Dr Chandan Mitra, Managing Director & Editor, The Pioneer

Dr Chandan Mitra, a well-known journalist with wide-ranging experience in both print and television media spanning over 20 years, has been handling The Pioneer for eight years now. A Member of Parliament, Mitra has served in senior editorial positions with leading national publications such as The Statesman, The Sunday Observer, The Times of India and Hindustan Times.

An alumnus of La Martiniere Kolkata, St Stephen’s College Delhi and Oxford University, Mitra has authored several books, including ‘Corrupt Society’. He frequently appears on major national news channels as a political commentator. Having joined The Pioneer as Editor in 1996, he took over its ownership in 1998 when the 140-year-old publication was threatened with closure. The Pioneer Group, of which he is the Chairman, also publishes ‘Darpan’, in-flight magazine of Indian and Alliance Air, and runs the Pioneer Media School that trains journalists of tomorrow.

In an interview with exchange4media’s Sumita Patra, Mitra shares more about his journalistic journey, the challenges he has faced in running the paper and the way ahead. Excerpts:

Q. Are you talking to international players as well? Not yet, but we may look at it.

Q. Your in-flight magazine ‘Darpan’ has run into legal problems. What is happening in that direction? No comments, the matter is sub judice.

Q. You started your career in journalism in 1984. How has the journey been so far?

The journey has been very exciting I must say, because when I joined the profession I was not even sure I wanted to be a journalist. I was into academics, I had just returned after doing my doctorate at Oxford. Since I didn’t have a job in hand, Statesman made me an offer. I was happy to take it up. Fortunately, God was good and I think my writing skills came in handy. I joined straightaway as Assistant Editor. That was an age when I think media really respected academic qualities, the pace of journalism was not as frantic as it is today, that is, we were not always rushing and trying to break news, always trying to do something to upstage your competitor. The pace was much more unhurried and analytical skills and writing abilities were considered very important, so I suppose that helped me shape my career.

Then I started getting offers from other papers, and I moved to The Times of India, Delhi in 1987. I am very happy to be in journalism. I think I was destined to be a journalist, in journalism I found the greatest fulfillment.

Q. How has journalism changed over the years since the time you began your career? The most obvious and visible changes have been the introduction of colour and the paper being design led, along with glamour and features taking precedence. When we joined the profession, it was straightforward news reporting. But now you can see a total transformation with several sections in papers, better designs and more colour. Papers have changed both in terms of content and appearance. Glamour and entertainment have come upfront, while news has been pushed down. Earlier, Page One was all political news and mainly dependent on briefings by government sources or other officials, but today they have all been relegated to the inside pages to single columns. There have been a lot of changes and it’s very difficult to quantify all of them. Twenty years ago a revolution began, which is still continuing; basically we have moved to a different orbit all together.

Q. You became an editor at the age of 35. What challenges did you face?

It was quite a challenge. I had not expected to be made an editor, and that too of a weekly publication. The Ambanis had just bought Sunday Observer and they decided to revamp it and launch it in a big way. Unfortunately the paper no longer exists today, but at that time it created quite a wave in the industry. I am talking about 1989-90. Sunday Observer was a very well respected weekly. I was made an offer to join them as Editor. I accepted it obviously. It was a challenge. I could not afford to fail because it would have had a very adverse impact on my career.

I did a good job, had a good team, nearly all who worked with me in that team are in top positions in journalism today. We really had a good time. We redesigned the whole thing. I really enjoyed the three years that I was there and learnt a lot. Unfortunately, the paper didn’t do well. At that time Hindustan Times made me an offer to join as Executive Editor. I wanted to get back to a daily as the real thrill of journalism lies in a daily newspaper, so I took up the offer. The editorship of a small publication like Sunday Observer taught me a lot, it tested my leadership qualities and gave me the confidence at Hindustan Times and later on at The Pioneer. So, although I started with a lot of hesitation and trepidation, it worked out quite well in the end.

