MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • As we celebrate our 66th Independence Day, we ask a cross-section of mediapersons on whether they enjoy freedom at the workplace

    Are we really ‘free’ at work in Indian media?

     

    By Tuhina Anand and Meghna Sharma

     

    As India gets ready to celebrate her 66th Independence Day, one wonders how much freedom one really has to express oneself – specifically those who are in the creative business. While one has to be responsible when communicating with the masses – be it journalists, or planners for content that is shown on the various channels or the creative agencies that work on various communication strategies for different brands – but there are deterrents to this key element of freedom that the fraternity craves for to express freely.

     

    Keeping these factors in mind, MxMIndia spoke to cross-section of people from the industry to get an understanding on their Freedom Fundas.

     

    Bobby Pawar

    Bobby Pawar, Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner at JWT India is clear that there is no unfettered creativity that exists and that is probably best for a creative agency. He explained: “Our job is to come up with brilliant communication solutions for our clients, hence there is a purpose to achieve. So what we follow is creativity within a box where it is harnessed to achieve maximum result. We partner with various people to come up with this solution and hence we have to listen to various opinions. I do not profess complete freedom for the creative industry.”

     

    However, Mr Pawar would like to have more control over the shape that an idea finally takes and how it gets executed. Also he definitely would like to have more control over the research that is handed to them and definitely over the way an allocated budget on a brand is being invested.

     

    Research seems to be the bane of the creative frat. Rahul Sengupta, NCD at TBWA India too would want freedom from research. He feels that if one wants to do anything that’s trendsetting, often research acts as an impediment to take it forward. As for clients’ demands, Mr Sengupta said: “The client is the one sponsoring the idea, so definitely one would not want freedom from them! I have met clients who are hazards to creativity as well as those who are best guardians of an idea.”

     

    He added pragmatically: “Of course, there are frustrations and there is lack of freedom but if I would rather have freedom from research than clients as latter can be worked amicably to enhance the client-agency relationship.”

     

    We also spoke to people at mid level like Auro Chattopadhyay, who quit Ogilvy recently, who also wanted freedom from research. He said: “Often research might not help in the brand story, but insistence to stick to it hinders creativity.”

     

    A creative hand at JWT pointed that conflict happen when there is no match with one’s creativity and that of one’s higher up. Fortunately, this has never happened with him. He feels that the creative industry gives him much freedom to use his ideas as opposed to many other professions.

     

    However, another stated that hierarchy means towing the line of ideas that the higher in authority believe in. Freedom of creativity in such cases often refers to agreeing to somebody else’s vision.

     

    The case, however, is different in the new medium such as digital where there is largely freedom to execute an idea. Carlton D’Silva, CCO, Hungama Digital, said: “Right now, digital is like the last three slide of a presentation- very much an afterthought. Hence, spend on the medium is miniscule. There is a fair amount of freedom to explore creativity. However, one would like freedom from data as often clients demand for it but in digital especially, when suggesting some new technology and a unique idea to take shape, there is no data available.”

     

    Prosenjit Datta
    Courtesy BusinessWorld

    We also spoke to people from the print and broadcast industry to give us an understanding of freedom they enjoy at work. Cyrus Oshidar, Creative Director at Bawa Broadcasting is credited with creating some unique content at MTV and even pushing the boundaries. His view: “If one only wants creative freedom then one should be an artist. If you are producing or making a show for which a client is paying, then there will definitely be some constraints. Ratings do matter in our business and sometimes might even alter one’s choice rather than giving the freedom to do something which one really wants to. Also, one needs to be politically correct in this country. Even the government which is supposed to protect people’s freedom sometimes backtracks from its duties. One needs to be careful about how they approach an issue without offending or hurting feeling of any section of the society. Honestly speaking, we have too many restrictions which are created by us. There is no true democracy in this country.” Mr Oshidar clearly pointed that freedom in creative business is a myth.

     

    Sucheta Dalal

    Prosenjit Datta, Editor, Businessworld, giving his take on the print industry, said: “Every magazine or a newspaper has a certain set of audience and purpose. For instance, a business magazine like ours won’t focus so much on political stories as political or general magazine would do. So, what stories they choose and how they analyse will be different from genre to genre. Hence, it would be unfair to say that there isn’t creative freedom or if media is ‘restricted’. We don’t have any management policy which will hamper or obstruct our editorial approach. A lot depends on the editors too as they enjoy full freedom to how to go about an issue.”

     

    Pointing out the restriction that comes with the economics of business, Sucheta Dalal, senior journalist, commentator and consulting editor, Moneylife said: “With so many newspapers, magazines and news channels making losses, it is hard to say or believe that they are not dictated by marketers. Today, we can even see head of various companies writing with their bylines which wasn’t the case earlier. I don’t know how things are right now as I’m not working with any newspaper at the moment, but when I was with Times and Express, the pressure from the advertisers was quite evident.”

     

    Sunil Lulla

    And how is it in television? Said Sunil Lulla, CEO and MD, Times Global Broadcasting: “Over the past decade or so, the television industry has evolved. There is greater sense of self-regulation and discipline as well as maturity on entertainment and news channels. Though there are guides and policies set by regulatory bodies like IBF, industry enjoys the freedom to operate freely. Besides, there is greater acceptance of TV now which enjoys sense of confidence and responsibility. So, there is culture of freedom in media.”

