The Narendra Modi-led government came to power riding social media as well as radio, television and digital media wave. Now, the newspaper industry no longer sees the announcement of elections as harbinger of ‘Acche Din‘.
In the recent past, the very idea of election campaigning and the power of print have been repeatedly undermined. Advertisements featuring beaming faces of ministers no longer stare at you from newspaper pages. This has adversely impacted print revenue. Also, the present government is hell bent on putting in new rules. There were no ads on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. Print sales teams, which used to work in the power corridors of ministries, is out in the market seeking alternate employment.
In the good old days, for print industry, elections were like high stake roulette table. Big swings in fortune took place. Now, it is like playing in the stingy slot machine. Digital and mobile are the new high loaders.
It seems that print has sensed this change. We have, therefore, witnessed a sudden spurt in debate on paid, unpaid and earned news. Mainstream bigger newspaper titles have re-engineered dwindling election cash flow into a reference to reader delight and brand differentiator. The right content is in spotlight. Print claims that filtering news is their responsibility. They are accountable to readers. Part of it is to identify and differentiate paid and unpaid news. Other than a well-known master of paid-news, most have taken the easy way out. Under much resistance and side-glances at the dropping bottom lines, No paid news has become the new mantra.
This new mantra is like Parushrama’s Brahmashtra. It can only be fired once. All eyes are focussed on these news custodians who have rediscovered their role and responsibility. They are now trapped.
Bihar is an important election. It’s the second kurukshetra after Uttar Pradesh. The alignments have been reconfigured. The caste politics is dominant and the digital media silent with its limited reach. Yet, print is understandingly not in high spirits.
All biggies that count in the area, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan and Prabhat Khabar have overtly adopted pious path of uncorrupted journalism. I spoke with a few seniors in the filed ad that validated my thinking. Print is still not averse to well managed and formatted deals. For every newspaper that is pushing ‘No Paid News’ agenda, there are five local titles willing to bend the framework.
So, deals will happen. They will never get recorded or reported. We will still see coverage masquerading as feature and news. But the earlier full-page posters are expected to be conspicuous with their absence. They are too big to miss the Election Commission focus.
On the other hand, mobile is itching to fill in this gap created by print obsession with No Paid News. The state is a huge opportunity for it. Party jingle, campaign talks, simple appeals, SMS, virals, What’s App and few innovations are expected to rule.
I don’t think print will be able to redesign itself to create some innovative format that keeps the ‘No Paid News’ focus and yet helps recover the disappearing revenues. Only time will tell.
This was first published in Business World.
