Media Matters

incredible reach (reading demands literacy, but watching does not!), promotion of dailies on the idiot box is sizeable. Publishers of dailies, strategically enter into tie-ups with TV networks, for cross promotional purposes with no actual outgo of money. Dailies exchange print space in their wares in lieu of commercial spots on television channels. It’s a win-win situation. In fact, some of the daily publishers have forayed into television as well. For instance, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd which owns the Times group runs Times Now TV channel. Living Media India, owners of Mail Today, India Today, etc, owns TV channels in English and Hindi as well: Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. Down south, Malayala Manorama – a prestigious Malayalam daily – is also into TV through Manorama News.

MEDIA MATTERS

Segmentation

To achieve better financial results, dailies have thoroughly understood

What a change! Being poised to be a developed country, India is passing through a phase of socio-economic transformation, affecting every sphere of life and obviously newspapers too. Ramesh Kumar briefs what sorts of changes Indian dailies have undergone over the past decade.

T

ake a look at the New Delhi edition of The Times of India dated June 1, 2009. What does one get to see? Three-fourth of the front page - the most important space in any news daily in any language anywhere in the world - displays an unshaven Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan animatedly talking on a mobile phone. Mind you, not a small image, but almost five out of eight columns space from top to bottom. The pink, collarless T-shirted matinee idol is promoting one of the leading mobile communication providers in India. Such usage of precious space on the country’s numero uno English daily would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Today, it is a reality. Well, Indian dailies have undergone a major change over the past ten years. Front page jackets are a regular stuff these days: sometimes, half vertically too. Catchy, indeed. But an incredible change, nevertheless.

Colourific

One of the biggest things that strike a regular avid reader is the fourcolour visual relief on every page. Publishers have sensed that colour improves the look and feel of their products - yes, dailies have turned into consumer products and they no longer wear the patriotic fervour they had donned in the past. Above all, the colourific transformation fetches better price realisation through the display of colour advertisements.

The logic is simple: if each page can command a paid advertisement/ advertorial - irrespective of the size - the process of printing is the same. That particular page has to be run through the conventional four-colour machine route. Why not add colour to the non-advertisement segment as well with better display and good visuals? Definitely, it is one of the biggest changes over the past decade.

Modular

Secondly, dailies have gone modular - like building blocks. Bricks of news items of varying importance are structured in a pleasing manner. The old style of unorthodox zigzag news placement or layout has been given the go by. Good for the reader and equally easy for the page maker. Here again, page making has gone digital. No bromides, no rubber solution, no cotton swabs to ‘clean’ pages. Walk into any newsroom today and you will find computers, not page make up artists sitting atop long legged stools and looking through bifocal glasses. Interestingly, the tribe of page makers are more or less wiped out with publishers/employers hiring journalists with page making ability thus ushering in a multi-tasking environment. Proof readers are another forgotten tribe. Today their job is done by computers, monitored by page-making sub editors-cumproof readers. What an idea!

Masthead

Another notable area of transformation is visible on the masthead itself. None of the leading Indian dailies – English and vernacular – retain their original name board or masthead it is called in the publishing parlance. With the array of fonts (typefaces) dished out digitally on a regular basis, today’s National Institute of Design (NID) graduates who are being hired by dailies proprietors have changed their mastheads. NID graduates, of late, begin to look at newspaper/ magazine design as a potential and lucrative project to eye at. Century old dailies including The Hindu have utilised the services of foreign designers to give a new look and feel to their newspapers. Did we not accept the fact that newspapers have been commodified these days?

Promotion

Once this is conceded, the next automatic step is promotion. Drive along the thoroughfares of metros from where these dailies are published, you cannot escape noticing the huge bus shelter banners or lamp-post hoardings tom-toming about their newspapers. Every promotional avenue is utilised. Even small gated colonies are not left out. The entrance to colonies greets you with so-and-so newspaper ‘welcoming’ the visitors. Now that television has become a mass communication media with an

Ramesh Kumar

the importance of segmentation. Mondays see special sections on financial markets, Tuesdays o n w o m e n , We d n e s d a y s o n fashion, Thursdays on education and healthcare, Fridays on show business (films, tv etc) and Saturdays on sports etc. This way, the marketing department in newspaper establishments is able to pitch for clients much more effectively. Hardly a decade ago, page two in every daily used to be reserved for ‘Classifieds’. Today ‘Classifieds’ have become a regular big separate section. Well, remember we are living in Circa 2009. Not 1999 AD. After all, dailies are part of the society which holds a mirror to the happenings all around. When the society is changing, it is but natural for newspaper too should transform. Otherwise, there would be a credibility gap. Like the rest of the world, India has gone commercial in every sense of the term, due to globalisation. Expecting newspapers to retain their purity as in the past is asking for the moon. Let’s be realistic. See you, soon. (Ramesh Kumar is a journalist with more than 25 years exposure to the world of print, television, web and radio both in India and abroad. He will write a regular column under ‘MEDIA MATTERS’ on these pages. Send in your feedback to [email protected])