Newsprint Shortage
Like the sword of Damocles the threat of newsprint shortage
is always hovering over the Indian Press, big and small alike. The Hindi Newspaper Society issued a pamphlet in 2014 under the title ’Can
Newspapers Survive the Newsprint Shortage?’ By asking the Government to give
top priority to newsprint import, next only to food, they have spell out the
dimensions of the crisis.
The Government is trying to increase the indigenous
production of newsprint. Besides NEPA mills, until recently the only source of
newsprint in the country, and a recently established factory in Madhya Pradesh
to produce newsprint, two more factories are proposed to be established. But it
be a long time before the newsprint shortage is overcome. Until then the Press it seems will have to live
with the handicap. Owing to the shortage of newsprint, the Government of India
has been enforcing a newsprint control policy. Under this policy, until
recently, newsprint was licensed to the newspapers on the basis of the 1957
page level and the circulation of individual newspapers. In retrospect
this restrictive policy has been found to curb the progress of the Press in
general.
From 2000-2014, new concessions have been offered under the
policy, but these concessions, while being helpful to existing publications,
are explicitly restrictive in the case of new periodicals. To sum up, the
continued shortage of newsprint in the country, more than anything else, has
unduly checked the development of‘ the Press. Add to the shortage, the delay in
transportation of newsprint from the distribution centers, and you will be left
staring at such notices on the front pages of newspapers as: ’Due to unforeseen
delay in arrival of newsprint from Bombay, the Magazine Section could not be
published along with the Sunday issue.
The newsprint shortage being what it is the Government of
India had to restrict the use of newsprint with a view to giving something to
everyone. But even the honest attempt to ration newsprint resulted in
inequitable distribution. For instance, for the year, seven chains with
a total circulation of 17 per cent got an allotment of 39.8 percent of the total
imported and 33% of the indigenous newsprint. The rationing system, by and
large, has made it impossible for small papers to grow, even when they have
otherwise the potential to do so.
Competition
As we have seen, there is stiff competition between small
newspapers and the metropolitan press. Most of the small newspapers have four
to six standard-size pages, whereas big newspapers come out with eight to twelve
pages on week days and twelve to sixteen on Sundays. The prices of both small
and big newspapers might be expected to be different, but that is not so. They
are in most cases the same, otherwise it would not at all be economical for the small newspapers to exist -
lacking as they do advertising support.
The absence of a price difference between small and big
newspapers leaves the former at a disadvantage, as the reader is conscious of
the value of waste paper sold at 10 rupees per Kilo. The fatter the newspaper,
the better the price it brings to the reader by way of waste. This factor also
puts the small newspaper at a disadvantage.
Printing Machinery
The story of shortages does not end with newsprint, though
that is the most serious. There is also a shortage of printing machinery, most
of it having to be imported from abroad. Production of printing machinery in
the country is still at the development stage. Needless to say, the inadequacy
in this respect has severely handicapped small newspapers, printing machinery
being one of the most important tools of the trade. The Small Newspaper Inquiry
Committee visited many printing presses of small newspapers. To its dismay, it
found that in most cases the machinery was old and out-dated, its out turn was
slow - being only o few hundred copies an hour - resulting in the paper coming
out late, in some cases even later than the metropolitan papers which might
have to travel hundreds of miles to the city by train or air to be first on the
news-stands. With most such printing presses, color and block facilities were
found to be absent. Though the Government has provided facilities for obtaining
printing machinery on hire-purchase basis through the National Small Industries
corporation, this facility is given only to those papers which are working on a
cooperative basis.
Paucity of trained editorial staff poses another problem for
the small newspapers. The economic factors could have been overcome to some
extent had there been an enterprising managerial and editorial staff.
Unfortunately, the facilities for training journalistic staff in India are very
poor! In the circumstances, it would be too much to expect any standard of
production. Big newspapers like ’The Hindu’ of Madras, ’Times of India’ of
Bombay and Delhi and The Statesman of Calcutta and Delhi have their own
arrangement for training editorial staff. But the small newspapers have to
contend with untrained staff.
Not that there are no courses at all in Journalism in the
Indian Universities - about seven Universities are giving one to two years’
courses in post-graduate journalism - but the quality of their product leaves
much to be desired. An out turn of 100 persons from the universities cannot mean
much for the needs of 7,000 Hindi news dailies and periodicals.Besides, the courses in the universities are directed
primarily to the English Press - they are through the medium of English, with a
paper or two meant for language journalism. A scheme to train journalists in
newspaper offices, like in the U.K. ,
may be the answer. But until such a scheme is put through small newspapers, in particular,
will, perforce, continue to be bedeviled by poor standard of production.
