“One must know what one is writing about” may not seem to be a far-fetched idea for a journalist. Yet, there are many who do superficial reporting of events and follow them up with analyses that do not present a proper perspective of the issues involved.
This seems to hold true in the case of journalists who write about naxalites and issues that concern them, according to a study of the reports of four newspapers – two in
English, The Hindu and The New Indian Express (TNIE) and two in Telugu (Eenadu and Vaartha). Most of them lacked an in-depth study of the ideology of the movement.
The study covering eight years, from 1999 to 2006, was the basis of a book on “Newspapers and naxalite movement” written by Dr. J. Madhu Babu and published in 2010 by Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi.
The study comes up with some startling disclosures: that the press as a whole has projected a negative image of the naxalite movement by focusing on naxal violence such as blasts, burning of properties, attack on authorities, etc.; that the newspapers ignored tribal welfare questions, the agony of people and their reactions to activities of naxalites and the police.
With the press failing “to focus on the unresolved question of tribal welfare…the tribal uneducated or semi-educated youth are attracted towards the Naxalite movement.”
The press has not analysed the reasons for the failure of welfare programmes to reach the tribal population, it says. This theme received less coverage. The Hindu, for example, did not publish even a single news item on tribal welfare measures during the study period.
The comprehensive study, carried out with tested research methodologies, covered a total of 4,387 news items published, 2,330 photos, 31 edit articles, 74 editorials, 10 editorial cartoons, 55 pocket cartoons and 184 letters to the editor. These were evaluated against a wide range of factors such as category of news, sub categories, and whether they were favourable, unfavourable or neutral.
Eenadu published the highest number of news items (31.8 per cent), followed by Vaartha (31.5 p.c.), The Hindu (19.6) and The New Indian Express (17.1).
The highest number of photos (1,000) was by Eenadu, next Vaartha (892), The Hindu (233) and TNIE (205).
TH and TNIE each published only one cartoon on the issue.
In terms of editorials, Vaartha (74) led, followed by Eenadu (16), TNIE (14) and THE HINDU (8).
During the study period of eight years, there was not a single article on naxalites in The Hindu while TNIE wrote only two; Vaartha led with 20 and Eenadu followed with 9.
The Hindu accounted for the most number of letters to the editor (75) among the dailies.
It also gave more prominence in terms of political parties’ reactions and human rights issues involved. In coverage of peace talks, TNIE put out more stories. All the papers, including Vaartha, gave less coverage to people’s reactions against naxalites and police.
Journalists have become insensitive to the killings of naxalites and police repression. For example, headings of the encounter stories give only the figures. And only the police version is carried.
The Naxlite issue is seen more as a law and order problem and the violence as harmful to society.
In coverage of reactions of political parties to naxal activities, The Hindu gave prominence to the Congress, BJP, Communists and the TDP while The New Indian Express gave priority to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
The study rightly points out that the newspapers have the onerous task to represent the case of the poor and the voiceless in society. They also should play a positive role in resolving the conflict between the naxalites and the government.
The book also presents profiles of important naxal leaders and the chronological events in the movement, and the profiles of the newspapers covered, which are of research value.
Students and researchers in the field of journalism can benefit by reading the book, especially about the content analysis methods adopted.
K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Email: journo1958@gmail.com
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Digital publishing for Indian news media - Part III & last
Integrated Newsroom
The major problem is the integration of the print and online staff – the two poles in an organisation . We may have to take lessons from many organisations that have already done it. In India too, integrated and coordinated newsrooms have come about in the Hindi newspaper majors Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran respectively.
When professionalism was seriously talked about by the media and decisions taken in the 1990s in India, it usually related to the blue-eyed boys and girls, namely the reporters and correspondents. But the western experience of rotation of journalists on the desk and on the field was clearly ignored.
Now the integrated newsroom ought to encourage this in both versions. And only the term journalist would matter more if they are rolled into one and asked to do reporting and editing by turns. This would also the address the problem of lack of special stories and exclusives as all journalists will feel the need for breaking news of all hues.
