Literature Review

CHAPTER.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ph.D. Thesis of Mr. Rahul Shiledar
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Background
The media and the newspaper industry in India have gone through several
changes since India received independence. The objectives of publishing the
newspapers changed and this led to the change in the type of content printed
in newspapers. Editors who had independence for the country as the only
agenda passed over the responsibility of newspapers to the new league of
editors and these editors had to have a different agenda after the
independence. Later on the newspapers also started changing in terms of
technology used to print, the paper used and the overall look.
Today the industry is again going through several changes. Other mediums
like television and Internet are being consumed more than the newspaper
medium in several western countries. Thus the newspaper media also faces
competition from various media. The newspaper industry in Mumbai too has
gone through tremendous changes during the period of study. Three English
newspapers were launched in the city to compete with the strongest brand,
The Tim es of India and other competitor brands. Literature was studied to
understand the transitions, the global and Indian trends in the newspaper
industry, impact of changes, the current state and issues that the newspaper
industry has been facing.
Various experts have noted their findings and theories on the subjects related
to the research. The research includes the study of literature written by
various experts from the fields of branding, strategy and the newspaper and
other media industry. Books related to Product Management were also
reviewed for the purpose of the research. The literature studied was in the
form of books, magazines, journals and Internet websites. Interviews of
several experts printed in magazines or available on Internet was used for
review. The chapter now follows the reviews on literature.
16
2.1 Newspaper Industry in India: Tara S . Nair in her article, “Growth and
Structural Transformation of Newspaper Industry in India: An Empirical
Investigation” investigates the transition of the Indian newspaper industry
since 1960’s to 1990’s. Nair speaks about change of ownership of
newspapers from ideology oriented owners to business magnates and
introduction of managing editors as two main changes. She points out that
this was the period when the objectives of running newspapers started shifting
towards power from the press and achieving other business objectives
through the media platform. Nair also mentions that too much
commercialization of journalism leads to depoliticisation or popularization of
m essages. Thus commercialized newspapers will tend to just report news and
not write against any issue. (Economic & Political Weekly, 2003).
The commercialization of newspapers is indeed happening and newspapers

are becoming more and more advertiser focused. Although it still remains a
point of debate whether this commercialization is hampering the editorial
sanctity of newspapers. While some argue that this does compromise the
editorial content, only newspapers which are political mouthpieces have
consistently been delivering biased content.
Newspapers remain the world’s second largest advertising medium, after

television. And when newspapers and magazines are combined, print is the
largest advertising medium globally, with a 42 percent share, compared to 38
percent for television. Indian newspaper sales increased 12.93 percent in
2006 and 53.63 percent in the five-year period. In India, newspaper-
advertising revenues also increased 23.18 percent over one year and 85
percent over the last five-year period. (All About Newspapers, 2008).
The newspaper industry in India is growing. Stephanie Nolen in an article

titled, “As India’s literacy levels rise, newspapers thrive’, in T h e Globe and
Mail’, writes that the national census data of 2011 shows an adult literacy rate
of 74% which is up by 9% compared to the last census in 2001. This she says
has fuelled the growth of newspapers. A .S . Raghunath a veteran editor
17
comments in the article tiiat as soon as a person becomes literate they buy a
newspaper. A newspaper in India retains an aura of respect and the
investment to buy a newspaper Is very cheap thus making it possible for
people to buy a newspaper regularly. (The Globe and Mail, 2011).
2001 2003-04
Registered Publications 49145 58469
Total Circulation 126963763 133087588
Table 2.1: Registered Publications in India and their circulation

Sou rce: The Indian Media B u siness, 2"^^ Edition, Vanita Kohli- Khandekar
As shown in table 2.1 at end of 2004, the registered publications had almost
reached 60000. (Kohli-Khandekar, 2006).As per an article by Mr. Arun
Prabhudesai, from 2005 to 2006, nearly 2,100 newspapers debuted in India,
joining 60,000 circulating. The writer cites the growth of middle class and
increasing literacy as the prominent reasons behind the booming newspaper
industry. The writer further says that the surge of advertising is such that out
of these 60000 newspapers only 4 newspapers shut down between 2005 and
2006. (www.trak.in, 2007) The writer has gathered references from Registrar
of Newspapers in India (RNI), the official Indian organization. It must be
noted that the total number of newspapers in India include the daily
newspapers, non-dailies, regional language and English newspapers RNI also
counts editions of all newspapers as a different newspaper. (Economic &
Political W eekly, 1997).
Mr. Prabhudesai’s article is supported by the Indian Readership Survey (IR S )

findings of the year 2010. A report based on the findings of IR S says “showing
growth from an AIR (average issue readership) of 171.23 lacs in Quarter 3 to
an A IR of 174.02 lacs in Quarter 4, the year 2010 has proven to be positive
for English daily publications in the country. The IR S 2010 data has shown
growth for English dailies across quarter, including the recently released
Quarter 4. The top tier remains unruffled and seven of the top ten publications
18
have grown in readership this quarter. (IR S Data 2010,

www.exchange4media.com)
IRS 2010 QCXJ Performance of Top 10 English Dailies
■ Q-:
■ 0-2
Q-3
■ CW
: “ “ 5 " 'T e s
—
"’■
K Zszza-
llflllllll M .r :, " s N s .v
I -2 a i 4 £ :- i ~i s i'a : - C '* * c * 'C - 5 ! M - :- - :.s ?
ZS"' ■4-- : ’ -rss £ « :'S 5 j X- ,

I
■a: Iz-i £ = -i
5 5 r T a ? 1C
* 2 -
Graph 2.1: IRS Data, 2010 English newspapers In India, all edition data
Source: IRS Data 2005 to 2010, made available from Lokmat Papers Ltd.
Graph 2.1 shows the rising readership among the English newspapers in the
year 2010. The readership numbers, the graph indicates has increased in
every quarter for almost all publications.
As per the explanation by a website of N RS (National Readership Survey),

