CHAPTEFL 3 MEDIA & INDUSTRY Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

CHAPTER 3 MEDIA & NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

3.0 What Is Media? Media refers to various means of communication. The type used to communicate the message may be any, e.g. newspaper, television, telephone or Internet.

Rajan Saxena in his book Marketing Management, second edition; defines media as, “another facilitating institution. He says, “Media refers to daily , magazines, technical journals (called the print media), hoardings, billboards, neon signs and so forth (called outdoor media) and cinema and television, video, cable TV and radio (called the electronic media). (Saxena, 2002).

The researcher is of the opinion that this definition has its limitations. First, it defines media as a facilitating institution. However one can see today, that the media is playing a much important role than just a facilitator. Media is involved in many activities like sting operations to bring forth the issues of corruption or working along with the masses and corporate on various issues such as environment or any other local problems. Media is now involving itself in a much deeper level, where at times it sees that at least the smaller problems are solved after giving them a voice through their media.

The second limitation in the definition is that it does not mention media options like films, events, exhibitions and even the Internet and Mobile. Lately there has also been a new addition to the electronic media in terms of DTH (Direct to Home).

3.1. Media Types The media industry today has grown to a large extent and covers various types of communication methods. The media industry is prominently segregated in the following types: Print, Electronic (Radio & Television), Outdoor, Digital (Internet & Mobile), and Events & Exhibitions. 47 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

3.1.1 Print: The print media mainly includes newspapers in various languages with various frequencies, magazines, journals, periodicals, and business directories. The trends in the print industry are changing rapidly today. The print media industry started changing since about last 50 years and still shows new innovations. Deregulation of media took place in the year 2002 and amendments in it in 2005. (Kohli-Khandekar, 2006). Especially since the deregulation of media the print industry has seen a steep rise. In the magazines category, the specialized magazines segment too has created a great impact on the print industry. The rising advertising costs in the conventional daily newspapers in each city, and the growing strength of bigger cities has also given birth to a new segment of newspapers, which are area centric newspapers. Many a times these are like the supplements by the regular newspapers. One can also see more localized and specialized newspapers which are neither circulated on a daily basis nor contain the conventional news. Local advertisers like retailers have started adopting these newspapers to advertise their products to the specific demographic area and at a much cheaper cost. There is another segment in newspapers which is advertising-oriented newspapers which mostly include advertisements along with very little news or story content. The sole purpose of these newspapers is offering a gallery of advertisements, with little emphasis on the quality aspect of paper, printing, or any other parameter. This category of newspapers too is not a daily newspaper category.

3.1.2 Electronic: The electronic media mainly includes films, music, radio and television.

A) Television: The television industry in has seen a great amount of change after the post-liberalization policy in 1991. Till then viewers across India were offered services only by the Government of India. There was very little focus on providing variety content. The technology too had not been upgraded. Post 1991 with the birth of India’s first private entertainment

48 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar channel, Zee, Indian television industry got a new face. .Other channels followed the suit almost immediately.

Other upcoming media in electronic are DTH (Direct to Home) services where a bouquet of channels is offered for viewing on a monthly payment basis. In the nineties with the inflow of several channels and the cable technology in place, people started receiving television channel services through cable operators. However this was a much unstructured approach. Today the national and international players have stepped in with a long term strategy and are providing those and many more services with a more structured approach.

There are about 160 satellite channels broadcasting in India as per the reports in 2005, as per reports from the book, “The Indian Media Business” by Vanita Kohli- Khandekar. These are earning revenue of more than Rs. 79 billion from advertising alone. After all other revenues from cable advertising, DTH, subscriptions and others are added up the industry has revenue to a close of Rs. 185 billion. This is the extent to which the television industry has grown in just 50 years in India since September 1959. (Kohli-Khandekar, 2006).

B) Radio: The radio industry too was stagnant without too many variations in either content or technology till about a decade back. However with the privatization of radio the radio media saw huge changes in the way people heard radio. The radio media was looked at as one of the most orthodox media without much response from the new generation. BCCL Group’s (ENIL) launched and the picture changed completely. Today one can see many regional as well as national media houses launching their regional or national radio channels. However the radio too has its own limitations as the private radio channels are not allowed to broadcast news through them.

3.1.3 Outdoor: The outdoor media is very elaborate and includes hoardings, mobile hoardings, banners, posters. Point of Purchase material, and the latest 49 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar entrant OOH (Out of Home). OOH includes various media vehicles like multiplex branding, Mall branding, or television sets in public places. This is one media where there is not much of any syndicated research or data available on the media consumption habits or the habits of the target audience. In spite of the lack of any authentic data availability the spending on this media is huge. Neither can media planners ignore this media, nor can they give it little importance.

3.1.4 Digital: The digital media includes Internet media. This is the latest entrant in the media industry of India. With the rapid and voluminous growth of use of technology for communication, Internet media too got a grip over the media industry. Although new, the media is fast gaining momentum and the usage of Internet in rural as well as urban India is growing at a very rapid rate every year. This media is facing limitations of illiteracy, infrastructure as well as the lack of motivation to change with the times. The limitations are also from the Government in terms of lack of infrastructure development especially in the rural areas. As of 2005 the Internet media industry is close to Rs. 22 billion. This includes advertising, Internet access and e-commerce. (Kohli- Khandekar, 2006).

3.1.5 Events & Exhibitions: Events and exhibitions, also known as the (Below the Line) BTL activities are a very strong media to reach the end user, consumer directly. Below the Line (BTL) is a terminology used in the advertising industry that indicates activities like events, exhibitions and fairs which are more in relation to the direct contact with the end user. It provides no hurdles in terms of communication with the customer directly. This media is strongly implemented across India by various small and big brands.

An interesting thing to know is that many big media houses have diversified into this media and are providing their customers more than just advertising in their media. The rising costs of advertising in media, increasing competition, and unreliability of response are some of the factors why media houses have engaged into exhibitions. A platform to provide the advertisers a direct 50 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar opportunity to interact with the consumers and a 360° approach are also the obvious reasons for media houses to diversify into events and exhibitions. 360° approach is a term used in the advertising industry to signify a total approach encompassing every available media to reach the customer.

3.1.6 Films: An important and a significant media that is rising very fast in India among other countries around the world are the films. Since a long time brands have chosen films as one of the medium to advertise their brands. Some of the important reasons to associate with films are that, one, the companies brands are endorsed by the actors at least for that particular film. Second reasons is that the films a huge audience that goes into lacs, that too within a short period of time. Third reason is that the audience has a tendency to relate the attributes of the main character of the films to the attributes of the product. People change their perception towards the brand being used in the film and companies tend to see an increase in sales. One of the finest examples from the Hollywood industry is the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, which used many big brands from Ford Mondeo, to Omega watch to Jaguar. The whole effort is towards integrating the brand with the film and not just placing it in the film. The attributes of the brand should blend in with the attributes of the main character as well as with the film.

Other than this, films are also highly used to promote various social issues, especially by the government organisations like for rural education, aids awareness and health education.

3.1.7 Music: Music has been the integral part of India since hundreds of years. Even today hundreds of music albums are released all across India and that too in multiple languages. The Indian audience has always been very receptive in its approach towards music. All Indian films in every language have an element of songs, something which although is unnatural in real life, is still widely accepted by many Indians. Today music is also used to advertise brands through their unique music. One can find many mobile brands having a musical ad film, which has a very high recall value. Music has 51 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar now blended with television and mobile media to a large extent. In terms of television, other than the regular music albums, one can see many reality shows of music and song competitions on various channels. These music related reality shows have a very large audience all across India.

Mobile carrier companies are also doing business worth several hundred crores only through the ring tones business. Hence today one can see an integration of media happening in various mediums.

3.1.8 Mobile: Mobile is one of the fastest emerging media option in the media industry today. Mobile as a medium has various media related utilities like ring tones, sms services, mobile advertising, sms voting, mobile gaming and customer surveys. The primary reasons why the mobile media is getting more attention are because of the huge customer database and the multi-utility of the services of mobiles. Due to the huge database of customers, companies are in a position to promote their brands across large masses in the shortest time possible. The efficiently used multi-services enable a company to choose an option from the various options available. Another important reason is that the customers of these mobile companies are actually using their handsets for more reasons than just making and receiving calls.