What will differentiate one paper from another is the publishing of special stories with human interest and exclusive ones across the spectrum. Once this tribe of integrated journalists comes into being, there is nothing that is going to stop them from making their organisations the best ones.
Jakarta Globe
Take the Jakarta Globe online, for instance. The stories that come under the Editors Choice are very interesting and well-written. Recently, there was a story about their Homeless World Cup soccer team members – one of whom walked a long distance to raise funds to enable the team go to France for the cup. He was inspired by his mother’s words to keep promises, something that was ignored by a prominent public personality.
Compare this with some segments of the cricket-obsessed Indian media that chose to downplay the Indian hockey team’s protest over the paltry sum offered to them for their recent victory over Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy. All sports need to be encouraged and the media needs to play a larger role in this and derive all advantages that it can get from the youth in this respect.
The Globe also had a story about comics being used by Islamic schools to teach tolerance showed the transparency with which their system works. It received very sharp comments both from a person who opposed fundamentalism and another critical of Christians.
I wonder whether such feedback could be put on any website in India.
The challenge for the Indian media is to be glocal as well as local. Non-news sites are already tapping the citizen journalism front which quenches the thirst for news ignored or not covered by the mainstream media.
The Indian media needs to take all these factors into consideration and launch digital initiatives by playing to their strength and adding new readers through modern methods and devices.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K.Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai
The major problem is the integration of the print and online staff – the two poles in an organisation . We may have to take lessons from many organisations that have already done it. In India too, integrated and coordinated newsrooms have come about in the Hindi newspaper majors Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran respectively.
When professionalism was seriously talked about by the media and decisions taken in the 1990s in India, it usually related to the blue-eyed boys and girls, namely the reporters and correspondents. But the western experience of rotation of journalists on the desk and on the field was clearly ignored.
Now the integrated newsroom ought to encourage this in both versions. And only the term journalist would matter more if they are rolled into one and asked to do reporting and editing by turns. This would also the address the problem of lack of special stories and exclusives as all journalists will feel the need for breaking news of all hues.
What will differentiate one paper from another is the publishing of special stories with human interest and exclusive ones across the spectrum. Once this tribe of integrated journalists comes into being, there is nothing that is going to stop them from making their organisations the best ones.
Jakarta Globe
Take the Jakarta Globe online, for instance. The stories that come under the Editors Choice are very interesting and well-written. Recently, there was a story about their Homeless World Cup soccer team members – one of whom walked a long distance to raise funds to enable the team go to France for the cup. He was inspired by his mother’s words to keep promises, something that was ignored by a prominent public personality.
Compare this with some segments of the cricket-obsessed Indian media that chose to downplay the Indian hockey team’s protest over the paltry sum offered to them for their recent victory over Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy. All sports need to be encouraged and the media needs to play a larger role in this and derive all advantages that it can get from the youth in this respect.
The Globe also had a story about comics being used by Islamic schools to teach tolerance showed the transparency with which their system works. It received very sharp comments both from a person who opposed fundamentalism and another critical of Christians.
I wonder whether such feedback could be put on any website in India.
The challenge for the Indian media is to be glocal as well as local. Non-news sites are already tapping the citizen journalism front which quenches the thirst for news ignored or not covered by the mainstream media.
The Indian media needs to take all these factors into consideration and launch digital initiatives by playing to their strength and adding new readers through modern methods and devices.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K.Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai
Digital publishing for Indian news media - Part II
Advice for Indian media
With India and China together forming the third largest Facebook audience segment, it is clear that the Indian media industry should tap the social media tool with focus on the youth.
The remark -- at the September 2011 WAN-IFRA meet in Chennai -- by The Washington Post managing editor Raju Narisetti – an Indian who has reached the top in the newspaper after major stints in the Indian media – can be taken as a piece of advice in the interest of the Indian media. He says “the time is in favour of India to catch up and this needs to be done by measuring up things, setting goals and rewarding the right people.”