UK, Average Issue Readership is the key measure of readership. AIR is the
number of people who have read or looked at an average issue of a
publication. The definition is based on those who say they have last read a
publication within its publication interval. For daily newspapers AIR is
available for Saturday editions, as well as an estimate for the 5-day weekday
19
edition, and an overall 6-day estimate. To qualify as a reader, the publication

must have been read or looked at for at least 2 minutes, (w w w .nrs.co.uk)
In spite of the growing circulations of newspapers, the industry has gone

through some problems too. An article titled, “Indian newspapers hit turbulent
patch” discussed about the fallen readership figures in 2006. It said that the
Indian newspaper industry, which has been growing at a healthy rate for the
last few years, seem s to have hit a turbulent patch. According to Indian
Readership Survey, whose Round 1 results for 2007 were declared last
fortnight, print readership has taken a tumble during 2006.The survey,
popularly known as IR S, does not identify factors responsible for the decline.
But it does point out a fall in readership of most English newspapers,
language dailies and magazines. (The New Indian Express, 2007)
An article titled, “Print remains effective force”, discusses about the positive
outlook that the newspaper publishers across many countries have towards
the newspaper business in spite of the inflow of digital media. Several
publishers are of the opinion that with the right kind of inputs, innovations and
focus towards new as well as established businesses will give the newspaper
great results.
2.2 Trends in the newspaper Industry

Ram a Bijapurkar in her article discusses about the strategies of how brands
need to adapt to the new markets. She discusses the concepts of a global
consumer and a global brand. She states that if the global brands want to
enter the Indian market they should be relevant to the consumers here. The
global brands if not relevant should make required changes in their products
so that the brands are accepted. Finally she says that people are not going to
buy a brand because it is a global brand. Relevance is of utmost importance.
(Bijapurkar, 1995).
An article in Advertising & Marketing is on the rise of internet cafes around the
country. It notes that internet surfing is on the rise and using internet at home
20
is a costly affair. Using internet at home for one hour costs a person between
R s. 40 to R s. 50 while using internet at internet parlour costs around R s. 20
for the same time period. (Varshneya, 2001).
It is interesting to note how much the media industry and technology has
evolved in India just in about ten years. Today the usage of internet from
home is becoming quite common whereas in metros one can even observe a
large number of people surfing internet from their mobile phones.
Harish Bijoor, discusses the effective use of point of purchase (PO P) to reach
the customers. The writer says in the article that PO P has become the best
form of passive advertising. The PO P material is the most visible and powerful
form of brand advertising, the author adds. (Bijoor, 2001).
It can be noted that the newspaper brands too use this medium to a large
extent via promotional materials like newspaper stands, small boards and
umbrellas to the newspaper stalls to gain visibility.
An article in The Independent, a leading newspaper in United Kingdom, “Sun

shines on Indian newspaper industry”, said it is a boom-time for the press in
India. And with six out of 10 people now literate, it's only going to get bigger,
he article discusses the case of Hindustan Tim es, Delhi and points out that its
circulation is increasing at 30% per annum and shows further prospects of
growing. The growth of its rival in Delhi, The Tim es of India is similar the
article says. Professor Sharma of the Delhi University states the reasons for
this growth. Professor Sharma cites reasons like increasing population in
metros and growing middle class in metros with increasing disposable income
as reasons behind growth. "The danger for the English-language print media
is that their readers are limited to the cities," concludes Professor Sharma.
(Chauhan, Brown, 2004).
A case study on the newspaper marketing of a newspaper called “Prothom

Alo” in Bangladesh reveals that the newspaper which is one of the leading
21
newspapers in Bangladesh is going through several problems as it has not yet

updated itself. The case study reveals the lack of system s, proper
departments and man power for the specific jobs among the problems cited.
(Daffodil International University Journal of Business and Economics, 2006).
In India, there is also a growing trend in newspaper publishing to have tabloid

format. Almost all new introducing newspapers are in tabloid form such as
Metro Now, a joint venture of HT Media Ltd and Bennett Coleman Co Ltd
(Tim es Group); Mail Today, a joint venture of India Today Group and
Associated Newspapers (ANL) - the publishers of Daily Mail in UK; and Amar
Ujala Compact, a tabloid version of Hindi daily Amar Ujala; etc. Mid-Day,
published by Mid- Day Multimedia Limited, is an already established tabloid in
Mumbai and has its editions in Delhi and Bangalore as well. Though tabloid
rather than broadsheet product causes greater mailroom stops, forming a
major part of the total downtime in newspaper production. (All About
Newspapers, 2008)
“Calling the shots”, an article from The Economist in India, discussed the split
in the ideologies in the Indian media over “private treaty” a new revenue
generation method started by The Tim es of India, the leading English daily in
India. Private treaty is a concept which accepts equity in the advertisers
company instead of payments for the advertisements released in the
newspaper. DNA, the multi-edition English daily is against the practice of
private treaties stating that this will compromise the content of newspapers.
On the other hand other leading newspapers in India like, Hindustan Tim es
and Dainik Bhaskar the part owner of DNA have already implemented the
practice. The article says this trend will grow in the future, Sevanti Ninan a
media activist comments in this article. (The Economist, 2008).
Time magazine in an article published in 2005, “Fishing for the News”,

discussed about the flourishing Indian newspaper industry and India as a big
prospect for publishing houses around the world to invest in India. The article
said that India is an exception to the global trend as other than India the
22
newspapers are on the decline. The article says that this is the best platform
for foreign investors who have deep pockets but a bleak future in their own
country. However the article also says that the 26% limit on foreign
investments is restricting several newspaper organisations across the world
from entering India as they are looking for a minimum stake of 49% . Further
the article also discusses about the flip side of investing in India. (Time, 2005).
An article in (www.calicutnet.com) “Media Matters” also supports this however

adds that as per an in-depth study by a Fuibright scholar Jam es Mutti on
Indian media, democracy and press, still there are many unpleasant things to
discuss. According to Mutti, Media is not playing a significant public service
role. He suggests a new media model is needed, one which balances its profit
motive with coverage of issues relevant to the poorer, weaker, voting classes.
He believes that this could serve as a model for the developing world.
(Edacheri, 2008).
A report by the US Commercial Service, United States of America Department

of Commerce, states that Global media companies are now eyeing the Indian
market and are actively seeking entry through collaborations and joint
ventures. A number of Indian versions of international publications have
entered the Indian market. Growth in India’s print and publishing sector is
assured in the years to come due to the growth in the literacy levels in both
urban and rural India. Laws to protect intellectual property (IP) rights are also
now in place in India. The report suggests that interested American publishers
should consider entering the Indian market. (Motiwaia, 2008).
An article by Robin Wauters (wvw.techcrunch.com, 2009) clearly shows that

the newspaper industry in USA is declining. The declining response by the
advertisers is the clear indication that the advertisers are now focusing on
other media. The figure shown below points the declining trend in the ad
sales. (Wauters, 2009).
23
A c c e le ra tin g slide
Quarterly newspaper print ad sales
Graph 2.2: Quarterly Newspaper Print Ad Sales in USA