3.1.9 Animation & Gaming: In India, the latest entry is of the animation and gaming industry. All across the globe this industry is on the high rise. Even in India the industry although in its initial stages, is fast gaining momentum. Several crores of rupees are invested in this industry not only by Indian companies but even by multinationals.

Even the education industry in this sector is fast picking up. Students and their parents are steadily moving towards this media and are seen considering it quite seriously as a career.

Animation is prominently seen used in the advertising and film industry among other sectors like medical professions. Gaming is more interconnected with 52 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar the online media with various high end games available through various social networking sites as well as gaming portals.

3.2 Role of Media The basic role of media has always been to provide information and entertainment. However In the last few years, especially since about last ten years the media vehicles are performing a task of going hand In hand with specific objectives. Media are no more stand alone. Most of the times there are other objectives that are fulfilled or one finds more media vehicles coming together.

For example a release of a commercial feature film is not just done with a premiere show, and some advertisements in newspapers. The releases are done with immense planning, with a great and versatile combination of various things like premiere show, pre-release news, outdoor publicity, music release, ground activities like events, ring tones, websites, online advertising, online promos, television promos, television interviews, radio interviews, wall papers, gossip news, animation games, mementos, toys etc. depending on the story of the film, the kind of hype It wants to create and the budgets. One can see a single point of objective of releasing a film and making it a success achieved through the active Involvement of more than one media. One can see media channels like newspapers or Television channels, acting as media partners and not mere sources of advertising the film or issuing a press release.

This attitude of media and towards media is dynamically changing to keep up with the changing trends, habits of the common man, and the changing preferences of the use of media. The days are of collaboration and not just competition.

3.3 Media Explosion and related Issues The seamless Integration of all media; television, newspaper, internet, mobile and radio with too many private players has led to media explosion. Today 53 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar one can see hundreds of television channels, magazines, newspapers, mobile carriers, and radio channels along with millions of websites and we portals spread across the country. There are two perspectives that can be pointed out to this media explosion. The explosion gave rise to several positive changes. Most important of all the competition improved. Due to this overall quality improved in every media. Companies started focusing on introducing something new, using the latest technology to bring out the best product in the market.

The market is not monopolistic in nature anymore. Although there are players like who have an undisputed nationwide leadership position still other players in the industry too are not far behind. At times the city wise circulation figures of some other newspapers are more than The Times of India.

The media explosion also gave rise to a lot of career opportunities. Career opportunities grew multi fold. Today one can be a writer not just for print but even for internet or television or radio channels. Careers in every segment have grown, whether business development, finance or technical.

Business opportunities have grown tremendously due to the media explosion. Advertising industry turned out to be the obvious winner in this; however other industries like education, hospitality and travel which are indirectly dependent on the media industry also grew in the process. The media industry has also seen a rise in the smaller entrepreneurs all across the country.

This growth was also given a boost by the Indian Government which allowed an entry to private players within India in several sectors and also allowed foreign investments. The Indian Government further even allowed the global media players to enter into the Indian media industry.

The global media industry took a very serious note of this growth in India and invested their money. Due to the entry of foreign players in the market, people 54 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar got a better chance to see, read and hear about things happening around the world. People in India received more variety in entertainment and were also subjected to a lot more exposure of information.

Other advantages of this media explosion is the exposure to the lesser known but successful people of the country. The media industry gave exposure to many such people who have achieved something in their life but were left out of the limelight. Thus this also created many more leaders and idols for people to follow.

It is also important to see that the media explosion created a lot of issues too. Certain problems started surfacing with the explosion in media. One of the biggest problems is that of supply demand ratio of the content availability. This problem is present in all forms of media but even more prominent in the television industry.

Another major problem that came to light was that many organisations in the media are actually stooping to low levels or performing unethical practices in a hurry to win over the competition. Again the best example that can be seen is of the television new channels which are always in a hurry to offer breaking or exclusive news to its viewers. Another problem is that of the shift of focus from delivering news to too much focus on revenue generation. A new form of revenue generation which is commonly practised by some newspapers today is that of paid news. Scholars argue that if the basic objective of a newspaper of delivering useful and authentic news gets diluted through paid content then the credibility of the industry will hamper along with the credibility of individual brands.

Further lesser controls on content have led to such content that many ’t approve of. If obscene photographs as well as improper content in the newspapers is something which is not going to add value in the readers and also might take the young generation on the wrong path then it needs to be considered whether this is right. 55 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

A point that can be elaborated here is that the films have ratings in terms of who can view the film but there are no such restrictions in terms of who can read a particular content. In view of this especially the news and visuals which could be a possible problem in the ideologies of younger generation could be filtered.

Another critical problem is that of increased hi-tech crimes through media like internet. One can regularly read through newspapers or other forms of news that websites are hacked or credit card details stolen from online media. These hi-tech crimes are becoming an increasing problem today

3.4 History of the Newspaper Industry Newspapers have a very long history. Right from the days of ‘Before Christ’ till today, over the centuries there have been revolutionary changes in the newspaper industry.

For centuries, civilizations have used print media to spread news and information to the masses. The Roman Acta Diurna, appearing around 59 B.C, is the earliest recorded “newspaper”. Julius Caesar, wanting to inform the public about important social and political happenings, ordered upcoming events posted in major cities. Written on large white boards and displayed in popular places like the Baths, the Acta kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and executions. In 8th century China, the first newspapers appeared as hand-written newssheets in Beijing. The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany, which houses the world’s first printing press, has told WAN that the ’birth certificate’ of the newspaper, ’Relation’, was unearthed in the town archives of Strasbourg, now in France but at the time a part of the so-called ’Deutsches Reich’. The oldest newspaper that is still in circulation is said to be Post och Inrikes Tidningar from (Sweden) 1645. One can observe that all along newspaper was considered as a major player in spreading across important news across to people, (www.wan-press.org)

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3.5 The Birth of Indian newspapers and the pre-independence years Emperor Ashoka’s pillar Inscriptions & rock edicts in different parts of the Mauryan Empire during 3rd century B.C are considered examples of imperial political communication to the informed & literate section of the population. Ashoka used the Prakrit language in his communication on ethics & morals as evidence by his inscriptions. The learning languages were confined to high casts, the aristocracy, priests, army personnel & landowners. Another feature of communication in ancient India was the emphasis placed on oral & aural systems. Writing was done on palm leaves using a style, but the written documents were considered too scared to be touched or used by the lower classes. The ruling class used certain methods for coding, transmitting & decoding messages secretly through the network of spies to information about neighboring enemies. According to historians of journalism, news was collected in a well-organized manner under Akbar the Great. In 1574, Akbar established a recording office that helped later medieval historians to gather materials for chronicles, (www.blog.crjayaprakash.com)

The first printing press arrived in India on 6th September 1556 & was installed at the college of St. Paul in Goa. First printed newspaper of India was in English edited & published by James Augustus Hicky, an employee of East India Company. It was named Bengal Gazette which came out on 29th January 1780. Soon many other weeklies & monthlies such as Indian Gazette, Calcutta Journal, Bengal Harakaru, John Bull in the East came out during the 17th & 18th century, (www.blog.crjayaprakash.com) In India after the British introduced the concept of newspapers they were looked upon as an important source to gain news. Freedom fighters in India have used newspapers as nothing less than a weapon to fight against the British for freedom. Agarkar, Tilak and many such fighters fought for freedom with this as one of their strongest weapons. Their printing presses were seized; some presses were burnt while some of the freedom fighters were put behind bars for printing material that as per the British provoked the Indians against the British. The Indian newspapers that have been established before independence have played a major role in the movement of independence for 57 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar the country. (Excerpts of various qualitative interviews). These findings are included here due to the significance of the topic.

3.6 Indian Newspaper Industry Post Independence The newspapers in India have gone through many changes since independence. Post 1947, newspapers in India had a choice to make - either align with the government and support all its initiatives or act as a critique to the newly democratised country and its head. Newspapers at first acted as unofficial sponsors of its various initiatives and schemes. The five year plan especially came highly endorsed by the national newspapers. Whilst in the early days of democracy, the Indian government enjoyed full support of the media houses, the 70’s saw Indira Gandhi declared emergency and all hell broke loose so as to speak. The period between 1975 -1977, when Indira Gandhi had declared independence was the most trying period for journalism. As emergency superseded the right to the freedom of speech and expression, most newspapers had to shut down. For the first time since the British Raj, the basic fundamental right of being able to express ones views and ideas was decimated. For the first time since the independence, the Government of India was highly criticised and many newspapers started flourishing in the underground, (www.merinews.com, 2009).

