Tag: Downsizing In India Media

The News Postmortem

‘Virus Killed My Job, Not My Resolve; I Run A Portal Now’

By LokMarg

Jai Prakash, 38, a journalist and co-founder cum editor of The News Postmortem recounts how he lost his job but not his nerves, and launched a fake news slayer portal in Hindi

What a game changer Covid-19 has turned out to be! It has turned everyone’s life topsy-turvy and very few people are able to keep pace with the ever changing landscape brought on by the pandemic. I have been a journalist for 14 years now, but this year me be the toughest for me professionally. However, I believe when the going gets tough, the tough get going and I managed to turn the situation around in my favour.

For the last four years, I had been working as a reporter cum copy editor for the digital team of Rajasthan Patrika (e- Patrika) when Coronavirus struck and the lockdown was announced. I was covering several districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Moradabad, Rampur, Amroha, Sambhal and Bijnor. Because of lockdown going to field for reporting became limited whereas that was the time when honest reporting was required the most. But the management had decided to cut costs.

ALSO READ: How I Turned The Tables On Lockdown

It began with salary cut. For March, each member of the editorial staff was paid just ₹15, 000. We used to get additional payment based on our performance every month; that too was withdrawn. I expected the May salary to be similarly cut down but there was worse in store; I was informed that May 31 would be my last working day with e-Patrika. Many other colleagues also lost their jobs. My wife is a teacher with a private school and there was uncertainty looming over the reopening of schools too. There were many an anxious moment at home but when a life partner stands solidly beside you, nothing can keep you down for very long.

Jai Prakash and a screenshot of his news portal The News Postmortem

With no means of income, an uncertain future as well as economy, there was a general sense of sadness and pessimism all around. It is at times like these that many people give up while some muster courage from the deepest recesses of their heart. It’s not an easy thing to do during lockdown when you are stuck at home and every day brings in more unfavourable news regarding the pandemic.

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I had always lamented over the lack of Hindi fact-checkers in these times when alternate or half-truths, even fake news is passed around in the name of journalism. I always wanted to do something about it. In fact, many news channels often fall for fake news first in the race of “breaking news” and late have to eat humble pie. Alt News by Pratik Sinha has done some good work but it isn’t primarily in Hindi language. So, I finally took the plunge and decided time was ripe to think about a Hindi portal that busts fake news from both big cities and towns as well as the hinterland (where people are more susceptible to fall for fake news).

The entire month of June was spent in brainstorming and getting a portal ready. We decided to name it The News Postmortem. We tapped social media too and our Facebook page and You Tube Channel went live on July 1. Currently, we are four people working on this from the safety of our own individual homes. We intend to bust fake news especially regarding Coronavirus which is the most important thing right now. Most fact check portals are not able to keep pace with the speed of fake news and our team hopes to quash rumours as soon as they emerge.

We hope to increase the number of our team members to 14 in coming years and surprisingly there are people ready to invest money into our venture. This goes on to show that nothing can tear down people with drive and determination, good communication skills and family support.

Covid Is A Crisis But Also An Opportunity For Indian Media

By Sanjoy Narayan

A huge fall-out of the COVID pandemic has been the impact on Indian mainstream media. With overall economic activity declining, one of the first factors to have affected the media is the sharp drop in advertising, the revenue from which is the mainstay of Indian media outlets, particularly print. The fall in advertising revenue has been so huge that leading Indian media brands have resorted to many drastic measures to reduce their costs. Print publications, already reeling from slowing advertising revenues, have been the worst hit. In several newsrooms across the country, this has meant retrenchments and salary cuts, and, in many cases, both.

How bad is the situation? WARC, a London-based market intelligence agency, estimates that global advertising spend could fall by 8.1% ($49.6 billion) to $563 billion this year because of big cuts in investment across product and services categories. According to WARC’s projections, which are based on analysis of data from 96 countries, traditional media—cinema, outdoor advertising, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV–will be hit the hardest. In North America, which accounts for nearly 40% of global adspend, advertising revenues are estimated to decline by 3.7% ($8.5%). In Asia-Pacific, it is set to fall by 7.7% ($14.4 billion); in Europe, the forecast says the drop will be 12.2% ($18.1 billion).

ALSO READ: How Coronavirus Will Change Our Lives

Interestingly, while in most markets the adspends are trending negatively, in India, according to WARC’s data, adspends will still grow in 2020, not by a lot but a little. In 2019, advertising revenues in India grew by 5%; WARC estimates that in 2020, it could grow by 0.7% to a total of $9.4 billion. This is significant in a global scenario where nearly every large market is set to shrink.

It could be too early to assess the full impact of the ongoing pandemic. For one, it is still raging. And in India, particularly in dense urban hotspots, despite a lockdown imposed in late March, infections have been spreading. And the resurgence of a second phase of outbreaks cannot be ruled out. Yet, there could be a glimmer of hope in the Indian media landscape. Where other comparable markets are shrinking, adspends in India are still set to grow.

India’s print media publications have been hit severely and the quick response to that has been the recent bouts of layoffs, wage cuts and, in many cases, measures to cut costs by reducing the size (or pages) of publications. The fact is that print media in India was already in dire straits: advertising from some of the biggest sectors such as education, real estate and financial services had begun shrinking long before the COVID pandemic began. Partly it was because of sluggish activity in these sectors but also because many advertisers moved online, which can be more cost-effective for them.

Indian publications, including the biggest media groups in the country have been grappling with the challenge they face from online media for more than a decade now. Every publication has an online presence but few have been able to work out business models that could work. Paywalls and subscription-led models have largely not been successful because it is a very small proportion of readers who are willing to pay significant amounts to read publications online. And, although online advertising is growing, the revenues are still nowhere near the levels that could cover the costs of maintaining large newsrooms.

ALSO READ: Get Ready For New Normal Post-Corona Times

Newsrooms at many Indian publications are huge in terms of the number of journalists employed. These are fixed costs that are high and require revenues commensurate with those. Indian newspapers have cover prices that are low. For instance, the price of a newspaper hardly covers the cost being delivered to a reader’s door and is a piffling amount compared to the cost of producing and printing it. This has been the principal bane of Indian print media. As a result, it is difficult to charge readers to read online when they are used to getting news/content at dirt cheap prices.

Interestingly, however, the ongoing crisis could be the wake-up call that Indian media, particularly print publications, direly need. Even if the salary and job cuts may be knee-jerk reactions that smack of short-termism—after all, the economy is likely to bounce back after a while and sectors such as healthcare, well-being, and e-commerce could be new advertising sources—the current crisis is probably an opportune time for Indian media to re-strategise.

ALSO READ: Misery And Hope In Covid-19 Days

It is a time for media owners to introspect and find new ways of providing content. Specialised online multi-media publications that target specific interest groups is one avenue that could be explored. There could be many ways to do that. A few to ponder: reducing the size of bloated newsrooms and replacing them with smaller ones with professionals equipped with higher area expertise; hyper-local online publications that address smaller areas within cities or suburbs; more investments in multimedia content production capabilities; and collaborations between media brands.

Therefore, for Indian media this COVID-induced downcycle could be the source of opportunities. Opportunities to spot new sectors and trends that could emerge out of the changes in social behaviour; opportunities to use online platforms, including social media more effectively; and, of course, opportunities to take a close and hard look at junking the past and thinking of new ways to conduct the business of content generation and distribution.