Source: www.techcrunch.com
Chidanand Rajghatta, in his article titled, “Print is alive and kicking”, discusses
about a recent survey conducted by a French Internet Company. The survey
concludes that people who read articles or news in newspapers retained the
information much longer than the ones who read it on iPad. The article further
adds that 70% of iPad readers recalled an article compared to 90% who read
it in a newspaper. Rajghatta further says that newspapers which harness
multimedia strengths to remain current and profitable are being successful.
(The Economic Times, 2011).
2.3 Strategies for Growth

Azhar Kazmi in his book, “Business Policy” states the definition of strategy by
Arthur Sharplin. Sharplin defines strategy as “a plan or course of action which
is of vital, pervasive, or continuing importance to the organisation as a whole.”
(Kazmi, 1996).
Since the objective of newspaper brands has shifted towards growth and
revenues through advertising it is observed that they are implementing
24
various strategies to promote their brands. Various observations clearly

indicate tiiat the newspaper brands are becoming more and more advertiser
focused.
2.3.1 Innovation as a strategy

A case study on the “Agency Booking System for The Tim es of India”,
discusses about a very innovative Agency Booking System (A BS)
implemented by The Times of India. It caters to the agent’s needs, who book
classified Ads for Tim es of India and other publications of The Tim es Group.
This system facilitates the agents to book the ads on internet from their offices
removing the geographical distances. The case study reveals that this is a
very robust application, providing support to more than 1500 Agencies at a
time. It even removes hurdles of geographical boundaries by reaching out to
Agencies to book ads from their offices, (vww.webdunia.net). This could be
termed as a classic example of optimising the use of technology to solve a
dual purpose, one is to bring additional business to the company with the help
of technology and second is to reduce human efforts and thus save on time
and money of the newspaper organisation. The use of such technology also
creates another impact and that is of brand association as a media company
which is working on the futuristic path.
One major observation is that the newspaper brands are becoming extremely
innovative. According to an article Mid Day Mumbai published Mini Mid Day, a
supplement that struck an innovation in Mumbai to deliver a high impact result
for its client MCHI (Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry). The
innovation saw the mini version of the newspaper, reduced to half its size, to
communicate about the MCHI property exhibition 2010. Another innovation
that newspapers in Mumbai have carried out for their advertisers was by The
Tim es of India when it came up with its three jacket strategy for its advertisers
in the Mumbai market. The Times of India had experimented with roadblocks
and cut-out concepts to grab consumer eyeballs, 3D ads in newspapers have
been also increasingly making their way. Mid Day, Rajasthan Patrika, Dainik
25
Bhaskar and Lokmat, all have experimented with a 3D newspaper. While the
feedback for 3D newspaper is mixed, newspapers are trying every possible
way to attract the readers and advertisers attention. Oriya daily Sambad
launched a massive campaign, called ‘30 Days - 30 Changes’, in September
2010. Sambad launched the full-fledged 360 degree campaign, which saw the
paper come up with 30 changes in content innovation for 30 continuous days.
Mid-Day was published in Mumbai and Delhi with a ‘Meetha’ innovation. The
paper featured a unique communication solution for Cadbury Dairy Milk and
came wrapped in a Cadbury package, thereby resembling a mega chocolate.
Even financial newspapers are coming up with creative campaigns for its
readers. Business Standard rolled out its new brand campaign across various
markets and mediums. The new campaign had a tagline: ‘Know More. No
Less’, (www.exchange4media.com)
The Times of India has even crossed borders and joined hands with The Jang
Group newspaper brand from Pakistan. The Times of India and Jang came up
with a very innovative campaign called ‘Aman Ki Asha’ that initiated a peace
project between the two countries. The campaign was a big success.
(International Newsmedia Marketing Association, 2011).
An article titled, “Customised Papers- a youth-centric proposition”, suggests

that the newspapers should focus more on customisation just like the
television channels have customised. Several experts are of the opinion that
customisation by publishing youth-centric newspapers could be a good way to
start customisation, (www.exchange4media.com, 2011). It could be a good
idea to experiment with the youth as they are normally open to ideas of
experimentation. Another reason why targeting the youth could be a good
idea is that several experts feel that the youth is already moving away from
the newspapers and it is a cause of great concern.
2.3.2 Brand Strategies for Growth

Trout and Rivkin in their book, “Differentiate or Die”, discuss about various
points of differentiation that could be unique for a brand and make its position
26
in the market unique from other competitors. According to them, differentiation

is of key importance from the brand’s perspective. The book discusses
various points of differentiation and how could brands differentiate themselves
from their competitors. The book also discusses the points which companies
claim to be points of differentiation but cannot be considered as differentiating
points. (Trout, Rivkin, 2000).
The authors state that the differentiation first takes place in the minds of
people. Perception towards differentiation is very important. They have also
stated in the book that points like creativity and price cannot be differentiating
points. Creativity is a very relative term and once pricing is used to
differentiate, each brand will offer price cuts, resulting in no gain. This
situation can be currently observed in case of all the newly launched
newspapers across cities and languages. Each brand is being offered to the
readers at cheaper costs and the prices are further going down with
newspapers being offered at very low subscription rates. The result is that the
burden on the advertising departments in the newspaper organisations is
increasing and due to this pressure newspaper organisations are focusing a
lot on earning revenues through advertising. However due to heavy
competition, the newspapers are forced to offer heavy discounts to
advertisers too. It is also observed that newspaper brands usually differentiate
either on the basis of attribute ownership, leadership, heritage or market
specialty. Trout and Rivkin describe in detail these points of differentiation.
(Trout, Rivkin, 2000).
An article titled, “Successful Brand Repositioning, Aspirational vs. Achievable

