The year that was for Print: More ups or more downs?

After battling a tumultuous year, print media is again picking up the pieces and looking to make a recovery from the losses it suffered like most other businesses in 2020. At a time when print media is looking at a resurrection, regional newspapers are leading the charge with their fast re-growth.

The year had a chaotic start for many newspapers when circulation was hit in the wake of the lockdown. A lot of newspapers in major markets like Mumbai and Delhi went off the shelves and were forced to stop publishing.

Quite evidently, this did have a direct impact on ad bills and resulted in heavy losses for the sector that reflected not just in the last quarter of 2019-20 but also in the two consecutive fresh quarters of the new fiscal.

The pandemic-induced losses added more trouble to the already bleeding newspaper industry in India. Unfortunately it was not just the smaller brands that took the hit even industry leaders suffered hefty losses.

As per data sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler, Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL) posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 451.63 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2020, compared to a net profit of Rs 484.27 crore of the previous fiscal. The company’s advertisement revenue shrunk to Rs 5,367.88 crore from Rs 6,155.32 crore. Revenue from the sale of publications declined to Rs 629.96 crore from Rs 656.09 crore.

Dropping circulation and absence of advertisers in the market brought a long dry spell for the newspaper industry. But print fought back.

Come April, most newspaper brands started a quick reboot programme. With the government categorising newspapers as an essential commodity, publications came back strong.

Newspapers, including the likes of Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Eenadu, Hindustan, Patrika Group, Amar Ujala, Daily Thanthi, Sakshi, Dinamalar, Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times and Divya Bhaskar, issued a joint statement in the second week of April stating how newspaper distribution across India had largely stabilized ranging from 75 to 90% of the base number of February.

The following month, came IRS numbers. Encouraging numbers from regional centres drove most of the growth for the sector.

While numbers released in the May 2020 IRS report was based on a rolling average of data from three quarters IRS 2019 (Q1), (Q2) and (Q3) and one fresh quarter Q4, it gave an overall sense of decline in readership for print across centres. However, a closer look at the numbers clearly showed a growth pattern in news centres outside of metros.

While some regional newspapers saw a hike in TR (total readership) some witnessed growth in AIR (average issue readership). Incidentally, some popular brands from across the country like Amar Ujala, Lokmat, Daily Thanthi and Bartaman saw a growth in both TR and AIR.

In July, the government issued new guidelines for government ads. The Print Media Advertisement Policy 2020 that was targeted at securing the widest possible coverage for government ads, turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Indian language dailies.

The new guidelines were all the way beneficial to the Indian language print media as allocation in terms of ad space was increased to 80% from the earlier allocation of 50%.

If market overviews are anything to go by, the English dailies often charged government bodies premium ad rates while the vernacular dailies had to strictly adhere to the DAVP rates.

Among other objectives, the new policy targeted balanced distribution of advertisements in print.

The draft policy, that was made effective on August 1, 2020, clearly stated that the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) would endeavour to maintain a balance among various categories of newspapers taking into account factors like circulation, language, coverage area and target readership while releasing display advertisements.

Come July, advertisers returned to print bringing in the much needed hope for the industry. The pace of recovery, however, was faster in Tier 2, 3 cities. Of all the advertisers that were coming back to print, 75% were in Hindi and English languages, showed Tam AdEx data.

In terms of state-wise share, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 17% of ad volume share followed by Maharashtra at 10%. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu came next.

TAM data also showed that in the April-June period, a total of 189 categories, 28000+ advertisers and 31300+ brands exclusively advertised on print.

The return of advertisers was evident from the number of pages being added to shrinking volume of newspaper editions.

August 13 was a pleasant surprise for newspaper readers. Dainik Bhaskar’s print edition for Bhopal on the day was a 72-pager. In the special Bhopal anniversary edition, most of the advertisements came from real estate, automobiles, electronics, FMCG, jewellery lifestyle, government and social advertisers.

The Times of India too started publishing 30-40 plus pages in various key markets like Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad since the first weekend of August.

According to Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2020 Mid-Year Review, categories like FMCG, auto and education continued to be the main cash cows and contributed almost 45% to Print AdEx in H1’20 against 38% in 2019.

Education, with 16% contribution, overtook FMCG as the largest contributor to Print AdEx, dethroning FMCG which came second at 15%. Despite the setback faced by the auto industry in the market, it ranked third in contribution to Print AdEx at 14%.

Then came the festive season with better numbers for print. The ongoing debate on television news’ toxicity might have helped print gain more traction, said experts.

As per TAM AdEx data, print had the highest number of advertisers between October and November both in 2019 and 2020 compared to other traditional media. In TV, there were a total of over 3400 advertisers between October and November this year, while for radio, there were 2800-plus total advertisers. Turns out, in the same period for print, there were 30,900+ advertisers.

While print revenues started picking up towards the end of the year, the worst might not be over for the industry that also made up for losses by thorough cost cutting that meant hundreds of employees being given pink slips or brutal pay cuts. Indian Express and Business Standard were the first to announce pay cuts followed by most other newspapers like Hindustan Times, The Times of India, and The Economic Times. The year also saw a lot of print publications shutting shops.