These examples showed that an integrated newsroom is the future. The Washington Post had achieved the integration in 2009. It was done by using highly developed software systems that streamlined operations and increased productivity. Raju Narisetti, after becoming the Managing Editor of the Post, revamped the systems and remapped workflows.
Among the software systems for editorial operations displayed at the WAN-IFRA Expo were those of the CCI, 4C plus, and Comyan.
A variety of news websites straddle the virtual world, all with their own USPs. Besides there are MSPs as well – if I may call them the Mass Selling Propositions. Some Indian news sites have already started tapping these MSPs to their advantage. They know precisely what the modern world, especially the vast segment of computer and net-savvy youth want.
What cannot be printed by any decent standards is meat for online audience, or so one is led to believe. It was a shocker to view the pornographic snap of Poonam Pandey on a news website on September 4th. Indian cricketers better sit up and watch it in the pavilion instead of bothering to go out and bat and bowl! And more or less similar pictures and videos are part of the daily staple that such sites offer.
You tap a potential no doubt, but what kind of a moral self-regulation are you are adopting in order to cater to this MSP? And mind you talk about corruption of all sorts except moral corruption and you expect these youngsters to fight!
Vinita Nangia may very well blog on this as she has got a good number of followers who are asking serious questions on societal and individual behaviour. Perhaps, what the youth needed was a link to the inspiring site of India Against Corruption.
This represents a slice of the cut-throat competition that has emerged online. Is it different from the days of sensational journalism indulged in by the Indian magazines in the 1980s?
This takes us to the question of quality journalism touched upon by The Washington Post’s Raju Narisetti. His newspaper has gone public now with the standards adopted by it in regard to digital publishing. It is an interesting document worth adoption with local amendments by other online news sites. The Post’s Ombudsman wrote that the stories are read and cleared by two editors except on occasions when the reporter/writer uploads the story straight into the site.
To the Indian print media, struggling to earn and retain online audiences, these may seem faraway but a beginning has to be made in this direction. After all accountability and transparency are the current rage.
There are many other challenges that the media groups face in their quest for dominance and excellence in online publication.
The first of these may be the required qualified staff to run these sites on a 24x7 basis, something on the lines of the non-stop TV nonsense! While it is a costly proposition to recruit highly qualified and experienced hands for these operations, it’s no less exacting task to fit the already available print media staff into the online ventures – what with their traditional outlook, practices and tired hands, eyes and minds. But there is going to be benefit if they are chosen and trained and encouraged with monetary and professional incentives. They know the USPs better.
In fact, some of the newspapers, we were told at the conference, found that the older staff were able to adapt themselves to the new conditions better than the younger ones. The way out could be a mix of youth and veterans whose experience, loyalty and resilience count.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai
With India and China together forming the third largest Facebook audience segment, it is clear that the Indian media industry should tap the social media tool with focus on the youth.
The remark -- at the September 2011 WAN-IFRA meet in Chennai -- by The Washington Post managing editor Raju Narisetti – an Indian who has reached the top in the newspaper after major stints in the Indian media – can be taken as a piece of advice in the interest of the Indian media. He says “the time is in favour of India to catch up and this needs to be done by measuring up things, setting goals and rewarding the right people.”
These examples showed that an integrated newsroom is the future. The Washington Post had achieved the integration in 2009. It was done by using highly developed software systems that streamlined operations and increased productivity. Raju Narisetti, after becoming the Managing Editor of the Post, revamped the systems and remapped workflows.
Among the software systems for editorial operations displayed at the WAN-IFRA Expo were those of the CCI, 4C plus, and Comyan.
A variety of news websites straddle the virtual world, all with their own USPs. Besides there are MSPs as well – if I may call them the Mass Selling Propositions. Some Indian news sites have already started tapping these MSPs to their advantage. They know precisely what the modern world, especially the vast segment of computer and net-savvy youth want.