One of the major industries related to the newspaper industry, the advertising industry too started growing through the eighties and took a strong grip. The Indian newspaper industry first started showing changes in the trends of the newspapers in the late 70’s. However the industry started changing rapidly through the eighties and nineties.

Today the ownership of many regional language newspapers in India lies directly or indirectly in the hands of many politicians of India.

3.7 Types of Newspapers Newspapers are classified into various categories, depending on the frequency, specialty and size. Most newspapers have a daily frequency 58 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar however some differ. Most newspapers are information newspapers providing information on various topics such as sports, politics, crime, entertainment etc. but there are newspapers which are dedicated to only one subject in particular. The financial newspapers are the best example of a specialized newspaper.

3.7.1 Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 inches or more). The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of matter, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet newspaper was the Dutch Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. published in 1618. (www.tititudorancea.com). Indian newspaper industry is dominated by the Broadsheet size of newspapers.

3.7.2 Berliner Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about 470 mm x 315 mm (18V2in x 12.4 in). The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format. (http://www.nvidia.mamuski.rawa-maz.pl)

3.7.3 Tabloid A tabloid is an industry term which refers to a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format); or to a newspaper that tends to sensationalize and emphasize or exaggerate or sensational crime stories, gossip columns repeating scandalous and innuendos about the deeply personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and other so-called "junk food news" or junk ma/7 (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format). As the term "tabloid" has become synonymous with down-market newspapers in some areas, some small-format papers which claim a higher standard of 59 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar journalism refer to themselves as "compact" newspapers instead. The tabloid newspaper format is particularly popular in the United Kingdom where its page dimensions are roughly 17 by 11 inches (430 mm x 280 mm). Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with 'higher-quality' journalism, are called though several British 'quality' papers have recently adopted the tabloid format, (www.tititudorancea.com).

3.7.4 Pink Many local newspapers in the mid-20th century produced a special sports edition on Saturday evening. Before football results were widely available on television and radio such editions was the source of results for players of the football pools. Serious players needed the results as soon as possible since, on afternoons where there were relatively few matches ending in a draw, the payouts from the pools would be large and claims would have to be made quickly, typically by telegram. While the regular evening edition typically "went to bed" in mid afternoon, if not earlier, the sports edition had to be on newsstands as soon as possible after the conclusion of football games across the country. Most games started at 3 p.m. and concluded around 4:45 p.m. The sports edition was usually available by 6 p.m. It was popular with newsagents who capitalized on the rush of customers its appearance generated to sell cigarettes and other "impulse buys". The edition was small compared to the regular edition, often as few as 3 broadsheets, making 12 pages when folded. Plenty of space was devoted to advertising, as well as lists of results and short descriptions of games. In the 1960s the Gazette began printing the sports edition on pink newsprint. Soon the edition began to be known as "the Pink". To encourage people to buy the sports edition, at a time when television was affecting its sales, competitions were run "In the Pink" with cash prizes, (http://www.enotes.com)

3.7.5 Other basis of newspaper types The newspapers are available in various frequencies. One can find newspapers that are available on a daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. Other than this, newspapers are also available in free and paid formats. 60 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

3.8 Departments and Positions in an Indian Newspaper Organization Newspaper organisations in India are generally mid-size or large in nature. These organisations are run with a very strong backbone of various people who are either directly working for the organization or work as an outsourced talent. Newspaper organisations need to be on the constant move as they are strictly deadline oriented. They do not have the liberty of time in terms of things to be done pushed over the next day. The work is highly compartmentalized here. Each department has a specific role to be performed in its stipulated time.

As in other organisations, departments in newspaper organisations too are segmented at the planning and execution level.

3.8.1 Editorial Department The editorial department is the core, the basic foundation of a newspaper. It is the work of this department that decides the fate of the newspaper. If people like what they read they will keep buying it. If all the other departments of a newspaper office are really doing well but if the content itself is not up to the mark then the newspaper quality will be hampered and readers will not buy it in the first place.

This team is responsible for providing you the right news in time with complete details. The editors decide which news is to be printed on which page depending on the importance that is to be given to the news.

This department has a big team that includes editor, sub-editors, associate editors, journalists (field representatives), photographers, DTP operators, back-office writers, content development team, cartoonists, and column writers among other people. This team is mainly in house however at times newspapers also outsource the work to experts, especially in cases of column writers. If the newspaper is large in size with multiple editions, then the editorial team also includes resident editors, corporate editor and other such higher level positions. 61 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

The editorial department has great importance as news that is printed in newspapers has the ability to create a long lasting impact on the minds of the readers. Hence influential people from politicians, celebrities, sports persons and many other who’s who of the society work hard on building up relations with this department of the newspaper.

3.8.2 Circulation Department The circulation department has a huge task on its shoulders, to plan effectively enough so that the newspaper reaches the stands and households early in the morning. Seldom would one hear that a newspaper reaches someone’s home after 7:30 in the morning and that the reader is still happy about it.

This department includes a big team of planners as well as people who execute the job. It involves extensive planning in terms of logistics and execution. The department is headed by the circulation manager who plans the daily circulation. Then there are people who are involved in actual execution. The job of the circulation department is also to expand the areas of circulation, especially in case the newspaper is not having a leadership position in a particular city. Other than logistics the circulation also caters to the needs and problems of the vendors, people who are the final link between the reader and the newspaper organization. The circulation department is also responsible for the collection of dues from newspaper vendors and distributors.

Sometimes when one printing unit has the task of printing the newspaper and sending it to many small towns and cities, the circulation department schedules the printing in terms of farthest dispatch first and nearest dispatch last.

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3.8.3 Printing Department The printing department has the responsibility of actually printing the newspaper and making it ready for dispatch. The printing department’s team includes people with positions from unit managers, to pre-press sections, actual machine operators, maintenance team, store-keeper and even the packing team. The printing department is responsible for planning the printing schedule, once they receive the all the required material from the pre-press.

3.8.4 Advertising Department The advertising department is another very important department of a newspaper organization. It has a pivotal role to play in the organization. The core profile of this department is to generate sales through advertisements in the newspapers. Newspapers allocate a certain percentage of their everyday issue for the advertisements. The advertising department has to see to it that it brings in enough revenue through the medium of advertising.

If any newspaper brand decides to sell its daily copies to the readers without any advertisements in it, the cost of purchase for each reader would go up from an average of Rs. 1 to 3 per copy to a minimum of Rs. 15 per copy. In the event of this it would bring down the circulation figures drastically, in turn making it very difficult to maintain the economics. Hence the advertising departments play a role of revenue generation for the newspapers and also making it possible for the readers to buy their everyday copy at an affordable cost. (Excerpts from qualitative interviews).

The job of this department is also to come up with new schemes and ideas to offer the best mileage to the advertisers in the most economical cost. The team also brings up regular advertising oriented supplements to generate industry-oriented revenue.

This department is given a target each year by the top management considering various factors like annual expected expenses and other projected expenses, profit percentage that needs to be maintained, and

63 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar capital required for projected plans. This team includes a General Manager overseeing the activities, an advertising manager, assistant managers and executives.

3.8.5 Marketing Department The marketing department has to perform a role of building up the brand image. For this purpose the marketing department gets actively involved in various brand building activities like events, exhibition participation or social activities to help build and sustain an image in the minds of the reader. One can see many newspaper brands associating themselves with movies, either regional or movies as media sponsors to promote the movie while at the same time reaching out to maximum number of readers as well as non­ readers of the newspaper. At times these activities are done with some future goals in mind.

Newspapers have always been known to be on the forefront in case of social responsibility. This has been the perceived motive of running a newspaper in India. In view of this many newspapers are seen doing a lot of social events in regards to the corporate social responsibility of the newspaper. One can see newspaper brands doing fund collection activities in times of crisis to the citizens of the nation. Funds are collected from common citizens and are then handed over to some Central or State relief funds. Other activities include events and activities for the readers and organizing functions for the advertisers and advertising agencies.

