RIND SurveyAugust 2019 | Volume 40| Issue 8| Rs 50 www.pressinstitute.in A Journal of the Press Institute of India - Research Institute for Newspaper Development ALL ABOUT HIGH PERFORMANCE AND VERSATILITY DruckArt (part of the Geiselberger Group since 2012) in Kaufering in southern Germany seems to be a special company in the graphic arts industry, following Feng Shui rules – water, plants and lots of art. The company caters to clients, from the smallest run to millions of copies, with the highest level of finishing. A six-colour Rapida 106 press with an additional coating unit has been in production in the company’s pressroom for a year now. The operations are characterised by high performance and versatility. The thrust is on fast washing and fast ink changes, for production frequently is carried out with up to six special colours, followed by four-colour printing again. So, here is a specialist company for refined print products. Pictures (clockwise from left) show a modern finishing die-cutter for effective finishes, production being carried out in significantly smaller formats, and the production of patient package inserts. See page 22 for more. 1 FROM THE EDITOR Texting thrives; newspapers continue to struggle e have heard of hyperlocal news and neighbourhood Overall, TV remains the most used platform for news among Wnewpapers, but hyperlocal journalism over text and UK adults despite a slight drop from 79 per cent to 75 per cent readers paying for it? Well, Christine Schmidt describes in the past year. BBC One remained the most-used news source an interesting experiment in her article for NiemanLab: (58 per cent) followed by ITV (40 per cent) and Facebook (35 There is no single fix for sustainable local journalism. But per cent). More people are also using Twitter (up from 14 per here’s an attempt at adding another piece of the puzzle: cent to 16 per cent), Whatsapp (10 per cent to 14 per cent) and Cleveland.com, part of Advance Local and a digital sister Instagram (9 per cent to 13 per cent) for news. company to the Plain Dealer, wants to see if readers will pay However, social media was still rated lower than any of the for hyperlocal reporting — via text. Cleveland.com reporter other main news sources on trust, with just 38 per cent of those Emily Bamforth is sending twice-a-weekday texts about road who regularly use it for news saying it is trustworthy. Of the closures, restaurant shifts, city council ordinances, and more main social media platforms, Facebook was the least trusted by in the suburb of Lakewood, Ohio – not really plain articles its users with 35 per cent calling it trustworthy, followed by over text, but more breaking news or insights that people 39 per cent for Instagram, 42 per cent for Snapchat and 43 per care about. She’s using Project Text, a tool developed through cent for Twitter. This compared to a trust rating of 82 per cent Advance’s four-year-old in-house incubator and which has for magazines, 71 per cent for TV, 67 per cent for radio, 66 per been taken up by several Advance sports reporters. Cleve- cent for print newspapers and 58 per cent for other Internet land.com president Chris Quinn is hoping super-specific local sources including news websites. Almost a quarter (22 per cent) happenings will be worth $3.99 per month after a free trial — of people said social media was likely to be their first port of not including a subscription to the whole outlet, just for the call for breaking news. texts — to between 1,500 and 2,000 households. The ultimate he Indian Finance Minister’s announcement of 10 goal is, well, seeing if it can sustain the salary of a hyperlocal journalist. Tper cent customs duty on newsprint has shocked the print industry. According to the Indian Newspaper Soci- ver the past quarter, Snap has added 13 million daily ety, newsprint price had only started stabilising from last Oactive users as it gets serious about global expansion, October. Publishers of newspapers and magazines are Ashley Carman writing for The Verge points out. The facing severe financial pressure thanks to lower adver- total number of people using the app around the world tisement revenues, higher costs and digital onslaught every day is 203 million, the highest it’s been since Snap from giants like Google and Facebook. Jayant Mammen went public. The growth indicates that Snap’s investment Mathew, executive editor of Malayala Manorama and in product features for a more global user base is paying president of the Indian Newspaper Society has said the off and that its luck in creating viral face filters is helping decision is another jolt for the newspaper industry that it grow, too, says Carman. Snap estimates that between 7 is already struggling. Unless the