This post suggests that its not not just Jaipur and Goa that’s going to have changing times, the Gulf too might have TOI spewing out the intricacies of their version of Page 3. Considering the ever growing number of my brethren there, maybe they should consider a Malayalam edition? 😉
Meanwhile, The Economist has an article on the newspaper scene in the US, where a lot of the old mastheads might soon be out of circulation, while web only entities like the Huffington Post are flourishing. Thankfully, Bush hasn’t blamed India for the decline, yet. The article also goes on to say that while the majority of players are suffering there are some who are bucking this trend. But there’s no arguing that the web, which is seen as a major contributor to the decline, is here to stay.
Meanwhile, they have another article, which talks about the print industry in india, for which PwC predicts a rosy future, thanks to rising literacy levels. But we have to keep in mind (as the article says) that it is an industry that survives on ad rates as opposed to circulation and pricing, and the IRS figures anyway show at best a single digit growth, if at all there is a growth. Also, English dailies are more of an urban phenomenon, it is unlikely that future growth will come from rural areas, because the audience may not be monetisable, and the vernacular dailies would be taking a large share of the advertising pie already. Which only leaves the urban areas, where the medium itself would face stiff competition in future from Television, radio and the internet, especially since the last one provides much better measurement metrics.
So I, for one, would like to know the details of PwC’s study that claim that the print media in India will rise from 149 billion rupees ($3.6 billion) in 2007 to 281 billion rupees in 2012. I am also not sure why a scenario like the US would not be replicated, at least in urban India. For those who say that the broadband penetration in India is a pipe dream, we must not forget the other medium called mobile, thats growing at a blistering pace.
until next time, stop press?