Some newspaper organisations are seen conducting fraternity-oriented functions to promote the newspaper industry as a whole. Things like people from the top management being a part of various associations and trusts are also some of the brand building activities with some active participation from the top management.

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3.8.6 Finance Department Running a newspaper involves huge costs. It requires huge capital to start a newspaper as well as to run it. The operating as well as capital expenses are extremely high. Crores of rupees are invested before the first profits are seen. Hence a finance department of a newspaper organization has to be very strong.

The finance department is involved in the financial planning for the organization. This department has a crucial task of setting targets for revenue generation, allocating budgets for yearly expenses to departments, procuring funds, making investments and making an organization financially secure in the short as well as long term.

The department also has to plan for the capital investments in terms of business expansion of the newspaper. Organisations would require additional capital investment to launch new editions, buy newsprint, buy new machinery, set up an office building or even start another publication. Capital investments required for each of these are huge and finance departments are responsible for this.

In the past few years, especially after 2005 one can see newspaper organisations even involved in procuring funds through Fll’s or the equity. After the government’s sanction to allow 26 percent of stake from international companies, many newspaper organisations have invited foreign investments with open arms. Finance departments are involved to great length in such circumstances.

3.8.7 Accounts Department The accounts departments have the regular operational responsibilities of running the organisations. Tasks right from handling monthly pay rolls, petty cash, distributing funds as per the directives to other roles like billing, purchases, payments, collections, are all done by the accounts department. The department is mainly involved in the administrative part of finance. It has

65 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar a team of accounts manager, billing clerks, recovery officers and associate managers who work in this department.

3.8.8 Human Resources Department A newspaper organization has a huge employee base to cater too. Some newspaper organisations in India even have unions to cater to the needs and problems of the workers. The HR Departments of newspaper organisations are involved in various HR related issues, right from recruiting, preparing job descriptions, maintaining performance appraisal systems, setting appraisal systems as per the needs of the organization to even other issues like tackling the issues of workers and unions.

The HR department also works on various round the year activities like training programs for people from all levels of organisations on various educational and practical oriented problems like sales, systems, finance and marketing.

3.8.9 Administrative Department The administrative departments are concerned with all the administrative work of the newspaper organization. Their role is to see to it that everything is in place to help the organization run smoothly. This department overlooks all the administrative aspects like running the facilities, pantries, kitchens, security systems and hospitality services within the organization.

3.8.10 Information Teclinology Department Today the newspaper organisations invest huge amounts of money on software and hardware. The technology costs are very high, making it worthwhile to have an exclusive IT department in place.

The IT departments have the responsibility to see to it that the latest software systems in the market that can be of benefit to the organization are in place. They are also involved in training the users to use the software effectively. The IT departments are also required to maintain the hundreds of hardware 66 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar systems that are in place in the organisations across departments. The newspaper organisations of today depend a lot on IT today due to which an updated IT system is their necessity today.

3.9 Capital Investments in Indian Newspaper Organisations The newspaper organisations have to make two or three major capital investments in order to run the organisations seamlessly and more effectively. These investments include plant & machinery, land, and the software and hardware costs.

3.9.1 Plant & Machinery One of the most high priority and costly capital investment that a newspaper organization makes is in its printing press. Organisations invest huge amounts of money in buying the latest updated printing machines for their newspapers. The reasons too are equally important. One of the obvious reasons is that the product has to look good. However one of the important reasons is that newspaper organisations are largely dependent on advertising revenues today. To get good revenues they need to have two things; a newspaper with good looks and content and substantial circulation. To attain good looks newspapers cannot depend on the old fashioned printing machineries anymore. Hence latest machineries are set up. The organisations also need to invest in other machineries like the high end generators, pre-press set ups, and other machineries required to run the offices. 3.9.2 Land A newspaper organization also obviously requires huge space for its corporate office, printing press, storage area and other activities. Marketing offices are needed to be in the city. The printing press too cannot be far off from the city as it needs to have control over the logistics cost. Considering the costs in real estate today, land is indeed a huge capital investment.

3.9.3 Software & Hardware Newspaper organisations have grown in size today. One can find larger newspapers with multiple editions and huge set ups to run the newspaper 67 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar organization. Advertisers all across tiie country are opting newspapers for their products that have national reach. In such cases it becomes important for newspaper organisations to have the latest technological back up to support the formats received from all across India.

Newspaper organisations require various kind of software right from designing the page layout, working on photographs to many other administrative software systems. Some newspapers in India like The Times of India have started accepting advertising material through Internet uploads. Some newspaper organisations have now even set up SAP systems in their organisations. All this requires a strong hardware base as well as extensive training to operate these software systems.

3.9.4 Other Major Expenses Other than the capital expenses newspapers are burdened with two major expenses on a regular basis. One major expense is of salaries of people. Newspapers are required to recruit many people from both the categories skilled as well as unskilled. The recruitments also include a talent pool of journalists, editors, directors, managers, and executives who are deployed to perform various tasks on a day to day basis.

The other major expense is that of buying newsprint. This is the paper on which the newspaper is printed. Newspapers are required to buy the newsprint in bulk and store it. This paper is purchased with advance payments and is mostly imported by most of the major newspapers across India. With the ever increasing prices of newsprint the newspapers are required to make heavy investments in this department.

68 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

3.10 Main Revenue Model and Allied Sources

2004 Newspaper Revenues Rs 88.61 Billion

______Subscription Advertising ^ ^

54%

Graph 3.1: 2004 Newspaper Revenues Details in Percentage Source: The Indian Media Business, 2'^'^ Edition, Vanita Kohli- Khandekar

Figure 3.1 shows the revenues earned by newspapers from India in amount as well as percentage. (Kohli- Khandekar, 2006). Although the above figures are from the year 2004 they still show the ratios in which newspapers across India earn their revenues.

Newspaper organisations have never depended on revenue through sales of the paper as the sole model of revenue generation. The newspapers today are looking forward to change this ratio due to several reasons. One important reason is that due to competition many newspapers are maintaining a low price strategy.

Especially in today’s world where news is freely available over the Internet, it would be an extremely difficult task to sell a newspaper at a higher cost than it is available at as on today. Hence newspapers are dependent on other sources of revenue generation to run the newspaper successfully. At the same time advertisers too are expecting more from the newspapers than just the ad space that is sold. Hence newspapers are coming up with various

69 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar sources to offer more to the advertisers as well as generate revenue from more than one source.

An article (www.sulekha.com) says that the most important characteristic of Newspaper industry is the significant start-up cost that is required for buildings, presses, establishing distribution channels and large editorial staff to develop original content on a daily basis. Building brand value and maintaining a large circulation volume therefore is crucial to recover these high fixed costs. While the rate of renewed subscription is usually high, gaining new subscribers gets difficult in tough competition scenarios.

3.10.1 Subscriptions One way of revenue generation is through monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions. Subscriptions are advantageous in several ways to the publications. One very distinctive advantage is the guarantee of the quantity of sales of the newspaper at least for a particular period. This is linked with the advertising revenues on which newspaper organisations are highly dependent.

It is also observed that since the launch of newspapers in almost every newspaper that is being launched is not depending on the subscriptions as revenue. Newspapers are charged via subscriptions and almost the complete amount charged to the readers is distributed to the vendors as commissions. At times the amount paid to vendors is more than the amount charged to the readers. The latest example is of DNA charging Rs. 199 for two years to the readers of Pune but paying regular commissions to the vendors.

3.10.2 Newspaper Sales Newspaper sale is the sale of newspaper through stands that is the vendors. Newspapers are sold in large quantities on a daily basis through these vendors. The floating population largely contributes to these sales and revenue. 70 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Although it is an advantage to reach the floating population through this type, still the problem is high level of dependence on the vendors. These vendors have unions and can cause problems to the newspapers in certain situations. In Pune city, the Marathi newspaper has recently faced this problem. The newspaper has now established its parallel team of vendors to circulate the newspaper around the city on a daily basis. However such situations account to added expenses and additional responsibility on part of the publication.

3.10.3 Advertising Advertising in the newspapers is what newspaper organisations are largely dependent on. The cost of printing each newspaper issue is very high. It is not a cost that a buyer would ever want to spend from his pocket.

After the emergency period in the late seventies, the newspaper industry actually started to liberalize its thoughts. Although this process may not have been too fast, still the newspaper organisations took up a professional approach to running a newspaper. The approach towards revenue generation too started changing in the same period.