     

     

     

    Sudhir Sharma

    Said Sudhir Sharma, Producer, Sunshine Productions: “TV as a medium is for the masses and targets everyone from kids to adults to old folks. We make TV shows to entertain. We do follow certain guidelines and censorship which is surely a necessity. By and large we surely have the freedom to make the content we want to show. Creative freedom parameters may vary from producer to producer. Compared to films, TV censorship guidelines are surely stricter keeping in mind that television is accessible on the press of a remote button. In my opinion, we have enough creative freedom and we as makers are progressing and so are the maturity level of audiences.”

     

    Freedom, limited freedom, no freedom… we received no clear answers to our question. However, the fact remains that despite the current slowdown, the fraternity is still managing to survive and thrive in the prevailing system.

     

    Image: Rafiq

     

     

  • This year the challenge was to instill confidence into the property promise of big savings at a time when persistent inflation was dampening consumer spending

    Big Bazaar’s new Mahabachat campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-bo9pTou5I[/youtube]

    Big Bazaar is the pioneer of organized retailing in India and has been successful in creating many new consumption occasions, which offer unbeatable value to the Indian middle class. One of such landmark properties is Mahabachat, which has been designed to spur consumption around the Independence Day holiday.

     

    This year the challenge was to instill confidence into the property promise of big savings at a time when persistent inflation was dampening consumer spending.

     

    The consumer reality revealed that they harbored a sense of helplessness towards inflation, with no solution in sight. Over the years, the effect of inflation had moved beyond the kitchen to oil prices, fashion, education and entertainment, leading to an increase in the cost of living. At the same time consumer aspirations were also on the rise, resulting in an overall state of dissatisfaction.

     

    As a solution to the current consumer angst, they empowered their consumers with a concrete solution of Mahabachat. The resolve of victory on inflation by participating in Mahabachat was brought alive through the optimistic call to action- mehengai par halla bol. The TVC worked to build an atmosphere of collective hope and confidence. The campaign was supported by TV, print, radio, outdoor and digital medium.

     

    Chief Creative Officer: Sonal Dabral

    Office Head: Rajiv Sabnis

    Creative Head: Vinayak Nayak, Anand Karir

    Creative Copy: Neh Rathi, Anand Karir and Fazal Syed

    Creative Art: Binal Parikh Gharat, Sunil Petkar

    Account Planning: Amit Kekre, Gitanjali Saxena

    Account Management: Sanjay Panday, Rajiv Wadhwa, Makarand Gholba, Abhay Bhonsle

    Films: Mahen Solanki

    Production House: Whodunit Films

    Director: Sujay Shetty

     

  • Getting future-ready as technology drives media dominated Day 2 proceedings at the South Asia conference of newspaper publishers

    @INMA: Thriving in a digital world

    L to R: Jehil Thakkar (KPMG), DD Purkayastha (ABP), Ravi Dhariwal (BCCL, INMA) and Santosh Desai (Future Brands)

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The second day of the International Newspapers Marketers Association (INMA) South Asia 2012 conference in Delhi threw light on the complexities and challenges of the print newspaper media. The first session of the day was ‘Media 2020: A future backward kaleidoscope’. The session focussed on how the newspaper industry is readying itself to face the challenge from digital media usage.

     

    Mr Jehil Thakkar, Partner, Head-Media & Entertainment, KPMG India made some interesting observations about the levers that are changing the Indian newspaper industry. He pointed out how empirical studies prove that there exists a positive relationship between the wealth of a nation and newspaper readership: “There also exists positive correlation between growth of economies and technology adoption, which has significant potential to disrupt media consumption.”

     

    “The rapid proliferation of new-age devices and growth of alternate media has reduced newspaper consumption by 40 per cent with audiences preferring to access paper via their mobile phones,” added Mr Thakkar. According to him, technology would alter the workings of newspaper industry as coverage would become electronic, delivery would become faster; collaboration would become the key; cloud-based service would become a norm; interactivity through QR and barcodes would see an upsurge.

     

    DD Purkayastha
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    Talking of how things will shape up in 2020, DD Purkayastha, MD & CEO, ABP Pvt Ltd said that the future belongs to newspapers who become hyperlocal as cities reach the saturation point. He said: “Regional publications will grow. And consolidation will happen at a much faster pace.”

     

    Mr Ravi Dhariwal, President, INMA Worldwide and CEO, The Times of India, noted how newspaper of 2020 will undergo a dramatic change. He noted: “Three critical things will emerge in 2020: what brand you own will become important as there will be many more brands on the digital media; curation of the product will become more important as the role of a journalist will shrink and need for analytical news pieces will arise; and business model will change as ad revenue will become a critical source of revenue. As technology improves, and people get more comfortable with using technology, the ad rates would only increase.”

     

    Mr Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands India, remarked: “The larger issue that would emerge would be the tension between decentralisation of news media and fragmentation.” The panel, however, coherently agreed that despite the changes and challenges that the newspaper would undergo, it would still exist with the digital media.

     

    The session on ‘Increased circulation; dwindling readership: Is it time to measure ‘access’?’ saw panellists discuss the much-debated measurement metrics available. ‘Newspaper distribution channel: How best to nurture it for the future’ and threw light on the vendors and agents who distribute the newspapers. Moderating the session, Mr Sanjeev Vohra, Executive Vice-President – Audiences, BCCL, said: “The vendor currently exists as an independent businessman and as an investor in newspaper business.” His view was supported by Mr PS Venkat, Vice-President, Circulation, The Hindu, who said that changes are needed in distribution model to enable the vendors to become partners in progress.

