While passing thru Chandigarh last week (the thumbnail on the side is the official logo of the city-state, for those of you who have been wondering), I saw the imposing landmark of The Tribune at the junction of Sector 29 on Purv Marg and wondered if it would meet the same fate as that of once the pride of Chowrighee square in Calcutta – The Statesman House. In essence, I was thinking – what’s the future of regional newspapers with the large national players spreading their tentacles across the country.
I asked this question of a senior functionary of the paper – over coffee in the lawns of his lovely red-bricked bungalow, taking in a bit of the delectable early November sun with the first hint o
f winter. At first, he scoffed mildly with a smile (without any arrogance, I must add ) – “HT and ToI have declared that they are going to kill us or wipe us out several times over in the last few years, but we have managed to survive”. He then went on to admit rather candidly, that - while circulation and readership have remained largely unaffected and so has local advertisement – ‘National Ad’ Revenues have suffered. Typically, HT & ToI offer Chandigarh as an “add-on” in their national “package” at almost next to nil rates. This make media planners and advertisers re-think on the need to spend additionally on a local paper given the relative size of the market and the incremental reach it would provide. But, still they haven’t managed to cut-off the life-blood of the paper. Besides – The Tribune’s circulation revenues (which is largely at full cover price – unlike HT & ToI which sell practically all their copies on deep-discounted schemes) are healthy – which is also generally true of other regional biggies like The Telegraph and The Hindu.
So what should be the strategy going forward ? The Tribune has chosen one of creeping regional expansion – pushing the circulation boundaries beyond their traditional strongholds of Chandigarh, Punjab and HP. Now they have started crawling into parts of Uttaranchal, neighbouring patches of Rajasthan and spreading across Haryana – short of the NCR (Gurgaon and its catchment areas). Coupled with region specific customization of content – this has boosted circulation and geographic reach – which, apart from providing greater value to national clients, make them a more attractive proposition for Regional Brand players from Punjab and Haryana.
While this may hold the decline in the short and medium term – would it work in the long run. The answer to my mind, would be in fierce or ferocious localization of content – increasing interactivity and deliver across media platforms (Web, Mobile etc..) This would improve and thereby increase reader loyalty and customer stickiness.
By trying to play the game by the rules set by the competition and cloning them – it would end up becoming poor second cousins of ToI and HT – diluting its original character and also – in the process – losing its traditional constituents. In trying to work counter national predators and incursions by the web - many regional newspapers in the US have ended up going even more local with good effect. I was quite encouraged to hear from an young journalist in Shimla – how a voluntary initiative by some of them in starting a very local news web-site called “My HP” is beginning to gather momentum.
For marketers seeking to increase penetration – the ‘carpet bombing’ strategy of big newspapers won’t work beyond a point. When it would come to targeting the last consumer standing – a strong regional player would do a far better job.
In some ways – the coming few months could actually prove to be an opportunity for the likes of The Tribune. With newsprint prices skyrocketing and advertising revenues slowing down, the biggies might be forced to cut-down cheap unproductive circulation in less profitable markets. That’s when a strong regional brand can strike back with vengeance.
But that would mean a serious re-engineering of content, which may not be easy given The Tribune’s old guard editorial and conservative Board of Trustees at the helm of affairs.
So, I can only wish my friend luck !!