3.10.4 Events & Exhibitions Many newspaper organisations have lately ventured into the arena of organizing their own exhibitions and events. The main cost and task required to conduct an exhibition is the advertising for it and also the publicity required to reach the masses. It is the newspaper organisations that bring in footfall to the venue of the events and exhibitions.

The newspaper organisations, the media as a whole has taken this factor into consideration before venturing into it. This also offers value addition to its advertisers and also an opportunity to earn huge revenues through an additional medium than just advertising through newspapers.

71 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

3.10.5 Private Treaties/ Ad for Equity Private Treaties is an innovation in the revenue model of the newspaper industry. It is the latest revenue model that was first implemented by The Times of India. Private Treaty is a model where the newspaper organisation does not directly charge the advertiser for the ads in their newspaper but takes some equity from the advertiser in return of the advertising space. This model is beneficial to both the advertiser as well as the newspaper brand. One, the advertiser is relieved that he is not supposed to pay the newspaper organisation every time he advertises. Due to this the advertiser can divert his attention as well as funds to increase the business. On the other hand it helps the newspaper brand in terms of value because their newspaper is always full of ads. A newspaper that has more ads is always considered to be a successful newspaper, thus it helps the brand get more business. In this process the newspaper and the advertiser are not outsiders to each other but work with each other as partners. This benefits both. However there are several newspaper organisations which feel that this is the most unethical practice as it instigates biased approach towards the advertiser with whom the newspaper brand has entered into an agreement.

Archana Shukla in an article titled, “Should private treaties be made public to newspaper readers?” in , explores the perspectives of the people from the industry towards the private treaties and what its impact would be on the quality of content. The views of the people in the industry are fairly divided, the article says. At the same time, this concept is getting such wide acceptance that Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director. International Newspaper Marketing Association, a trade group, has said that he has pitched the BCCL model to European publishers. It’s a win-win situation for everyone he says. Currently apart from , HT Media Limited, Network 18, NDTV Limited and too have implemented this model. (www.livemint.com, 2008).

An article titled, “Moving into multiple business models”, recommends that Publishers have to find new revenue models to remain profitable. Newspaper 72 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar publishers have a competitive advantage in creating content and can benefit from leveraging this competitive advantage online. They could also engage in strategic partnerships with other content providers to strengthen their proposition.Additionally, in order to target more accurately, investments must be made in CRM and content management systems. Regular feedback from the readers, Technological developments unique online concepts, moving away from a channel-orientated structure towards a content production structure and partnering more closely with advertisers are some other revenue models.

Newspaper publishers need to become more flexible and innovative in their product offerings and need to be prepared to negotiate alternative, flexible, contingency fees with advertisers. Offering flexible solutions such as template-based self-service options can both facilitate cost savings and be attractive to advertisers. (PricewaterCoopers, 2009).

3.11 Advertising Trend in the Newspaper Industry The advertising expenditures in the Indian media industry are regularly monitored by TAM through its division AdEx India. TAM (Television Audience Measurement) is a joint venture company between AC Nielsen & Kantar Media Research and IMRB. (www.tamindia.com). The reports are available on an all India basis and not for a particular city.

73 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Print advertising attracts more and more advertisers over the years

b time's in numbei o f advertnef% in Print during. J a n -Sep ‘ 0 ^ over 20CM!) /•ir>

2000 200! 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Jar^Sep09

•M

Graph 3.2: Number of advertisers in print media Source: www.tamindia.com

As per the AdEx India reports shown in Graph 3.2 number of advertisers in Print increase by six times during Jan-Sep ‘09 over 2000.

74 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Print ad volumes grew by 31% during 2010

2009 2010 ini^eic: yyw ^ lOO <: *■- .. ft-. 1

Graph 3.3: Comparative data of print ad volumes in 2009 and 2009 Source: www.tamindia.com

The Print advertising increased by 31% during 2010 compared to 2009.

75 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Loyalty works on Print!

7 time^ tiip in no ot excUi'.We jdvpiliNets in t’rint dining. Jan-Sep '0*? over 2000

86/ 800 ;.,7

J4-! .'13 t-l-1 100

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 JanSepO<> ind'T- teai :?CiXtetc»'j 5 /.r , TriclffiA d E f^

Graph 3.4: Advertisers advertising only in the print medium Source: www.tamindia.com

The number of exclusive advertisers in Print has increased by 7 times during Jan-Sep‘09 over 2000.

or JAYAK■

.

76 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Publications’ % Share In 2010

Newspaper Vs Matazlne Language-wise View r 2^ W ■ Engtish

■ Hindi

■ M arathi

■ Malayalain

■ Gujarati ■ Tamil I Telufu

Kannada

•» O riya

A s s a m e « I Magazires M Newspaper

Afjf> IryJjd (ADviSJWiC? rA.y

N o tr : f i^ u r e v a r e b a ^ f J c t i ColurT

Graph 3.5: Newspapers share of advertising revenues compared with magazines share in 2010 Source: www.tamindia.com

Graph 3.5 shows that out of the total advertising share to the print medium 95% were of the newspaper industry while magazines got only 5%. The figure also shows that 60% of the total advertising expenses were on the English newspapers.

77 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Publications' % Share: Geographically

Zone-wise Split Top 5 States

M South Zone H West Zone KarruUU ri North Zone TamrtNadu JSL »» fast Zone J8«i n National Well -»L

Source Adt,x India (A t>fviMonof Resrarch) h^uiirsarr Coli»rm*CM Mt

Graph 3.6: Geographical Representation of Revenue Split Source: www.tamindia.com

South Zone got the maximum 32% share but state wise got the maximum share of 17%.

78 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Usdp,e ot Piint liinovdtive ad layciit dec leased diiiiiif’ HI “2010

Jan-Jun '09 Jan-Jun '10

!?>■?<> : Jaii-Xin ~09 • ico , . . t 4m

Graph 3.7: Usage of Print medium for innovative advertising Source: www.tamindia.com

The newspaper industry is also being widely used for innovative advertising, however figure shows that innovative advertising showed a decline of 29% in 2010 compared to 2009.

79 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

..r- 4ti* i- t >■ f n t* 1 Inv'.N ti-'iy hi jPfcl mrtftiTrt I .-f«1.«U UJI^SHT 4 - W U I l « 1 ipvr-t Uf,r< i . » r < l »

Akor.r. twtw i->. lU»v>4y%^l MPt^ '■• t h - ~ ' M I * *,uini»^. t'yi'...... j S^?J5ai=nS=S2=S: < liiiji‘41 uc •■> m PSgi^E^BBNigSr^'SgI •.pht^^ifro*.-!*! aft. ■ ,.i 11,1. iii^. ij|y f AA, w* •▼ ) ►» %»#■ fk *T(|fc^ QB.i' ' '|^,TiP""*' ', ~ " ' fl c»i>ir»*>r.. «.H /,-.->--r.~--^.-;^ w . ,v-^.»g— ------^^''^--T.a*frrrTr»-’--'---T-cg.- n

■ ... ;,^-'s:AS*HSS'SE:^eA/r m

Graph 3.8: Global Consumer Trust In Advertising by Channel Source: www.trak.in

Graph 3.8 shows that according to the survey carried out by Nielsen Global, Consumers trust Newspaper Advertising more than Online Advertising. (Source; www.trak.in)

3.12 English Newspapers In Mumbai The first English newspaper to be launched in Mumbai was The Times of India, in the year 1838. It was named The Bombay Times when it was launched. The Times of India has been the dominant English newspaper in Mumbai since the day it was started.

The English newspaper industry in Mumbai is strategically important due to several reasons. First reason is that Mumbai being called the commercial capital of India, a presence of a newspaper in this city becomes crucially important.

Second, the maximum print advertising revenue in India is generated from Mumbai. As per the latest survey from AdEx India, out of this print advertising 80 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar business, English grabbed maximum ad volumes with 60% share of the total business. (Source AdEx India, 2010). This indicates that the advertisers benefit more from advertising in the English newspapers than in the regional language newspapers. The main reason behind this could be that a high percentage of people living in Mumbai come from all parts of India, thus making English the most convenient language for communication.

