October 2014 | Volume 35 | Issue 10 | Rs 40 Surveywww.pressinstitute.in RINDA Journal of the Press Institute of India - Research Institute for Newspaper Development -DVROQHMS6@RSD A COMMITMENT ,@M@FDLDMS TO REDUCING WASTE At the WAN-IFRA India 2014 conference in New Delhi, a special report on Newsprint Waste Management was released. The report (cover page on left), which WAN-IFRA members can download for free, identifies the ways news publishers can save money by reducing their newsprint waste. It seeks to highlight and place in perspective several issues that can affect the efficiency with which newsprint is used, thereby increasing the awareness of areas where savings can accrue. K. Balaji, director of Kasturi & Sons, who heads the WAN-IFRA South Asia Committee and is the author of the report, has dealt with the latest technical and organisational conditions of modern newspaper production. His report also describes the special conditions in the markets of Southern Asia and India (For more details, log on to the WAN-IFRA website. Also, read WAN-IFRA research engineer Anand Srinivasan’s article on page 6). FROM THE EDITOR Newspapers have never been more important to society The WAN-IFRA India Conference, the 22nd annual At the Delhi conference, while sharing updates conference, got back to New Delhi this year after from World Press Trends, WAN-IFRA’s annual report nine years. The interim has witnessed unprecedented (focuses mainly on trends in circulation, advertising changes in the news publishing industry, particularly and digital newspaper performance, based on inputs for the printed newspaper, as K. Balaji, chairman, submitted by member associations and individual WAN-IFRA South Asia Committee, and director of country reports),Vincent Peyrègne, chief executive Kasturi & Sons, said in his remarks at the inaugural. officer, WAN-IFRA, referred to the worrying attacks on press freedom. One the one hand, people say According to Magdoom Mohamed, WAN-IFRA newspapers are declining; why then when there South Asia’s MD, this year (2014) has been “the is a political crisis, are there attacks worldwide on toughest with the mood of the industry swinging editors and journalists, he wondered. If we are no from month to month”. In the circumstances, it longer relevant why would they bother, he asked the was remarkable that there were 375 registrations. audience, stressing that newspapers have never been As Magdoom said, it was perhaps an indication of more important to society at large. the keen desire among publishers in South Asia to learn from one another and collectively address the News about the Rural Media Network Pakistan challenges of the industry – improving efficiency, (RMNP) presenting its 2014 Sadiq Press Freedom engaging with readers, and monetising content being Award (supported by WAN-IFRA) to the son of some of the critical ones. murdered journalist Malik Mumtaz Khan makes us pause and think – of the dangers journalists around So were there new ideas, answers and inspiration the world face daily, who yet plod on relentless. As to tackle the challenges ahead? Did the participants RMNP President Ehsan Ahmed Sehar said, the feel they benefited? Perhaps WAN-IFRA receives award is “a symbol of the struggle for the right to feedback from those who attend the various sessions information and a reminder to the international at every conference and the expo. It will be interesting community about the tragic conditions Pakistan to know what the participants think or what they find has been suffering since the War on Terror began useful or lacking. following the 9/11 attacks”. An interesting announcement at the conference was The sacrifices journalists like Malik Mumtaz Khan, about a record 17 winners from India (out of 115) James Foley, Steven Sotloff and others have made at the International Color Quality Club (INCQC) must never go in vain. We must continue to tell the Competition, second only to Germany. Ananda Bazar truth fearlessly. Fight hard against attacks on editors Patrika gaining entry into the Star Club of INCQC is and journalists. And stand united. a recognition for the newspaper winning the award five years in a row. Clearly, quality has become a way Sashi Nair of life in most Indian newspapers. [email protected] ****************** October 2014 RIND Survey 1 RIND Survey October 2014 | Volume 35 | Issue 10 Where do we draw the lakshman rekha? 