MxMIndia

Tag: Newsweek

  • Digital can co-exist and support the print format, say speakers at the INMA Digital Innovation Summit

    Print-Digital Bhai-Bhai!

     

    By Ananya Saha

     

    Print readership is declining the world over. And digital subscribers are rising. Does this mean that the digital medium would lead to closing down of print editions? Not according to the speakers and attendees at that The Digital Innovation Summit 2012 by INMA.

     

    Yasmin Namini

    While Newsweek made a smart move by announcing its move to the web-only space, the news print industry is taking it slow and steady. Yasmin Namini, Senior VP – Marketing and Circulation and GM, Reader Applications, The New York Times pointed out how NYT has been gaining readers with their innovative paid digital content, such as, repeated payment gateways screen and 10-articles-free-per-month-limit after which subscription is necessary. NT registered 56.6 lakh subscribers till Q3 of 2012. She said that NYT has been using cross-bundling approach to optimise profitability.

     

    Mark Challinor

    Mark Challinor, Director of Mobile Platforms, Telegraph Media Group,Londonwas upbeat about the usage of personal mobile devices and iPads. He said, “There are more iPhones sold in the world (4.6 seconds) than babies born in the world (4.2 seconds). This gives us a clear idea of the future. Today’s 2-5-year-olds learn to operate the iPhone and iPad much before they learn to tie shoelaces.” He supported the fact that remains important, and the future of newspapers depends on reinvention of news industry.

     

    Indian newspapers too are smart enough to invest in their digital properties to receive huge dividends in the future. Earl J Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO, INMA shared smart bets forIndia, “Make consumer pay more, now and create digital company outside your current company, in case the existing structures do not support digitalisation and be willing to cannibalize yourself.” He also cautioned against making digital an excuse to stop investing in print.

     

    vasant-gokhale

    Vasant Gokhale, Head, Mobile Services, ABP Pvt Ltd shared the mobile strategy that his company had adapted for the non-resident Bengalis. With an aspiration to reach out to wider Bengali audience settled out of East of India, Ananda Bazaar Patrika started its paid digital content three months ago targeting only non-resident Bengalis. The standard service of $5 per month and exclusive packages were launched to create a subscriber base around Durga Puja. Mr Gokhale shared “We have been growing 30% month-on-month, without spending a penny on marketing. The growing base is the result of our unique Bengali content and offering.”

     

    Bharat Gupta

    Bharat Gupta, Executive President – Marketing, Jagran Prakashan Ltd said, “With our unique content mix, out Hindi website has been gaining more traffic. We find Facebook very helpful in engaging our users, targeting new demographic areas and making headlines of the print publication viral.” He added that the main focus for his publication on social media was “not to gather the ‘likes’ rather get spoken about on social media.” Puneet Gupt, VP and Head of TOI.com shared how The Times of India digital story has seen growth thanks to engagement, rewards and response to consumer tastes.

     

    Grzegorz Piechota

    While Grzegorz Piechota, News Editor, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland shared how the future of journalism and communities in digital age depends on campaigning and bringing the society together through causes; Marcelo Benez, Advertising Director of Folha de S Paulo, Brazil talked about where digital solution fit in the multi-media advertising mix. According to him, digital and print will co-exist in the future and help with the growth of each other. The group recently launched a magazine exclusively for Tablets, called Fohla 10 that can be consumed through various digital devices.

     

     

    Pit Gottschalk

    Mr Benez noted, “Of the total advertising pie in the country, television still claims the maximum share of 64.8%, newspaper follows with 11.7% and internet gets 5.2% of this ad pie.” Thus, to get maximum benefit, he advocated that a news company should be able to deliver their content on all platforms. He also said that the news company should engage advertisers not only through content but multi-platform special projects as well. Concurring with his thoughts, Pit Gottschalk, Director – Content Management, Axel Springer,Germany, said that news companies need to integrate digital as much as in their companies.

     

    Talking about his brand, Bild, Mr Gottschalk said, “Our digitisation strategy focussed on our three strengths: content, classifieds and marketing. In 2004, we defined our core strategy and created portfolio of market leaders in various geographies corresponding with our core strengths.” He further added that Bild used the classic newspaper strategies to monetise, and “we have reach 47.49 million readers everyday from 12 million few years back.” Bild’s goal of generating 50% of all income digitally has been reached, according to Mr Gottschalk.

