Look and Feel

I’m told that, the head honcho of a newspaper house – which has re-launched their flagship paper with a brand-new design - has gone on record to say that, “it (the new design) is as best as it can get”. I have no intention of taking him on that point - not b'coz he is known to take serious umbrage at even mildly critical comments in inconsequential bolgs such as this one, but because I - for one - genuinely like the new design ( tho’ I have heard mischievous critics quip, “it is “DNA four years too late”). But for me what’s more interesting to debate – is that eternal question of form (design) vs. content.

Surely look matters. Especially on first appearance. And, beauty is certainly not necessarily only skin deep when it comes to a ‘thought product’ like a newspaper. Great content can be made to look even more attractive by intelligent packaging and ease of navigation is sure to please even an old school die-hard reader.

I believe research indicates that, in a digital age – a newspaper even in its printed form must have a digital look and feel – especially if it wishes to attract new (and obviously) younger readers. And, Garcia is a master of 'digital' design. So far, so good. But, how does an older paper go about re-inventing itself for a younger audience.

The challenge to my mind is not about ‘turning off’ older readers by replacing a layout which they had gotten used to over the years with a new snazzy layout that can appear to be too much of a discontinuous change. The fears on this score – I think – are grossly overstated. But, for a ‘digital design’ to really work – one has to also re-engineer and completely over-haul the content – almost to the point of changing its DNA (no pun intended). It is here many publications fall-flat – because the risks of alienating the traditional readers are too high. And without doing much to the content, changes in design remain largely ‘cosmetic’.

New publications have a clear advantage here. They have the luxury, as it were, to marry content with design – to have a total offering that also reflects the personality of the paper. And, if the 2 (content and design can match up to each other – you do have a winning proposition. In the near past, MINT did this masterfully and DNA too was very successful in its attempt to differentiate with existing products. The Telegraph and Asian Age had done it in their own times. More recently, Forbes India has worked hard at doing the same in the Business Magazines genre and, in it's own modest way, OPEN can be another good example (tho’ I am yet unsure about its chances of commercial success).

MINT went a step further. It was planned truly as a multi-media offering for the future and its design and content delivery seamlessly transitioned across platforms – print, web, phone and even video-steaming.

But, only too often – do we have a new offering in the market – which looks smart but fail to deliver on its content.

The job is decidedly tougher for an existing newspaper – especially the larger and more established ones. Here, I liked the ToI formula – which follows, I suspect, the more classical (and, perhaps, conservative) route. Both for ToI and ET – they first went about incrementally and imperceptibly changing the content (which – detractors popularly called “dumbing down”) and then tinkered with the design. So, when DNA and HT were launched in Mumbai – ToI’s response was not to the drawing board and a new designer – but, instead, they invested heavily on content to make it – arguably – the best newspaper in the country. The same was, I believe, the brief of The Hindu to Garcia when he came to work on it a few years ago. But, then there are also wagging tongues – who say that these are also the 2 terribly designed newspapers in the country.

Even the staid Deccan Herald and the New Indian Express (down South) have also tried a change of wardrobe – but I’m not sure what it has done to their circulation and readership numbers.

Change with continuity seems to be the name of the game. It is surprising how many publications tend to clone their print format even in the digital (web) rendition. There must be some logic to that as well.

"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)

Of Peaches and Potatoes

MINT’s - perhaps - the only paper (business or mainstream), which has been consistently covering the print-media and issues related to it. In my earlier posts, I have referred to some of the articles it has published. This Saturday (December 27th) edition carries a piece by Ashish Bagga (CEO, Living Media) – as a part of its series on ‘2009 Trends Predictions’ (click here to read article).

It is sort of a ‘laundry list’ of several possible fall-outs – some obvious (lower pagination, falling ad revenue, lower ad-edit ratio, ‘right-sizing’ of manpower etc) but others not so apparent and hence more interesting.

First, Bagga talks of consolidation across businesses that were so far working in silos to exploit synergies. He rightly points out that both systems have their merits but under revenue pressure there is a greater urge to unify structures.