     

    Mateen Khan
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    Mr Mateen Khan, Product Head of Lokmat Samachar pointed out how the distribution channel in rural areas is still a problem, while it may not seem so in a metro. Taking the discussion ahead, Mr Rakesh Sharma, CEO, Aaj Samaj & ITV Group said: “There should be distribution points every three kilometres, and more distribution points.” He, however, noted that the vendors will remain the key to distribute newspapers in India beyond 2020. Mr OP Rajgharia, Chairman & MD, Overnite Express Ltd appreciated the effort put in by newspaper vendors to ensure the timeliness of delivery.

     

     

    ‘Needed to be sector-neutral’


    If you are having trouble in viewing this video, see link

     

    Bhaskar Das, President & Principal Secretary to MD, The Times of India Group, talks to MxMIndia on curating the INMA South Asia 2012 conference

    When I was talking to the organisers, and was given the task of preparing the content architecture of INMA, I told them very clearly that it is not about newspaper industry -it is about business. So, we have to be sector-neutral since principles of business are same. Newspaper is a sub-set of business. This was the first consideration.

     

    Secondly, in my case, the delegates were my guiding point. Why should people attend the conference? Are we going to be just another conference? How do I make it distinctive?

     

    The distinctiveness of the conference is that it creates fluid knowledge; knowledge that one can import when they go back. So, I had to ensure that they learn from each session. That led to the subject. In most of the conferences, people state the obvious. I thought why we don’t address the fact that there are complexities, there are challenges. Being an incumbent player, I realised that if we talk about problems, it is not solved. We should then talk about how we can leverage that problem or challenge. This led me to look for various industries. I scouted the internet, books, academic journals, about what happens when an industry goes through huge challenges, air pockets. There are initial signs of a problem, which I came to know of while researching, such as ‘butterfly effect’ that led to complexity science. This became the theme. The theme has to be intriguing to people rather than being a newspaper conference. The theme was then decided as ‘complexity advantage’. Now that complexity is a given, why not leverage it.

     

    On the audience mix:

    This time it has been a record attendance. I am not very happy but you to also have to market it that way. If one can maintain this level of content architecture, attendance will grow. For an event that happens once a year, I will have to sustain noise throughout the year. The community needs to talk about it, so that you can have user-generated content architecture next time. Then, there are regional peculiarities that may not be only one; there are eastern and western peculiarities.

     

    We also have to be industry- or sector-neutral in our audience mix. Why should they be from newspaper industry? Why not from television industry or from client side to discuss business? When people know what you are delivering, I am sure diversity will happen in the audience.

     

    The session was followed by speakers from Pakistan and Bangladesh who spoke on ‘Managing complexity in South-Asian markets – A Pakistan and Bangladesh Experience.’ The session saw interesting insights about newspaper industry in the two neighbouring countries.

     

    Industries across the globe are increasingly learning from other industries to improve their operating efficiencies and innovation capabilities across various spectrum of businesses. ‘Media learning from other industries’ saw three specialists from sectors such as retail, telecom and finance discuss the wisdom that newspaper industry could imbibe, given the onslaught of digital media. The panel discussed how the evolution could gain from the exploration of the new path.

     

    Mr Jaideep Ghosh, Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG pointed out that print media continues to remain the second largest medium in the Indian media and entertainment industry. He also pointed out the key challenges of talent, operational cost, monetizing digital media and fragmentation that the industry faces currently. He said: “Media can leverage data analytics to strengthen the understanding of its customers and build brand loyalty, much like the way telecom, retail and finance sector have done.”

     

    Drawing from the e-retail experience, Mr Rajiv Prakash, ex-CEO, FutureBazaar.com, said, “The audience is increasingly turning Clomosol, which is an aggregation of Cloud+Mobile+Social+Local. Thus, the digital consumer is a channel omnivore, and should be serviced at every touch-point.”

     

    Mr Jairam Sridharan, Head, Retail Banking, Axis Bank said that the newspaper organisations should focus on getting their product on mobile, rather than internet as, “the consumer is leapfrogging the internet and becoming increasingly mobile-savvy.”

     

    The closing session of the two-day INMA conference saw Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan., Chairperson, Corporate Strategy and Policy Area, IIM Bangalore talking about sustainable and thriving media business model that can successfully withstand the vicissitudes of business environment.

     

    He said, “The internet tends to dampen bargaining power of newspaper channels by providing direct avenues of access to customers. But the other hand, it will help the industry to create new substitutes, and new geographical markets will emerge.” He further noted, “The internet has and would result in targeted advertisements, disappearing role of editor as decision maker; fall in advertising revenues and young people moving away from printed newspaper.” The key decision variables, according to him, were how to embrace internet, and change strategy. Giving the example of Schibsted, Norway, he said that the paper now brings readers to its webpage through the front page and even Google was denied the permission to crawl its pages. “This helped them to monetise the banner ad on its front page,” Mr Krishnan said, adding, “Huffington Post has enaged in user-generated content, and its ad revenues are growing. Axel Springer/Bild has extended its brand to other media.”

     

    As Indian newspaper industry struggles with low cover price, growth of paid news, entry of non-traditional players, investment to establish presence in non-metros, the panel at INMA South Asia conference tried to address issues as closely as possible. Whether the industry would learn, and implement the learning remains to be seen.

     

  • A common challenge facing all three nations, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is with respect to media ownership

    INMA 2012: Managing complexity in South Asia

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Keeping in line with the theme of the 6th annual INMA South Asia conference, ‘Complexity Advantage’, one of the sessions focused on the complex media markets inSouth Asia.

     

    Titled, ‘Managing Complexity In South Asian Markets: A Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh Experience’, the session was moderated by Mr Bhaskar Das, President & Principal Secretary to MD, The Times of India Group. Representing Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively, were panelists, Matiur Rahman, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Prothom Alo, Bangladesh and Mr Javed Jabbar, Chairman & Chief Executive, JJ Media (Pvt.) Ltd and former Federal Minister,Pakistan.

