What is expected of a
newspaper in a large and diverse democracy? The duty of a free press is to
report, explain, analyze and even challenge at times. This is the inherent
strength of Hindi newspapers in a developing country like India, where the freedom of
the Hindi press is unrestricted. Our people expect our newspapers to go far beyond
mere reporting of news, and don a steering mantle when the need may arise. The
press in India has clone 50 several times in the past.
In India, newspapers cannot be
passive disseminators of news. They have to reflect plurality of opinion, and
encourage debate, with an objective to serve society and uplift falling
societal values. I must say with pride that the Indian Hindi press is performing its
duties magnificently in this regard. Since TV and radio cannot play
this role, newspapers will continue to grow. The Internet and other electronic
dissemination means —- which include fax, voice mail, cyberspace and the like —
could certainly deliver newspapers, but for the next decade or more, I do not
see them replacing print media in India in any significant way. I expect
electronic newspapers to be more information- and data-oriented.
In fact, I expect electronic and
print media to actually complement each other. This would give Hindi newspaper managements
the opportunity to increase profitability. I foresee what I call trans-media advertising,
wherein advertisers will be able to have a packaged media plan across print,
electronic and audio visual media. At the Indian Express Group, we already have
begun to offer such synergies to advertisers. Apart from the natural outcome of
the development and realignment of these new media, we must appreciate that no
publication could ever hope to attain the reach of television. The economies of
scale won't permit it, even as the overheated newsprint market is cooling down.
The challenge for the Hindi news media,
therefore, is to acquire manageable reach as well as a marketable brand
personality without compromising on its role as the Fourth Estate. At the
Indian Express Group, however, reach has not been a serious problem. Editions of the Indian Express with an average
daily readership of over 3 million, but also a conglomerate of an eight edition
financial daily and an array of publications published in six Indian languages
and English with a combined readership of over 11 million.
This does, however, bring me to
another reality in Hindi news publishing. Newspapers cannot be everything to everybody.
Specific segments will have to be catered to by niche publications. At the
Indian Express Group, we have been quick to see the future in niche
publications. We have created a separate division which publishes sharply
segmented niche publications, addressing target audiences in various industrial
and commercial segments.
These niche publications have
been successful both as credible information providers and as advertising
revenue generators. Further, as part of my own commitment to societal issues, we
made a conscious move to position the mother brand as a responsible corporate
citizen by not only stepping up coverage of socially relevant issues (like the
environment, health and development of women and children), but also organizing
activities in these areas (like cancer detection camps and races against
pollution). We are also continuously creating campaigns on important social
issues like dowry, old age, female feticide, etc., and running there in our
group publications.
These are exercises in building
a brand with national identity personality and distinguishing our readership segment. We
have been able to prove with our efforts to advertisers that Indian Express
readers are not passive recipients of information: They are active information
users and agents of change within their communities, collectively constituting
an ideal target audience.
As a matter of fact, we have had
our readers constitute special action groups under the banner, “Express
Citizens Forum,” which have directly taken up civic and other issues of their
city. if the Indian Express Group is experiencing a frenetic pace of
diversification today, it is because of certain positive straws in the wind —
positive for the Indian press as a whole. With the literacy rate rising, the
market is definitely poised for a giant leap forward. The audience to watch in
this growth phase will be the neo-literates, whose aspiration to become a part
of an increasingly visible middle class will be reflected not only in a
consumer-sector boom, but also in the rising demand for publications.