Focus vs.Scale

Obviously the reference is primarily to the Media Marketing teams and the Circulation Sales force. This is a classic conundrum I have seen in many organizations. While having a common sales organization is probably simpler (and most companies have it anyway), the real dilemma arises when it comes to ad marketing. This is more so – when you have separate “Business Heads” for different publications or ‘divisions’ within the group or ‘house’, as some prefer to call themselves. The debate always centers round “focus” vs. scale or synergy – and, tends to heat up when ‘accountability’ for ‘bottom-line’ rests with the so-called Business Head – and the responsibility for ‘ad-revenues’ is with someone else, who usually reports directly to the CEO. Under such a system – the Business Head feels naturally dis-empowered and accusations of the smaller / niche publications or divisions being ‘short-sold’ begin to fly. In reality, however – it’s often the other way around. When the smaller or weaker publications are sold on the back of the flagship brand – it is usually at the expense of the bigger or mother brand / edition which end up subsidizing its smaller (or younger) siblings. In a game of accounting “allocations” - the revenue apportionment goes in favour of the brands or editions, which are being supported (especially – say, if it’s a new Brand or a new city Edition which has just been launched).

Tonnage vs Grammage

Parallels are often drawn with the FMCG industry – where the same Sales system is used to market brands and products across divisions or profit-centres. While the comparison may hold somewhat true – as far as Circulation Sales is concerned it could be fallacious to extend it beyond that to ad-marketing. Even in FMCG – the debate has raged on for years. The comparison is not just between the proverbial ‘apples and oranges’, but as a legendary Marketing ‘Guru’ of Hindustan Lever had once put it very pithily – it’s very often between “peaches and potatoes” – tonnage vs. grammage ( read niche publications). This would apply particularly to new fledgling brands, which have to be nurtured with care. But then, as Bagga says – in the current market scenario very few companies would have the luxury of launching new publications or editions. And, for that matter nurture the un-profitable ones.

It would be interesting, however, to see if the same logic of consolidation and exploiting synergies would now get extended even to other areas of operation such as the newsrooms and news-gathering.

(in the next post I intend discussing some of the other very relevant issues raised in the article)

Cholesterol levels and Readership Surveys

I have really missed the bus on this one. I had meant to write on the IRS 2008 (Round 2) soon after it was released – but got caught up in my travels. Meanwhile, the ‘Romantic Realist’ and many others have literally beaten me to the post (Read RR’s Blog Post "I am No 1. No, I am No 1" in the MINT by clicking here). I had written much of my thoughts on Readership Surveys in India in 2 of my earlier Blogs Is it only about Eye-balls? and When adults act as kids. At a broader level, my views remain largely the same as I have also noted in my comments on RR’s piece (Read Comments at the bottom of RR's Blog by Clicking here).

Co-incidentally just the day before its release (on the 4th of Nov), I was chatting up a friend who has been on the Technical Committee of the IRS (MRUC) for many years. He made several very pertinent and interesting points. Here is a gist of our discussions.

Since the MRUC started as an initiative of Advertisers and Media Agencies (Brahm Vasudeva and Roda Mehta were the prime movers) – the IRS was conceived primarily as a Media Planning Tool. Therefore, the emphasis was not so much on the absolute “results” but more on the quality of the “research” – and, therefore, the underlying data, which would provide users insights for their media planning.

However, publishers has come to see it more like marks scored in a school or college examination – therefore, go to extra-ordinary lengths to ensure better “results” – especially after the NRS went into hibernation and IRS became the primary currency for print-media.

It’s common knowledge in the industry that, most organizations have their own “experts” ( read ‘fixers’) – who claim to be ‘specialists’ or past-masters at obtaining better results for their respective publications. Apart from using – old tricks of the trade such as distributing free copies around the time when the field work is conducted (this was developed to the level of a fine art with the level of sophistication that was applied to specially target areas where the survey was known to be happening - with information gathered thru’ moles in the data collection agencies), over time this was carried to a higher level with more blatant tampering of data. Industry insiders tell tales of instances – when field researchers have been apprehended ‘selling’ survey forms or caught in fisticuffs with goons engaged by publishers trying to obtain . While that could well be malicious gossip, it is widely believed that large media houses have a substantial ‘budget’ allocated for ‘managing’ – Readership Results – just as they were known to do for ABC numbers. (Click here to read Pramath Sinha’s piece published sometime ago in the MINT)


However, MRUC officials and the Research Agencies will vouch for the overall validity of the data. They claim to have built in a system of checks and balances that easily throw up aberrations during the process of data validation. In every survey – there are cases where a ‘back-check’ has been ordered or the data for certain publications have been withheld for publication – until the verification was carried out.

