Hindustan Times
Depressing times for journos
How bad is the recession in the media going to be? We know that print is an endangered species in the US. The Tribune company is bust, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer may close down (or become a web-only operation), the Washington Post is losing money and The New York Times is in financial trouble and constantly in the process of looking for more money from unlikely sources.
Till now, Western media companies – across platforms – have taken the line that India represents the future. Time has tied up with ABP for a local edition of Fortune, the Financial Times has a deal with Network 18 as does Forbes, Associated Newspapers own part of The Mail Today, Disney has made investments in India, Turner (part of Time Warner) is launching a new Hindi entertainment channel along with the Alva brothers, NBC has invested in NDTV, Viacom is a major shareholder in Colors, and so on.
But now, as the recession suddenly spreads further east than anyone had expected, Indian media companies are feeling the pinch and Westerners are beginning to question the wisdom of investing in India.
Nothing more has been heard of the Indian editions of Fortune, Forbes or The Financial Times and my guess is that they are, at the very least, going to be considerably delayed. I doubt very much if Conde Nast, which successfully launched Vogue and GQ in India, will be in any hurry to launch Glamour. I would imagine that the once-imminent arrival of Esquire seems a little less imminent now.
In the TV space, those investments that have already been committed (NBC, Viacom, Turner, etc.) will go ahead but I would be very surprised if any significant new investments are made.
Indian media companies are having a much rougher time of it than anybody expected. I doubt if a single English news channel will be profitable this year and Hindi news channels will be lucky to break even. One English news channel has already been the subject of a distress sale and I would be astonished if we did not see a major churning in the Hindi news space over the next ten months.
Entertainment channels will also be crippled over the next year. Star and NewsCorp have long demonstrated that they can a) see off any competition and b) take losses when required so the Star family is in no trouble. But others will take a close look at their costs. One of the new entertainment channels is already teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and another has yet to live up to expectations. The future of both will be decided in the next few months.
In print, I don’t think the big groups are in any danger as their flagship papers continue to make money. But every group has one or two cash cows (in the case of the Times, the Bombay edition; for the HT, the Delhi edition and Hindustan in Bihar) which support several loss-making publications.
Some of the loss-makers will close over the next few months (Metro Now is more or less dead), others will face cuts in the number of editions and huge budget reductions. In each major group, at least one paper, magazine or edition will die. And struggling publications will be crippled.
This is bad news for journos. Strong editors have held out against redundancies but the weaker ones and the management stooges will be forced to sacrifice journo jobs. Journalists on many of the newer publication are in deep trouble. They are so overpaid that they must know that their jobs are in danger. And yet they can’t move anywhere without taking huge pay cuts.
Worst affected are the top anchors and editors who succumbed to the lure of the market and accepted so-called large pay packets in which much of the compensation consisted of stock options. Those options are largely worthless and likely to remain so for a year or more at the least. One of the option-wallas has departed. More will follow.
It’s a depressing scenario because at the end of the day while the big groups will emerge bloodier but more or less intact, journos will find themselves unemployed and very nearly unemployable.
(14 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)
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Rajneesh Batra Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
It is indeed ironical that the media which should have been used in every possible way to overcome the misery; has itself got infected. It is like drowning in the ‘Marshy Land’ while saving other. Nevertheless it is also true, unfortunately though, that we still have to go a long way to realize & appreciate the power and prudence of the fourth estate.
There is an old yet contemporary couplet that goes well with our status and mindset:-
“Jab Chali Thandi Hawa, Bachcha Sikur Kar Reh Gaya,
Maa Ne Apne Lal Ki Takhti Jala Di Raat Ko.”
[Reply]
Ravikiran Dalvi Reply:
February 6th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Hope that the recession and this gloomy scenario will not last long.
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Anil Maheshwari Reply:
February 8th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
The Newyorker (issue dt. Jan.26, 2009) has an interesting article “The day the newspaper died” by Jill Lepore.
“The newspaper is dead. You can read all about it online, blog by blog, where the digital gloom over the death of an industry often veils, if thinly, a pallid glee. The Newspaper Death Watch, a Web site, even has a column title “R.I.P.”
Chetan Gangoli Reply:
February 9th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Some of this was waiting to happen. The number of TV news channels and expansion by publications was way more than what audience and readership growth could sustain. The interesting (and a bit worrying) part of this will be the count of survivors and the casualties. Media as an industry (no getting away from that) is different from most others in that a good product doesn’t necessarily make for good business. And in the bare knuckled fight for TRPs and eyballs, the shoddy might just clobber the good.
In the end, as always we’ll get the media we deserve!
And there’s always blogs…
On this bunch – more than the blogs themselves, I’m surprised with the quality and open mindedness of the comments. Caution on that though – its early days yet – popularity and site traffic could well bring in the loons. Please consider making it mandatory for people to register before posting comments. Just in case …
sanjay chaudhary Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Dear Vir,
You are always right.The average yield per sq cms has come down cosiderably forcing printmedia houses to reduce pagination and accomodating even classified in the main newspaper.The business model of newspapers in India has changed and the impetus shift is known to everybody. you are one of the protaganist of this change and have always maintained the thin line of balance.
The shift altough in slow progression because of per capita paper consumption in our country from Hard to Soft that is from print to web is significantly happening.
Amar Ujala was forced to close some of its editions. DNA is feeling the heat in Banglore.TOI and HT co optition failing. Mitra Prakashan selling its 2 titles to Dehi Press and lot more is happening. This is not only true for print media but also in other media as radio and TV is very much evident. Infact the postponment of world newspaper congress scheduled in March on financial terms is an indication how the whole world is moving.
This part of the world is also facing a unique threat of newspaper price cartel which forced the prices to Rs 40 per kg again after 1995 . I think we must deliberate this issue in WNC to have a body to lookafter price mechanism of newsprint for India and SAARC countries which still has the large gap of potential readership of newspapers. The recession can not affect India as it has affected the western world. We are the rising economy and have accelerated litteracy growth rate.
Regards,