Q. You said that The Pioneer was on the brink of closure. How did you manage to turn things around?

The closure was announced by the Thapars in 1998. They decided to close the paper because they were losing large amounts of money. I went to L M Thapar, who is a father figure to me, and asked him to give me the paper at a token price, and he agreed. At that time I had not intended to really run the paper, I thought I would be able to find a buyer, but unfortunately that did not happen. The Thapars had run the paper for seven years, I have already run it for eight years. But yes, at that time we had no money, the very first year we made losses, we didn’t know where the money will come from, we hadn’t paid salaries for months in a row, but mercifully with the help of some friends I managed to take loans from various banks and financial institutions.

The next year the Internet boom took place and we set up a net company in which a private investor invested a lot of money. Unfortunately, following the dotcom bust we neither made make money out of it nor did our investor, but since they had paid us the money, it came to The Pioneer as a second tranche of funds. All this actually saved The Pioneer and we managed to pay off most of our debts, regularise salaries, our advertising revenues are going up, all franchise editions are coming up, and so now we are in a position where we can manage things. It took The Pioneer nearly 5-6 years to settle down and the last two years, in particular, have been comfortable. We hope things will only get better.

Q. Would you agree that there is hardly any space for other dailies in the Delhi market given the vice-like grip that The Times of India and Hindustan Times have?

The experience of The Pioneer, Indian Express and Asian Age suggests to the contrary. I believe that the age of the niche has arrived in India. The business model is very different from that of the mass circulation paper, so I would like to differentiate between mass paper and class paper. I regard The Pioneer, Asian Age, and Indian Express as class papers. They have a committed readership, our readers know exactly what these papers stand for and what they get out of it, so they don’t mind paying more. I think tomorrow a time will come when these niche papers will be able to command a higher circulation and a higher cover price to make their model run. We, in The Pioneer, manage to get a decent enough advertising revenue, which is enough to carry our business, so I think it is totally possible to make a niche paper financially viable provided you are not looking for hyper profits. If you are looking for hyper profits nobody should invest in the publishing business.

I think it is perfectly possible for people with a certain commitment to profitably run a niche product, and that niche product will occupy a space no matter how small they may be in comparison to the market leaders. I believe that there should be more and more of this, we should not stop at just three niche papers that we have today in Delhi, we will probably have 10 in 10 years’ time and they will all run fine.

Q. Don’t you think marketing strength and the volume of ads carried by a newspaper is more decisive than just editorial quality that makes for a successful newspaper in terms of reader acceptability? I have largely answered that question. Marketing is crucial, but if you start going wrong in your content then that will have a very adverse impact. You can’t afford to have bad content, if that is the case then no matter how much marketing you do, it all goes waste. So, you’ve got to have a perfect mix of wholesome content and good marketing, sometimes you have to tailor your editorial content in a way that your marketing is able to sell it better. There has to be a balance, you cannot just sell a product if the content is poor. Content is absolutely the key, it is the foundation, but the best of content without good marketing will not work either.

Q. You have lined up Rs 40 crore for expansion. On what kind of projects do you propose to use this money? We want Rs 25 crore to come to the company for its brand promotion, increased visibility, at least two more editions – Hyderabad and Ahmedabad – and overall upgrade of the product. We are basically looking at brand consolidation and brand upgradation from Rs 25 crore. We are also looking at setting up two printing presses, one for the newspaper and one for our magazine division.

Q. Which other cities are you looking at when investor money comes in and you can undertake the expansion plans? I am still of the view that we should avoid the metros, the entry costs in metros is very high. We will look at going to Category B cities at this stage. I think we need to look at the western part of India because that has not been fully covered. We don’t have anything in Jaipur or Maharashtra, so I would like to look at some of these places. Something like, say Pune, can be a possibility, but honestly as of now I do not have any concrete offers.