decision is withdrawn, and 9 million users joined because of the face filters with there will be many job losses and several print players the remaining 4 to 6 million users being attributable to will be forced to shut down, he said. Echoing his views the company’s broader product focuses. were B. Srinivasan, managing director, Vikatan Group and L. Adimoolam, director, Dinamalar. Srinivasan said alf of all UK adults now use social media to get the profits would erode and the prospects of passing on the Hlatest news, according to a new survey by regulator expenditure to advertisers or readers were not bright. Ofcom, with half also getting their news from newspa- Adimoolam was convinced that only the No. 1 and No. 2 pers, news websites and apps. Writing for PressGazette, dailies would be able to survive. The only way to tackle Charlotte Tobitt points out that some 49 per cent of 4691 the situation is by increasing the advertisement rates and adults questioned in Ofcom’s annual survey of UK news cover price but both will result in dip in sales and drop in consumption habits said they use social media for news, readership, he said. up from 44 per cent last year. What is surprising is that print doesn’t score too well on the trust scale, falling Sashi Nair behind magazines, TV and radio. Here is some interest- [email protected] ing information from her report: August 2019 RIND Survey 3 RIND Survey August 2019 | Volume 40 | Issue 8 How Gannett drives digital subscriptions 6 Neha Gupta and Brian Veseling Increase workfl ow effi ciency with smart optimisation 9 Patrick Kerr has the Kodak story Case Study: Raising the colour bar, the Hub Labels way 12 History and literature closely entwined 14 Mrinal Chatterjee dwells on the history of Assamese Journalism Industry Updates 20 General News 32 Events Calendar 37 Cover page images: Courtesy, Koenig & Bauer C o n t e s 4 RIND Survey August 2019 BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH WAN-IFRA How Gannett drives digital subscriptions With more than 100 daily newspapers and related web sites spread across the United States, Gannett has the enviable luxury to test and tweak its evolving digital subscription strategy across its group. And they are doing just that, according to Jason Jedlinski, SVP of Consumer Products for Gannett’s USA Today Network. Neha Gupta and Brian Veseling have the story e’re up to about 540000 subscribers across 109 newspapers,” Jason Jedlin- “Wski, SVP of Consumer Products for Gannett’s USA Today Network he told delegates at WAN-IFRA’s recent World new Media Con- gress, though he noted they are still very early in their journey. Jedlinski discussed some of the ways the company encourages people to pay for content and described the three main approaches that are proving to be benefi cial to them. Content access strategy Metered paywall no longer dominates the media industry. First, Jedlinski pointed out that globally, the metered paywall model, which typically uses from 3 to10 free articles and which has sustained media Noting that local media do not have the same companies across the world for several years, is no budgets for technology as the big players, Jedlin- longer the dominant model. “Now you’re seeing ski said it’s important for smaller brands to experi- a blend of people locking down certain content, ment to fi nd out what works best for them within or locking down all content, and experimenting their market(s). with different paywalls,” he said. “At Gannett, For the USA Today Network, Jedlinski said the and the USA Today Network, we still have our key poerformance indicator (KPI) for deciding metered paywalls across 100 newspaper markets, which paywall best suits a brand is the ‘meter stop but we are doing a lot of experimentation with rate’, which is the point where a reader can no hybrid and premium models and also dynamic.” longer access content without paying. 6 RIND Survey August 2019 Audience development Audience quality, along with size, is crucial, Jedlin- ski said. “What are the ways you are engaging the readers, planning on pulling them in and building tactics to get them to return? In a consumer rev- enue focused model, we have to turn our reach into greater depth and more time spent,” he said. “Readers are different,” Jedlinski continued. “Think about your audience goals while picking stories or coverage areas. By getting a sense of where people are spending their time, and not merely the total page views, we tailor our content.” Over a three-month period for 20 of its newspa- pers, Gannett found that regardless of whether a reader was a subscriber or not, that strong, core, local topics such as weather, taxes, politics, edu- Photo/Illustration: WAN-IFRA cation and healthcare drew people in.