Print media may be shrinking in developed countries but not in India. Actually print media in India is
growing at a healthy double digit CAGR while shrinking worldwide
especially in the developed world. If you wonder why India is an anachronism as
compared to the rest of the world, well the answer lies in the character &
attitude of the citizens of India who comprise the country inhabited by many separate
nations based on cultural & religious identities.
For example telecom markets in all
the major countries are made up of disproportionately large share of post paid
subscribers whereas in India it is dominated by pre-paid customers. Moreover
India is the only country that has been ruled by ‘foreigners‘for the longest
period in human history. Indians are unique people with very interesting characteristics
but that I would discuss some other time. Let’s have a look at what ails Indian
print media industry.
Print & electronic media in
general exploded & grew exponentially in early 90s and the advertising
revenues kept showing a healthy trend till 2007 when the global meltdown
happened that resulted in shrinking of advtg budgets like scales on the back of
a porcupine. But the signs of stagnation of advertising revenues could be
noticed in early towards the beginning of the twenty-first century as
innovations in marketing of advertising space almost died completely.
Traditionally the advertising was
marketed by newspapers mainly through the advertising agencies and some
publishing majors looked down upon any effort at marketing the newspapers to
advertisers owing to vain journalistic pride. Although most publishers &
editors took sides of vested interest groups involved in politics &
commerce but the journalist kept pretense that they are the fourth pillar of
democracy in India which they agree is one of the most corrupt country on the
face of the earth. Well while journalists sashayed up & down the political
corridors singing ‘we are the savior of democracy’ pop song the media houses
partook huge gifts of prime real estate & government advertising etc from
the government.
When the economy opened up for
the first time by India’s most honest and scholarly Finance Minster till date,
Dr Manmohan Singh, the selling became a good word & print media recruited large
in-house sales teams to market their products to trade buyers & end
customers. This was the period when the management professionals begin to call
the shots in running of the media firms which were dominated by journalists
with ideas like a long editorial piece.
This explosive growth in media fuelled
the growth in other sectors of economy as the new breed of trained Sales Management
professionals from the field of media management were lapped up by other services
firm particularly the telecom. In my opinion media can play a critical role in
economic progress of a developing market but governments are oblivious to its
potential. This growth phase was marked by numerous innovations to serve a variety
of media buyers & advertisers.
Unfortunately once the media
houses cornered the benefits of growth the publishers refused to acknowledge
the stellar contributions made by some great media managers and ejected the
professionals who made the media revolution possible. Every media analyst in
India knows the couple of great media managers who led the growth of media in
India. Point is, since the beginning of twenty-first century media lost its appetite
for innovations. I would be surprised if any media house can claim to have
infused culture of innovation in its teams so as to delight the customers with
greater return on advertising spend every time. Print media has huge opportunities
to grow and benefit from deluge of digital online space. But to make that happen, media houses have to
hire train & nurture marketing & sales leaders capable of producing
innovation like the rabbits from magician’s hat. If you any have doubt that
there is no scope for innovations in media marketing try sit with me with lots
of black coffee, you would love to pick the tab.
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