What cannot be printed by any decent standards is meat for online audience, or so one is led to believe. It was a shocker to view the pornographic snap of Poonam Pandey on a news website on September 4th. Indian cricketers better sit up and watch it in the pavilion instead of bothering to go out and bat and bowl! And more or less similar pictures and videos are part of the daily staple that such sites offer.
You tap a potential no doubt, but what kind of a moral self-regulation are you are adopting in order to cater to this MSP? And mind you talk about corruption of all sorts except moral corruption and you expect these youngsters to fight!
Vinita Nangia may very well blog on this as she has got a good number of followers who are asking serious questions on societal and individual behaviour. Perhaps, what the youth needed was a link to the inspiring site of India Against Corruption.
This represents a slice of the cut-throat competition that has emerged online. Is it different from the days of sensational journalism indulged in by the Indian magazines in the 1980s?
This takes us to the question of quality journalism touched upon by The Washington Post’s Raju Narisetti. His newspaper has gone public now with the standards adopted by it in regard to digital publishing. It is an interesting document worth adoption with local amendments by other online news sites. The Post’s Ombudsman wrote that the stories are read and cleared by two editors except on occasions when the reporter/writer uploads the story straight into the site.
To the Indian print media, struggling to earn and retain online audiences, these may seem faraway but a beginning has to be made in this direction. After all accountability and transparency are the current rage.
There are many other challenges that the media groups face in their quest for dominance and excellence in online publication.
The first of these may be the required qualified staff to run these sites on a 24x7 basis, something on the lines of the non-stop TV nonsense! While it is a costly proposition to recruit highly qualified and experienced hands for these operations, it’s no less exacting task to fit the already available print media staff into the online ventures – what with their traditional outlook, practices and tired hands, eyes and minds. But there is going to be benefit if they are chosen and trained and encouraged with monetary and professional incentives. They know the USPs better.
In fact, some of the newspapers, we were told at the conference, found that the older staff were able to adapt themselves to the new conditions better than the younger ones. The way out could be a mix of youth and veterans whose experience, loyalty and resilience count.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai
Digital publishing for Indian news media- Part I
Going digital has evolved from just an option to an essential ingredient for news organisations that are trying to integrate their newsrooms and exploit print and online and other media opportunities.
WAN-IFRA meet
Something of a weather forecast was in store for the Indian media companies, especially the print media, at the WAN-IFRA 2011 conference and Expo held from September 6-8 in Chennai. It warned of a storm, already blowing across the West dipping circulation figures even for major newspapers, hitting the Indian segment in the not-too-distant future.
If Indian firms are not venturing into the fast-growing digital and mobile platforms effectively, they will be the losers in the highly competitive environment. The competition is not only among newspapers, but non-news players such as search engines and social media sites who are garnering advertisements – an estimated 65 per cent of the advertising on the web.
Thirty per cent of the world’s population has access to news through the Internet, 40per cent read newspapers, and 60 per cent use mobiles. Countries like Indonesia have already tapped the potential offered by the mobile market. While high Internet and mobile growth in India which had the second highest Internet mobile traffic in the world in 2010 --- a mind-boggling 635 million people owned mobile sets in 2010 and 16 million people used mobile to access the Internet in 2009 -- may not mean high intrusion or penetration, the runway has to be prepared for take-off in these segments.
There are problems such as high cost of access to news on the handsets for lower strata of society and marketing of low-end phones that do not have multi-media capacity. However, the PC growth and declining prices for them are good portends.
Real challenge
The real challenge, however, lies in creating online and mobile content that engages and serves the audiences and retaining their interest so that sustainable models could be worked out. Though the media industry in India itself seems to be having a pessimistic and non-chalant attitude relying on the stable markets that anyhow are growing, the warnings by experts in the field from abroad are clear signals for taking coordinated multi-media initiatives. What they are saying is that please do not commit the mistakes we have made, but benefit from them.
