EDIT BLOG | NOVEMBER 2021
The Indian Newspaper festival season
Love in the time of vaccination – or Indian print media recovers Part 2
There is no vaccination for the Indian newspaper reader ’ s love for the morning daily . We love to publish and produce dailies and also to read them . And the business is as seasonal as a roller coaster of emotion from festival to festival – from cricket madness to state and general elections . Print media advertising is expected to rise till Diwali – then and to fall steeply after the first week of November – a bit like a storm subsiding .
Continuing the late monsoon forecast for newspaper advertising in India from till the end of the financial year in March 2022 , indicates there will be a slight recovery in the last week of December for Christmas and New Year , followed by the usual winter coolness of advertising in January . February usually is somewhat smoggy on some days and sunny on others for print ads . The brighter days pick up in March as advertisers and their agencies look to spend their leftover budgets for the FY , lest they lapse and are trimmed in the following year . April too can be clear or okay for newspaper advertising but May , June , and July are arid with desert winds as the monsoon tries to cover the subcontinent . Expect rain and some recovery in August that lifts gradually to annual bountiful advertising of Dussehra and Diwali in October and November .
Circulations , readership , and advertising that declined in the pandemic are recovering together with the increased pace of vaccinations in the country ( 236 million jabs in September 2021 and one billion jabs by 21 October ). We are looking to avoid the 3rd wave and get back to every kind of job and income-generating business .
Newspapers are perhaps the best barometer of economic recovery and also the best barometer of democracy and freedom of expression that are key to creative , healthy , and democratic entrepreneurship . What can be better than a business in which you compete to tell the truth , to be constructive , and bring motivation to your readers by writing about what matters to their livelihoods and spirit to grow and build a better life and nation ?!
Apart from the actual erosion in newspaper circulations – whether it is 26 % or 40 % in the past year and if the recovery in FY 2021-22 will be partial , or full , or exceed 2019- 20 , or even better the peak 2018-19 year – the issue is transformation . Transformation to less dependency on ads by raising circulation revenues . By increasing ad revenue year round even in the lean seasons , with serious paywalls and digital subscriptions – with new products , and trimming the extra costs built up in the flabby years of untrammeled growth .
4
Indian Printer & Publisher | 1 November 2021