups bringing out high-profile lifestyle magazines, work closely with advertisers to get their editorial and, horror of horrors , the editors are actively involved in marketing activities! Recently the editor of a prominent women’s lifestyle magazine sent out letters to subscribers exhorting them to buy a company's products- how would readers ever trust their editorial after that? Short term gains often rule.

the honey trap

At FHM we try to avoid these traps without losing the more flexible approach that lifestyle media allows.

Just like readers tastes have changed , so have advertisers. Today they know that they know that “serious” media is all very well, but if they want eyeballs its prudent to be seen in the so called “lad’s mags”

The next media wave hopefully should be emphasizing charity and social responsibility, which till now is restricted to a few publications that are not driven solely by commercial interests.

The I-Pod Effect

So yet another Consumer Goods stalwart takes his bow.....from Print. A recent communique announced, the present Publisher of MINT is stepping down (to take on “ a new non-media challenge” outside). Glowing tributes have been paid to him for "one of the most unique media brands (created) in recent memory" and taking MINT and its number of sub-brands (Lounge, Campaign, Livemint.com ) to where they are today. Kudos most well deserved .

Marketing Success or Editorial Excellence

But, the purpose of this post is not to debate the Marketing success of MINT. We shall leave that discussion for another day . I do genuinely believe that MINT would be an excellent case-study of a new print product launch.

Here I would like to take off from a point made by Saurjyesh and also questioned by Sudhir (Syal) – as to “when do product innovations actually begin to kick-in?”. Sudhir has cited the example of the re-launched New Indian Express down South.

Opinion may be divided on the Business Model, Media Marketing, Pricing and Circulation strategy of MINT – but even the worst critic and most biased would agree that, MINT is, arguably, the best editorial product in the country today. The ExEd (now ED) of a “sister” ( nay, I meant - rival !!) publication had told me, in a private conversation, soon after its launch that , MINT is "the ultimate editor’s paper”. And, it has only gotten better since then.






When it started – it clearly differentiated itself not just in format (“compact”) and design (one of Garcia’s finest) - but in setting new standards ( and ethics ) of reportage and practically every element of content.

Along the way, MINT has added many of the “Interactive” features – which Saurjyesh, Sen and all those - from the relatively more developed and mature media markets – who commented on my earlier post ( on the future of print ) have talked about. This includes the LiveMint Blogs (click here to read)– again a first of sorts for an Indian (mainline or financial) paper.

So when did these truly fantastic product features start positively impacting the results in Commercial terms ( and, mind you – I am not talking of ‘break-even’ here !!) ?

Does the Winner take it all ?

I am slightly out of date with the numbers. But, from the little that I know of the Financial Papers space – there are 3 players (BS, HBL and Mint ) who are vying for the No 2 slot with roughly comparable figures. A 4th – the Chronicle – is threatening to storm the bastion. A 5th ( DNA Money) is spreading itself at the bottom in an altogether different segment of the market. And, a biggie ( FT – Network 18) is waiting in the wings to make a splash at an opportune moment.

Among these – although no one can discount the editorial quality of either BS or HBL) , in my opinion, MINT stands out in terms of salience. As someone put it beautifully – MINT is like the I-POD after an era of WALKMANs and Juke-boxes.

Even in a market like Mumbai, where (if I may hazard a guess at the risk of offending friends in the Circulation Dept of HT) I suspect, MINT’s circulation would be roughly the same as that of BS and HBL ( the latter 2, certainly BS, could infact be much higher), I believe it has a relatively greater editorial impact amongst high-end, influential readers. I would even go a step further and argue (inviting greater flak in the process) that on sheer ‘reader connect’ within the same target group it would score even higher than the newer broad-sheet mainline dailies (including the one published from the same stable).