There are examples from overseas as well as India to prove that digital initiatives can supplement the print media revenue. Every company will become a media company, said Larry Kramer, founder, CBS Marketwatch.com, U.S. He put it bluntly: “If you are not creating commodity content (what people want) you are dead.”
The successful models showcased at the summit included Jawa Pos and Jakarta Globe from Indonesia and Ringier AG from Switzerland; Malayala Manorama, Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran from the home turf.
The digital initiatives need to be based on research and surveys into consumption of different media by consumers, the audience size and behaviour and their specific needs and preferences.
The success of youth-driven Jawa Pos (the group has an astonishing 179 newspapers for different regions and segments and local TV stations), stemmed from not only routine marketing strategies, but also from social media networks, especially Facebook which is a craze in the nation. Small but thoughtful initiatives such as campaigns in colleges and contests with incentives led to a considerable following for the paper on the social media.
The Jakarta Globe, which had just 500 fans on Facebook in May 2009, now has 1,54,646 fans and over 58,000 followers on Twitter. The two social media sites bring between 10 and 15 per cent of web traffic to the newspaper’s site. Though in terms of revenue it did not mean much, its presence on the social networks has been established and this has to be leveraged while making digital and marketing decisions. The newspaper achieved this with dynamic youth ambassadors and a dedicated team of the web edition.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu, Chennai.
WAN-IFRA meet
Something of a weather forecast was in store for the Indian media companies, especially the print media, at the WAN-IFRA 2011 conference and Expo held from September 6-8 in Chennai. It warned of a storm, already blowing across the West dipping circulation figures even for major newspapers, hitting the Indian segment in the not-too-distant future.
If Indian firms are not venturing into the fast-growing digital and mobile platforms effectively, they will be the losers in the highly competitive environment. The competition is not only among newspapers, but non-news players such as search engines and social media sites who are garnering advertisements – an estimated 65 per cent of the advertising on the web.
Thirty per cent of the world’s population has access to news through the Internet, 40per cent read newspapers, and 60 per cent use mobiles. Countries like Indonesia have already tapped the potential offered by the mobile market. While high Internet and mobile growth in India which had the second highest Internet mobile traffic in the world in 2010 --- a mind-boggling 635 million people owned mobile sets in 2010 and 16 million people used mobile to access the Internet in 2009 -- may not mean high intrusion or penetration, the runway has to be prepared for take-off in these segments.
There are problems such as high cost of access to news on the handsets for lower strata of society and marketing of low-end phones that do not have multi-media capacity. However, the PC growth and declining prices for them are good portends.
Real challenge
The real challenge, however, lies in creating online and mobile content that engages and serves the audiences and retaining their interest so that sustainable models could be worked out. Though the media industry in India itself seems to be having a pessimistic and non-chalant attitude relying on the stable markets that anyhow are growing, the warnings by experts in the field from abroad are clear signals for taking coordinated multi-media initiatives. What they are saying is that please do not commit the mistakes we have made, but benefit from them.
There are examples from overseas as well as India to prove that digital initiatives can supplement the print media revenue. Every company will become a media company, said Larry Kramer, founder, CBS Marketwatch.com, U.S. He put it bluntly: “If you are not creating commodity content (what people want) you are dead.”
The successful models showcased at the summit included Jawa Pos and Jakarta Globe from Indonesia and Ringier AG from Switzerland; Malayala Manorama, Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran from the home turf.
The digital initiatives need to be based on research and surveys into consumption of different media by consumers, the audience size and behaviour and their specific needs and preferences.
The success of youth-driven Jawa Pos (the group has an astonishing 179 newspapers for different regions and segments and local TV stations), stemmed from not only routine marketing strategies, but also from social media networks, especially Facebook which is a craze in the nation. Small but thoughtful initiatives such as campaigns in colleges and contests with incentives led to a considerable following for the paper on the social media.