Q. But has it changed for the good or for the worse? I believe all change is for the good. Newspapers have changed formats, their circulations have gone up, they have become, I would say, much more interesting and readable, the younger generation is taking to newspapers in a big way – all these suggest that much of the change has been for the good, but I do regret the dumbing down of news. What often passes off as news today is not news at all and newspapers are less guilty in this than television channels. TV news channels have impacted newspapers a great deal in terms of news judgement. I think there is a problem in the news selection process today, which is something for the worse. People have started taking news less seriously, news has become a little frivolous. These are unfortunate changes, but I think media periodically goes through a churning process and I am sure many of this will be rectified and we will hit the middle path. Eight years ago newspapers were frightfully boring, today they have become hyper exciting, it’s not good, hyper excitement can lead to a rise in blood pressure!

Q. Are franchise editions of The Pioneer going to be the norm in the future? How many editions do you plan to add? It depends. The company does not have the resources to launch editions on its own. If our talks with investors succeed then yes we plan to launch two editions on our own. If the investor money does not come or if there is further delay then we will expand only in those cities where we find a franchise, that is the model we have been following, that is how our four other editions got launched – all of them are franchise models. We are quite happy with the model because we get our royalty and we get considerable heightened visibility. We will be launching editions in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad and I am very confident of the commercial potential of these two cities and they have English reading elite. Our target is the elite, people who can buy a second or third paper. Thus Ahmedabad and Hyderabad are immediate priorities.

Q. Do you intend to foray into the television space as well?

Not really, I don’t really intend to get into television. We are expanding in the magazine segment, we are in the Internet segment, we are in media education business, we have a travel agency because it synergises with ‘Darpan’ and ‘Exotica’. Television requires an outlay which I would not like to venture into at this stage without first consolidating print. Print is our flagship and I want to consolidate it and bring it to an unassailable position where we are regarded as one of the top five print media houses in the country. That’s my dream and ambition, unless we reach somewhere there I don’t want to drain away our energies and limited resources.

In any case the TV arena is very crowded, there is no way anybody can make a mark there unless you have the resources and the core competence. We are not experts in that area and we don’t have the money. If at all we ever explore television and get partners or if our investors are keen, then I am prepared to set up a production house at best, producing special kind of programmes for particular channels, but not a channel.

Q. You are also keen on starting an education magazine. Could you please elaborate on that? It is premature to talk about it right now. I do have an education magazine in mind and would like to tie up with major educational institutions to supply the magazine to them. These are just off the cuff thoughts. Education is our next target, we will focus on the education industry, there are a lot of synergies between The Pioneer and the education industry, so we want to go ahead with that and the magazine will be part of the synergy between The Pioneer newspaper and The Pioneer Education Foundation. We will start thinking about it seriously in 2007.

Q. As the Managing Director of the company, what is the way ahead that you envisage for The Pioneer? In my lifetime I would like to see The Pioneer as among the top five print media chains in the country, a paper that is available from at least 15-20 cities of the country. I would like to see the education foundation grow in a big way. We started with media, now we want to go to other cutting edge areas like biotech, IT, and agriculture. These are areas where I want the Pioneer Education Foundation to grow. I want the Pioneer Media School to be the No. 1 in the country. I have built an institution, it’s a miracle that an organisation that once couldn’t pay salaries has reached the position it has today, if I can pull the organisation from that level, I am hopeful that we will be able to scale it up further.

Q. You belong to a small select group of journalists who have ended up as owners. Does this lead to a conflict between your role as an editor and that of an owner?

All editors are subject to pressures from the management. I have been in senior editorial positions for much of my career. I was an Assistant Editor in The Times of India, I was Editor of Sunday Observer, I was Executive Editor of Hindustan Times. I was Editor with The Pioneer for two years before becoming its owner. As Editor I have faced a host of pressures from the management. Every editor has to live with this and there is nothing wrong because there are commercial interests that have to be met. You start running a campaign against say a particular industry or an industrial house who happens to be your biggest advertiser, no owner or management will publish it. You have to be careful, you have to be balanced without entirely compromising on journalistic independence or journalistic autonomy.