But in their over anxiety to obtain higher numbers, publishers often lose sight of more important underlying data. Moreover, in the process they also end up undermining the credibility of the survey – forcing Media planners and buyers to resort to developing their own customized metrics – which, with very small sample sizes, have their own set of limitations, claims of “proprietary” methodology notwithstanding.

It’s another typical case of shooting the messenger. So, what’s the way forward? The industry is already clamouring for the revival of their abandoned child the NRS. But, is there any reason to believe that- the NRS would produce results that are dramatically different from the IRS. Past experience doesn’t say so. It’s like me going to a different ‘Path Lab’ each time to check my Lipid Profile. It still doesn’t solve my problem of high Cholesterol and elevated hepato-bilary markers.

More later…..

Pleading Guilty & The Conflict within

Well, I am guilty of being remiss - not that I think I have been missed much. Actually - there is so much to write, with a maddening travel schedule - I simply couldn't find the time ( and, I didn't want to do injustice to the subjects - which I think are important and much of it based on first-hand conversations with very knowledgeable persons from the industry).

But, I intend making up for that soon. Meanwhile, I would commend to you the following article published in the edit-page of today's The Telegraph:

The Conflict Within - Reform Alone will restore the media's meaningful role : By R. Goplakrishnan

(check out the link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081201/jsp/opinion/story_10183628.jsp)

Gopal, as most of us know is a Director of Tata Sons. But also, as many may not know, he is a Director on the Board of ABP Pvt Ltd - the publishers of The Telegraph ( which the paper should have mentioned - in the interest of "full-disclosure", as MINT does in such cases). But, coming from him - the opinion is of great import, I think.

Read on....

Newspaper Chart-lets and Multi-media Factoids

Later next week (October 16th-17th), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Readership Conference in Amsterdam (click here for details) will discuss the future of newspaper readership. Editors and newspaper executives from across the world will present and debate case-studies on strategies for growing newspaper and print audiences across platforms – print and on-line

.

WAN runs the “Shaping the Future of Newspapers (SFN)” project, which aims at helping newspapers with strategies to survive and thrive in a changing media environment. Appropriately, the theme of the Conference is “Newspapers can Increase Readership in Tough Times”.

One of the session titles that caught my attention was:

The New Newsroom: Broadcast, Print and Web – Newspapers, which are best at exploiting multi-media and competing effectively in the multi-media battle for audience and revenues;

Co-incidentally, only the other day I was watching the recorded web-cast of the Adobe CS (Creative Suite)-4 launch – where Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen talks of precisely this seamless 2 way migration from print to web, mobile etc which is going to characterize the media universe in the days to come. CS-4 tries to integrate the creative process across all media platforms. (To check full video click here)

Another topical issue that would be discussed at the conference is how newspapers are working for attracting and retaining young readers of newspapers in a digital world – sometimes using Social Networking.

I have often wondered if in our frenzy of chasing circulation and eyeballs – we are forgetting the issue of newspaper readership. Thus while – ABC figures are showing a huge spurt in circulation across languages and regions – the growth in readership is nothing to write home about.

Therefore, it was interesting to read Raju Narisetti’s latest blog post (click here to read) on how his paper is using devices like “Charticles” to grab the typically short attention span of the “Internet generation that lives in the multimedia”. Though’ it might appear to be ‘not-so-subtle’ plug for the MINT (“I mean stuff like this that regular readers of Mint are used to seeing on a regular basis”) – but, we can excuse the ‘Romantic Realist’ for this minor self-indulgence - as this is probably what the future of newspapers “might and ought to be”.

I had touched upon this – in an earlier blog (2000 Monkeys or a 1 ton Gorilla click here) , which didn’t attract any comment. Considering the huge readership this blog commands (!!), I am not sure if the lack of response can be construed to mean – that, such issues are still not on the radar screen of Indian newspapers.

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.

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.