The Jakarta Globe, which had just 500 fans on Facebook in May 2009, now has 1,54,646 fans and over 58,000 followers on Twitter. The two social media sites bring between 10 and 15 per cent of web traffic to the newspaper’s site. Though in terms of revenue it did not mean much, its presence on the social networks has been established and this has to be leveraged while making digital and marketing decisions. The newspaper achieved this with dynamic youth ambassadors and a dedicated team of the web edition.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu, Chennai.
The Future of Newspapers
Are newspapers declining? Yes, and No. Is there any scope for preventing their further downfall? Yes.
The decline, seen more dangerously in the West, is threatening the newspaper industry in other countries. In view of different patterns of evolution, development, role, socio-cultural-economic-political environments, the same yardsticks cannot hold true for all. However, there are lessons to be learnt, especially in the new digital era which has thrown up challenges that are common to all -- such as the dominating role of the internet and mass communication devices like the mobile phone. How the West copes up with these challenges is interesting to know. And, there lies the key to saving the newspapers. New challenges also present new opportunities.
Andre Schiffrin in his The Business of Words*, a combined edition of The Business of Books and Words & Money, discusses the future of newspapers in the United States and other countries. In a forthright comment, he says the newspapers are declining, citing the examples of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
It hurts
“Even relatively healthy papers are cutting enormous numbers of staff,” he says citing LAT which cut 500 of 1,100 employees and SFC from 500 to 200. As a result, there is far less coverage of local state legislatures “an area of government known for its high level of corruption” (perhaps we should take heart that even in the U.S. corruption is so much steeped in the local rungs of governance) where the press played the role of a critic and counterforce.
It is shocking to note that even the New York Times had problems after its price increase in 2009 and subsequently it had to retrench 200 people that helped it as a cost-cutting measure.
The decline in readership and fall in ad revenues are in part attributable to the advent of television and the internet.
News magazines like Time and Newsweek also lost readers, but one of the reasons was lack of content with more ads and fluff stuff filling the pages. The Economist, however, is stable because it has fuller information in its pages.
The ad effect also was visible in the electronic medium with evening news programmes in the US. showing a decline in viewership due to increasing number of commercials. People do not want to be continually interrupted while viewing their favourite programmes.
French scenario
In France, leading newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde too faced the heat with readership of the younger ones declining, a trend seen in the United States. While a similar pattern was discernible in the United Kingdom, there was less of a decline in Germany.
The Financial Times and The Telegraph are an exception and they made profits; the FT picked up more readers abroad like The Economist. The Evening Standard, a traditional tabloid, adopted a different strategy and it became a free newspaper; this more than doubled its circulation. The FT too faced a 40 p.c. decline in the first half of 2009, but it decided to charge online readers and it clicked with 117,000 subscribers paying $299 a year each.
While the declining trend for various reasons has been visible for long, newspaper owners and managements have not adopted a heads-on approach. Says Schiffrin: “What is astonishing is that this long-term decline should not have alarmed the press much sooner.”
Cost-cutting by reducing staff -- with journalists covering the local news facing the axe first -- and coverage of news – local and foreign -- is seen as a measure that is bound to lead to further fall in readership.
Asian situation
Newspapers in India and China are benefiting from the rise of a middle class and its income. Most of the Asian newspapers, however, are looking stable as of now.
The threat from the Internet is this: it garners more ads than readers of newspapers – 96 per cent of the time Americans devote to newspapers is spent reading their printed form. An American who is editing a paper in Singapore, said at the WAN-IFRA conference in Chennai in September 2011 (see my earlier blogs for more of that) that he was more comfortable reading the paper in the printed form as most do.
Schiffrin says younger readers, however, seem alienated from the traditional media and are more interested in social media such as the Facebook. They form the bulk of readership of the free newspapers that affect the circulation of paid newspapers.
