Suresh Balakrishnan, COO, Mail Today
<p align=justify>I firmly believe that the era of segmented and targeted newspaper is going to come to the Indian markets soon. As of today, newspapers run on a ‘one shoe fits all’ strategy… In the next 5-10 years, we are getting into an era of segmented newspapers. Look at England… We have the Times and The Guardian right at the top of the SEC, but the numbers are very small. The bottom of the pyramid is The Sun, the tabloid with a ‘nude’ on page three. It’s a labourer’s newspaper, but it is the largest circulated newspaper in England. Then there is the Daily Mail, which is the middle class newspaper in England. Above that you have The Telegraph. The SECs are very clearly demarcated. I suspect this is what is going to happen in this country, too, whereby, each newspaper will cater to a selected audience.
I firmly believe that the era of segmented and targeted newspaper is going to come to the Indian markets soon. As of today, newspapers run on a ‘one shoe fits all’ strategy… In the next 5-10 years, we are getting into an era of segmented newspapers. Look at England… We have the Times and The Guardian right at the top of the SEC, but the numbers are very small. The bottom of the pyramid is The Sun, the tabloid with a ‘nude’ on page three. It’s a labourer’s newspaper, but it is the largest circulated newspaper in England. Then there is the Daily Mail, which is the middle class newspaper in England. Above that you have The Telegraph. The SECs are very clearly demarcated. I suspect this is what is going to happen in this country, too, whereby, each newspaper will cater to a selected audience.
Suresh Balakrishnan, who has 23 years’ work experience, began his career with The Times of India, he was Deputy Manager when he quit the group to go to Muscat and take up employment at Apex Publishing (Yellow Pages) as Sales Manager in December 1991. He returned to India in August 1994 and joined the Hinduja Group in Mumbai. In May 1996, he joined Lintas as Associate Vice President, in charge of Initiative Media and setting up Linterland, which specialises in rural communication. In January 2003, he joined Hindustan Times Delhi as Vice President - Media Marketing. In March 2005, he moved on to Zee Telefilms Ltd and was then seconded to Diligent Media Corporation Ltd (DNA). In June 2007, Balakrishnan joined the India Today Group as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Mail Today.
Mail Today is a daily morning newspaper circulated in Delhi and is a 74:26 JV between the India Today Group and Daily Mail of the UK. Right from finalising the JV to setting up the teams, printing operations, business plans, brand blueprint and overall business strategy, Balakrishnan has been responsible for the project right from the start.
In conversation with exchange4media’s Akash Raha, Balakrishnan speaks at length about Mail Today’s journey so far, the future of compacts, and emerging trends in print media.
Q. We have come out from a severe slowdown – did that impact the target time for the paper to break even? Were there job cuts during that period?
Yes, we were also affected by it. All we did was, as they say, when bullets are flying, the best thing to do is duck. We just lay low and let the storm pass. We postponed our expansion programmes too. At that time, there was not enough traction, there was no pull from the market, even the mood was down, with not enough ad revenues going around. So, we decided that we would wait. We had to push back our plans by about a year, but we are back on track now. Fortunately, we didn’t face the horrors of job cuts. At Mail Today, there wasn’t a single job cut last year, there were no salary cuts either. We didn’t give increments, but that’s fair. I think 99 per cent of the companies didn’t.
Q. You prominently mention your circulation figures on the mast-head. How has Mail Today’s circulation grown over the last three years?
Our circulation figures are mentioned on the mast-head. The numbers, as you would observe, are growing. These are the actual numbers that are circulated and not the numbers we print. The numbers we print are marginally more. Over 90 per cent of the circulated newspapers are paid. We are steadily growing. We started this practice a month ago, ever since our growth has accelerated. Initially, when I spoke to a few advertisers about this, they were completely psyched. However, it has got huge credibility coming from the India Today Group.
Q. Do you think the industry is doing enough to solve the measurement problems that it faces?
I think they are doing a lot. Given the complexity and diversity of the country, the languages, and the length and breadth of this country, MRUC and NRSC are doing a decent job of measurement. There are always going to people who are going to say that ‘we are not covered properly’, ‘we are not reported properly’, etc. But if you ask my opinion, I think they are doing a decent job of the coverage.
Q. What is your annual revenue from Mail Today, and what is your revenue target for 2010?
If I were to take this quarter, we have grown 70 per cent over the last quarter. And in the last quarter, we grew by about 40 per cent over the quarter before that. So, we are doing well. The revenue targets for 2010 are very stiff and challenging. We are looking at 300 per cent increase over 2009, and we are on track.
Q. What is your presence in the digital space like – we have seen the e-version, but what steps are you taking to develop online readers as well?
No, not yet, and I will tell you why. At the moment we only have an e-paper simply because we want to build our print model first. Once we have it, then we can leverage into digital. New York Times probably has the best coverage over the digital space. But it was only after their print model was so successful that they could ride on the back of it. One needs a strong anchor market first. However, I must say, it’s been very tempting. At the end of this year, we will be 350,000 copies in Delhi, and then we will contemplate going digital. At those numbers, you definitely can’t be ignored.
Q. Traditional media in markets like India is still growing. Would you say that print players have taken the right steps to take optimum advantage of that and push the medium further?
