Eleven days ago I reproduced N. Ravi's candid resignation letter from the editorship of The Hindu, one of India's largest English-language daily newspapers.
One key paragraph read:
"It is shocking that some of the board members should want to run a media institution like a company producing plastic buckets with purely commercial considerations and unethical practices overwhelming editorial interests and values."
Mr Ravi, left, who remains a director of the paper's publishers, Kasturi & Sons, has now sent me an article that elaborates on the theme of his letter.
Headlined Creative destruction in the Indian newspaper industry, it has a universal resonance despite its specificity, so I'm delighted to carry it in full...
Existential concerns over changing values, loss of readers and advertising and falling profits seem to have gripped the newspaper industry in the western world.
It is no surprise therefore that my remarks over attempts to run a media institution like a company manufacturing plastic buckets hit the target in places far removed from where I had aimed.
At the heart of the debate lies the question: is traditional journalism becoming more and more unsustainable and on the road to extinction?
Unlike in Europe and north America, the newspaper industry in India is not in decline, with a readership base of 250m that is growing.
Buoyed by growing incomes and educational levels and increased advertising spending, the newspaper industry grew by 10% in terms of revenue in 2010 and is expected to maintain that rate of growth over the next five years.
A positive trend - newspaper readership is growing
Readership is growing as well, particularly in the Indian language segment but even English-language newspapers registered a growth in readership of 3% in the 12 months up to December 2010.
One would assume that players in a healthy market would not face the kind of pressures seen in the western markets. Yet, a type of Schumpeterian creative destruction seems to be at work in the Indian newspaper industry with a great deal of flux and uncertainty and a quest for higher profits.
Media companies are recasting their business strategies in tune with changing consumer preferences. The quest for higher profits has spawned business models that tend to blur the line between advertising and news.
With the pure business approach taking over, the public interest segment in the newspaper industry has diminished to the point of non-existence.
Older, established newspapers that had a monopoly in their cities and regional markets are facing challenges from national newspapers that are extending their reach with new editions and from new market entrants with deep pockets.
The innovations by the new entrants that are well managed business organisations include very low pricing?less than 2 pence a copy in some cases?low rate packages for advertisers and the tweaking of content in a way that appeals to specific markets.
All newspapers seem to be changing in this situation of intense competition and such mutation is not confined to regions where the entry of new players has actually disrupted the market.
Schumpeter's key insight that competition "disciplines before it attacks" seems relevant here. Not just actual competition but the very threat of entry of larger and highly successful media groups is forcing existing players to change.
While, normally, innovation implies progress, the changes in the newspaper industry have not all been for the good and three major negative trends are apparent.
Negative trend one - dependence on advertising revenue
The first is the growing dependence on advertising revenue and the declining share of revenue from newspaper sales resulting directly from the very low cover prices in many regions.
For many large newspapers, advertising revenue already accounts for 85% and more of the total revenue. To gain entry into new markets, they are not averse to lowering the cover prices further, increasing their dependence on advertising.
More and more pages are being devoted to content of interest to advertisers including lifestyle, cinema and entertainment and celebrities. In the process, there has been a relative downgrading of the traditional serious content that is of historical significance, including democratic deliberation on policies and livelihood issues.
More insidiously though, the growing dependence on advertising has made the press as a whole soft towards large advertisers when dealing with issues of integrity, environmental protection, the larger public interest and even corporate performance.
A different set of political issues arises when the advertiser is the government. Governments wield significant clout, given the substantial dependence of newspapers ? small newspapers in particular - on government advertising.
Executives in the states have transformed government advertising into a system of patronage to gain influence over the media. However, it is a matter of some satisfaction that such patronage has not resulted in a totally subservient or less than vigorous press.
In normal times, newspapers have not been averse to granting small favours in return ? publication of photographs and interviews, for instance ? but in the coverage of critical issues such as corruption in the allocation of radio frequency spectrum for mobile telephone operators where their own credibility is at stake, they have not pulled their punches. There are of course notable exceptions to the display of such independence.
Incidentally, advertising is only one of the tools used by governments. The Indian supreme court catalogued the methods in a judgement: "Secret payments of money, open monetary grants and subventions, grants of lands, postal concessions, government advertisements, conferment of titles on editors and proprietors of newspapers, inclusion of press barons in cabinet and inner political councils etc. constitute one method of influencing the press."
Negative trend two - competing for the 'average reader'
The second trend is the competition for the "average reader", with newspapers at both the higher and the lower ends of the quality scale tending towards the middle.
Such tabloidisation is apparent in the changes in design that assume that readers need quick summaries and bullet points and should not be taxed into reading a report from the start to the finish.
It is also seen in the inclusion of more snippets and short pieces and in the overall tenor of reports that aim to be clever and snappy rather than thoughtful and analytical.
The traditional separation of news and comment is often abandoned, with news headlines heavily laced with critical commentary on the assumption that the new reader prefers strongly stated views that she agrees with rather than bland reports. There are touches of theatre, with the viewpoints pushed arising not so much from conviction as from marketability.
Negative trend three - selling news space
The third and perhaps the most disquieting trend is pure venality seen in such practices as "paid news". This practice came to the fore three years ago when it was found that in election coverage identical reports in praise of particular candidates were published in several newspapers across a state.
Investigation by a committee of the Press Council of India revealed that the newspapers had sold news space to the candidates and that copy provided by them was published as "news".
Going back to the existential question, quality journalism, sadly, does not seem to be very lucrative. This seems to be true as much of a still growing newspaper market such as India as of newspaper markets in decline.
The search for workable models that can help sustain quality journalism is still on.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/aug/01/newspapers-india
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