Strategies”, states that companies should focus on achievable and not
aspirational strategies. The article mentions three steps to ensure success;
ensure relevance to a customer’s frame of reference, secure the customer’s
permission for the positioning and third, deliver on the brand promise. (John
T. Copeland, McKinsey & Company, 2001).
27
Subroto Sengupta in his book, “Brand Positioning” offers various case studies
of Indian brands and the strategies that these brands have implemented for a
competitive advantage. The author also discusses about a technique called
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). He says MDS is a set of techniques to
understand and measure the variety of human responses. The author says
that MDS tackles two problems; one is the dimensions involved for consumer
perception of objects and second is the configuration of points in that
dimensionality. He has given an example of the Indian magazines industry to
explain the concept of how the reader’s responses could be concluded.
(Sengupta, 2003).
“ Positioning: The Battle for your Mind” is a book that discusses the concept of
positioning. The authors who have invented the concept of positioning discuss
what positioning is all about. They say that positioning is all about getting into
the minds of the consumer. Further they say that companies should not just
focus on the strengths and weaknesses of their brands but also study their
competitors. The authors further discuss the traps in the process of
positioning and the care that brands need to take. Finally they write about the
six steps to success in positioning. The authors say that companies need to
identify their current position, the position they want to own, identifying the
weak competitor to be outnumbered, analysing the financial strength, being
consistent in the positioning and finally analysing if the company actually
matches the position taken. (Ries, Trout, 2005).
Martin Lindstrom in his book, “ Brand Sense”, writes about building powerful
brands through the five dimensions that are based upon the sensory model;
touch, sight, sound, smell and taste. Lindstrom describes with examples and
cases how these help brands establish themselves and create a unique
position in the market. It can be observed that of the five dimensions
mentioned by Lindstrom; touch, taste, sight and smell are the dominant
dimensions that newspaper brands appeal to while targeting their readers. It
is observed that readers of a particular brand of newspaper are attracted to
28
the font the brand uses, its masthead and cartoons. This relates to the ‘sight
dimension’ mentioned by Lindstrom. (Lindstrom, 2005).
The touch of the newsprint and its smell are other important aspects that
attract the reader to his or her brand. Taste of the brand would refer to the
quality of articles and news and the quality of visual elements. Every brand of
newspaper follows its peculiar style of writing along with exclusive writers who
write columns and articles in newspapers on a regular basis. The quality of
these articles can be referred to as taste of the readers, which the newspaper
brands try to optimally use to their benefit. The author further states that the
higher the number of sensory memories activated, the stronger the bonding
between brand and consumer.
Ramanujan Sridhar in his book, “One Land One Billion Minds”, offers the
readers insights on branding in India. In the chapter, ‘A very Good Paper but a
Very Bad Habit’, the author discusses about the newspaper Hindu as a
product and a brand. He says that one of the indicators of a brand’s strength
is how incomplete the consumer’s life is without the brand. He further says the
strong pillars of The Hindu as a brand are its technology and endurance. The
author further says that especially for a newspaper industry. Change is a
process and not an event. To sustain the leadership position in the market,
the author says that newspapers should adopt to change faster by predicting
the changing tastes and preferences of readers. The author further indicates
that when people speak about a brand they are most of the times referring to
its packaging, logo, the physical appearance, its look and feel and so on.
Hence Sridhar says the essence of the brand is its appearance. Thus he said
The Hindu focused on the packaging and physical appearance to start with,
by introducing a new layout a better navigation system and so on. The
changes in the physical appearance are the first indication that the brand is
changing. (Sridhar, 2007).
The news on the web portal (www.afaqs.com) is that Lokmat newspaper is

launching a new tabloid newspaper in Aurangabad city. (Rathore, 2011). As
29
per the opinion of experts, The Times of India launched Mumbai Mirror to deal
with the competition from DNA and Hindustan Times, hence it would be
interesting to observe whether the same strategy will work in a smaller city for
a regional language newspaper or not.
2.3.3 Other Strategies

University Grants Commission conducted a seminar where they raised
concerns on the topic, “Higher Education in India: Issues, Concerns and
Directions” . Issues such as public private partnerships with industry
involvement and access and equity were discussed during the seminar.
(Recommendations of UGC Golden Jubilee Seminars, UGC, 2003). The need
is thus to increase literacy, which will even benefit the newspaper
organisations eventually.
The English newspaper industry in Mumbai is also going through several

changes. As per an article (Business Standard) Dainik Bhaskar and ZEE both
of whom launched DNA in Mumbai decided to invest an amount of Rs. 1000
crore over the next five years from the date of launch in 2005. While DNA
spent an amount of approximately Rs. 60 crore on advertising and
promotions. The Times of India too spent an amount of Rs. 90 lacs in the
same period by copying the DNA’s campaign according to Mr. Sudhir
Agarwal, Managing Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group. As per the article the
newspaper brands are involved in several practices to stop advertisers from
advertising in other publications, raising funds to upgrade themselves and
also involved in employing people from each other newspaper organizations.(
Shuchi Bansal & Palakunnathu G Mathai, 2005).
Preeti Gupta elaborately discusses the increasing trend of local newspapers

in the city of Mumbai. In her article “Local newspapers serve local needs” she
states that Navi Mumbai is seeing several local newspapers which are
circulated and sold through book stalls. The readers as well as the book stall
owners perceive these newspapers more as a tool to read advertisements
related to local jobs, accommodations and real estate. The article states that
30
there are a few newspaper and magazine owners who started publishing but
had to close down due to lack of advertiser’s response. The editors of some
local newspapers were happy about the response while one editor mentioned
about the stiff competition from big newspaper brands through their local
supplements.
(www.mumbainews.wordpress.com, 2008).
The year 2010 too has seen prominent newspaper brands in the country not
only innovating their products to woo readers, but also being in an expansion
mode to strengthen reach in their respective territories. Amid the launch of
national and local editions, interestingly, some of the newspapers came up
with hyper-local editions dedicated to particular areas, communities or
sections of the society. (Pandey, 2010). It must be noted that the trend of
publishing hyper local newspapers is increasing among the big brands.
Although small newspapers initiated the hyper local newspaper trend, the big
brands have entered the market with big financial back up thus making it
difficult for local brands to sell in the market.
An article in the web portal (www.exchange4media.com) states that

newspaper brands are also coming up with creative strategies in terms of
advertising campaigns and corporate identity programs to either communicate
their brand message or to give a new look to their brand. Jagran is one of the
examples that has come up with a corporate identity program as a corporate
branding exe rcise .. (Pandey, 2010).
If newspapers want to increase their readership figures the most important

aspect is that literacy in India needs to grow. People need to become more
educated. As mentioned by A. S. Raghunath (The Globe and Mail, 2011) the
first thing after a person becomes literate is he buys a newspaper.
Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Hindustan Times presented a

case study of how the Hindustan Times has maintained its impressive print
growth in challenging times. He presented this case study at the ‘21st World
31
Newspaper Advertising Conference’ organised at Malta. He pointed out the

strategies of: investing in readership by launching targeted publications like
financial journals, expanding into more affluent regional areas with local
language newspapers, and launching youth editions in the cities; creating new
revenue opportunities, like the strategic partnerships with advertisers;
providing marketing solutions to advertisers rather than just selling space, and
hiring staff that has a marketing orientation; collaborating with other
companies; and delivering content across multiple platforms other than print,
he said. He further added that the newspaper industry should take a lesson
from the Indian telecoms, who share infrastructure but maintain their separate
brands. (All About Newspapers, 2011).
An article by Scott Stines (www.inma.org, 2011) discusses about leveraging