An article in the fortnightly magazine Frontline, which was published immediately after the launch of Times, and DNA in Mumbai stated that the flood of newspapers in Mumbai has made the advertisers happy, but questioned whether the readers have really benefitted from it. The article says that for long, advertisers have felt that they have been held to ransom as they had no choice but to pay exorbitant rates to The Times of India in order to reach Mumbai's upmarket consumers. Now, there are other platforms, but they will have to prove themselves before advertisers start considering them an option. The article also states that though The Times of India claimed that its circulation remained the same, its counter sales had reduced by 40,000 to 50,000 copies per day as per the observations by a newspaper agent. (Frontline, 2005). This indicates that the advertisers were looking for another English newspaper as an option to advertise and hence looked forward to the launch and performance of the two newspapers, DNA and .

In spite of the assumption that English is the most convenient language of communication and the two facts that advertisers were looking for other options in English newspapers and that the maximum advertising business as on 2010 is to the English newspapers, there is an interesting observation on the readership of English newspapers in Mumbai.

The IRS figures of the years 2005 to 2010 shown in graph no. 3.9 indicate that the readership numbers are falling down. The graph also clearly shows that although The Times of India is still the undisputed leader in terms of readership in Mumbai, the newspaper is consistently losing the number of 81 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar readers every year, especially after the launch of the three newspapers, Hindustan Times, DNA and Mumbai Mirror. It must also be noted that Mumbai Mirror is a brand of the Bennett Coleman & Co. which also owns The Times of India.

The findings of other newspapers like Asian Age, Free Press Journal and Afternoon Dispatch & Courier were not included as the data was not properly available.

The financial dailies have not been included as they belong to a different category and were not considered to draw the conclusions of the research.

2500

2000 ......

■ IRS Data Readership in OOO's IRS 2005 R2 1500 ■ IRS Data Readership in OOO's IRS 2006 R2

■ IRS Data Readership in OOO's IRS 1000 2007 R2

■ IRS Data Readership in OOO's IRS 2008 R2 500 - ■ IRS Data Readership In OOO's IRS 2009 R2

■ IRS Data Readership in OOO's IRS 2010 Q2

<(7

Graph 3.9: Readership trend among English newspapers in Mumbai from 2005 to 2010 Source: IRS Data 2005 to 2010, made available from Lokmat Papers Ltd.

82 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

As per the observations (www.exchange4 media.com, 2011), an interesting point to note is that although all English dailies have shown a declining trend in their readerships, Hindustan Times is the only English daily broadsheet newspaper in the general category in Mumbai which as shown growth. Nitin Pandey in the article points out that The Times of India has shown a marginal drop of .51% while DNA has shown a drop of .35%. At the same time, Hindustan Times has shown a growth of 3.55% and achieved the number 2 slot in Mumbai that it had aimed for since its launch in 2005.

3.13 Industry Specific Associations and Organisations Over the last 60 years the newspaper industry in India has gone through many changes. With time it became necessary to form regulatory bodies and regulations which would give guidelines and directions to the industry. Many government, semi-private and private bodies have been formed which offer guidelines, content, data to the newspaper organisations for various purposes.

3.13.1 Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is one of the several organisations of the same name operating in different parts of the world. The ABC founded in 1948 is a non-profit, voluntary organization consisting of Publishers, Advertisers and Advertising Agencies. It has developed audit procedures to verify the circulation data published by the newspapers and periodicals. ABC is a founder member of the International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations. The main function of ABC is to evolve, lay down a standard and uniform procedure by which a member publisher shall compute its net paid sales. The circulation figure so arrived at is checked and certified by a firm of Chartered Accountants which are approved by the Bureau. The Bureau issues ABC certificates every six months to those publishers whose circulation figures confirm to the rules and regulations as set out by the Bureau. ABC's membership today includes 411 Publishers of national and regional importance, 151 Advertising Agencies, 51 Advertisers & 20 New Agencies and Associations connected with print media and advertising. The 83 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar data of ABC is used by media planners and advertisers to choose a particular media vehicle in a particular city. (Source: Company Website)

3.13.2 Indian Newspaper Society The early beginnings of the Society can be traced back to 11, 1927, when a Society bearing the name, The India, Burma & Ceylon Newspapers’ London Committee came into being, the name of which was changed to Indian & Eastern Newspaper Society (lENS) on October 4, 1935. This was an organization based in London representing and acting solely under the authority of newspapers, magazines, reviews and other journals published in India, Burma, Ceylon and other countries of Asia. The need, however, was felt for the establishment of a coordinating body in this country, comprising the proprietors of newspapers, which could deal directly and more expeditiously with the various day-to-day problems arising out of newspaper production. Thus The Indian & Eastern Newspaper Society came into being. (www.indiannewspapersociety.org))

3.13.3 Media Research Users Council Media Research Users Council (MRUC) is a registered not-for-profit body incorporated in the year 1994. It consists of members from major advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers, and broadcast/other media, (www.mruc.net)

3.13.4 Indian Readership Survey MRUC conducts the Indian Readership Survey bi-annually to determine the audience assessment on a periodical basis. The survey studies complete details of the readership and analyses the data on the basis of the sun/ey samples. Approximately 2.5 lac readers are surveyed during the survey. MRUC claims this survey to be the largest ongoing survey in the world. (www.mruc.net)

3.13.5 National Readership Studies Council National Readership Studies Council is a part of the Audit Bureau of Circulations and has representation of Advertising Agencies Association of 84 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

India (AAAI, Mumbai), Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). It conducts a readership survey called National Readership Survey. (Excerpts in qualitative interview).

3.13.6 National Readership Survey The National Readership Survey (NRS) is conducted once a year. NRSC claims that the National Readership Study 2006 (N RS 2006) in India is the largest survey of its kind in the world, with a sample size of 2, 84, 373 house- to-house interviews to measure the media exposure and consumer product penetration in both urban and rural India - and of course the estimated readership of publications. The study covers 535 publications of which 230 are dailies and 305 are magazines, (www.hindu.com)

3.13.7 IFRA WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organization of the world's newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. The organization was created by the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organization for the news publishing industry, (www.wan-ifra.org)

3.13.8 Registrar of Newspapers for India The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, also known as RNI came into being on 1®' July, 1956, on the recommendation of the First Press Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867. (mib.nic.in)

85 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

3.14 The General Newspaper Brands in Mumbai 3.14.1 The Times of India The Times of India (TOI) is a popular English-language broadsheet daily newspaper in India. It has the widest circulation among all English-language newspapers in the world, across all formats (broadsheet, compact, Berliner and online). It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company, along with its other group companies, known as The Times Group, also publishes , Mumbai Mirror, the (a Hindi-language daily broadsheet), the (a Marathi- language daily broadsheet). The Group also successfully runs various web portals, radio stations, television channels along with its entry into the OOH media. The present management of The Times Group has been instrumental in changing the outlook of Indian journalism. The Group is run by two borhters, Mr. Sameer Jain and Mr. . In the research the researcher has mentioned The Times of India and thee Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. as TOI. The Times of India, BCCL, The Times Group and The Times.

3.14.2 Indian Express Group has been known for its fierce and investigative journalism for over seven decades. The Group has carved a place for itself in Indian Journalism since the days of India’s struggle for independence. Shri Ramnath Goenka is the founder of The Indian Express Group. He was known for his sense of history and his instinct of patriotism. Today, it is the leading light in the battle against corruption as well as empowering the people of India. The Indian Express began its journey in 1932. Since then, the Group has grown from strength to strength. From a single edition to 35 national editions, 14 publication centres and 7 language dailies that reach over 19 million people across the country. For the millions of readers, the name "Indian Express" evokes a feeling of faith and trust in the belief that ‘their Express’ will provide the true picture of India and the world at large. Published from 21 centres across the country, the newspaper has been identified with credible and fiercely independent journalism in India. One of the most influential newspapers of the Indian subcontinent. The Indian Express has 86 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar been the watchdog for the Indian people, fiercely treading the terrains of investigative and pro active journalism, (www.exims.in)

3.14.3 DNA Diligent Media Corporation, which owns DNA (Daily News & Analysis), is a joint venture between two industry majors - the Dainik Bhaskar Group and Zee Group. With a reach of more than 120 countries and access to more than 250 million viewers globally. Zee TV has created strong brand equity and is the largest media franchise serving the South Asian Diaspora with presence in major global markets, including Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, the UK, the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Africa. The Group has transformed itself into an integrated media conglomerate with operations spanning the entire media spectrum. The Dainik Bhaskar Group has soared to the top of the print media industry in India with its flagship Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar (India’s No. 1 Daily Hindi Newspaper), and the Gujarati frontrunner, . While Dainik Bhaskar has a big presence in , Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, Divya Bhaskar is the largest circulated regional daily in Gujarat.