     

    The one-day conference ended on high note with speakers agreeing coherently on the fact that opportunity to gain advertisers and readers will arise from print and digital integration. While it might be a long-term strategy for India given the fact that cover price of printed newspapers is so less but this is just the right time to get digital.

     

    Imaging : Rafiq

     

  • The venerable Newsweek is going all-digital soon. Will the trend be seen in India too, or is it a flash in the pan?

    Could Indian mags go the Newsweek way?

     

    By Ananya Saha

     

    Newsweek, founded nearly eight decades ago, is moving to a digital-only product from 2013. According to editor-in-chief Tina Brown, it cost $42 million a year to manufacture, print, distribute, and manage the circulation of Newsweek.

     

    Newsweek is in the best position to go completely digital due to their strong online presence through Daily Beast. But the news has sounded an alarm bell for print magazines all around the world. As news becomes a 24/7 affair and people prefer online access, the readership of news magazines is on decline the world over. It is no wonder then that magazines are reaffirming their presence in the online space too. With Kindle usage on the rise, e-magazines are creating waves.

     

    Tarun Rai

    Even as Indian print industry continues to see new launches, the readership is on the decline (though a minor slide), as recorded by recent IRS figures. “I am not very surprised at the decision. I believe the issue for Newsweek is the nature of the magazine it is. As a result, the relevance of a weekly ‘news digest’ has diminished. It is not a question of print or digital – it is a question of the nature of some magazines that may not be as relevant today. The same cannot be said for lifestyle and special interest magazines,” opined Tarun Rai, President of the Association of Indian Magazines and CEO, Worldwide Media.

     

    Suggesting that print media still has a bright future, Paresh Nath, Editor and Publisher, Delhi Press said, “It is more of a failure of a publisher than the sunset of an industry. Printed books and material will continue to be relevant as they were in the last several hundred years.” Agreeing that the digital market for Newsweek may have matured earlier than the publishers expected, Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director of CyberMedia, said, “In the market they are operating in, digital is growing very rapidly and therefore Newsweek has moved in that direction.”

     

    The predicament of the dawn of the digital era has been repeated often in the Indian context.

     

    “I am happy to say that magazines are already re-inventing themselves for the digital world. Abroad as well as in India. All our magazines are available in their digital versions. We are also aggressively developing various magazines’ apps and will be launching them soon. We see an opportunity in reaching a new younger audience through our digital initiatives,” said Mr Rai.

     

    Even while most magazines have moved towards digital and print versions simultaneously, the print version remains important for reaching the wider audience of readers and advertisers. Time magazine also has responded with their online version adaptable to any platform and any size, particularly for mobile reading. Varghese Chandy, Chief General Manager, Marketing Advertising Sales at Malayala Manorama said, “Reinventing needs to be done not only for news magazines, but every single product for its survival.”

     

    According to Anilkumar Sathiraju, AVP & Head, DDB MudraMax – Media, South, revenue will still come from print version since revenues from digital in India are still at a nascent stage, even though digital penetration is increasing rapidly. Going forward, he predicted that revenues will still be higher from offline magazines.

     

    Magazine have the most engaging format with the deepest touch points according to various international surveys. The growing numbers of tablets reassert the fact that this is the platform that gives the closest magazine-reading experience. Mr Chandy said, “However, monetizing the digital platform will be a greater challenge even for Newsweek.”

     

    While the industry believes that magazines should be ready for the digital era, Mr Nath holds an interesting view: “Magazines do not need to reinvent themselves due to the digital onslaught. Digital delivery of content is like delivering content in Times Square by shouting when hundreds of voices are simultaneously trying to convey the same or similar things. When crowds assembled in Tahrir Square, Cairo, it was thought that the digital media is a powerful weapon, as sentiments were whipped up not by newspapers but by digital media. What is the end result? Muslim Brotherhood that conveys thoughts through printed material ultimately got into power. Very little original content is created on digital media. It only copies and pastes and does so millions of times over. Magazines or print versions of newspapers do not know how to overcome the shouting match where noise and not seriousness is the basic currency. When the time of reckoning comes, people will have to go to the print version, and magazines and newspapers will remain relevant. Magazines have to find out how to outgrow the noise.”

