What is needed to succeed in journalism is passion and commitment on a
continuing basis, especially when the
going is tough. A fundamental principle to follow is to control costs while
providing good, high quality content that fills a valuable community need.
By Abhay
Vaidya
Editor, The Golden Sparrow on
Saturday
In January 2014, Frederic Pages, a senior
journalist from the iconic French newspaper Le
Canard Enchaine addressed a gathering at the Patrakar Bhavan, Pune. The
event was a rather unusual exposure for all present, be it journalism students,
working journalists or the lay public. Le
Canard Enchaine is a 90-year-old weekly newspaper published by a public
trust in Paris. It is extremely popular with a circulation of about 3.5 lakh
and week after week the French public looks forward to this newspaper.
Investigative journalism, cartoons and biting satire are the forte of this
publication.
Now here’s what’s most interesting
about this paper: It has no advertisements. It does not accept a single Euro
worth of advertisement as a policy because it does not wish to be influenced by
advertisers and their interests of any kind. Inspite of this, this newspaper manages
to run its operations smoothly, print week after week and pay its journalists
well.
The newspaper has just eight pages,
it is printed on cheap newsprint and to control costs, carries only black-and-white
pictures. There is no heavy design and layout, no glossy supplements and
high-quality four-colour printing and no half-naked, bikini-clad stars to boost
circulation. It’s hard to believe in this day and age, but here’s a newspaper
that is driven purely by the strength of its content. This newspaper, in a
sense, has not been affected by change.
Which newspaper do you read? And why?
Let’s look at some other aspects of
journalism today. When I began my career 27 years ago, and many years after
that, one of my favourite questions to people I met was: “Which newspaper do
you read?” I would get unexpected, thought-provoking replies. Like this reply
from one professor who said that he subscribed to a small, English local daily
from Pune (now defunct), and not a national daily, because “it gave ample space
to municipal news such as ‘No water today’.”
This piece of news was important for
his wife, he said, and therefore subscribed to that newspaper which had a
staunchly loyal base of readers. Even in the 1980s, it had a circulation of
25,000 copies, which was quite commendable.
There is no mathematical formula, or
a set of ingredients, that can guarantee the success of a newspaper. A
restaurant can become popular on the basis of a few dishes that it masters. In
the case of newspapers, it is still a mystery as to what precisely are these
ingredients. However, replies, such as the one by the professor, would
reinforce the point that there is an opportunity in local, community news. Let
us return to this point later.
We don’t read newspapers
I interact closely with journalism
students in the various journalism institutes of Pune and get to learn a lot
from them about the new trends that are impacting journalism today. Internet is
one of the biggest forces that is re-shaping the world of journalism. It is now
very common to expect at least 80% of the class to say that they don’t get
their news from newspapers. This is the young generation and they are all
hooked on to smartphones. They get their entertaining news and gossip at the
speed of light from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter; from Internet
news sites and from TV- which will soon become available on our mobile phones via
4G connectivity.
Many people today, including the
young, don’t necessarily begin their day with a newspaper in hand as we and
previous generations did. The Internet and its impact on journalism is something
that we need to reflect upon.
Difficult times
Let’s now look at the example of a
major Mumbai-based media house which launched an English-language newspaper in
Pune in 2008 and closed publication after seven years, in 2014. Why did this
edition fail? Were the costs of production so overwhelming and the advertising
revenue so unsatisfactory that the Pune edition became commercially unviable?
This is indeed one of the grim realities
of the business. In the stiff competition for advertising revenues, newspapers
in India have not hesitated to embrace unethical and professionally
reprehensible practices like ‘paid news’. Even this tainted revenue has been
inadequate to ensure the survival of newspapers. What is most unfortunate is
that even publications which are in a leadership role and flush with
advertising and circulation revenues, have been unabashedly indulging in ‘paid
news’.
There is absolutely no doubt that
these are challenging times for Indian journalism, full of new directions and
new opportunities. Here are some thoughts to ponder on:
Will new newspapers survive in the market?
In the last 10 years, just two new broadsheet
English dailies entered the Mumbai market, one of which is struggling and the
other is doing a little better because of strong support from a sister edition
in Delhi. Around the same time, an English tabloid was launched strategically by
a leading media group which, because of support from its parent group, stood
insulated from many of the challenges of new newspapers. As noted earlier, the
Pune edition of a Mumbai newspaper ceased publication after seven years because
of acute revenue pressures.
Readers today have a variety of
options to get their news from; they also have a variety of distractions in the
form of social media which is interactive. There is no pressing reason for them
to pick up and read newspapers, some of which begin with four full pages of
advertisements, putting off many readers and making them angry in the process.
Producing a newspaper is an expensive
proposition today when one considers the cost of newsprint and printing; the
cost of distribution, advertising and marketing, the long gestation period and
the cost of personnel and staff salaries. Reader preferences are very difficult
to change unless something very different and original is put on the table. Because
of these factors, one does not find new newspapers entering the market.