Anecdotal or anecdotage

Of course – these are not based on any empirical research but just my own sense from anecdotal evidence. Be that as it may – the questions I have are:

-how much consumer pull did it manage to create immediately on its launch ? putting it a little differently, would MINT have reached its present level of circulation ( 120k ??) naturally without forced trials thru deep discounted subscriptions or ‘jodi’ offers ?
- would "old fashioned distribution" have worked for a product like this ?
- when will the cash registers start ringing ? would the advertisers see 'value' in a premium product offering like this and be willing to shell out an extra dollar ?
- how far and how fast this would translate into organic growth of circulation;
- would it ever be able to revert to the "traditional" sales and distribution sysyetem moving away from "door-to-door sale call" (PCC) and the "annual subscrition" model?
- how much premium would the consumer be willing to pay on the ‘cover price’ of the product ?
- can the present level of circulation be sustained at ‘full cover price’ and without offers ?

( well, well, I know – Cover Price is immaterial in today’s context. Haven’t we done that topic to death already in this blog. But, I’m asking this purely as an Index of Consumer preference)

Perhaps, we can try and answer some of these over the next few days. Would look forward to hearing from you – both 'insiders' and those who watched the birth of a ‘star’ from a distance (or even some like me who have seen it from a ‘distance within’).


Full Disclosure (in keeping with the MINT protocol) – This post was not influenced by the 'E-i-C 'of Mint giving this humble blog a pride of place among his favourites. It was, however, certainly inspired by the farewell accolades for RB.

Jottings of an Ex Circulation, sorry RMD, guy

I was in the first batch of the Times School of Management in 1990. When I joined it post doing 3 years of Hotel Management from PUSA it was a typical move of a confused young Bengali who was not smart enough to join Engineering or Medical so from my parents side it was do whatever so that you can earn a living.

On joining I realized that, there is this group called BCCL and in its helm is this three siblings – SJ, VJ and NJ - who are trying to rewrite the rules of the print media in the country. My interactions (mostly in a group) were more with the elder brother than with their late sister or the then young VJ. In that one year, I heard and saw the little steps that were being taken to shake the company out of its lethargy.

I was told about why the Sesquicentennial (I am deliberately not doing spell check here as to emphasise the point that even now I don’t know how it is spelled) events were critical in giving a larger than life image to a newspaper group and move it into a happening brand category.

I was told how and why NIE was started, to ensure that the kids of the Punjabi families started reading TOI from School so that 10 years down when they decided to demand their own newspaper they asked for TOI and HT which was ' Punjabi written in English'. It was also explained to us by Buro Lahiri (sadly no more) the reason behind the setting up of TSM. As per him SJ realised that the media planners plan their media 1/4 by data (can be manipulated so no one really trusts) and 3/4 by guts and what he reads. His reasoning was, as over the years the students from this Institute proliferate and join agencies and take marketing decision-making positions in Orgs they would have a natural bias towards the group thereby making the sales job easier.

If these are not examples of being far sighted I don’t know what are. Ask any Delhi guy who is more than 35 years old and he will talk about the night 'The Boss' sang in JLN stadium. Success of NIE forced the competition to start PACE (and they have done a great job) but BCCL is pushing NIE to the next level in making it a medium to reach School kids across the world and not limit it to Delhi. Thanks to face book I know lots of TSMites who are decision makers and decide on Advt spends across orgs.

When I passed out of TSM I decided to join RMD, circulation to non-BCCl folks, and not the more glamorous Response (Advertising Sales to the aforementioned) as it was spoken as the place where men get distinguished from boys. This was thanks to a speech from SK Mehta (MKD) where he exhorted us to take the tough route rather than the easy. I realized once I was in that I was conned but that is a different story. RMD in the city of Delhi used to be all about getting up at odd hours to go to street crossings where 200-300 hawkers used to come and buy all newspapers. In the afternoon it was going with the magazines on Feeder routes.

Now coming to the main point of this edition of my blog as a rejoinder to Robin and Sen about distribution in the print industry and some myth busting.

Myth 1: Hawker decides which copy a reader reads. I say Bull Shit; this myth was manufactured by the hawkers and given by air by moth balled circulation managers who thought this would increase their worth. Tell me when was the last time a hawker came and sold a newspaper to anyone of us. Most of us don’t even know the bugger as he comes when we are asleep.