One of the biggest problems of print today is the advertisement rates, which are so prohibitive that you are cutting your nose to spite your face. To make that quick buck today you are slowly weaning the advertiser away. The industry has very low selling rate and unrealistically high advertising rates, which is undoing our own cause. However, soon you will see that prices will soften across the board. There were some newspaper groups that didn’t understand the meaning of the word discount. Today, they are all coming to the table and discussing as hard as they can. The other big step that the newspaper industry needs to take is to start charging relevant cover prices. Getting a newspaper for Re 1 or Rs 2 for 40 pages of brilliantly produced and well-researched newspaper is ridiculous. Newspapers are increasingly becoming dependent on ad revenue. Most newspapers have a 95:5 ratio, wherein 95 per cent of the revenue comes from advertising. The more dependent you are, the more you enter in the quicksand.
Q. On a broader note, what are the new emerging trends in print media?
There are a few trends that I believe will happen on a medium-short term basis. Ad rates will continue to soften and people will come down to the negotiation table. Negotiations will get more complex as issues like value editions, brand experience driven solutions and network deals come into play. In readership, language publications will keep doing well. The English newspaper industry will not shrink. However, it will grow slowly as compared to the language publications. Literacy index is increasing and so is the population, so there are going to be more people reading newspapers. Newspapers are going to be more ‘featurish’, analysis driven and views driven. Print as a whole will do good in the coming years.
Q. Mail Today began as a paper primarily concentrated for the metros – what are your future plans of breaking into newer markets?
Sure. A single edition newspaper is a strategy, but not a strategy that we want to follow in the long run. We want to launch more editions. However, we don’t want to be an insignificant player in 10 markets. We would rather be a strong player in two or three markets. That is why the focus on Delhi right now. We will consolidate Delhi and then foray into newer markets.
Q. What are some of the forthcoming marketing initiatives that the paper has planned, and in which cities?
Our marketing initiatives are largely restricted to Delhi, because we are located here. In Delhi, we had organised an RWA cricket tournament last year, which was a great hit. For the advertising community, we organised a table tennis and badminton tournament. Last year, we had Pratap Bose in the finals of table tennis and Nandini Dias in the finals of badminton. We have seen very good participation. Everyone needs to connect with the advertising fraternity, but we try to do it differently.
Another marketing initiative that we undertook – and one which I am extremely proud of – was the FIFA World Cup 2010 special, whereby we decided to release a special 8-12 page report on the matches. We distributed it the next morning, not with Mail Today, but separately at offices or at toll booths, when people were on their way to office. Mail Today, along with Airtel, came out with this for 25 days of the tournament. We have got such rave reviews that we are going to come out with a leather-bound collectors’ edition. The special issue was sold for Re 1.
Q. Do you foresee any segmentation in the market in India?
I firmly believe that the era of segmented and targeted newspaper is going to come to the Indian markets soon. As of today, newspapers run on a ‘one shoe fits all’ strategy. If you ask any English newspaper what their target audience is, they will say ‘anyone who can read English’. What I am saying is that in the next 5-10 years, we are getting into an era of segmented newspapers. Look at England, which is one of the most competitive markets of English newspapers. We have the Times and The Guardian right at the top of the SEC, but the numbers are very small. The bottom of the pyramid is The Sun, the tabloid with a ‘nude’ on page three. It’s a labourer’s newspaper, but it is the largest circulated newspaper in England. Then there is the Daily Mail, which is the middle class newspaper in England. Above that you have The Telegraph. The SECs are very clearly demarcated. I suspect this is what is going to happen in this country, too, whereby, each newspaper will cater to a selected audience.
Q. Mail Today was positioned as the ‘paper tiger’ – stories that others may be shy to write, direct headlines. Has that thought process continued over the past three years?
Yes, very much so. I know how much trouble we got into because of being extremely direct; in the way we have positioned our headlines and the way we have covered our stories. We are very direct in the way we write. And I can give you hundreds of examples of the same. Recently, when the UPA Government completed two years, everybody said Manmohan Singh’s Government, etc; our main page had a big picture of Manmohan Singh and said ‘Lack Lustre’ – that was it. I think it said it in two words. No one said it as directly or as brutally as we did. We are very neutral. Aroon Purie is famous for that. But unlike other newspapers, we don’t tip-toe around the facts.
Q. Mail Today began as a paper for the newer audience – the office goers, to put more literally, the Metro commuters – are we right in understanding that this focus continues?
Absolutely. We believe that we are looking at the new Indian, like you have rightly described to be Metro commuters and common man. Their values and beliefs are the modern values and beliefs. They don’t like to waste time, they like to get on with it. They have points of views on most things, and those are very strong points of views. So, we want to reflect that as much as possible in our product. That is the audience we are looking at.
Q. At the time when Mail Today was launched in 2007, the ‘compact’ daily looked like a popular route – Mumbai Mirror had been launched, Metro Now was there – there were all kinds of conversations on how this was the format of the future. Now, almost three years later, would you say that the media observers at the time were right in being bullish on compacts?
No, I don’t think so. Firstly, I think three years in the life of a newspaper is very nascent. If you look at newspapers around the world, even in our own country, after three years you are still a baby. You have iNext, which has done very well in UP as a product in a similar kind of size. Mumbai Mirror has also done significantly well. Metro Now is the only newspaper which could not fare well in the market. Hence, it is too early to say that the compact has died. Rather, I strongly believe that compact is very much here to stay and it will only grow. You will see many of our newspapers compact, if not now, then a few years from now. It is easy to carry, it’s easy to handle, easy to read and with Metro coming to Delhi now, you will have two million commuters on the Metro. The structure of Mid-Day is based on the fact that you can read it easily in trains in Mumbai. I feel that this is the format of the future. Look at what has happened abroad to the Guardian and The Independent; all of them are now in compact format and are doing well. Whatever success that Mail Today has had, format has been a key player in it.