     

    Mr Rahman started the discussion by sharing the complexities and challenges facing media market in Bangladesh: “Media industry can best thrive in a democracy but democracy in Bangladesh in only 22 years old. The dominant political parties are poles apart and can’t even come to a consensus on major national issues. People in the media are threatened, tortured and even murdered. Political interference is a huge challenge and yet there are some resilient media houses playing an important role.”

     

    He added that another challenge is to keep the press free from its owners because many media houses are now being owned by corrupt business owners. Speaking of evolving technology, Mr Rahman said: “Earlier our competitors were only newspapers, but now all electronic media are competing with us. With mobile and digital growing at a fast pace, product offerings have to be modified to suit the needs of both consumers and advertisers.”

     

    Speaking of complexities and challenges facing the Pakistan market, Mr Jabbar said that both India and Pakistan, two nations who have the single most complex bilateral relations, suffer from a lack of awareness about each other. He said: “Countries are societies and nations before they are markets. News media have played a pivotal role in determining a lack of awareness among these two nations. All media are inherently subjective, selective and suppressive.” Furthermore, he said that the question in Pakistani people’s minds today is whether media content eventually makes a difference in governance or violence. Does media content really change things?

     

    As for advertisers, he said: “They are aggressive intruders voracious for media space. Editors and proprietors of newspapers are willing to debase to any level and they are even allowing advertisers to sponsor verses of the Holy Quran. In Pakistan, advertisers in collusion with news media have encroached on space that belongs purely to news content. But at the same time, advertisers are beginning to invest in research which was long overdue.”

     

    Talking of technology and the onset of digital, Mr Jabbar said: “New technology is ubiquitous and pervasive. Media landscape in Pakistan is thriving, especially in terms of IT connectivity and television channels. However changes that are taking place in India in terms of mobile and devices are not as rapid in Pakistan. Innovations are not taking place at a desirable pace.”

     

    Mr Jabbar concluded by stating a common challenge facing all three nations, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, with respect to media ownership. He said, “Ownership of media should be redistributed through publicly listed companies on the stock exchange so that profit doesn’t become greed.”

     

  • The panel debated the need for new matrices of measurement which can complement the conventional audience measurement matrices

    INMA 2012: ‘Industry needs currency that measures across platforms’

     

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Basant Rathore
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    Like Day 1, Day 2 of the 6th INMA annual South Asia conference also witnessed some interesting panel discussions pertaining to issues facing the news industry today.

     

    The first half witnessed an engaging session on, ‘Increased Circulation, Dwindling Readership: Is It Time to Measure “Access”?’ The session was moderated by Lynn de Souza, Chairman & CEO, Lintas Media Group. The panelists included Paritosh Joshi, Independent Media Professional & Board Member of MRUC; LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research Pvt Ltd; and Basant Rathore, Vice President-Strategy, Brand and BD, Jagran Prakashan Ltd.

     

    The panel debated the need for new matrices of measurement which can complement the conventional audience measurement matrices, as today the audiences are increasingly becoming platform-agnostic.

     

    Ms de Souza said: “People seem to be very attached to these numbers. But while numbers are important, we need a currency that goes across platforms. We need to be able to measure new forms of readership. From circulation and readership, we need to change our metric to media access.”

     

    Lynn de Souza
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    Mr Paritosh Joshi shared a similar view on the need to look beyond the primary level numbers which he felt are out of date. He said that there are two sorts of media consumption today, structured and unstructured. It is equally important to be able to measure and take into account unstructured media consumption. Just as there are enough screens available today and not just the traditional TV box, he said, the newspaper is not just in the traditional paper form, it is available in other forms across platforms.

     

    Mr L V Krishnan talked of two news aspects coming out in the digital world: “One is the increasing access which is changing things dramatically. The other is multiplicity of brands transiting between different mediums. For instance, a Bombay Times with Zoom or an ET Now with The Economic Times. The nature of one medium declining and the other growing will depend on what the creator of the brand wants to deliver via a particular medium.”

     

    While there was agreement on the importance of numbers and currency, the panelists also highlighted the need to move beyond the existing currency.

     

    Mr Basant Rathore of Jagran said: “Digitization has blurred not just geographical boundaries but also boundaries between mediums. Today we don’t have a clue of numbers in digital media, but they are definitely going to grow. If these can’t be measured, monetization becomes a problem. The advertisers know that the game is moving beyond the existing currency. The research we had till date was about currency but the advertisers are now talking about engagement.”

     

    Mr Joshi added: “The existing measurement systems are accused of fudging numbers. With the new IRS, even real time tracking of interviews is possible. It will be a like a core end satellite model and this will enable us to respond to changes that are happening in the environment. Earlier we looked at data in a cross-sectional slice but what’s of interest to an advertiser is what happens to a consumer through the day. With the new measurement matrices, we are thinking of capturing all digital research to get a horizontal longitudinal view of a consumer’s media movements.”

     

    The panel also agreed on the need for industry to be willing to adopt new matrices of measurement and to support measurement that looks beyond primary access numbers. Mr Rathore concluded: “Numbers will continue to be important because that’s the benchmark for trade to happen. But if you need to grow, it’s important to leverage the media brand across media platforms and so we need to know what’s happening across platforms. And that’s why we need to be open to the measurement of other metrics.”

