INMA 4th Annual Conference: "The print industry has ample headroom for growth" - Rajesh Jain

Day one of INMA's (International Newsmedia Marketing Association) 4th Annual Conference was held in Delhi on November 09, 2010. The theme of the event was 'Redefining the Newspaper Business' and initiatives addressed included the fundamental mission of the newspaper (to impact existing communities positively); engines of readership, advertising revenues in today's fast-changing economy; business opportunities in smaller albeit profitable niche markets; uniqueness of the print industry and what the future holds for it.

The second session of the day began with a presentation delivered by Rajesh Jain, executive director and head, media and entertainment, KPMG, India. He addressed the challenges facing the growth of the print industry in terms of readership and advertising revenues, and ways to increase both. Specifically, Jain delivered the keynote session on an outside-in view of newspapers and growth opportunities.

"Online revenue streams are growing very fast. As far as global players are concerned, focus is on developing a 'paid news content strategy'," he added. He went on to discuss the proliferation of Google.com, and informed that there has been a 43 per cent rise in subscription revenue over a span of three years for The Financial Times; while Times UK lost out when it decided to become paid - only 1.5 per cent of the readers retained their readership and went for the paid plan.

Tangentially, Jain discussed that growing mobile penetration and growth of 3G would change the dynamics of the way media as a whole, and the print industry in particular, is viewed.

"Today, there are millions of mobile users and this spurt has brought about unprecedented change in communication and commerce," said Jain, prophesising, "When 3G takes over, we'll see a total boom."

He then spoke about the very fascinating "newspaper extinction timeline" that spelt good news for India. Apparently, the timeline signalled alarm for the newspaper industry in the USA by 2070; UK by 2090; and by 2091 or so for Japan. "For our country, the scene is better. The print industry is a Rs 17+ crore market, said Jain, continuing, "The last three to four years have seen a 6 per cent increase in dailies. Interestingly enough, this growth is skewed towards vernacular newspapers."

Lastly, Jain ran the audience through what he called "key themes of growth (of the print industry)". "First," he started, "Can print grow faster than the estimated 9 per cent?" The question arose from the fact that in the USA, advertising spends are directly proportional to the GDP and the health of the economy. While wondering aloud whether the same principle could be applied to India, Jain said regarding print content, "The newspaper industry needs to realise that there should be equilibrium between advertising and editorial content."

"The second theme has to do with whether there is headroom for growth; yes, there is!" exclaimed Jain, going on to validate the claim by informing that the literate population is 57.9 million and that there is a 29 per cent readership base. Much to the fascination of those present, Jain pointed out that while almost all individuals hailing from vernacular backgrounds want their children to study in English medium schools and speak the language fluently; when it comes to newspaper consumption, they favour regional language papers. Furthering this claim, he said, "There are 68 genres across 19 categories."

The subsequent themes were to do with technological innovation transforming the nature of media (by making it portable, interactive, etc.); newspapers in the digital format (and how it affects dependence on print); and the trend of building communities within the target market.

A crucial theme in Jain's presentation was regionalisation. "Niche tier 3 clusters are emerging as attractive target markets - these are more likely to attract advertisers than tier 1 cities," he highlighted. Moving on to address how competition in some parts of the industry may lead to an enhanced market size; Jain explained that on the flip side, it may lead to an unwarranted rise in cover prices.

Overall, the trend appears to be ownership of multiple media assets. Jain cited News Corp, The Times of India and Dainik Jagran (expansion by geography) as examples of this. "Also, regional players will look to acquire more regions; larger players will eye smaller, regional players; and in sum, over the next 12 to 24 months, there will be tremendous growth in the media space," concluded Jain optimistically.

For the record, INMA currently has over 5,000 members in 80+ countries worldwide. Based in Dallas, the association has offices in Antwerp and New Delhi.