The start of our fourth year is a good time for introspection, for a review of the Media model – especially with the IRS 2013 debate exposing all our (Media world) faultlines. Do we, the Media, the Fourth Estate, hold ourselves up to the high standards that we literally demand of others? In fact we should be the most upright, as we wield the power to influence public opinion. Unfortunately, the products and services on offer are on a decline. A newspaper is now ‘manufactured’, and is less about the writers and content and more about the brand. Many a newspaper is just an Ad. medium – clearly no longer the message. Editors are the kings who have been jacked.
The product is offered to a customer for a price far below cost. Many times it is offered for below disposal/’raddi’ cost. In every industry we have watchdogs, and of course the Competition Commission, to check unfair and/or monopolistic trade practices. How has the newspaper trade escaped that? How has a product been allowed to be sold below cost – way below cost – every day of the year? Our newspaper industry is also the only industry where market share and price are perhaps inversely proportional. Seemingly a brand is being chosen as a ‘leader’, but elicits no brand premium from the customer – assuming of course that the reader is the customer. What should be the brand valuation in such a case? Would we continue to read our newspaper if the cost were a real Rs. 1,000 per month (Rs. 12,000 per annum)? Would we stop reading a paper? Would we switch? Would we wait for the company to provide a low cost option? For the first time we would truly evaluate – and pay as per value received. Today we accept the product as is, since we pay peanuts for it. We don’t believe we can take the Paper to task. And so we accept whatever change has taken/is taking place.
hat professional rules does the newspaper industry play by? Is it print and dump; and/or re-circulate? And what is the commercial logic? Do we just take the Ads. and promise praise; or threaten, and settle for Ads. ….or more? Yes, more than a few allegedly have their hand in various tills, or largesse – either through compromise or threat – or perhaps even nurture loftier ambitions. The status quo suits them perfect. And it only gets ‘better’ come election time.
It has become the age of the Infotainment Paper (The I-Paper); it is a one pager called Page 3, enclosed in a supplement of Ads. Earlier, when you were a public figure, the media had to cover you; now Page 3 covers you, and you become a public figure. They say only negative stories and sensationalism sell – only ‘man bites dog’ sells; and that people do not wish to hear about the ‘good’ – or about ‘dog bites man’. It seems they wish to hear about bad people who make it good, or hear that people are worse off than them. People are supposedly content that they are better than bad, rather then aspiring for goodness what...
But change we must – sooner, than later. Let us heal ourselves...while there is still time.υ
Mahatma Gandhi’s views on the Press
There are certain spheres of work that are of such consequence, and have such bearing on public welfare, that to undertake them for earning one’s livelihood will defeat the primary aim behind them. When, further, a newspaper is treated as a means of making profits, the result is likely to be serious malpractices. It is not necessary to prove to those who have some experience of journalism that such malpractices do prevail on a large scale. Newspapers cannot escape criticism merely because they serve the people. But who would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil, go on together - and man must make his choice.
(Taken from a 2001 article by Prof. V.S. Gupta, former Country Representative Asian Media Information Centre (AMIC), Singapore. Edited by FG).
Fortunately, there is a glorious media-mix future that can be scripted – a perfect vision of Media Conglomerates. Of a Full Course, Snacks and Starters; of a Test Match, a One-Dayer and a 20/20; of Weekly Print, Daily TV and Instant NetMobile. The billion-dollar answer is blowing in the wind, for any media house – to have a full house of the 3 formats, and price and play them according to their core competence (e.g. the 32 pagers every day could first be made into 8 pagers daily, and 32 for the weekend – and is probably what the customer would also be content with and pay accordingly). Currently we have confused the Teams, playing all 3 for/with everything – and hoping that, by packing only hitters, and taking wild swings, something will always connect.
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