     

    Delivery is still an issue – from readers visiting libraries in the past for content consumption, to wanting the content delivered to them. “Print brands have given up the will to fight and are trying to join the digital crowd that has weapons stolen from print itself. Yes, the world of delivery has changed, not consumption of content,” said Mr Nath.

     

    But with readers wanting immediate access to content, 24×7, digital is only going to grow. It is time that that magazines move faster towards the digital era, according to Mr. Sathiraju.

     

     

    The way forward

    “In India, spend on magazines continues to grow because of an increase in literacy, increase in disposal income and lower internet penetration. Therefore, Indian publishers are embracing digital formats. Print advertising is currently 10 times the digital advertising in India. Over the next five years, the penetration of digital will increase. And that is why CyberMedia has reoriented its strategy around creating of a media mesh,” predicted Mr Gupta.

     

    Mr Nath said that the question of digital versus print comes from the English-educated class in India. He said, “Long ago in India, content used to be created and consumed under the banyan tree. Now it is in front of a screen but the quality of this content is poor, one-way, where hundreds speak and no one listens. In India among the English educated there is a problem as this class cannot enjoy English content (is there any English Indian serials or English Indian movies or English Indian music?) whether in print or on digital media. This class keeps shouting that print is dying as it does not know how to ‘read’ in any language.”

     

    The view might hold true but the increased consumption of magazines on digital platforms cannot be ignored.

     

    “It’s anybody’s guess as to when the digital versions of magazines will become bigger than the printed ones. I firmly believe that the lifestyle and special-interest magazines space will continue to grow in both. It is the sunrise sector of Indian media. And both the print as well as the digital versions will grow, allowing our content to reach an even wider audience,” said Mr Rai.

     

    As Mr Chandy concluded, “The Indian print industry needs to be ready for the future. Currently online penetration is single-digit. This is likely to change in the near future, especially in the metros.” Thus, publishers need to be platform-agnostic and essentially become content managers. Their primary task will be to reach the audience through whichever platform is relevant.

     

  • Zakaria will pay for his cut-paste chori. But it's 'loose change' crime compared to all the malpractices that go on here. Must say journalists in India are truly free!

    Anil Thakraney: Fareed ‘Chindi-chor’ Zakaria

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Fareed Zakaria isn’t the first journalist/columnist caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And he isn’t going to be the last one either. Across the world of journalism, at all levels, folks have been caught ‘cut-pasting’ stuff. It’s either because they believe no one will notice, or they are too lazy/busy to do their own research work. Some offenders lose their jobs, others get away with it. I suspect Zakaria’s career is finished, given his exalted status in international journalism. The mightier you are, the heavier the fall. The man should seriously consider joining Indian politics. Chaps like him are more than welcome.

     

    I actually have a poor opinion of Zakaria as a columnist. I read a few of his articles in Newsweek, in the aftermath of the ‘War on Terror’. And I felt he was regurgitating obvious truths and belting out trite arguments. While that’s not a crime, he did lose at least one reader. Zakaria’s act of stealing content (either himself or through his rookies) from another writer perhaps explains the regurgitation of thought.

     

    Anyway, Fareed Zakaria is history, and he totally deserves it. However, let me add here that slyly stealing text from a fellow journalist is much like picking a lower middle class pocket, or chindi chori, as it’s called in Mumbai. It’s petty theft when you compare it with the nefarious deeds of some of our much awarded and respected journos during Radiagate. That was no petty theft. That was about selling your soul, and being dishonest with your profession and your country. And yet, nothing happened, no one was punished. Most of these journos continue with their routine work, convinced they did no wrong. Even the smugness is intact!

     

    Zakaria will pay for his cut-paste chori. But it’s ‘loose change’ crime compared to all the malpractices that go on here. Must say journalists in India are truly free!

     

    Hope you had a peaceful Independence Day. Jai Hind!

     

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    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK10B0Jgb8o[/youtube]

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