This report of the Indian newspaper industry analyses English, Hindi and regional newspaper publishing and identifies the promise and challenge each faces. SPECIAL CONTENTSCONTENTS August, 2013 INDUSTRYINDUSTRY REPORTREPORT EMERGINGEMERGING STILLSTILL 6 While the developed world is ggloomyloomy about the newspapernewspaper business, it is flourishingflourishing in IndiaIndia.. CONTENTS SPECIAL ENGLISHENGLISH NEWSPAPERSNEWSPAPERS MINDMIND THETHE LANGUAGELANGUAGE 1100 AsAs the growth of English dailies slowsslows ddown,own, ttheyhey wwillill hhaveave to worworkk harderharder to get ahead.ahead. HINDIHINDI NEWSPAPERSNEWSPAPERS FLEXINGFLEXING 1144 THEIRTHEIR MUSCLESMUSCLES HindiHindi newspapers’newspapers’ great run willwill contcontinueinue as ttheyhey come up withwith newer iinnovations.nnovations. REGIONALREGIONAL NEWSPAPERSNEWSPAPERS COMINGCOMING 2222 OFOF AGEAGE TheThe ddirectionirection the industryindustry will taketake ddependsepends on hhowow reregionalgional mmediaedia bubuildsilds oonn ititss successuccess.s. By Sumantha Rathore Cover Illustration Tiffin Box Design Vinay Dominic August 2013 - afaqs! Reporter I SPECIAL REPORT 5 SPECIAL ENGLISH HAS TRADITIONALLY BEEN THE MOST PROFITABLE SEGMENT. NOW, LIKE AN ICEBERGE EMERGING FROM THE DEEP, HINDI BUSINESS HAVE TIFFIN BOX BUILT SCALE. THE FULL POTENTIAL OF REGIONAL LANGUAGE DAILIES, THOUGH, HAS STILL TO BE SEEN. 6 August 2013 - afaqs! Reporter I SPECIAL REPORT INDUSTRY REPORT EMERGING STILL While print dailies are struggling in much of the world, they are booming here. There are some peculiarly Indian reasons for this. t is like the case of the distant Icousin who has fallen on bad times. Ought that to become a reflection on the state of one’s own finances? Not fair, is it? That’s pretty much what has happened to the Indian newspaper business. For the past decade and more, the international media has been flooded with gloomy prognosis about where print is heading. And quite rightly so, because advertising revenue in print in the US has declined precipitously since 2000. Since Indians ABOUT 90 PER are clued into Western trends because of CENT OF PRINT the English connection, it has naturally been assumed by many that the same READERS IN fate applies here. The most influenced INDIA CONSUME by this have been the young adults from CONTENT IN the metros, many of whom do indeed get HINDI AND their news online. bias exists is simply because of language. REGIONAL They take their cue from senior digital The vanguard of the online movement experts who, with the zeal of the new has been led by people comfortable with SUSHIL KUMAR LANGUAGES. convert, can be insular and dismiss other English and because they see everybody media out of hand. To their mind, the they know online, they assume that this is fact that online is growing confirms that true for the rest of India. It isn’t, not yet. all other media is dying, especially print. The vast bulk of the print readers in In India, certainly, this is far from being India, about 90 per cent, in fact, consume the truth. Unlike the West, in India all their content in Hindi and regional media is growing, including print which languages. And relatively few of them is, in fact, doing extremely well barring have gone online for a variety of reasons. the odd blip. Some tech issues plus the relative lack of Over the last five years, advertising in variety in content compared to English, print has been growing at a compounded has inhibited the growth of online. annual growth rate of about 9 per cent. Votaries of online are apt to wag a According to KPMG, an international finger and underline how the internet- consultancy, this is the rate that will be enabled mobile phones will change the maintained for the next five years as well. game for Hindi and regional newspapers. One of the reasons why the online However, on evidence so far, Indian August 2013 - afaqs! Reporter I SPECIAL REPORT 7 SPECIAL users depend on their phone to provide are two other factors that protect Indian them entertainment – video, music – print against the much-anticipated digital rather than news. onslaught. Neither gets the importance India is not the only country in the they deserve when futurologists predict world where newspaper readership the early demise of dailies. is growing. Two other such major First, newspapers are priced low in THE markets are China and Brazil and both, India relative to most other countries. POPULARITY incidentally, are several years ahead of This has been true for English dailies OF LOCAL India on the economic development for years but less so for regional and LANGUAGES IS curve. China’s internet penetration is Hindi titles, which were priced higher about four times higher than India’s, for fewer pages. As the competition has THE REASON which is what makes its affection for