"The Hindu" rate of growth

I don’t travel to Chennai often. Otherwise there is one person I’d have loved to meet. That’s N Murali of The Hindu. Somehow I have a feeling, at a time when most publishers are reeling under the advertising slowdown, he must be chuckling at the plight of his competitors (and, for that matter, even of some his esteemed contemporaries across the country).

In some of the earlier posts we have tried to examine, how some publishers (new and old) in their quest for super-normal growth have erred on certain fundamentals when the good-times rolled. It is equally important, therefore, to analyze what others did right – even if it’s by the benefit of hindsight.

When competitors came knocking at their door – The Hindu remained steadfast in their strategy refusing to drop cover price or get into a mad race for higher circulation to stay ahead of the new entrants. By all accounts, they didn’t give into advertisement rate-cutting tactics either. Many called this old world arrogance, others attributed it to an overly conservative attitude – both unsuited to today’s age of nimble footed competition. Some rushed to prematurely write an elegy for it – predicting the same fate as what “The Statesman” had met with in Calcutta by refusing to react to new competition.

In the Mint Article referred to in the previous post (read post)– Bagga predicts 3 broad trends in these times of media recession: 1) increase in cover-price, decrease in pagination and curb on circulation; 2) ‘right-sizing’ of operations and 3) consolidation across businesses. By default or otherwise, The Hindu wouldn’t need to do any of the 3. It didn’t drop cover price, increase pagination or pumped up circulation. It was always a tightly run ship with a ‘conservative’ cost structure. So there is little fat to trim in the system. Finally, it has always run its businesses on a ‘consolidated’ model.

Sometime back, another article in MINT had quoted – Farokh Balsara, Head of the Media and Entertainment practice at Ernst and Young saying: “Six months back, it was growth for growth’s sake for publications. Now the focus is on profitable growth as we see companies compelled to take hard decisions due to the liquidity crunch.” (click here to read the piece)

I don’t think The Hindu would have any such problem as they were never afflicted by the malady of chasing “growth for growth’s sake” unlike many others – be it because of pragmatism or innate conservatism – call it what you want. To my mind, the only weak product in their stable, as on date, would be the Frontline (does it still exist ?). Even that – even if they are holding onto for some sentimental reasons – is unlikely to be bleeding heavily. HBL should - by now – also be able to largely fend for itself. And, The Hindu - the main paper - never went over-board on the circulation of their multi-city editions in Bangalore, Hyderabad etc.

And, being the undisputed market-leader they would continue to garner maximum share of advertisement even when the chips are down (literally !!) and not being wholly dependent on ad-revenues - they would be able to tide over the down-turn better than the others.

So, there may be some merit in following “The Hindu” rate of growth, after all.

(Of course, being a distant observer and not close to the scene of action, I could be widely off the mark. For that – I would look up to my friends in the “South of Vindhyas” for validation of the facts. I am sure there are enough detractors of The Hindu – or “Hindu baiters” if I may call them – to blow large holes into my analysis. So it’s E & OE – comments and corrections most welcome)

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.