4 More scope for newsprint waste management 6 New-look Mid-Day scores high in survey 8 Of award-winning newspaper designs 11 Decoding journalism 12 Data protection – raising awareness 16 Despite declines, print is still king 17 Using hard data to tell stories that matter 20 Digital and print: a great marriage of advantages 22 The evasive young reader 24 Just as much automation as necessary 26 Industry Updates 34 C o n t e s Other News 50 Events Calendar 55 Cover page photo: WAN-IFRA South Asia 2 RIND Survey October 2014 ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL Where do we draw the lakshman rekha? An eagerly awaited talk at the WAN-IFRA Newsroom Summit in New Delhi was the one by T.N. Ninan, chairman of Business Standard and a member of the World Editors Forum Board. Ninan dwelt on the blurring line between business and editorial. It could not have been more appropriate, coming at a time when business pressures and over-dependence on advertising revenue are surging to the fore. Excerpts from his speech here is no lakshman rekha (ethical limits of and that advertisers will pay an action of a convention or rule). The line for the rest. Neither is true Tbetween advertising and editorial has been in the world of the Internet. blurred perhaps permanently and often there is no Readers are used to free line at all. The problem with the debate is that it is content, and advertising often placed on a moral context, of good practices rates per website visitor is and bad practices. I think it is more instructive to look a fraction of the rates per at the economic and technological reasons which as newspaper reader. So, if you Marxists would say have changed the objective reality. want to balance what you First, there is too much media around, including new lose in print advertising with media. No economy can sustain so many newspapers, web advertising you typically T.N. Ninan. magazines, television channels and websites. Much have to get ten times volume of today’s media, therefore, has no realistic hope of visitors compared to the number of readers you of financial viability. The resultant pressure on have lost. publications has forced many among them to breach It would be futile in such a world for most editorial the Chinese wall between editorial and advertising in operations to hope that the past will survive into a desperate effort to raise more revenue. the future unchanged and unchallenged. When your The second development is that there is a great deal boat is being tossed about in a story sea, editorial of churn in business. New products, new businesses, and business get together in the common purpose new ideas are being tried out in the market at a pace of survival. People in that situation stop thinking of and with a force that have no precedent in the market. Chinese walls which are built on stable land. This is, of course, linked to rapid technological What about the sacred relationship between changes and breakthroughs which have spawned new journalists and their reading or viewing public? The businesses at unimaginable speed. The consequence truth is that this is not a sacred relationship after all. of this is a third development – advertising clutter, Different media outlets put different benchmarks for which has prodded marketers into thinking of what they will do and what they will not do. Over time, innovative ways of breaking through the clutter and readers come to recognise who has what benchmarks of getting their message noticed. Inevitably, this has and where. And they make their mental adjustments. meant intruding into editorial space in one form or ‘A’ publication or news channel can be trusted or relied another. Finally, these changes have undermined upon more than ‘B’ channel and C has one kind of the fundamental assumptions on which the media bias while D has another. If you serve an information business has been founded. That readers will pay for need, the reader or viewer or visitor will stay with you at least a good part of the cost of creating content, and apply appropriate mental filters. 4 RIND Survey October 2014 This heterogeneity is not new. It was always there. comes across as advertising influence to some degree, What is new that people consume multiple media in and newspapers now have almost entire sections a way that they did not before. The sheer plethora of which are declared to be only advertorials. media and the ease of access on different platforms If the lines have got blurred even in newspapers, make this possible. Anyone doing this, jumping from where the Chinese walls are said to have operated print to television to a magazine to a website, to a most effectively, it is because they are in decline and mobile phone, is likely to be less judgmental about feeling the financial pressure. Simultaneously, the the quality and reputation of any particular media media form that has grown the most is the website title. If you don’t have a monogamous relationship where endless creativity and flexibility are the order with a media outlet, you are less likely to be choosy of the day. Magazines are threatened even more about your media bedmates. Even in the days of than newspapers and are increasingly willing to deal pristine print and monogamous relationships, and with sponsored content.