Fate of Print Media during Covid and Its rise
India has a scrumptious tradition of print media since pre-independence and post- independence times. Indian print media had a
glorious role in the freedom struggle of the country. After independence, diverse forms of media have made and contributed to
expostulate democratic values to the people of India. Print media earned credibility by accurate, unbiased, factual, and objective
reporting. For the last 5 decades, readers are most trusted in print media comparatively electronic or web media.
Last few months with the spread of the Covid-19 virus country's print media has faced many challenges from economically to
distribution.
Now print media inconclusive on news and information gathering, advertising, distribution, and economy generation.
Many journalists of our country have been tested positive from the deadly Covid-19 virus. Media houses and groups have slashed
production costs and showed exit doors to their employees due to a lack of revenue sources.
Print media is facing huge financial trouble due to a shortage of income which comes from advertising.
The worst effects of Covid-19
on Indian print media and their employees are studied in the present research paper.
Key Words
Impact of Covid-19 on Print Media Industries, Financial Crisis on Print Media, Cost Cutting in Print Media Employees,
Indian Print Media
Newspapers in India started in the British era. The Bengal Gazette was the first Indian newspaper which started by James Augustus
Hickey in the year 1780.
Hickey had constantly fought for the freedom of expression in that time and convicted by British rulers. After Hickey's banishment,
many newspapers published and also carried on the struggle for independence. Indian readers have strong allegiance and faith in the
print media. There were uncountable crises in the print media but it continued to expand in a whole nation. Many newspapers,
periodicals, and magazines are regularly published on national and regional levels in the country.
Regional newspaper's existence and growth raised the issues of local sustainable development and focused on local incidents
reporting. Regional or local level published newspapers encouraged India's development from rural to civilization. In the decades of
the 1960s and 1990s, the political integration of India shifted from the center to the states which were accelerated on local issues, and
such wise Indian print media transformed into a huge economic and social structure.
After the 1990s in the process of globalization in India, the print media changed forever because the Indian media world opened for
foreign media organizations. Recorded a major revolution with new innovative technology from content to visualization.
Now newspapers changed their aim and became a commodity. That emerged the management of print media more commercial by
ownership. As per the RNI data India, there are 82,000 registered newspapers with a cumulative daily circulation of 11 crores and
turnover near about Rs. 32,000 crore. As today with advance and immense technology develop the resources and capacity of the
citizens to access newspapers in a digital forum or platforms. The country's print media industry has been hit by several crises like
global recession and inflation but through all of these print, media industries preserved. The current Covid-19 has broken the
backbone of print media industries and newspapers organization
DISRUPTION OF NEWSPAPERS DUE TO LOCKDOWN
According to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, Indian publishers are fighting for revenues and drowning
their publication houses. Direct ad sales have been affected because of social and physical distancing. A lot of rumors and
misinformation related to the Novel Coronavirus were spread on social media due to newsprint industries that suffered a lot in
distribution to circulation.
Newspaper delivery boys or hawkers refusing to step out due to fear of the local authority stopped on roads. According to the tweet of
Saching Kalbag (2020) was saying there is no physical edition of the daily Hindustan Times in Mumbai because of tough restrictions
aimed at preventing the spread of the contagious Coronavirus and that made it difficult for
newspapers deliver along with their distribution partners. The Lockdown of transportation of newspapers was a huge reason for slow
circulation in the lockdown period. As a result, the print media across the whole country was disrupted.
Regional newspapers & publication houses were fully shutdowns on that time because many registered newspaper editors have not
efficient printing press and they published their newspapers by private printing press owners. Although readers were getting
information those available on digital platforms through electronic and web editions.
NEWSPAPERS SLOW CIRCULATION DUE TO FEAR OF COVID-19
While the central government of India has declared and included print newspapers as an essential services category which was
suffering due to the suspension of traffic. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has laid out steps to ensure the operational
continuity of print and electronic media during the overall Covid- 19 outbreak.
CHALLENGES FACING BY NEWSPAPER COMPANIES
Newspaper industries were already troubling with high production costs before the pandemic Covid-19. Small and medium
newspapers suffering to publish newspapers physical copy due to lack of income revenue generate. The print was the second-largest
advertising medium in the country but presently huge shares of profit likely to be overtaken by digital forums in 2020. Today's
younger generation or millennial loves to read news and information on their digital gadgets like cell phones, laptops, and tablets, etc.
The challenge for India's newsprint industry is to keep retains its readers for physical newspaper editions along with digital news web
portals. According to the Yash Porwal (2020), Indian newsprint industries are struggling with high-cost production and the central
government's new customs duty which all add immense pressure. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) those under 35
years, 56 percent identified as online readers compare to just 16 percent of the print medium. Regional and local publishers of the
newsprint industry don't have enough facilities to publish news and incidents online through news portals and subscriptions. Most of
the peoples of rural areas don't like to subscribe to regional or local newspaper portals. News portals of regional media firms have not
able to get advertisements which are the backbone of income source of any media firm.
FINANCIAL CRISIS DUE TO SHORTAGE OF ADVERTISEMENT
During the Covid-19 pandemic all public events, cultural events, and various sports competitions were either suspended or postponed.
Pandemic made a standstill situation of the economic cycle which includes real estate, political events, special tournaments had
stopped and the newsprint industry faced a huge and unimaginable financial crisis. According to the recent statistics which was
released by the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) that newsprint industries have to bear the brunt loss of Rs. 4,5000 crore, in the
beginning, two months country's lockdown of March and April 2020. INS also indicated that further losses may up to Rs. 15,000 crore
in the upcoming six to seven months. The prolonged economic slowdown will be decline advertisements revenue and ruin the business
model of the newsprint industry. ABP news channel chief executive D.D Purkayastha said that newsprint advertisement revenue
which shares 80 percent to 85 percent of total revenue is almost zero after post lockdown. Therefore Indian Newspaper Society (INS)
has written a letter requesting the central government of India to waive the taxation which currently has a 5 percent customs duty and
give government advertisements to all newspapers including small and medium newsprint industry. According to the Shemin Joy
NEWSPRINT INDUSTRIES SET AGGRESSIVE COST-CUTTING TARGETS
According to INS newspapers have given employment to almost 9-10 lakh people directly and 18-20 lakh indirectly. After a decline in
advertisement revenue the newsprint companies of India working on how to minimize production costs and gain control over
spending. The management authorities of the newspaper company decided to do pay cut-offs and minimum manpower to avoid
unnecessary expenses. Many newspapers have suspended special editions and reduced the number of pages to compensate for the
costs. 'The Hindu' group in India has suspended the print edition of 'Sportstar' which was the fortnightly magazine published since
1978. As tweeted by Hindustan Times journalist Abhishek Baxi on March, 20 (2020) that HT has put its weekend edition into its main
publication.
"HT is suspending the print edition for 2-3 weeks because the staff is working from home."
According to Amrita Nayak Dutta (2020), The Delhi edition of Hindustan Times now consists only of 14 pages, down from over 20
pages. The Indian Express put its e-paper behind a paywall and has made it temporarily free of cost. Magazines also affected due to
the Coronavirus. Outlook magazine has temporarily suspended its print edition and only the weekly magazine's e-version is available
to readers on its official website. A source in a Delhi newspaper office said that media houses are facing losses of Rs. 5 crores to Rs.
10 crores per day. Mostly National and Regional newspapers instructed their employees to work from home but thousands of
journalists of print and electronic media have to work on the field. They have taken risks of their lives while reporting on Coronavirus
infection from visiting containment zones to hospitals. There is no insurance policy has given by the government of India for
journalists.
