Having been associated some of the largest media groups for four decades, our Wizard with Words is undoubtedly the best person to take the question. So here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the April 18 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. A joint ad by HT, TOI, Hindu and Telegraph throws up a variety of stats including 7.4% of urban Indians read an English newspaper. Your view on the ad? It just goes on to show that English newspapering is a preserve of the English-reading elite?
A. I am not surprised. English newspaper readership has always been restricted to the upper echelons of society. This is natural because of the language and also due to controlled penetration by the publishers throughout India.
Having said that, the acceptance of Indian language newspapers has also gone up. In fact, the readership, even as per last IRS, has gone up significantly. Reading a language newspaper along with an English newspaper isn’t considered as infradig as it was perceived in the past. Consequently, the advertising attracting power of Indian language newspapers has also gone up. Advertisers have also started increasing India language newspapers as they are focusing on Tier 2-3 markets for increasing sales. Besides, the aspirations are going up as the younger generation don’t feel constrained due to their location in the so-called non-metros. There may be a case for increasing penetration by English newspapers beyond the classical metros. I am conscious that production, distribution would be cost-inefficient for English newspapers due to low volume. Hence a collaboration model might have to be worked out with language newspapers who have editions there. The real challenge is the business model. Even if English newspaper reading is aspirational, high cover price that meets the economics of operation at the contribution level is met up, the implementation is worth it. This initiative might fuel the demand side of the English newspaper reading, including pass-along readership. This would expand the readership of English newspapers in this country.