     

  • Day 1 discusses key issues the business of newspapers including getting upclose with how the post-90s generation views the morningers

    Complexity presents opportunity @INMA 2012

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The sixth edition of International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) South Asia Conference opened to a packed house on August 6 in New Delhi. The theme ‘Complexity Advantage’ was not only explored, but dissected and deconstructed. The sessions at the event saw discussion on various topics ranging from the need of newspaper companies to become multimedia organisations to the future of news, and if cost deflation is an achievable matrix.

     

    Mr Sanjay Gupta, President INMA South Asia and CEO & Editor, Jagran Prakashan Ltd welcomed the delegates and Mr Ravi Dhariwal, President INMA Worldwide & CEO, The Times of India Group, gave the inaugural address. Talking about the volatile Indian newspaper landscape, Mr Dhariwal outlined five key points: “There is great optimism even when things have not been going great economically. There is a very big opportunity in tier II and III cities, which every newspaper is witnessing. On the back of multimedia and strong publishing business, companies have been witnessing double digit growth. However, the newspaper business is being treated as ‘one shot fits all’. Going forward, this strategy will have to change as the consumer needs customisation according to their needs and interests.”

     

    He went on to say that publishing, as a business, has a bigger purpose of being at the forefront of change, and gave the example of TOI’s ‘Lead India’ and ‘Teach India’ campaigns.

     

    Ravi Dhariwal
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdAI1R8UBTw[/youtube]

    His also commented on how advertisers are struggling with value: “We need to deliver and innovate to deliver extra value to the advertiser. My fourth point would be that the competitors need to join hands and collaborate to give better value to the readers and advertisers. If we do not do that now, we might bleed like the newspaper industry bled in the West.” He concluded by saying that fleeting FMCG advertisers who prefer TV as a valuable medium to advertise: “Should be given single rate from all newspapers.”

     

    Mr Bhaskar Das, President & Principal Secretary to MD, The Times of India Group, who acted as a sutradhaar at INMA noted: “The newspaper business is rapidly changing. There is no equilibrium, only punctuations. The businesses today are caught in ‘complexity science’- any business can and will survive if they adapt to the changing environment.”

     

    Mr Nandan M Nilekani, Chairman, UIAI, Planning Commission, Govt of India raised important points about how newspaper industry should integrate its print version with digital format to reach out to the larger, younger audience: “The advancement of computing technology is bringing dramatic changes in how media is being consumed. It is important to understand the interplay of demographics, cloud computing, content, mobility, and access to technology, to create a business model that integrates the disruptive advertising and subscription models.” He summed his theory as: “Get ready for online mobile-aware resident.”

     

    Earl J Wilkinson
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKl9f2Yjxyg[/youtube]

    Highlighting the fact that advertisers want quality reach, target richness, engagement, purchase intention, and actionable audiences from the newspaper media, Mr Earl J Wilkinson, Executive Director & CEO, INMA spoke on ‘The new growth path and how to get there’. Talking about the learning and examples from the US and UK markets, he said that Indian newspaper industry is at crossroads because of: growth beyond demographic changes; the struggle being less about circulation but more about readership; delivering value to advertisers even as multimedia and digital pose challenge.

     

    Mr Wilkinson said: “The integration of content across platforms is bound to happen. And this is not true for content only, but also for the readers and advertisers. The problem of complexity does arise across platforms, but herein lies the opportunity. As the integration becomes a norm, the organisation models of newspaper companies will also change. The companies need to ‘aggregate’ and ‘atomize’.”

     

    The new model, according to him, would focus more on competence and value that it gives than the product itself. He further said that most news would be consumed via mobile by 2015. “Mobileand social media would result in exponential engagement. We, as newspaper industry, need to be more relevant to the nebulous pursuit of quality. Going forward, the multimedia organisations need to manage print for profit, and digital for growth,” Wilkinson concluded.

     

    The session on ‘Future of News’ brought interesting perspectives as the panel discussed if the attractiveness of news can be synchronised with commerce and content. ‘Winning the ad growth challenge’ saw industry veterans talking about factors that impact ad revenues.

     

    The highlight of the day was the interesting session with young college students on ‘Walking through the mind of the post-90 born: ‘Creating a newspaper I would like to read”. The session gave interesting insights to the delegates about how newspaper is not a necessarily a chore for the 19-21-year-olds. They consume news on-the-go, and read newspaper “when they have nothing else to do.” Moreover, the young panel highlighted that they preferred going through trending articles and video links, showing how digital was their preferred medium of news consumption.

     

    ‘Battle of  Bulge: Is cost deflation a utopian expectation?’ was moderated by Mr Mohit Jain, Executive President, Supply Chain, BCCL. He pointed out the three challenges of newspaper business when it cones to cutting costs, “Globalisation of cost structure, supply chain issues, and volatility of newsprint.” The session spoke on how new business models of publishing and printing newsprint are managing the currency, size and quality; how newspaper companies need to unlock internal manpower potential across board; and effective supplier partnerships.

     

    Mr Ashish Pherwani, Partner-Advisory Services, E&Y noted that newspaper organisations should pool-in their back-end resources, such as printing facility, to cut costs. Mr Pawan Agarwal, Non Executive Director Bhaskar Group echoed Mr Pherwani’s thoughts, and added, “We have created a common infrastructure for two or more of our editions. This helps in capping my Opex and Capex.” Mr Piyush Gupta, Group CFO, HT Media agreed: “Co-sharing is already happening in aviation department. If it can happen there, it can happen here as well.”

     

    Mr Pherwani added: “Every newspaper industry goes through three stages: chopping off wastage; optimisation, and partnering with vendors. Currently, the Indian newspaper industry is going through the third cycle. It is imperative that we build a right product at right price by creating a win-win relationship with vendors.”