Changes driven by Internet, technology
In sharp contrast to print
publications, a dozen or more Internet-driven news portals have made an impact
in the last 10 years. Firstpost.com is a leading example, on the lines of the
immensely successful Huffington Post, which became very popular. There was
Rediff.com before that and the latest news site to be noticed is Scroll.in. There
are many more, each with their distinctive appeal. In Pune itself, we have a
popular Internet and SMS-based news site called Mypimprichinchwad.com which
received an award for the creative use of the Internet.
The advantages of the Internet are
low cost of production, massive reach across the world, immediacy of news
delivery and special appeal to the Indian diaspora. This is clearly one of the
strongest trends of the future.
Internet will give reach, but will it give revenues?
This is a matter of challenge and
there is hope that revenues will start coming in once a publication is able to reach
an adequate number of people, establish a niche identity, consistency and
credibility. For example, we know of a number of service-related websites, such
as a property-related portal, which is generating revenue from additional
consultancy services because it is found reliable and credible. Promoters of
Internet-based news operations will have to think of creative ways to generate
revenues and be sustainable.
How about strong community content along with a print + Internet version?
New publications will need new
approaches to win readership, and thereby advertising revenue. New publications
can score by focusing heavily on local content and community issues- area which
cannot be covered adequately by the big papers. How about combining a limited
print edition along with an Internet edition? A number of small, community
newspapers in the United States have been able to break big, national stories
and win the Pulitzer prize for excellence in journalism on the strength of
their local, community coverage. This is a very viable model to follow for
Indian journalism.
New publications must control costs while giving high quality content
High, unsustainable costs are the
primary reason for the failure of most new publications. Just as journalism
students should not aspire to become star anchors and journalism celebrities
overnight, promoters of new publications should not dream of becoming news
barons overnight. Whether you are a journalism student, a promoter or an
established journalist, what is needed to succeed is passion and commitment on
a continuing basis- especially when the going is tough. A fundamental principle
to follow is to control costs while providing good, high quality content that
fills a valuable community need.
‘Positive news’ has a future
Early this year, the
writer-philosopher Alain de Botton published his book The News: A User’s Manual in which he questioned the state of
journalism today. In his view, the media around
the world continues to focus on negativity and sensationalism. Everything that
is sensational and negative is prime time news for the media. Instead of this, says
Botton, the media as a powerful and highly influential vehicle of mass
communication should play a role in helping shape the future that we desire.
This is possible if the media gives up its focus on negativity and instead
highlights what is positive, extraordinary, inspiring and insightful.
This is not to say that the media
should not perform its role as a watchdog on the government and as a mirror to
society; but at the same time, shouldn't the media promote the values of
kindness, tolerance, harmony and cooperation among the people? Shouldn’t the
media be constructive instead of destructive? There is an opportunity waiting
to be tapped in the pursuit of positive news.
Draw strength from the fundamentals
Journalism is one of the essential
pillars of democracy because it is on behalf of the people of the country that
journalists question the government, expose irregularities, applaud positive
developments, report on successes, failures, achievements and tragedies and in
general, hold a mirror to society. Such is the importance of the freedom of the
press that the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has observed that famines do not
occur in countries with a free press.
More than two centuries ago, Thomas
Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, observed that if
he had to choose between “a government without newspapers” and “newspapers
without a government”, he would have no
hesitation in choosing the latter. In 1791, this spirit found an echo in the
American Constitution in which the very first amendment states unambiguously that no law shall be made abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press.
Eminent jurists from across the world
have spoken eloquently on the significance of press freedom. As one judge
observed, “A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the
government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.”
For a robust and flourishing mass media
environment, it is important to have as many outlets for the dissemination of
news rather than a few monopolistic behemoths. Because then, suppressing news
from the people becomes as much difficult even if some news organisations
decide that that is what they want to do.
The path ahead
Journalism needs to be practised
while keeping in mind these fundamentals and cardinal principles. The
principles of journalism won’t change even if the medium and the technology
undergo a change. News operations can survive in a changing environment
provided they adapt well to changing technology, control cost of operations and
win the trust of their readers.
Journalists should necessarily be
paid well; but under no circumstances should they demand and command corporate
salaries- paid to executives of companies who manufacture soaps, chocolates and
cigarettes.
Journalism is a social cause and this
ought to be at the heart of a journalistic operation.
A publication- be it in print or the Internet
needs to be mass-circulated because its survival depends on a healthy
circulation. However, maximising profits ought not to be the single
most-important goal for a publication – as this would then lead to many compromises
with the ethics and values of journalism- as can be seen around us today.
There will always be a future for a
publication which follows sound practices and wins the trust of its readers.
(Abhay Vaidya has worked from Pune,
Delhi and Washington previously for The Indian Post, The Times of India, Asia
Pacific Communication Associates and DNA. He is currently editor, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, a
weekly newspaper from Pune.
This paper was written for the Pune
Union of Working Journalists’ (PUWJ) 75th anniversary souvenir.)
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