Myth 2: We circulation guys know where each and every copy of ours goes and who is our reader. Bull bloody shit, PCC (again started by Times group through Bimal Chadha) showed very clearly that most of the old fogies in circulation had no clue about their readers and even with the name and address in hand could not ensure that the newspapers were delivered at the right address by the right hawker.


Myth 3: Schemes help in selling copies. Yes it does but only because the hawker rotates the copies. Just by giving Tupperware or Bed sheets one cant increase circulation on a permanent basis. That needs to be backed by product improvement, consumer interaction and communication and old-fashioned distribution.


The third myth is where I feel the FMCG types who came in to print have really added value and that is where again the Times group was way ahead of the competition. In spite of the jabs of the old times that these Joote aur biri bechne wale kya jaante hain newspaper sales ke baare mein, they were the ones who broke the mould and brought in new management styles which are the norm today.


Regards,

SN

(Blogkeeper's Note: SN now is the Country Manager of a leading International Wire-Agency in India. He keeps a blog : 'Random Musings' at www.saurjyesh.blogspot.com and can be reached at saurjyesh@gmail.com )--

Whither Print ?

Having decided to start a blog on Print Media, I suffer from occasional bouts of self-doubt of a lover who can never be sure. In one of my earlier posts ( "Babu Boro Najja Korey"), I had put this question to you. This time around I decided to ask it of 2 LinkedIn Groups that I am a member of - Those in Media and Media Professionals and Managers. Here are some of the answers I received :

Richard Klicki wrote:

Print's imminent demise is more of a U.S. thing, where publishers here have been very slow to recognize ... or even ignored ... changing reader habits over the past 25+ years. I think European news orgs have recognized that and adapted their print products to meet those readers' needs; hence they are more viable and will survive in the Internet age.

Here in the U.S., you're going to see a dramatic shakeout as print eventually catches up to its counterparts in the rest of the world. What you won't see anymore is a one-size-fits-all newspaper that has been the norm for centuries. Big metro and regional newspapers will be more drastically different than the smaller, more local newspapers. But those who do not or cannot adapt quickly will die as the revenue stream continues to shift away from the general-interest newspaper.

Viraj Kalra wrote:

I think print is here to stay!

It might loose market share (as it already is) in most markets sooner than later but will it go completely extinct? I think not! It needs to evolve to become more niche and target focused and have online and mobile downloadable content but the physical paper will always have takers.

In India like a friend pointed out earlier - education coupled with bandwidth will keep print growing in times to come. At the same time in European countries like Italy, France and even UK (where education and bandwidth are not a concern) where I have most of my media clients - print is still mainstream and new media is an add-on feature.

Lastly, it is a habit thing... in the morning when on the pot ;) traveling alone in the underground, on that long flight; in the dentist's waiting room... print in its many avatars is your true friend!


Marion-Isabelle Muszynski wrote:

Dunno in India, but in Europe, print will never die. Even the youngest are attached to printed stuff. Print industry only need to adapt its strategy.

Aseem Malhotra wrote:

YES print has strong potential to grow but need to evolve a bit as far as content goes. Nowadays in busy lifestyle no body has time to read papers
With 30 to 50 odd page. Finding Once type/ choice of content from 30 -50
Odd pages is still time consuming. Now its time for News paper to be Repositioned like youth paper, students paper, Senior citizen specific paper, Bpo/KPO specific etc, to be specific Rather than mass/General choice Paper. Hope this will happen soon there will be papers, which will be TG specific rather than Masses.


Mike Jones wrote:

Print in India still may be or have growth potential. However, I don't believe in the US print will continue to grow. It lacks the ability of being interactive with the consumer, reader, user... With most communication mediums...users look more with engagement and being about to actually interact with its medium of choice. And because solid print cannot offer that...it will sure to slip in the future

Kapil Munjal wrote:

Every media type is expected to be strong in respective verticals. PRINT is going to grow in verticals such as Education and property. Classifieds are going to move out to an online free-free model; In India however, the literacy levels have to still catch up and coupled with broadband issues, Print in India is only going to grow rapidly over the next decade at least.

any further thoughts on this? keep writing in...