     

    The panel also highlighted the fact that harnessing inner potential is important for any and all newspaper organisations to achieve its top-line growth. The panel also noted that what is core to a business and what can be co-shared: this will emerge as a real game changer for a newspaper organisation.

     

    Giving a different perspective to the newspaper session was the speaker Mr Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business and Group HR Director, Aditya Birla Management Corp who spoke on ‘Managing cultural asymmetry in a multi-media organisation’.

     

  • The panel discussed how the technological innovations and its resultant empowerment of individuals have significantly changed the way people consume news today

    INMA 2012: ‘News is not static but dynamic’

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Sanjay Gupta
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alB7H-4TpGU[/youtube]

    The International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) hosted its 6th annual South Asia conference in New Delhi on August 7. With its theme of ‘Complexity Advantage’, Day 1 of the INMA conference witnessed some power packed sessions.

     

    One such session, ‘The Future of News’, was moderated by Jacob Mathew, Executive Editor, Malayala Manorama and President, WAN-Ifra. The session saw a lively discussion by the two eminent panelists, Mr MJ Akbar, Editorial Director, India Today & Headlines Today and Mr Sanjay Gupta, CEO, Jagran Prakashan Ltd.

     

    The technological innovations and its resultant empowerment of individuals have significantly changed the way people consume news today. Introducing the topic,’The Future of News’, Mr Mathew raised a few key questions: “Would the existing formats be relevant to the future? How will we ensure that news is available anywhere anytime in any format to be consumed by our readers?”

     

    He added that the growth of print has still not been affected as much in South Asia and that the countries in the region should learn from the mistakes made by colleagues in the rest of the world.

     

    MJ Akbar
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5gZXE8988w[/youtube]

    Addressing the basic worry around the future of news, Mr Akbar said: “The reason why news will always be in demand is because man is not a hermit. Man lives in a community and in any community, ignorance is the basis of all conflict. Curiosity is elemental to human experience and as long as curiosity remains a vital part, news will thrive.”  He added that news needs a vehicle and that will be provided by news organizations in the future as well.

     

    Mr Akbar alleged that the real problem facing the society today is not the future of news but the future of a ‘journalist’. He pointed out two traps that journalists today increasingly fall into: “One trap is a fish trap where a journalist looks at the bait and swallows it. This trap is a dangerous challenge to credibility of news as this form of journalism is based essentially on what the journalist has ‘heard’. The other trap is delusion trap where the journalist thinks he/she is more important than news.”

     

    Mr Akbar also compared the newspaper to a ‘thali’ which has a variety of food ranging from healthy ‘dal and rice’ to not-so-healthy ‘achaar'(pickle). He said: “No thali is complete without achaar, but on the other hand, achaar cannot replace dal and rice.”

     

    Coming back to the basic point in question of how big a threat does technology pose for the print industry, Mr Akbar said: “No technology completely destroys another. They all continue to exist together. The only thing that will be destroyed in the future will be your business plans which will have to be reoriented.” He added that there is no essential competition between products (radio, TV, newspaper), every product has its own rationale and news organizations have to be ‘format-driven’.

     

    He concluded: “As long as the newsmaker and the news owner understand that news is not static but dynamic, there’s no reason to worry.”

     

    Mr Gupta echoed Mr Akbar’s views and maintained that there will be news as long as there’s society and as long as there are incidents taking place. He said that the new technology does help in uncovering the truth faster and in an easier way sometimes, but the basics of news is to uncover the truth. It is important, he said, that news media engages audience in a public debate over issues that matter.

     

    Mr Gupta added that good journalism is good business and he concluded by quoting Google’s head of news products, Richard Gingras: “The pace of technological change will not abate, and to think of our current time as a transition between two eras, rather than a continuum of change, is a mistake.”

     

  • The moderator for the session Mr Ashish Pherwani opened the discussion on the ad growth challenge

    INMA 2012: ‘Print must engage audiences effectively’

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Day 1 of the sixth annual South Asia INMA conference opened with a host of promising sessions which addressed key issues facing the industry.

     

    Ashish Pherwani
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfREkdmTRuc[/youtube]

    The session ‘Winning the Ad Growth Challenge: Is it a Plausible Model’ was moderated by Ashish Pherwani, Partner- Advisory Services, Ernst & Young India and the other panelists included Bharat Bambawale, Director, Global Brand Bharti Airtel Ltd; Mayank Pareek, COO (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd; and Shashi Sinha, CEO, LodestarMedia.

     

    The moderator, Mr Pherwani opened the discussion on the ad growth challenge by listing out four factors that he felt were impacting ad growth: inherent competition, technology change, slow economic growth and growth of television. Citing a recent research, Mr Pherwani said that there were clear indications that consumers are spending more time on digital media at the expense of traditional media.

     

    He also listed out some questions for the print industry to address, the broad one being, how to stay relevant and grow revenues. Among the other questions he raised were: New ways advertisers can use print, how to enhance effectiveness of print for advertisers, what makes advertisers continue on print when times are tough and finally how can print companies explore new media.

     

    Mayank Pareek
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYJJnTGb12U[/youtube]

    Mr Pareek said that the demography is changing because the way people seek news is changing. He said that Maruti had redefined their strategy to invest in print, looking at the changing trends in consumption: “We’ve gone from 67 per cent to 23 per cent in our spends on advertising in print in the last five years.” He said that it is important that companies continuously adopt to the changing demographic needs. He added that even though digital spends are low today, digital is growing and changing rapidly. So for print to remain relevant, there is need to develop engaging content as the other media are offering. However, Mr Pareek agreed that print will continue to play a role in the future as well.