core newspaper assets, credibility, brand equity and reach. Stines states,
future success for “news publishers” depends on identifying and leverage all
core assets — which begins with an objective assessment of existing
resources and capabilities and their relative strengths and weaknesses
(value) today, and in tomorrow’s competitive environment. Stines notes that
the local news media companies — those with paid, home delivery
newspapers possess core assets that provide a competitive advantage over
other local, regional and national sources for “news”, advertising,
entertainment and information. Those core assets include credibility, brand
equity, audience reach, and delivery of a known audience. Stines further adds
that it is a newspaper’s credibility and brand equity that are responsible for
helping deliver unmatched local audience reach across print and digital
communications channels.
32
Joum H liiilic
Standards
Advottisiny C oriinninilv
Goods Services Involvprnenl
S()urc;t;
M ulli-Chrtnoel
Locdl A iid iftic t'
Ptesonct; Delivery
B iiikiiiK) Ltiiu)
U nrnnlctual
Local Audience
Locrtl Fvoots De lively
Aclfvities
Sporiso.'ships lhanncl <iiid
Frequency
Decirtdes O ptions
of C o n liiu io iis
Service ItifM difi.iblf O tlHntlfiHblr
Audience AuiJience
isf -..-ji.ir.hc'Demogt-.icnic
M c a n iiiy fiil
Audience
Figure 2.1: Stines Model of Core A ssets

Source: www.inma.org
2.4 Consum er Behaviour

Madhukar Sabnavis in an article published in Advertising &Marketing
compares the new era generation consumer with the old generation
consumer. He elaborates that the new generation consumer is now more
prone to take risks, makes wise and diverse investments, is educated and
knowledgeable, indulges in regular leisure activities and confidence and
pragmatism are his hallmarks. The author further says that in spite of all these
changes the new era consumer is still the same like the old one, deep inside,
with beliefs in value systems, family culture and progress oriented. The article
further notes that the marketers are taking special efforts to understand and
approach this new generation consumer. There has been a redefinition of the
term ‘value’ from ‘pure price’ to the ‘price-quality’ equation, the author notes.
The marketers now need to continually upgrade themselves functionally and
33
aesthetically. The article concludes by discussing the challenges to

advertising which needs to revaluate all elements of the marketing mix.
(Sabnavis, 1996). The researcher agrees and adds that the marketers now
also need to understand the growing usage patterns of media by the
consumers to have a better understanding of how and where to target its
customers.
A report by India Media Forum on ‘Media at the Millennium India’ has

responses from various buyers who say that media is responsible for its
mistakes. The need is to look for the problems within and not outside, the
report says. Readers have responded on issues like lack of content on the
corruption within industries and too much focus on frivolous content like
information about celebrities as reasons for the problems in media. (India
Media Forum, 1999).
In the autobiographical book, “Jack Straight from the Gut” the author
describes a strategic vision that changed the way General Electric (GE) did its
business. The author states that he formulated the strategic vision of the
company such that the company would continue only in those businesses that
it had a number one or number two positions. It would buy only those
businesses that fit into its core structure and sell the rest of the businesses.
(Welch and Byrne 2001). This is very relevant as a strategy even in the
newspaper industry as the media organisations need to stay focused. The
researcher is of the opinion that the key word in this is focus. The right focus
delivers the desired results.
Dr. Philip Kotler in the book ‘Marketing Management’ has discussed the
buying decision process. Kotler says marketers have to go beyond the various
influences on buyers and develop an understanding of how consumers
actually make their buying decisions. He adds that marketers must specifically
identify who makes the buying decision, the types of buying decisions and the
steps in the buying process.
34
Kotler explains four types of buying behaviour distinguished by Henry Assael.

Table 2.2 identifies the four types of buying behaviour.
High Involvement Low Involvement

Significant differences Complex Buying Variety-seeking buying
between brands Behaviour behaviour
Few Differences Dissonance-reducing Habitual buying
between Brands buying behaviour behaviour
Table 2.2: Four Types of Buying Behaviour

Source: Marketing Management, Edition, Philip Kotler
In regards to the habitual buying behaviour, the author points out that this is
found in cases where there is an absence of significant brand differences in
the same product category, the price is low and the buying is frequent. (Kotler,
2003).
It can be added that even if the brands fail to express their differentiation or if
the buyers perceive the brands without differentiation the brands could suffer.
Marketers in these cases find it effective to use price and promotion to
stimulate product trial, the author adds. Brand familiarity through constant
visibility makes the difference rather than brand conviction. If buyers keep
buying the same brand it is out of habit not loyalty, the author says.
Newspapers it can be observed fall in this category. Newspaper brands focus
mainly on low price subscriptions, frequency of usage is quite high that is
daily, price is very low; buyer involvement is very low and brands focus on
making the readers habituated through all-year subscriptions and not focusing
on brand conviction.
A research paper titled, “What works in Youth Media: Case Studies around
the world”, by International Youth Foundation, discusses various case studies
of youth engaging in the publishing and broadcasting business. The paper
describes how the youth is getting involved in the day to day activities of
35
publishing and how these activities are generating interest among the
youngsters. The conclusion that can be drawn from these cases is that if the
media involves youth in a deeper level and makes the whole process more
engaging and interesting to them, they will accept the media. The cases are
from Mexico, China, United Kingdom, Zambia, Albania, Viet Nam and the
United States. (What Works Series, International Youth Foundation 2003).
A research paper titled, “The Strengths of Print for Brand and Corporate
Communication”, revealed that the readers of daily newspapers mainly want
to learn about current events and form opinions about social, political and
economic issues. It is also important for newspapers to focus on a particular
region. Older target groups also see daily newspapers as a source of
entertainment and a pleasant way to pass the time. (The Print Media
Academy of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and the Faculty of Advertising
and Marketing Communication of Stuttgart Media University, 2008).
A research by PricewaterhouseCoopers carried out in cooperation with World

Association of Newspapers (WAN) discusses the change of consumer
behaviour with respect to their consumption of news content, and the
response of newspaper publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies and
media buyers to these changes. The study reveals that while a vast majority
of consumers indicate that they are primarily Interested in general news, a
growing segment is increasingly demanding specialised, targeted and
relevant information. In the research, newspaper publishers identify the niche
approach as an opportunity for future growth. The study also reveals that the
readers expect to be part of the intellectual debate and to be able to
contribute to 'their' newspaper, both in terms of commenting on stories and in
providing content. (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).
2.5 Issu es In the newspaper industry