print become fierce, non-English dailies have INDUSTRY REPORT WHY PRINT IS all the more remarkable. This emphasises been keeping their prices down, too. LESS AFFECTED that India has a thriving newspaper While it is easy to think of online BY ONLINE IN business not just because it is poor. as ‘free’, that’s a misnomer. Content is INDIA, THAN The popularity of local languages is free but access is not. Certainly when it the first reason why print is less affected comes to accessing news and features, ELSEWHERE by online in India, than elsewhere. There a newspaper for `100-150 per month is still the most cost-effective way to consume news through the written word. Also, a newspaper is shared in a way a screen can’t be. SUSHIL KUMAR The other, equally unappreciated aspect of newspaper logistics is that a newspaper is dropped at a reader’s home at the crack of dawn. This is a privilege not available in many places in the West, because the labour cost of delivering the title is prohibitive. In India, the abundance of hands allows this, although the hawker gets a share of a cover price which is low. This survey looks at English, Hindi and regional newspaper publishing and identifies the promise and challenge that each faces. 8 August 2013 - afaqs! Reporter I SPECIAL REPORT DIGITAL MADE SIMPLE SPECIAL ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS MIND THE LANGUAGE. THERE ARE OTHERS For a long time, English was the only worthwhile game among dailies. Now, as the markets move to smaller towns, publishers have to adapt. And then there is digital to worry about. hat a difference a decade can Nothing exemplified the promise of Wmake. Ten years ago, English riches better than The Times of India, was the only place to be in the Indian Mumbai. Within the print business it newspaper business. There were large wasn’t considered an edition: it was newspapers in other languages too but viewed as a press that printed money they lacked in pages, confidence and for its owner, Bennett Coleman & Co profit. They were, in every sense, the Ltd (BCCL). It was rated as unassailable, English daily’s country cousins. The which is why, for years, nobody dared big game was in the metros where the challenge its monopoly in Mumbai. markets and the money lay. No wonder, Finally, the temptation got too great. publishers of other dailies railed against Hindustan Times, from Delhi, set foot in what they believed was the natural bias of the city. But more dramatically, the Zee western-oriented media planners towards group and Dainik Bhaskar formed a joint English. venture to launch DNA, which tried to take on The Times of India in its lair in 2005. (Bhaskar has since sold its stake in the daily to its partner). English print media still enjoys the Eight years later, The Times still same clout. The rate of growth makes more money from its Mumbai has come down a bit but it has to edition than any other paper in India, do with the slow economic growth but everything else has changed. The and not because advertisers prefer fascination with both English and metros other languages or mediums.. is past its peak and there are many who RAVI DHARIWAL wonder if the best of the English press is CEO, BCCL already behind it. Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, BCCL, doesn’t ENGLISH DAILIES BALANCED COCKTAIL TEND TO BE HIT (Advertising revenue by language over the years, in Rs billion) HARDER IN A 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013* 2014* 2015* 2016* 2017* SLOWDOWN, IN English 49 53 57 59 62 66 70 74 79 PART BECAUSE Hindi 31 37 41 45 49 56 64 73 83 Regional 30 36 42 46 51 57 66 75 85 THEY THRIVE IN Total 110 126 140 150 162 179 200 222 247 THE METROS. Source: KPMG in India analysis, Industry discussions conducted by KPMG in India *Provisional 10 August 2013 - afaqs! Reporter I SPECIAL REPORT think so. He contends, “The English should ready themselves for the digital print media still enjoys the same clout. era, but, as anyone familiar with the However, the rate of growth has come experience of news online knows, this is down a bit but that has to do with the easier said than done. Advertising online slow economic growth and not because is extremely purchase-intent oriented advertisers prefer other languages or and people seeking news are generally other mediums.” not in the frame of mind to shop, as they English dailies tend to be hit harder in might be on, say, a portal specialising a slowdown, in part, because they thrive in automobiles. Besides, with Google in the metros which feel the effects of an economic reverse the most. Last year, as the economy slowed down, dailies in other languages continued to grow ad revenue by about 10 per cent – for More than anything else, SUSHIL KUMAR English, though, the figure was down to the segments themselves 3.5 per cent.