The editor’s job is to be a buffer between the owner and the journalists. At The Pioneer, I am the owner as well as the buffer and my team has accepted it. I tell them, ‘look there is political pressure or there is a commercial aspect, please try to understand that we have to follow a particular direction’. I am transparent about it and I don’t think anybody has an issue. I come clean at the meetings and say this is the problem and we have to amend our positions. But that happens maybe twice or thrice a year, it’s not an everyday occurrence. I think we have to be clear in our mind. There could be a conflict of interest, it depends on your skills how you manage to resolve that conflict.

Q. It’s been eight years since you took over the reigns at The Pioneer. Don’t you think the paper has not been able to go forward in terms of editorial value additions?

I disagree with that. Editorial value additions have happened. Probably what you are pointing out is that the paper has not really grown in terms of visibility, in terms of its competitiveness, in terms of being a major player in the newspaper segment. Editorially, the paper is much stronger than ever before in terms of the kind of staff that we have, we have very top quality people here in our team. In terms of our editorial and op-ed pages we have some of the top writers in the country, some of our reporters are very good. Our news presentation and news selection is much better than before.

But yes, we haven’t been able to move beyond 16 pages. Also, we have been very conservative when it comes to paying salaries. I can’t afford to pay market rates, therefore, it’s difficult to attract good talent from outside. We are not technologically as advanced as other papers. We have been unable to publicise ourselves, we have been unable to run any kind of circulation schemes because all this needs lot of money. But I feel under my leadership a paper whose closure had been announced, a paper which was losing Rs 1.5 crore a month and where people had been paid off, has made modest profits for three consecutive years. We have almost cleared our past debts, so I have got it to the level where the paper is back on its feet and is not dependent on anybody for survival. I think in the next 2-3 years’ time we would be able to jump to the next trajectory.

Q. In your opinion, what makes a newspaper click in today’s market?

It depends, there is no chemical formula, had there been a formula, everybody would have clicked. It depends from city to city, it depends on circumstances, for instance, in Mumbai it is very difficult for anyone to become No. 1. The Times of India is so dominant in the Mumbai market that no matter how much you spend – like DNA or Hindustan Times are doing – it is still way below; maybe 10 years down the line there might be a chance. Marketing activity is crucial. The Times of India was a non-product in Bangalore, where it was No. 4 or No. 5. Deccan Herald was the market leader there, followed by The Hindu and Indian Express. But today TOI is the No. 1 and this was possible due to a good marketing strategy.

So you can’t really predict. For a paper to succeed, the opponent must make a mistake. What is the chemistry that makes one paper succeed over another is very difficult to say, marketing is crucial for the success or failure of a paper. I have always believed that content alone doesn’t sell a paper, no matter how good your content is, you have to market it well.

Q. There is a strong perception that Pioneer is very pro-right. Comment. Yes, we are right of centre and proud to be there. At a time when nearly all papers are left of centre, we are happy to occupy a right of centre approach, but that does not mean we are politically biased in our news coverage. We are not skewed towards any particular political party and go out of the way to ensure that activities of all political parties are covered. Yes, our paper has a pro-BJP tinge, but we are cynical of the BJP as well, so that shows we are not a spokesperson or mouthpiece of the BJP. We are happy with our right of centre editorial approach.

Q. You are in talks with investors to offload 30 per cent of your equity. How far have the talks progressed? The talks have been kind of yo-yo. Sometimes it seems we are close to cracking the deal and then again there are issues of valuation, issues of control. All in all I would say I am a little disappointed that things haven’t conclusively worked out within the deadline I had set for myself. While two months ago I was very confident that we would be able to achieve a breakthrough in a matter of weeks, I am afraid that has not happened. We have received more offers but nothing that meets our terms. Maybe I am bit of a hardliner, I don’t want to dilute my stake further. I’d rather carry on at this stage than give away a substantial part of my holding and not get enough money for it. I am firm that I am not going to give up majority, but I want the money to also come. I am hopeful that with the market doing well and media stocks doing fine, something will work out. I was very confident that by the end of this calendar year everything will be signed and done, but I can’t say that with much confidence right now.