The authors in their book “Changing the Essence, say that the organisations
should move into the learning mode if they want to change and that the
change effort should be vision driven. (Beckhard, Pritchard, 1992). The
36
researcher is of the opinion that the authors imply two things from this. One,
the complete organisation should be ready to learn and accept new things to
implement change and two the change that the organisations want to
implement should not have short term goals, but goals that are driven with a
long term vision so that it helps the organisation sustain the success.
A case study on the newspaper, The Pioneer by Priya Sahai discusses what
went wrong with the newspaper. The case states that the strongest point of
the newspaper was its heritage, the editor and the content. The case also
states that the top mancigement was very liberal and gave a free hand to the
people working at Pioneer. However the problems started when the priorities
of the General Manager clashed with the editor. The editor then left and then
the content started deteriorating. Simultaneously the top management had
problems in their core business which further instigated the rumours about
whether the paper will survive. The case study reports that The Pioneer was
launched in Mumbai; however the year is not mentioned. The strategy was
low pricing which did not work as vendors did not want to sell a newspaper
with lesser margins and the readers did not want to buy a newspaper which
was priced just at one rupee. The Pioneer had to close down the Mumbai
edition within one year of its launch. (Sahai, 1998). It is interesting to note that
the low price strategy was not accepted by the readers before 1998 but now
the same low pricing strategy works. It should also be noted that just
delivering good content will not help the newspaper survive; the newspaper
has to be supported strongly by the top management to also see that there is
harmony among the people working there.
Jaya Wagle analyses the reasons behind the falling circulation and lack of
readers and advertisers interest towards The Asian Age. After discussions
with several experts from the industry the author comes to the conclusion that
there are three major reasons for the problems that The Asian Age is facing.
The first problem is the lack of focus, especially from the editorial department.
The newspaper aims to target the affluent class and youngsters but does not
deliver the content required by these classes. The second problem is with
37
shoddy packaging. The author finds that the readers and advertisers find the
quality of printing and newsprint very poor compared to what it promises. The
third problem is the lack of a marketing strategy which should add revenues
and circulation of the newspaper. (Wagle, 1999). This clearly indicates that
consumers are going to reject a brand if the brand does not deliver what it
promises.
Jim Collins in his book, “Good to Great” discusses in great detail what
converts good companies into great companies. The author speaks about a
concept called as ‘Level 5’ leadership. He says the leaders at this level build
enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and
professional will. (Collins, 2001). This is indeed important for leaders that want
their company brands to grow beyond themselves. Leadership plays a
significant role in making or breaking brands. The leaders of today’s
organisations should be such that they should keep the organisational and
brand priorities above their professional priorities.
“Rupert Murdoch” is a biographical book about the untold story of the world’s
greatest media wizard. Neil Chenoweth in his book discusses in great detail
about three incidences that changed the world’s media industry. The author
describes Rupert Murdoch as the leader who has used every possible
strategy in the world to rule the world’s media industry. Murdoch, the author
says is the man who has changed everything. The author calls him a gambler
and that his gambles have shaped the media landscape. (Chenoweth, 2001).
The researcher finds this biography noteworthy due to certain reasons. One,
this biography is about the person who owns the world’s greatest media
conglomerate, second reason is that it discusses strategies of the leader, the
com petition’s actions and reactions and how Murdoch overcame them.
Ken Auletta in his book, “Backstory” discusses what happens inside the
newspaper industry of USA. Auletta in a chapter titled ‘New York’s tabloid
wars’ discusses how the leaders of the newspaper brand ‘Post’ are staying in
competition in spite of the huge losses they have been making over years just
due to the ego issues of the leaders. (Auletta, 2003). One interesting fact that
38
the researcher discovers is that the tabloid which is selling at least one lac
copies less (Post) than the leader (Daily News) is priced lesser than the
leader. The researcher finds this interesting because the competition of the
newspaper brands in India is currently mainly focused on the low pricing.
Al and Laura Ries in their book, “The Origin of Brands” suggest that while
launching a brand organisations should be able to devote ample of time to it
and be patient with success. They discuss about two theories where theory ‘A’
stands for airplane launch in which case the organisations give the brands
some time before they can take off, while the theory 'B’ stands for the rocket-
ship launch where the brands look for instant success. (Al and Laura Ries,
2004). The authors give the example of Microsoft which started in 1975 but its
growth started only from 1987. It is observed that most of the organisations
today are looking for instant success. The recent launch strategies of DNA,
Mumbai Mirror and Hindustan Times in Mumbai clearly indicate that all these
brands were aiming for instant success. The question to the author’s theory
though is what brands should do in this era of competition wherein customers
too want to be associated with successful brands and the competition is
intense.
Robert Greene and Joost Elffers in their book, “The 48 Laws of Power”
discusses 48 different strategies to come in power or stay in power. One of
the strategies discussed is in this book is, ‘keep others in suspended terror:
cultivate an air of unpredictability’. (Greene, Elffers, 2006). The reason the
researcher has chosen this strategy for discussion is because the researcher
finds this strategy being implemented by The Times Group during the launch
of Hindustan Times and DNA in Mumbai. While both the competitors of The
Times were unsure of how The Times of India would react to the new brands,
experts in the interviews admit that no one had expected that The Times
Group would launch a new newspaper brand. Although the strategies in this
book have examples of individuals from the past, the most of these rules can
be applied to the brands in today’s competitive world.
39
W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their book, “Blue Ocean Strategy”,
discuss the strategies of how to create uncontested marl<et space and make
the competition irrelevant. The authors discuss the concept of ‘Red O cean’
and ‘Blue Ocean’ strategies. The red ocean strategy signifies that the
competition within brands in this segment is mostly with the same set of rules
and each brand is competing to achieve the most from a specifically defined
market. The blue ocean strategy states that organisations should focus on
creating a new market where there is no competition at all. The authors
further describe the principles of formulation of the blue ocean strategy along
with the execution principles. (W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, 2005).
Tom Fenton in his book, “Bad News”, clearly states the problems in the
journalism of the US media industry. The author states that the media
organisations are not giving the people what they need. The quest is just for
higher ratings, the author says. He describes various incidences from the US
politics where the news either went unreported or covered without the
importance it deserved. He says due to this the journalism is losing credibility
and that the quality. (Fenton, 2005). As various experts have mentioned, the
content is the most crucial factor in the media industry. If the content is not
worthy the brand is bound to lose the market share. In this case the whole
media industry seems to be losing the credibility due to loss in quality content.
'1 h i O - T O e
Jayanta Sengupta in his book “Wraparound” offers a set of 12 golden rules in
providing a great brand experience. The summary of these rules is that the
companies should be brand driven and aim for giving a brand experience on
all touch points. The author also suggests that the brand experience shoul^l^^P.^::
be a consistent process. (Sengupta, 2006).
An article that appeared in The Economist titled, “Who killed the Newspaper"^^^^s4[i^^
discusses about the falling circulation figures of newspapers in various
developed countries like America, Western Europe, Latin America, Australia
and New Zealand. The article notes that Philip Meyer in his book “The
Vanishing Newspaper” calculates that the first quarter of 2043 will be the
40
moment when newsprint dies in America. The article points out that people
are switching over to the online medium very fast and this has been the
reason why circulations of newspapers in these developed countries have
been falling so rapidly. The future is also shifting towards independent
journalism, bloggers and citizen journalists, the article concludes. (The
Economist, 2006). This article also makes a mention of another article, “More
media, less news” , which supports this also mentions that the revenues
towards the internet editions of newspapers are increasing very rapidly
compared to the lack of growth in their print editions. The article notes that for
the first three months of 2006, the Newspaper Association of America
announced that advertising for all the country's newspaper websites grew by
35% from the same period in 2005, to a total of $613m. But to put that in
perspective, print and online ads together grew by only 1.8%, to $11 billion,
because print advertising was flat. (The Economist, 2006).
Faculty members at Wharton and journalism schools have expressed their

