Can newspapers stage a resurgence?

New Delhi: The cost of newsprint has increased again, around an 8% increase in the past few months.   Now print readership is on a downward spiral because of the obvious dependence on social and other digital media for news and opinion, also compounded by a faster decline because of COVID-19, when papers were not delivered and the habit continues in many households.  

This leads to print losing out on advertising also and so newspapers are on a faster slope of decline than envisaged. And this is largely true globally.  

This has resulted in newspapers becoming slimmer and slimmer—in many cases, less than half their original size. So the format and pagination of many daily looks and feels similar. In many cases, daily lifestyle supplements have been integrated into the main sections. 

Some of the obvious reactions that news houses are resorting to are a) higher content concentration on digital platforms and making them paid; and b) moving from an advertising-based revenue model to a subscriber-based one. Many, like The Hindu, Mint, and Business Standard, have pioneered the latter. This also has obvious pitfalls, as the overall reader base is shrinking. 

Now there ought to be a few things that publications should do to enhance their life cycles rather than just 'react’ to one blow after another. Going back to how The Times of India rode on the back of product and pricing innovations and came neck-to-neck with Hindustan Times in the 90s, those kinds of innovations (compilation of appointment pages into a weekly supplement, Ascent, an education supplement, lifestyle supplements like Bombay Times), which became templates for all others to follow, are simply not happening now.  

In the early 2000s, Hindustan Times pioneered the compression of the broadsheet size. Or how weekend supplements became magazines like The Telegraph’s Graffiti or HT’s Brunch. Or how, in the 80s and 90s, children’s pages and supplements became the trend. You get the drift. There are no ‘big enough things’ happening when some of them are so obvious. I offer a few below. Let us start with the product. 

• The size of the paper is something that can be made into ‘new news’. Globally, a decade ago, many papers transformed from broadsheets to tabloids. In India now, there is not much-perceived difference between so-called ‘tabloid journalism’ and ‘real journalism’; in fact, this difference has diminished worldwide as well. Yes, Mint was a Berliner but became a broadsheet, citing a better ads-to-content ratio. Having said that, a switch to a Berliner or a Tabloid size could create noise. Now, a 12-page page-broadsheet can financially be the same as a 24-page tabloid and hence papers can look ‘fuller’ with more pages.
• Just because most papers have a daily lifestyle supplement does not mean that all should have one. In terms of advertising, main sections are also full colour and can accommodate colour advertising and area-wise splits can also be technically inserted into the main book. So this makes a case for ‘meatier’ weekend supplements once or twice a week. Rather than four flat pages every day, imagine a 12-pager every Saturday and Sunday. One would look forward to such offerings.
• Consolidation: Like Times of India and Economic Times come bundled as a distribution package, are cross-publication tie-ups possible? So for example, a newsmagazine like Outlook can go once a week with a like-minded daily. Or even within one publishing house, are tie-ups possible? For example, Frontline, Young World, and Sportstar can become weeklies and be bundled once a week each with the Hindu. Young World started life as a Saturday supplement with the Hindu. A nominal increase in the cover price can offset costs.
• In the metros, publications have invested in presses that can give thick books of up to 32 broadsheets, pages with multiple folds, etc., which have been used for advertisers. There is a trick or two hidden here.

And of course, a lot more possibilities to delay this impending end by infusing some excitement in the category are possible. Let us hope that somebody starts by breaking this reactive mould.