     

    While the other panelists agreed with Mr Pareek that print will continue to be the part of a media plan for an agency or an advertiser, they also shared his concern on the need for print to adapt to changing consumption patterns.

     

    Mr Bambawale of Airtel said: “We are using much less print. There is one strong global trend which holds true forIndiaas well, young eyeballs are moving away from the printed word to the video. So for print medium to engage this audience is a great challenge. The conversation should change from ‘how can we put an ad out there’ to ‘how can we engage’. In a newspaper, content is all about facts and events but in engagement, content is about making things interesting. The answer lies in creating content that has high degree of engagement even around topics of news or current issues.”

     

    Mr Sinha said that the strength of print lies in the fact that it brings a lot of credibility: “Print still stands for credibility, I am not so sure if digital has that. We’ve embraced digital because of the youth. For certain brands which go through an erosion of trust, print is the best place to be in.”

     

    He added that not growing fast enough is the problem of measurement: “The current measurement metrics are limited to cost and reach. There is no way to measure engagement or performance. Unless we start showing these to the advertiser, things won’t change. There is a need to introduce new metrics of measurement.”

     

    Mr Bambawale echoed Mr Sinha’s view on measurement being limited to cost and reach as far as newspapers are concerned: “If you change the matrices by which you present the title to an advertiser, it’d be a more fruitful conversation perhaps.”

     

    The discussion concluded with two key takeaways, Print needs to find new ways of engaging its audience to stay relevant in a changing era. And second, there is a need perhaps to look at other matrices of measurement for print, a way of measuring effectiveness of an innovation.

     

  • This year's theme – Complexity Advantage – would discuss driving readership and circulation

    INMA to address ‘Complexity Advantage’ at Sixth Annual Conference

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) is set to host its sixth Annual South Asia Conference on August 7-8 in New Delhi under the theme ‘Complexity Advantage’. In today’s scenario of accelerated change and complexity, strategic competitive advantage is created by the combination of strategy, culture, systems, brands, products, services and by the people that operate throughout the organization.

     

    The INMA South Asia Conference aims to address some of these tectonic shifts that are creating the complexities in our business, so as to stimulate the industry towards evolving a roadmap to convert the various existential challenges into opportunities. As such, the theme of this conference is aptly titled ‘Complexity Advantage’.

     

    Sanjay Gupta

    Mr Sanjay Gupta, who was elected as the President INMA South Asia 2011, and is the Director, CEO and Editor of Jagran Prakashan Ltd said: “This year’s theme would discuss driving readership and circulation. My expectation from the conference is that the industry people from South Asian countries can get their act together when it comes to talking about how to tackle various issues, including digital revenue models.”

     

    Mr Bharat Kapadia, INMA Board Director, and Chairman of Whatuwant Solutions, said, “Even though India is better off when it comes to print market, the last quarter can only be described as tough. The two-day seminar will get the industry to come together and talk about the challenges and work towards a better future.” He added that the complexities of businesses in driving revenues and circulation will be the focus of the conference.

     

    Bharat Kapadia

    INMA aims to bring together top newspapers from South Asia into a two-day, fast-paced tour de force of ideas and innovations to grow newspaper advertising, circulation and brand across titles and across consumer platforms. Over 35 speakers, several partners, press and over 180 delegates from 25 newspapers and another 20 companies across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Europe will be attending this conference.

     

    INMA is the only industry association that is able to pull together South Asia’s top publishers and specifically executives charged with growing advertising, circulation and brand. There will be excellent opportunities to network and share the “INMA conversation” among this exclusive fraternity of the world’s most innovative newspaper executives. INMA is the world’s leading provider of global best practices and marketing ideas. It provides its members thought leadership and practical ideas to grow audience, advertising, brand and profit. Currently, INMA has over 5,000 members in over 82 countries worldwide, which include several members from Indian and now Bangladesh and Pakistan newspapers.

     

  • Group M announces three top level changes: Mr Sakhuja replaces Kelly Clark as Global CEO of Maxus who in turn replaces Rob Norman as CEO of Group M North America. Mr Norman has been appointed Chief Digital Officer for Group M Global

    Vikram Sakhuja is Global CEO of Maxus. Maxus HQ to shift to India. Sakhuja replacement not named yet

     By A Correspondent

     

    As India celebrated her 66th Independence Day, there was renewed reason for cheer as the news that the headquarters of the fastest growing media agency is to be shifted to the country filtered in. The shift was necessitated by the appointment of Vikram Sakhuja as Global CEO of Maxus.

     

    Mr Sakhuja’s appointment was part of a series of senior-level changes announced by Group M on Wednesday by Dominic Proctor, President of GroupM Global. “There is no reason why agencies need to be run out of London or New York,” Mr Proctor told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “The world is now a small town, and the fact that our management team are spread around the globe is very fitting.”

     

    In the first move, GroupM North American CEO Rob Norman becomes Chief Digital Officer for GroupM Global, a new position at the company.

     

    “Our activity in digital will define our future success and we are truly fortunate that Rob will step into this crucial role full time,” Mr Proctor said.  “There is nobody better suited or more experienced than Rob to lead our teams into the future.”

     

    Mr Norman has extensive experience in the digital arena having served as CEO of GroupM Interaction since 2006.  Mr Proctor said his responsibilities will be significantly expanded in his new role.

     

    At the same time, Mr Proctor said Kelly Clark, currently Global CEO of the GroupM agency Maxus, will succeed Norman as CEO of GroupM North America.