views in the article in Knowledge@Wharton titled, “All the News That's Fit to
... Aggregate, Download, Blog: Are Newspapers Yesterday's News?” The
article cites two main problems, one that the newspaper industry is a very
mature industry and second that it is an intermediary between the sources of
information and its customers. To remain competitive in the coming years,
these scholars say, daily newspapers will have to strengthen their efforts to
attract younger readers, make more imaginative use of the Internet, and
develop stories, mostly local in nature, that better meet the needs of readers
who have thousands of news and information sources at their fingertips.
(Knowledge@Wharton, 2006).
An article in The New York Times titled, “Shrinking ad revenue realigns U.S.
newspaper industry” states the reasons behind the shrinking ad revenues and
the impact of the same in terms of increasing unemployment. The article also
points that the newspaper executives and analysts say that it could take 5 to
10 years for the industry's finances to stabilize and that many of the papers
41
that survive will be smaller and will practice less ambitious journalism. (The
New York Times, Perez-Pena, 2008).
Greenslade who writes a blog for the UK based newspaper Guardian, in his
article, “Now India’s papers suffer cut backs”, referred to an article from
Business Standard, India stating that various newspapers and publishing
houses in India are opting for cutting on employment along with reducing the
number of pages printed in their newspapers every day. He states that the
main reasons for this were the rising newsprint prices along with reduced
advertising budgets by the advertisers. (Greenslade, 2008). It may be noted
that this was also the time when the Indian economy was going through
recession and unemployment had increased across all sectors.
Greenslade referred to the following article from Business Standard. “Print

media firms rationalise costs, job cuts afoot” by Bansal states the reasons of
rising newsprint prices; it may be noted that a majority of the newspaper
organizations in India import newsprint, depreciating value of rupee resulting
in paying higher costs to purchase newsprint along with reduced advertising
budgets by advertisers in India. “Latest figures from AdEX, the TAM unit that
tracks advertising volumes of different media, show that in the last two months
(November 2008 over October 2008), print media ad volume dropped sharply
by 45 per cent. In November it registered a 20 per cent decline in volume over
the same period last year”, (Bansal 2008) said. CEO of Diligent Media that
publishes DNA, Mr. K. U. Rao and Mr. Ravi Dhariwal, CEO Publishing at
Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. offered their views in this article.
“Readership of most newspapers falls across country, finds Indian
Readership Survey”, an article on a web portal informs the falling circulation
figures as per the Indian Readership Survey, 2008, Round 2. Although the
reason behind the fall of circulation figures is not mentioned, it should be
noted that 2008 was the year when India was going through an economic
recession, (www.newswatch.in).
42
Increasing prices of the newsprint is a matter of concern for the newspaper

industry. An article in The Economic Times titled, “Newsprint price hike forces
newspapers to hike ad rates” , states that the incremental prices of newsprint
are forcing publishers to hike advertising rates. The issue is also related to the
import duties by the Government which make the newspaper publishers
difficult to maintain the advertising rates, (www.economictimes.com, 2008).
An article, “My last column on the newspaper Industry”, (www.mediapost.com)

discusses about the issues of infiltration of web. Morgan also points out that
the notion that the purity of newspaper journalism is the cornerstone upon
which today's great metropolitan newspapers were built is revisionist history.
He further adds that most of today's great newspapers were built through
achieving dominant distribution in their markets, not through delivering better
journalism. Thus Morgan states that in the current scenario great newspapers
are built on the basis of their distribution strategies and not on the basis of
their content. (Morgan, 2009).
Jack Shafer in an article, “How Newspapers Tried to Invent the W eb” states
that the newspaper organisations in the US have always tried to diversify into
other media like radio, television, fax editions and then videotex. He makes
notes from Pablo J. Boczkowski's 2004 book, ‘Digitizing the News: Innovation
in Online Newspapers’. According to Boczkowski, newspapers didn't rush into
videotex because they were visionaries in a hurry to invent the future but
because they were "reactive, defensive, and pragmatic" about their mature,
lucrative business. After the advent of Internet, publishers adored the
proprietary online services because they locked down the user experience to
the newspaper's benefit, the article said, (www.slate.com, 2009).
As per a report by Akash Raha (www.exchange4media.com, 2010) on the 4th

Annual South Asia conference by the International Newsmedia Marketing
Association (INMA), Ravi Dhariwal, Vice President, INMA Worldwide and
CEO, The Times of India, discussed the challenges the Indian newspaper
industry is currently facing. In his presentation, Dhariwal identified four
43
challenges that the industry faced. The first challenge that Dhariwal identified
was the challenge of readership and stressed on the need to increase
readership. Also, in the metros, youth readership is not growing. To grow
readership, the print industry would have to customize the product according
to the needs of the consumers, he said. The second challenge that Dhariwal
pointed out was managing volatility. He said factors such as the newsprint
prices created volatility and hence the newspaper organizations need to
manage money costs prudently. The third challenge today is to check
advertisers influence on edit. Finally the challenge, probably one of the most
pertinent in the eminent future, is newer media forms.
(www.exchange4medla.com, 2010).
Stephanie Bahr, in an article titled, “Common Editing Mistakes Found in

