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 )--