     

    “Kelly has had wonderful success with our companies in Asia, the UK, and Europe and most recently at Maxus globally,” Mr Proctor said.  “His broad experience and track record will bring a great boost to our business in North America.”  Prior to taking over Maxus in 2008, Mr Clark served as CEO of GroupM Europe, Middle East and Africa.

     

    Maxus was named the 2011 “Media Agency of the Year” by Adweek magazine and last month the agency was named the fastest-growing global media services agency in the world for the third consecutive year by RECMA, the independent organization that measures media agency sector operations.

     

    Taking Mr Clark’s role at Maxus will be Mr Vikram Sakhuja, currently CEO of GroupM India and South Asia.

     

    “Vikram is the perfect candidate to take on the Maxus role from Kelly,” Mr Proctor said.  “Maxus has a great management team and a lot of momentum.  I have no doubt that Vikram will continue to build a great agency.”  He added that Mr Sakhuja will remain in his current role until his successor is announced.

     

    All three will report to Mr Proctor and the new roles begin later this year.

     

  • The seminar will be packed with powerful speakers, giving the participants an opportunity to interact with the 'Thought Gurus' of the industry

    APREE 2012 to focus on social media marketing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spotlight Event & Entertainment announced the fifth edition of APREE, which is an annual interactive knowledge exchange platform aimed at bringing Advertising, PR, Entertainment & Event Management companies come together for networking and to discuss the way forward.

     

    “We are pleased to announce the fifth edition of APREE and I am grateful to the industry experts who have contributed in making this a huge platform and trusting the benefits it can bring to the communications industry by way of networking, sharing and evolving through each other’s experience,” said Salama Yamini, Operation Head, APREE Organizing committee.

     

    The seminar will be packed with powerful speakers, giving the participants an opportunity to interact with the ‘Thought Gurus’ of the industry. It will also provide an insight into relevant data explaining where the communications industry is heading. The event is catalogued to provide one with better networking with competitors, brands and industry professionals from all aspects of communication business.

     

    Speaking about the event, Gagan Myne, Director, Spotlight Event & Entertainment said: “This year the focus of APREE 2012 is to concentrate on “How to make most out of Social Media Marketing.”

     

    Some of the prominent speakers this year are: Santosh Desai, MD & CEO Future Brand; Ekalavya Bhattacharya, Head of Digital MTV India; Ryan Valles, CEO Deal & You; Kunal Kishore, Founder & CEO, Value 360 Communications; Moksh Juneja, Founder of Avignyata Inc.; Snigdha Manchanda, Storyteller; Xavier Prabhu, Consultant on branding and Communication

     

    The event will be held from August 23-26th 2012 in Goa.

     

     

  • A weekly column by Paritosh Joshi, until recently CEO, Star CJ. Given his varied experience in the media and industry bodies, Mr Joshi will analyse issues concerning the business of media, measurement and research

    Paritosh Joshi: Independence and Free Media

    By Paritosh Joshi

     

    Constitutional Law is assumed to be arcane, dense and generally beyond the comprehension of anyone except the most learned of legal minds. And yet, some of the most soaring, inspiring expressions of humanity’s pursuit of a higher ideal, the greater good, a more just world are to be found there. Here are two splendid examples:

     

    “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

    JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

    LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

    EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

    and to promote among them all

    FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

    IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949,DO HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION”.

     

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.

     

    84 words in that first quotation, the Preamble to the Constitution of India (and it was only 82 before Indira Gandhi imposed ‘SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST’ upon it vide the Forty Second Constitution Amendment Bill, 1976) and a mere 45 in the second, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Look at how emphatic both are on the matter of Free Speech.

     

    Why should this be so? Jurists aver that all other fundamental freedoms can be logically derived from Free Speech. Conversely, truncate Free Speech from the rights enjoyed by the citizens of a nation-state and you have an inevitable path to oppression and tyranny. The Scottish essayist, Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes and Her Worship cites the British Parliamentarian Edmund Burke as the progenitor of the phrase “Fourth Estate” to describe the Press. The quote that has passed into common usage is: “There were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all”. The importance of this Estate grows exponentially as private and state power expands in a rapidly growing Socio-Economy. By ensuring that the reader or viewer is kept abreast with the latest developments in the world around them and, in particular, calling out malfeasance, misdemeanour and mischief in high places, the media keep untrammelled might in check.

     

    How well are we inIndiadoing on this front?

    Not very, one has to say, with the greatest regret.

     

    Doordarshan, set up with an ambitious charter of achieving everything from “Catalyst for change”, “Promote National Integration” all the way through to  “Create values of appraisal of art and cultural heritage” has now been reduced to an anamic copy of private Hindi GE channels. So much for our much vaunted “Public Broadcasting System”.

     

    And have the private broadcasters covered themselves with glory? Let’s look at news in India’s most widely spoken language: Hindi. With a potential audience footprint running into several hundred million people, the genre must surely recognize its indispensable role in protecting the rights of this, often disadvantaged, class of viewers / citizens. What do they actually get? A puerile confection of tabloid sensationalism, GE quasi-reruns and an endless barrage of news pablum.

     

    Can we be hopeful that things can or will change? Yes. For the strangest reason.

     

    The promise of BARC to give us a wider and deeper understanding of the needs and interest of the television audience. And its other promise of shifting the inventory valuation from a relative currency (CPRP) to an absolute one (CPT). As broadcasters receive a more fair value for the product they sell, their need to be incessantly strident to get audiences or perish trying, will be replaced by greater sobriety and a renewed focus on creative quality.

     

    66th Independence Day Greetings to all my readers and their families!