The Indian newspaper industry is under severe financial threat caused by the side effects of the coronavirus. If the fight against coronavirus gets prolonged, as it appears to be, and complete lockdown periods or selected cordon-off the most affected clusters in urban and rural areas, several newspapers may find themselves in the mold of a bankruptcy of a new kind.
Already during the first 21-day lockdown, the newspaper supply was badly affected compelling the newspaper management to print half of their circulation figure. For the first few days of the lockdown, it became difficult for the storing of the lakhs of the printed copies of the newspapers. Reducing the print order day by day and still worse supply and delivery became another serious headache for the circulation branches of the various newspapers. Some subscribers have stopped buying newspapers presuming that it may carry COVID-19 to their homes.
Many newspapers in English and regional languages have stopped printing Sunday magazine extra pull-outs. From example, the Hindustan Times have missed its Brunch Sunday issue for the fourth consecutive week. In fact, Brunch is HT’s revenue spinning issue which attracts high-end advertisement from glamorous high brand companies and caters to the desired instincts of the elite class of the society. Special pull-outs and exclusive pages have been made as part of the main newspaper giving extra cost a go.
With declining demand for newspapers and falling advertisement revenue, newspaper managements have resorted to cut the salaries of their staff, administrative as well as editorial
With declining demand for newspapers and falling advertisement revenue, newspaper managements have resorted to cut the salaries of their staff, administrative as well as editorial. One of the English daily newspapers in India has made a 15 percent cut in the salaries by taking into the pay slab of the editorial staff including the reporters. Yet another English newspaper imposed cuts persuasively by asking its staff to give its consent in writing thus bypassing any legal action on the part of the staff in the future change of mind. This way the staff has consented to the reduction of pay up to 15 percent. Awakened to the financial crises of the newspaper industry due to persistent lockdown in the wake of Covid-19, they agreed.
To cope with losses, newspapers have reduced the pages. For example, one English national daily has cut the number of pages from 18 to 12 giving way to the special pages and cutting the sports page to one. Since the world is going through lockdown, sports activities are on standstill. There is hardly any sports news emerging from anywhere in the world. Therefore, it is not possible to fill the sports page, leading to giving up sports pages. Similarly, the economic activities have come down during lockdown, and workers have gone back to the village. The possibility of trade and commerce has been reduced to a minimum and no news items are being introduced otherwise which would have attracted lots of ad material for seeking the attention of the buyers. Economic newspapers faced the worst period in their long history as stock exchange markets have been indefinitely shut with no new buyers-sellers to risk their investment. No new factories in pipelines nor there appear to be any investments from indigenous sources or foreign direct investment on the way, the financial daily newspapers have also adopted the same strategy.
Electronic media, which were already under stress because of the increasing popularity of independent and free social media, are also facing ad crunch although their TRPs have been hitting new high because of corona virus news and in the absence of the availability of newspapers. Amid growing the demand of the electronic news channels due to unavailability of newspapers, some TV channels have fallen into the “fake news” propaganda trap for the political parties, who have extra finances to pay them over the board or under the board for their survival as well as existence in the business of news.
Thus, it can be concluded that likewise other industries, the media industry is also facing the wrath of lockdown to avert the spread of coronavirus and the reporters and editorial staff have to bear the brunt of this slowdown. Whereas, thus peddling lies in favour of particular ideology are enjoying plums, even in such tiring times.
The writer is a senior journalist and Indo-Pak peace activist