So it all boils down to this: if they are to survive and continue to make profits, newspapers everywhere have to face new challenges with suitable strategies. These include leveraging their strengths; devising ways to retain younger readers by catering to their livelihood issues; revving up ad revenues from news sites; charging online readers for premium content; and resorting to free issues of at least sections of the newspaper in the worst scenario.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The Business of Words, Andre Schiffrin, Navayana Publishing, New Delhi, 2011 edn
The decline, seen more dangerously in the West, is threatening the newspaper industry in other countries. In view of different patterns of evolution, development, role, socio-cultural-economic-political environments, the same yardsticks cannot hold true for all. However, there are lessons to be learnt, especially in the new digital era which has thrown up challenges that are common to all -- such as the dominating role of the internet and mass communication devices like the mobile phone. How the West copes up with these challenges is interesting to know. And, there lies the key to saving the newspapers. New challenges also present new opportunities.
Andre Schiffrin in his The Business of Words*, a combined edition of The Business of Books and Words & Money, discusses the future of newspapers in the United States and other countries. In a forthright comment, he says the newspapers are declining, citing the examples of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
It hurts
“Even relatively healthy papers are cutting enormous numbers of staff,” he says citing LAT which cut 500 of 1,100 employees and SFC from 500 to 200. As a result, there is far less coverage of local state legislatures “an area of government known for its high level of corruption” (perhaps we should take heart that even in the U.S. corruption is so much steeped in the local rungs of governance) where the press played the role of a critic and counterforce.
It is shocking to note that even the New York Times had problems after its price increase in 2009 and subsequently it had to retrench 200 people that helped it as a cost-cutting measure.
The decline in readership and fall in ad revenues are in part attributable to the advent of television and the internet.
News magazines like Time and Newsweek also lost readers, but one of the reasons was lack of content with more ads and fluff stuff filling the pages. The Economist, however, is stable because it has fuller information in its pages.
The ad effect also was visible in the electronic medium with evening news programmes in the US. showing a decline in viewership due to increasing number of commercials. People do not want to be continually interrupted while viewing their favourite programmes.
French scenario
In France, leading newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde too faced the heat with readership of the younger ones declining, a trend seen in the United States. While a similar pattern was discernible in the United Kingdom, there was less of a decline in Germany.
The Financial Times and The Telegraph are an exception and they made profits; the FT picked up more readers abroad like The Economist. The Evening Standard, a traditional tabloid, adopted a different strategy and it became a free newspaper; this more than doubled its circulation. The FT too faced a 40 p.c. decline in the first half of 2009, but it decided to charge online readers and it clicked with 117,000 subscribers paying $299 a year each.
While the declining trend for various reasons has been visible for long, newspaper owners and managements have not adopted a heads-on approach. Says Schiffrin: “What is astonishing is that this long-term decline should not have alarmed the press much sooner.”
Cost-cutting by reducing staff -- with journalists covering the local news facing the axe first -- and coverage of news – local and foreign -- is seen as a measure that is bound to lead to further fall in readership.
Asian situation
Newspapers in India and China are benefiting from the rise of a middle class and its income. Most of the Asian newspapers, however, are looking stable as of now.
The threat from the Internet is this: it garners more ads than readers of newspapers – 96 per cent of the time Americans devote to newspapers is spent reading their printed form. An American who is editing a paper in Singapore, said at the WAN-IFRA conference in Chennai in September 2011 (see my earlier blogs for more of that) that he was more comfortable reading the paper in the printed form as most do.
Schiffrin says younger readers, however, seem alienated from the traditional media and are more interested in social media such as the Facebook. They form the bulk of readership of the free newspapers that affect the circulation of paid newspapers.
So it all boils down to this: if they are to survive and continue to make profits, newspapers everywhere have to face new challenges with suitable strategies. These include leveraging their strengths; devising ways to retain younger readers by catering to their livelihood issues; revving up ad revenues from news sites; charging online readers for premium content; and resorting to free issues of at least sections of the newspaper in the worst scenario.
(journo1958@gmail.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The Business of Words, Andre Schiffrin, Navayana Publishing, New Delhi, 2011 edn
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