Launched in Mumbai in July 2005, DNA has fast entrenched itself in the lives of a young and dynamic readership in India's commercial capital Mumbai, in the IT Capital Bangalore, and other key cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat and Jaipur. Through news, views, analyses and interactivity, DNA provides readers with a composite picture of India and the world. (www.dnaindia.com)

3.14.4 Mid Day Mid Day was started in the year 1979 in Mumbai. This newspaper was launched as a first of its kind newspaper with the newspaper reaching the stands around mid day as its name signifies. Mid Day is the newspaper which has appealed those readers in Mumbai who have to travel long distances every day either through local trains or the local buses. It is quite common to 87 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar find the English reading classes from various age groups and from both the genders reading this newspaper every day, especially while commuting through trains, taxis and buses. (Excerpts from qualitative interview).

Mid Day has been recently acquired by one of the leading publishing media organisation in India, Jagran Prakashan. (www.livemint.com)

3.14.5 Mumbai Mirror Mumbai Mirror is a tabloid started by The Times of India, BC C L Group. Mumbai Mirror is that Mumbai Mirror is available on stands since morning and is delivered to people at their doorsteps along with its parent brand The Times of India. Mumbai Mirror mainly offers light reading, news about the city, targets the youth in particular and speaks about it being the reflection of the city’s image. Mumbai Mirror was launched in the year 2005, during the same time when other newspapers DNA and Hindustan Times were launched in Mumbai.

3.14.6 In February 1994, India's global newspaper, The Asian Age, was launched simultaneously from Delhi, Mumbai and London. Today, it has editions in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and London. It has come a long way since its inception, and has already established itself within the competitive environment of Indian media as a daily to reckon with. It is, in addition, the only Indian newspaper with an international edition (London). (wv^Aw.asianage.com)

3.14.7 The Free Press Journal is a contemporary Paper that is rooted in current urban realities. In keeping with the international trend, it has reinvented itself in terms of design, get up and content. It means different thing to different people - A platform for the Articulate, a trendsetter for the young and a chronicle for the old. The Free Press Journal is one of the oldest English Daily newspapers from Mumbai with a heritage of 78 years of Publication. It was at 88 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar the forefront of freedom struggle against the British and continues the free and fearless journalism till date. It delivers an array of interesting lifestyle stories from the World of Business with an easily assimilated manner.

Mr. Swaminath Sadanand 30-year-old idealist from Madras trudged his way to Bombay and with a vision that was to prove uncomfortably ahead of his day, brought out a newspaper as unorthodox in character as it was innovative in concept, for, Swaminath Sadanand the Free Press Journal was not so much a business venture as a cause. The spirit with which he launched the paper and ran it for almost three decades helped make it an integral part of two great Indian movements - the struggle for independence and the evolution of Indian Publishing, (www.fpj.co.in)

3.14.8 Hindustan Times HT Media found its beginning in 1924 when its flagship newspaper, Hindustan Times was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi. HT Media (BSE, NSE) has today grown to become one of India’s largest media companies.

HT Media, through its subsidiary HT Music and Entertainment Company Ltd., has made its foray into electronic media. Diversifying its ambit of operations, the company in a consulting partnership with Virgin Radio, has launched the FM radio channel - Fever 104. Currently available in Delhi and Mumbai, Fever 104 has established a strong presence as being one of the most vibrant channels on air. In a short span of two years, the channel's rise has been meteoric considering its position in Delhi as the No. 2 station on the popularity charts. Internet businesses of HT Media, incorporated under Firefly e- ventures, operate leading web portals Hindustantimes.com and livemint.com in the general and business news categories respectively. The company has recently launched Shine.com, a job portal, (www.htmedia.in)

3.14.9 Mint HT Media also publishes a national business newspaper. Mint. Mint is a one- of-its-kind newspaper in the sense that the company has an exclusive

89 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar agreement with the Wall Street Journal to publish Journal-branded news and information in India. Mint is today the second-largest business newspaper in India with presence in the key markets of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. (www.htmedia.in). It can be said is the first business newspaper to come in a tabloid format with more of informal looks. Although the newspaper is now being available in most of the metros and mini-metros across India, still it is yet to prove its worth.

3.15 Repackaging of the Indian newspaper The newspapers of today have changed completely in terms of the name, design, writing style, content, colour, paper quality and visual content among other things.

The visual impact has always had its own significance. The newspapers today give a lot of importance to the visual content in terms of photographs used. A lot of photographs are used to convey the message across. The newspapers have even become colourful with many of them having latest technology machineries to deliver great colourful newspapers. The newspaper owners even purchase better quality of newsprint to print their newspapers. The fonts that are being used are more stylish, used after a thorough research of what the readers might like. The newspapers writing style too has changed and some newspapers are seen using a bit of informal language in certain sections of the newspaper. Some newspapers are also giving their new born newspapers some unconventional names. The best example of an unconventional name could be DNA. The newspaper is running successfully too.

3.16 Reasons to gain maximum circulation When the newspaper industry in India started there were probably no such thoughts of vying for the top seat of the leadership by any newspaper. The sole purpose was to work with a single-minded objective of educating Indians on what the British had been doing against India and the intentions of the Indian freedom fighters to fight against them. 90 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

However finally in the late seventies after the end of the ennergency rule, the newspaper organisations started considering the newspapers in the commercial perspective.

Advertising through the newspaper medium increased and flourished as there was hardly any other single medium which was available to both regional as well as national advertisers. The competition among newspapers grew and new players started coming in. Newspapers were the major gainers of advertising spend by advertisers across the country.

The advertising expenditures by advertisers started splitting after the early nineties when electronic media started emerging strongly with private players. After that in the late nineties by the turn of the century there were private players in radio too. The number of private players in radio grew across the country and the advertising budgets further divided.

Since the late nineties the country also showed a lot of entrants from other countries across many other sectors. All this showed a surge in the economy too. Lifestyle of people started changing and thus their habits, tastes and preferences.

Then the internet media came. Although the use of internet increased the internet media could not get the advertising budgets in the same ratio. The budgets however still split a bit. The biggest advertising budgets are still with the print media.

As shown in graph 3.10 it can be seen that even as of 2005, print medium dominated the revenue among all other media, although television medium increased a lot from 1995 to 2005.

91 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar 100% 90%

80%

70% 49 60% 59

50%

40% 30% -44 20% 29t ! 10%

0% 1995 2005

Total Rs. million 46,290 162,680

TV Internet Outdoor Cinema I Radio Press

Graph 3.10: Share of expenditure by media Source: The Indian Media Business, 2"*^ Edition, Vanita Kohli- Khandekar

Till the year 2005 the newspaper industry too was changing but not at the speed of other media. At the same time it should be noted that the major advertising revenues earned by media companies came from Mumbai, the commercial capital of India.

Finally in 2005, three major newspapers namely Hindustan Times, DNA and Mumbai Mirror were launched in Mumbai. These newspapers were launched with massive advertising campaigns, circulation drives and brand building exercises to gain maximum circulation right from day one. Each newspaper is aiming to be in the top slot. The question is why newspapers are aiming for this position.

As shown in graph 3.11, Mumbai English newspaper industry gets the largest share of the pie of the advertising budgets. No other group of English newspapers in any other city in India gets a share as large as this. 92 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Advertising Revenue Share Revenue Split Subscription Revenue Share

2 6 % 2 3 % 2 9 % 3 2 %

10% 10%

B Banglore ^ Banglore

□ Chennai □ Chennai

■ Hyderabad □ Hyderabad

■ Kolkata ■ Kolkata

□ Mumbai □ Mumbai

■ New Delhi ■ New Delhi

Graph 3.11: Geographical Representation of Revenue Split, 2004 (City wise) Source: The Indian Media Business, 2"'' Edition, Vanita Kohli- Khandekar

Graph 3.11 shows the share of advertising revenues and subscription revenues in various cities. The graph clearly indicates that the maximum revenue generation in newspapers through advertising and subscription comes from Mumbai city. This also indicates why new launches are happening in Mumbai than in other cities.

