[SmartCat]

Today, there is an article on Ken about how THE HINDU newspaper is struggling with falling advertising revenues and dropping sales.
https://the-ken.com/story/the-hindu-...turi-and-sons/

Hundred-plus years old businesses have their own charm. Not the old world charm, but a charm that comes from steadfastness, from having survived the curveballs, from sticking to their DNA and yet be bang up to date with products and marketing.

At some point though, the charm starts to chip away. (In cases like General Electric, the edifice itself begins to chip away.) Our story today is about one such company, Kasturi and Sons, the 140-year-old publisher of The Hindu, which, until recently, was the second largest English daily in India. It also had the ‘good guy’ image in an industry which has largely treated its editorial staff as mere ‘bodies’ to throw at news gathering.

Now, Kasturi and Sons has realised that being a good employer and being a successful one are not necessarily the same thing.

Over the last year, the company has rolled out three voluntary retirement schemes encouraging employees who have worked over 10 years in the company to look for opportunities elsewhere. During the same period, the chief executive has sent four emails to staff, all lamenting the decline in print advertising revenue. Virtually everything under the sun has been blamed: Goods and Services Tax, demonetisation, Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA), and even a change in vehicular emission standards.

Beginning July, it’s learned, the company is laying off a quarter of its employees and embarking on a host of restructuring and editorial plans. Like other traditional publishers trying to take advantage of the rebound in the paid-for model, it is testing waters with a digital subscription product, too.

It is not just "The Hindu". Almost all English newspapers are struggling with stagnating revenues and falling margins. Most newspaper companies are diversifying into television, internet and radio. However, Hindi and local language newspapers are still doing quite well - probably because of rising literacy levels.

But what about you? Do you still read a newspaper? Personally, I have moved on to Google News, NDTV.com and EconomicTimes.com - along with whole lot of international news sites.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by smartcat

"The Hindu".

Used to be the best newspaper during my school and college days. No non-sense reporting, mostly to the point - and no gossip articles like it was the case with most other publications.

No wonder they are struggling to sell in these days of news sensationalism!

Originally Posted by smartcat

But what about you? Do you still read a newspaper?

No. Stopped and moved to digital sources ever since I moved out of hometown back in 2008.

[SCORPION]

Franky, I find the so called news channels absolutely annoying to watch. They are all annoying to varying degrees. It's a circus out there. So I rarely watch the news on TV.

Have not migrated to reading internet news yet.

I get both the The Hindu and TOI delivered at home each morning. Now, being a sailor, I have the luxury of time when I am home, which I am sure many of the regular office goers don't.

I spend a good hour or so with my morning coffee reading both the papers including the editorials and OPEDs. Plus, you have the added benefit of the The Hindu crossword and the Guardian crossword which comes in the Metroplus, a supplement to the Hindu. I could buy the Hindu just for the crossword although it is readily available on line. Nothing like a crossword, a pencil and some scribbling.

[GTO]

No man, don't read any newspaper or any physical magazine. It's all on the internet now. However, I must add that I do enjoy reading a newspaper occasionally, especially while on holiday. Say, a leisurely breakfast with the Sunday Times.

Only time I buy paper now is for books. Have a Kindle, but still like the physical feel of a fat, satisfying book. Other than that, I hate paper. Even for bills, invoicing, forms etc. I prefer digital.

[Eddy]

YES !

Till about 2 years back, we used to subscribe to both Times of India & Hindustan Times. My dad used to read both almost cover to cover for his areas of interest. I myself read bits and pieces from both.

Then my dad started using a smartphone and discovered youtube. His newspaper reading time became less and we removed TOI from our subscription.

So HT it is currently - we do not foresee dropping this at all. We are used to newspapers & more importantly - I want my 7 year old to see us reading the paper and pick up the habit.

Edit: I remember buying "The Hindu" on weekends / during important sporting events because of their superior sports coverage. This was almost a decade back. Not so anymore.

[ksameer1234]

While at my hometown with parents, reading newspaper was regular morning ritual spanning good 15-20 minutes in the least. When I moved out and started living alone as a bachelor, I gave up on newspaper. However, after marriage I again have my newspaper back. Now, I get local language one delivered and I find it to be a valuable source of local news, something that won't particularly get reflected even on the city specific pages of Google News. So, for the local city news, it is daily, albeit short, dose of home delivered newspaper for me.


P.S: Has anybody noticed the rise in price of newspaper over the years! A 20-page local newspaper in Pune costs 5 Rs!! With some supplements on weekend this shoots up to 6-7!! With nearly half the newspaper filled with ads, I wonder how significant is the revenue stream from selling price.

[aadya]

Any day, Coffee with "The Hindu" is my favourite way of starting a day. Nowadays due to lack of time it has become Dinner with "The Hindu". But I feel it is the aggressive sensationalism of TOI which is hurting The Hindu more than anything else, at present. We will pay a heavy price if we let these newspapers to sink as Curated news is an very important social tool against the rumour mongering Social media and News aggregators.

