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The second Indian Newspapers Congress (INC) was held in New Delhi on 10 July,� 2009, with a key focus towards reinventing newspapers and delivering a winning formula for stakeholders. The event saw stalwarts of the industry discussing issues pertaining to the future of the Indian print industry.

Organized by the Indian Newspaper Society and the exchange4media Group and sponsored by Nai Dunia, the event had 45 eminent speakers such as Sakaal chairman Pratap G Pawar, Vinay Chhajlani CEO, Nai Dunia, Business Standard’s TN Ninan, Jagran CEO Sanjay Gupta, Hindustan Times CEO Rajiv Verma, Tariq Ansari Managing Director, Mid Day, INS president and Bombay Samachar chairman Hormusji Cama and many others taking part in sessions.

Highlight of the event:

Delivering the Keynote Address, Chief Guest Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India spoke about different upcoming trends and sought opportunities in the Indian newspapers’ industry. He spoke on the growth of the newspaper industry from the DAK editions and the old ways of printing to the trends of today that can be extrapolated for the future.

He remarked that Indian print media holds a great future even when the global markets are under turmoil and major US newspapers are shutting operations. The next point that emanated from this was that if historical trends had to be observed, the language publishers were likely to see more growth.

He presented the fact that internet penetration in India is 5% compared to 93% in US. This leaves the Indian newspapers with a lot of opportunity in that space. Besides this Tharoor also discussed about the business model for the newspapers and mentioned about the content revolution in the Indian newspapers.

Tharoor ended his address by stating that India was dependant on the rest of the world, but in a much more positive and that the news media should open its minds to the broader horizons that lay beyond.

The Panel discussions that set the stage for healthy debates:

Print in the digital era

The first panel discussion of the INC was a future-looking session that tabled the possibilities of growth in the new age, where various kinds of mediums are emerging and both competing and collaborating with print. The discussion comprised of the possibilities that could come handy while grabbing the attention of the young and dynamic audience towards the print publications when they are more inclined towards the digital age.

Advertising VS Subscription model

The session on ‘Advertising Vs subscription revenues: What will drive the bottom-line in future’ saw a lively debate on the issue. It was mentioned during the debate that as it is known the things are moving downstream in other parts of the world, eventually the Indian newspaper entities will have to determine what the readers’ wants, when he wants it, where he wants it and in what format and what depth he wants it and serve him exactly as he needs it. While it was seen that adoption of advertising model would result in decrease in circulation.

Language Newspapers: the future

For long, language newspapers have been living in the shadow of the English papers, a fact emphatically pointed out by the panel on ‘The Future Lies in the Languages’. The session dwelled on what ails language dailies and how they can be at par with the English dailies when it came to grabbing a lion’s share of the advertising revenue pie. It was highlighted during the session that the shift is happening now, which many thought would happen later. Looking at the share prices of big two companies – HT and Dainik Jagran – the latter is moving ahead.

Newspapers as a business

The newspaper business at the end of the day is a business, and in India, this industry has been significantly dependent on the advertising revenues. Taking cognizance of this fact, the second session of the INC, Making Newspapers Work for Marketers delved on why people read newspapers at all.

Research methods for determining the readership trends

Making research relevant and what ails current readership studies came under the scanner at the INC. The session discussed research studies that have been the bone of contention for the Indian print industry for many years now. The panel reiterated the fact that the industry, though united, had not found collaborative solutions for this issue. The way forward is not in continuing to complain, but in working together to resolve the issue. It was noted that currently, the research is very uni-dimentional; the focus is only on the numbers. Indian newspaper industry need to reorient, sit and discuss what should be done to make the research work better.

At the conclusion of the session, the Indian newspaper industry has a number of factors to their rescue and to provide them aid to facilitate growth in the future.