Today with the increasing competition in Mumbai this ad spend is shared by English newspapers, regional language newspapers, magazines of all languages and specialties, outdoor media, multiplex advertising, mobile, Internet, events and exhibitions, television, radio, cable, and other promotional activities. All these media have several brands in it. An individual in a city like

93 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Mumbai is exposed to several media throughout the day due to his or her lifestyle.

Other issues are that of divided readership and readership time. Divided readership refers to the fragmentation of readership. For example people from various age groups are attracted to various types of news. A young male in his teens might be more attracted to the sports and entertainment section while a male in his thirties could be more interested in serious news that deals with politics, business and International news segments. Due to this divided readership, newspapers too are redesigning their newspapers to suit the particular segments news.

At the same time the readership time is also getting lesser and lesser. If a newspaper was given about 15-20 minutes till a few years back, today the same individual gives about 8-11 minutes to read the newspaper. This again is due to the lack of time, fast lifestyle, exposure to various media for news and information and other such reasons.

Advertising Revenue Share Revenue Split Subscription Revenue Share

51'V,.

C English □ Hindi C MaiayaJam ■ Oriva. B Assanicsf □ Litglish G Hindi □ Malavaiam G '■ □ t'.iijarati O Kimnjwia □ Maralhi □ }\injahi □ Bt*ngali B Gujarati B Kannudti □ Maraihi C 1

B I '7 du B Tetugu \ Q B i^rdu S Tclugu

Graph 3.12: Geographical Representation of Revenue Split, 2004 (Language wise) Source: The Indian Media Business, 2"‘* Edition, Vanita Kohli- Khandekar

94 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

The figure in Graph 3.12 indicates why the English newspapers are struggling hard to get the maximum share in terms of circulation. The advertising revenues of the English newspapers are the maximum, 51% compared to the regional language newspapers.

One advantage that the newspaper media has over many other media is that newspaper media can be used by the local, regional as well as the national brands equally effectively. Maximum share normally goes to the newspaper which has largest circulation in the city. However even the newspapers with lesser circulation figures get their own share in the advertising revenue. Today’s newspaper business is all a matter of getting the largest market share. The focus of the newspaper industry has shifted from the reader to the advertiser. Naturally with the change in focus towards the advertiser, it becomes necessary to please the advertiser and bring out a newspaper more acceptable to the advertiser’s needs and preferences. The newspaper has to fulfil all or at least most of the important requirements of an advertiser. Due to this situation one can find many additions to the newspapers that are directly connected to advertising. Supplements that are published as marketing initiatives, appointment pages, and special supplements on extremely high quality papers, special news columns written by industry experts and sponsored by big brands are all examples of activities done by the newspaper industry to earn more revenue. One of the finest examples is the branding of supplements done by the newspapers The Times of India and The Economic Times. These newspapers have branded their supplements Ascent for appointments and Brand Equity respectively so well that advertisers have shown a clear preference to these supplements over other competitors.

However one of the most important criteria is the circulation of a newspaper. In order to fulfil this requirement the newspapers now have a dual responsibility of coming out with a product which is appreciated, accepted and purchased by maximum number of people, thus achieving the largest circulation figures. In this context it becomes very necessary for all the English

95 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

newspapers in Mumbai to get the top circulation slot, eventually an appealing newspaper too.

3.17 Competitors of the Newspaper Industry When the feeling of competition first came in the minds of the newspaper brands in India, there were very few competitors. Almost all the competitors were other newspaper brands with little or no competition from any other media. People too depended on newspapers as the sole media for getting news and information. Later when television arrived it was available but in very less number of households. There too the availability was only of Doordarshan. Radio too was available but couldn’t give details of all news, local, regional, national and international. Today the case is completely different. Options are available in plenty, each option solving a different objective. Some media options like outdoor hoardings are offering a platform only to the advertisers, while newspapers are offering something to the advertisers as well as the readers.

An article on a website (www.merinews.com) says, in spite of all the optimistic data about newspaper industry in India, there is no doubt that conventional newspapers are gravely jeopardised by fast mushrooming new media services like e-paper, mobile news alerts and Direct to Home (DTH) television. The article also states that even blogging, an unedited platform, has to be seen as an embryonic threat to already saturated newspaper industry. There are researchers everywhere searching new innovations to increase their brand equity. Newspaper stalwarts searching value suggestions in the newspaper business, they are finding new methods to reorient their business to gain audience, to strengthen their brand and captivate new grosses. Finally the article concludes on a positive note stating that the new media isn’t demolishing newspapers, but actually enlivening them and making them more valuable.

A point to note is that all this competition between different media and same product category is mainly because of the changing lifestyle and the tastes 96 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

and preferences to an individual. An average individual is exposed to Mobile, Newspapers, Radio, Television, Internet, Magazines, and Outdoor everyday in his life.

The choices for the people in Mumbai are abundant. The city has a choice of multiple English daily newspapers; regional language newspapers, radio stations, several hundred television channels, multiple different mobile career brands: hundreds of thousands of websites and portals, and hundreds of hoardings and several hundred magazines to choose from. This exposure of an individual to every media and the brands that exist in each category make it severely necessary for each brand to have factors that are so distinct that both, the readers as well as advertisers prefer that brand over others.

From the advertising revenue perspective, English newspapers in Mumbai today face huge competition from other English newspapers, regional language newspapers, magazines, outdoor media, OOH, multiplexes, malls, radio, television, cable network, Internet, Mobile, events and exhibitions among many other things. In terms of competition for news and content, English newspapers in Mumbai have prominent competition from television, Internet and the regional language newspapers.

3.18 Government Policies The Government of India has finally accepted requests of foreign companies and opened the doors for foreign investments into the Indian newspaper industry. The investment however is restricted to 26% only in the newspaper industry.

This however has created quite a stir recently, as owners of many existing Indian newspaper brands are questioning whether outsiders should be allowed so freely to encroach into the segment where we as Indians have a freedom to write. Many existing groups in India feel that this is one segment where outsiders should not be allowed.

97 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Kohli -Khandekar in her book, “The Indian Media Business” Edition, has mentioned all the government policies pertaining to the Indian newspaper industry. Some of the important regulations that are in existence even today are mentioned in this paper. Khandekar mention that the first set of rules came in May 1799. These regulations required newspapers under the ‘pain of penalty’ to print the names of the printer, publisher and editor of this newspaper. Even today this rule exists. The Indian Penal Code, 1860: A part of this laid down offences that could relate to any writer, editor or publisher. The Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867: This was to regulate printing presses and newspapers by a process of registration and also preserve copies of books and other matters printed in India. In the nineties many companies wanted to launch foreign media brands or get foreign investment to India. This was opposed by the cabinet in 1955. A noteworthy change worth the mention here is the resolution passed by the Cabinet in June 2002. This allowed 26 percent Foreign Direct Investment in Print. This resolution was changed in 2005. This resolution has laid the foundation for the future of the Indian newspaper industry.

As per the resolution the Fll’s are to be part of the 26 percent investment in the print media in the newspaper category. It also says that all the registered newspapers (Indian publications) are authorized to make syndication arrangements to procure material including photographs, cartoons, crossword puzzles, articles and features from foreign publications under automatic approval. The procured and actually printed material cannot exceed 20 percent of the total printed area of that issue. It should not include full copy of the editorial page or the front page or the masthead of the foreign publication. (Kohli-Khandekar, 2006).

3.19 Newspaper Organisation A newspaper organisation consists of a very big team which includes people mainly in three industry specific departments. These categories are editorial, circulation and space-selling which is also called the marketing department. Each department has a team of specialists with specific roles to perform. 98 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

Due to the advertiser focused set up of newspaper organisations today, these departments which work independently also work along with each other on several occasions.

The researcher presents an organisational chart of a newspaper organisation in figure 3.1.

99 Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar

u c o C 3 . ■o u>Q. LU c s r .2 o o (/)Q. Ic CD ro OJ Q 03 €0o . Q.

On Q.

UJ q: =3 u.O

Th i'L’ioG

Figure 3.1: Newspaper Organisation Chart Source: Media Organisation Management, 2"^ Edition, 2004

100