[ghodlur]

Yes, I do still get the newspapers TOI + Maharashtra times (marathi) delivered at home and I simply vouch for it. I will prefer the newspaper anytime over the news channels. Its my Me time with a cup of tea + biscuits on a Saturday/Sunday Morning. It takes me almost an hour to go through the main paper + supplements. I find the physical paper reading very frutiful coz sometimes I also encourage my son to read some news section (selected), this helps his and mine vocabulary too.

The only negative these days in newspaper is the ad content on main pages. If they limit the ads to a few specific pages, then reading would be even more worth while.

Edit: On Weekdays its mostly after the office hours when I reach home, I take out time to read the papers with a strong cup of coffee.

[Nonstop-driver]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Today, there is an article on Ken about how THE HINDU newspaper is struggling with falling advertising revenues and dropping sales.

I'm stunned. These newspapers are full of advertisements. Something like Times of India has 2-3 pages of ads before you reach the front page news. Then they have that quarter page for more ads and weekly publications that are another A4 16 pages of advertisement.

[sunilch]

YES

I get TOI + ET combo pack (annual subscription). My family members and I read newspapers daily.

Earlier (many years) had TOI + Mumbai Mirror (guy wouldn't deliver ET on subscription as it used to fetch him more on retail) and HT annual subscription. Then switched to Mint and stopped HT. Stopped Mint too as it was repeat of information except for weekends. Now I read ET everyday and TOI on weekends. TOI otherwise is useful only for packaging items, garbage disposal (after the recent plastic ban in MH) and recycle (gives me back what I pay for it - almost).

-Sunil

[am1m]

We do, but I'm against it.

It's pointless, IMHO. Since the time of faster mobile net speeds, all the news I see over breakfast is already old news to me. The newspapers just pile up and we're forced to get rid of them every few months. But my wife insists we still do certain things the 'old way', so we still subscribe to a newspaper.

The problem plaguing print journalism is us readers not being willing to pay for good content or journalism. Here's a great article that explains it well: http://www.whatay.com/blog/2012/10/0...?rq=newspapers

Some excerpts:


"As I understand it the average newspaper in India costs at least approximately 3-4 times the cover price to print and deliver to your home. Every major newspaper in India loses money because it prices newspapers at these ridiculously low prices. But it makes up for this gulf through advertising. Think about it. The pages on which you read news are loss-leaders for the pages on which you see advertising."

"And circulation numbers are laughably easy to game. Everybody knows this. And everybody, including advertisers, play along."

"Will writing better stories convince readers to pay more for the paper? Just suggest the idea of increasing cover price to any paper's CEO. And see the blood drain out of his face. The fear is that readers will immediately drop the title for a cheaper one. Thereby leading to plummeting circulation. And fewer ads. "

"Let us take the case of the excellent Caravan magazine. I think most people will agree that they are a good magazine. Look at the ads they have on their homepage on the right side in the form of a little slideshow. National Jute Board. Orissa Tourism Board. And two kitchen appliances companies I have never heard off. These are the companies willing to pay to advertise on the website of a truly exceptional magazine."

[SDP]

Yes.
But, I dont read it as I have better sources for news.
I am stil continuing with the physical newspaper as my 11 year old daughter reads it. Internet is off-limits for her.

[Yieldway17]

It is a ritual from my parents which I follow as well. Never a huge TV news person but I'm a huge news junkie and used to have 20+ news apps installed on my phone with push notifications too. So I used to just skim the newspaper next day as I had pretty much seen them all already.

But I have recently uninstalled all these apps and stopped consuming news as an when it breaks and consume leisurely and old fashioned way the next day. It has been so liberating after being fed breaking news non-stop for 8 years. I recommend people to try this too.

[hemanth.anand]

Yes, the English newspaper still gets delivered everyday. But it is for my father who reads it daily. I read it occasionally. In addition I personally used to get Kannada language newspaper but stopped it after Internet became my sole news source. I hate TV news channels and don't watch them unless there is a live telecast of some important event.

[GJ01]

Yes.

Its a habit now for me to get up and have the morning coffee in the Balcony and just skim through the newspaper. Maybe 10 mins, not more. Have the news apps on the phone and Google News gives me all the updates through the day - but the morning habit has gotten ingrained now. When travelling abroad, I miss the morning newspaper.

Get an English and 2 regional Gujarati newspapers. The Gujarati ones are for my grand-dad, who easily spends more than a couple of hours going through them and doing the crosswords. Like others have said, Google wouldnt give you the local news like these newspapers do. Oh, and I too read the regional newspapers from time to time - just to make sure I keep up with my reading skills in my mother tongue.

OT: Have now inculcated a habit of writing down my notes at office in my mother tongue. Grocery lists are in Gujarati too. Its really fun and keeps my writing skills updated.