Sen hits back (with a kick in the 'butt' - literally !!)

Bravo Robin,You are on the home stretch.Just a little more "footwork" and the "net" is all your's! Someone with your depth of insight should not have been "slow" to realise at all.In India, we've shown a historical tendency to "ape" & "adapt" westren trends / models, roughly with a 20/25 year lag. Applies to almost everything, apart from the way our country is run.Why is it that "many" big newspapers are given away free (a la Yellow Pages), abroad? The cover-prices charged by most deshi mastheads hardly cover anything, anyway! So why charge it at all? Sandip has indeed very aptly mentioned his vendor's POV.

This reminds me of a very similar incidence (oldies like me are very fond of anecdotes you see), albeit in a very different product category. Those were the days when ITC, India's tobacco major, got to know about the possible bans on tobacco advertising. And they were naturally groping all the wrong things, in the dark. Other smaller competitors smelled blood & went on a launching spree! Rothmans King Size was rapidly rolled out aimed directly at the India Kings & Classics. Even VST, technically a sister concern, threw all caution to the smokes & ventured into the premium brands arena with their deshi vesrions of King Sizes & Wills beaters.

As we all know, the underdogs get major support from the aam-aadmi.So, the Rothmans & the other wannabe Kings got ample shelf space, visibility & support from the pan-shops.This irked the giant even more. To add insult to this monopoly threatening injury, BATCO, ITC's parent, refused to let 555 or B&H to be manufactured in India. Unless of course ITC could "prove" that it had the "mettle" to fumigate local heroes out of retail shelves!

Thus begun the great store-merchandising industry in India (that was 1990/91). With pockets reaching all the way to its pulled up socks, a huge & capable field force and of course many extremely talented top managers, ITC went to battle. Retailers all over India were mapped & put on street-maps, manually. Each was alotted unique codes & relevant commercial data was tagged, against each individual outlet. The exercise took almost 90 days & about 800 of us worked 24X7 to compile the data, digitize them on to a spanking new oracle platform & create tailor made reporting & analysis modules.

On completion, it was almost a child's play to locate any cigarette selling outlet in any corner of the country, with almost current data about its shelf-space, compass-bearing, ownership, disputes, offtake & what not! Then some of the most brilliant managers, including legends like KNG, Chandu Mishra, (Late)K Ramnath & Mehmood Ahmed, churned out a list of the "most coveted" outlets across the top cities. These outlets (several 000s) HAD to be ITC's & ITC's only! By whatever means. Now starts the similarity with today's 3-letter wars in print media! Outlets were first reasoned with, then coaxed & cajoled and finally "bought out" against huge contracts. I still recall the record sum signed up by the outlet next to Bengal Club, just outside ITC's Kolkata HQ. The ministry of direct taxes will summon me in as a government witness to sugnificantly boost their revenue, if I mention any of the sums involved!

After about 3 months, I was doing a round of a particularly "sensitive" market in Kolkata (as I was heading Kolkata then). Sensitive, as many of our top honchos used to reside in the same neighbourhood (rings any bell now?). To my surprise, I found a very "expensive" Classic Branded outlet, not having a single stick of cigarette to sell! Naturally I was fuming & getting ready to blast the sales guys. Somehow, I mustered up some courage (these sensitive retailers could get lowly ITC staff like us sacked real fast, seriously) to "ask" the pan-wallah WHY he did not have any cigarette to sell! The answer was, as you may have guessed by now "why sell anything when you are already paying me xxxxxx every month? My income, earlier was merely 800-900"?

So, you see, it's quite pointless to "ask" whether the industry leaders (advertisers) or media honchos "know" about the ABCs & NRSs' real worth! Who cares a damn?

September 3, 2008 10:49 PM