National Indian Newspapers” writes about the reducing standards in the
journalism of Indian newspapers. She points out the mistakes made by the
leading National English dailies in India and also elaborates the type of
mistakes. She mentions that other than the spelling and grammatical
mistakes, newspapers at times have inconsistencies of information or even
incomplete presentation of the story, (www.chillibreeze.com). Mistakes like
these are bound to hamper the image of the brand among the masses. (Bahr,
2010).
Other than mistakes, credibility is an important issue. In a panel discussion

organised by ‘Foundation for Media Professionals’, which involved several
veterans of the industry, experts were of the opinion that media had been
entrusted with certain powers which should be handled responsibly. Speaking
on the credibility of news, B G Varghese, veteran editor, journalist and
columnist, remarked, “ If news is not credible, it is not news.” He also added
that media must not cross the lakshm an rekha” (limits). Krishna Prasad,
Editor, Outlook, was of the view that media had to be criticised in the same
way as it criticised others. It is essential for the survival and credibility of
media that it is criticised if needed, he added. (www.exchange4media, 2010).
44
An article by Nitin Pandey (www.exchange4media.com, 2010), titled,

"Increasing ‘commercial features’ in newspapers - edit-sanctity at risk?”,
questions the credibility due to the increasing use of advertorials and
examines the views of advertisers and publishers on this issue. The article
has views expressed by experts and advertisers and reflects a feeling that
both the advertisers and readers are happy with this. A reader’s perspective
on this issue could have given a better idea as the content is developed with
the advertisers in mind.
The trend of failing circulation figures continues as a web portal from UK

reports in an article, “Every national loses print sales in March”, that quality
sales of all national dailies in their print editions fell. Sales at the quality end of
the UK national newspaper market tumbled in June, according to the latest
ABC print circulation figures, the report said. (Press Gazette, 2010). The
same trend continued In 2011. (Press Gazette, 2011).
Greenslade in his article in Guardian titled, “Why Canada's newspaper

industry still has faith in print” informs that despite the fall in advertising ratios,
the newspapers in Canada are very optimistic, especially considering the
increase in their circulation figures, (www.guardian.co.uk, 2011).
An article by Arun Prabhudesai (wvm.trak.in) discusses about the rising
inflation and how it impacts the Indian middle class severely. The author says
that inflation is probably the biggest bottleneck that is facing India and its
Economic Future, (www.trak.in, 2011). The researcher feels that inflation is
directly linked with the growth of the newspaper industry. The newspaper
industry thrives on the advertisers and advertisers thrive on customers. If the
middle class of India gets affected and stops making purchases and
investments, the advertisers too will eventually reduce their advertising
budgets. All this will result in affecting the growth of the newspaper industry
too.
“Waking the Giant” discusses the concept of revitalising the mature brands. In
this book the author first says that the companies should take every possible
45
effort to stop the brand from maturing. Then he discusses the revitalisation
strategies. Some of the strategies discussed are delivering delights, involving
the master brand that is the most accepted brand to get the market share
back, the various archetypes and choosing the archetype that most suits the
brand vision, using symbolism and engaging the customer with the brand. (Dr
SteidI, 2011). The author here is offering various strategies for the
revitalisation of a brand and suggests that organisations should use the one
that is most applicable to brands. It can be noted that the mature brands in the
newspaper industry, like Free Press Journal for example, which are already
into the decline stage can think of such strategies for their brands.
46

Literature Review

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Literature Review

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Literature Review

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CHAPTER.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The commercialization of newspapers is indeed happening and newspapers

Newspapers remain the world’s second largest advertising medium, after

The newspaper industry in India is growing. Stephanie Nolen in an article

Table 2.1: Registered Publications in India and their circulation

Mr. Prabhudesai’s article is supported by the Indian Readership Survey (IR S )

have grown in readership this quarter. (IR S Data 2010,

IRS 2010 QCXJ Performance of Top 10 English Dailies

ZS"' ■4-- : ’ -rss £ « :'S 5 j X- ,

As per the explanation by a website of N RS (National Readership Survey),

edition, and an overall 6-day estimate. To qualify as a reader, the publication

In spite of the growing circulations of newspapers, the industry has gone

2.2 Trends in the newspaper Industry

An article in The Independent, a leading newspaper in United Kingdom, “Sun

A case study on the newspaper marketing of a newspaper called “Prothom

newspapers in Bangladesh is going through several problems as it has not yet

In India, there is also a growing trend in newspaper publishing to have tabloid

Time magazine in an article published in 2005, “Fishing for the News”,

An article in (www.calicutnet.com) “Media Matters” also supports this however

A report by the US Commercial Service, United States of America Department

An article by Robin Wauters (wvw.techcrunch.com, 2009) clearly shows that

Graph 2.2: Quarterly Newspaper Print Ad Sales in USA

2.3 Strategies for Growth

various strategies to promote their brands. Various observations clearly

2.3.1 Innovation as a strategy

An article titled, “Customised Papers- a youth-centric proposition”, suggests

2.3.2 Brand Strategies for Growth

in the market unique from other competitors. According to them, differentiation

An article titled, “Successful Brand Repositioning, Aspirational vs. Achievable

The news on the web portal (www.afaqs.com) is that Lokmat newspaper is

2.3.3 Other Strategies

The English newspaper industry in Mumbai is also going through several

Preeti Gupta elaborately discusses the increasing trend of local newspapers

An article in the web portal (www.exchange4media.com) states that

If newspapers want to increase their readership figures the most important

Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Hindustan Times presented a

Newspaper Advertising Conference’ organised at Malta. He pointed out the

An article by Scott Stines (www.inma.org, 2011) discusses about leveraging

Figure 2.1: Stines Model of Core A ssets

2.4 Consum er Behaviour

aesthetically. The article concludes by discussing the challenges to

A report by India Media Forum on ‘Media at the Millennium India’ has

Kotler explains four types of buying behaviour distinguished by Henry Assael.

High Involvement Low Involvement

Table 2.2: Four Types of Buying Behaviour

A research by PricewaterhouseCoopers carried out in cooperation with World

2.5 Issu es In the newspaper industry

Faculty members at Wharton and journalism schools have expressed their

Greenslade referred to the following article from Business Standard. “Print

Increasing prices of the newsprint is a matter of concern for the newspaper

An article, “My last column on the newspaper Industry”, (www.mediapost.com)

As per a report by Akash Raha (www.exchange4media.com, 2010) on the 4th

Stephanie Bahr, in an article titled, “Common Editing Mistakes Found in

Other than mistakes, credibility is an important issue. In a panel discussion

An article by Nitin Pandey (www.exchange4media.com, 2010), titled,

The trend of failing circulation figures continues as a web portal from UK

Greenslade in his article in Guardian titled, “Why Canada's newspaper