Media barons bullish on newspaper industry

NEW DELHI: Leading players and investors in the Indian newspaper industry seemed bullish on the future of newspapers in the country even as they shared their experience and debated challenges surrounding the sector at the International Newspaper Marketing Association (Inma) South Asia conference in Delhi.

Inma, an association of 1,100 members in 82 countries, is the leading provider of global best practices and marketing ideas for newspaper companies. “At least 360 million literate people in India are still not reading newspaper and only 0.34% of the country’s GDP is today spent on advertisement, against the global norm of 1-2%,” said Inma executive director Earl J Wilkinson, underlining the huge opportunity India presented to the newspaper industry.

Ravi Dhariwal, president of INMA Asia division and CEO (publishing) of Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd, which owns the Times group of newspapers, pointed out how the Indian newspaper industry was moving on a different curve compared to newspapers in the West. “There is talk of internet ads taking away revenue from newspapers. But this is not true in India.”

The world’s largest private equity player Blackstone seemed to echo this point of view. The PE player has recently invested in Andhra Pradesh-based media conglomerate Eenadu group — the PE player’s largest investment in India. “Media is at the top of our priority, higher than infrastructure,” said Blackstone India chairman Akhil Gupta.

On the challanges arising out of tying up with foreign investors, Dainik Jagran CEO and editor Sanjay Gupta, said: “Our biggest challenge was to transform ourselves from a family-owned business to a professionally managed one after a strategic investor came on board.”

HT Media CEO Rajiv Verma also outlined how partners brought experience and expertise besides money, which helps in designing a product and marketing it. Retail, auto, FMCG and financial services would be key ad revenue driver, Gupta added.