Rise of regional to going phygital: How Print made headlines in the age of digital
Despite fears of the print sector waning after the digital boom during Covid, the industry has confidently reclaimed its position with impressive numbers. The print sector has resurged on the back of better ad revenues, innovative advertising strategies, diverse revenue streams and more. Although traditional print circulation has declined, advertising expenditures have gradually recovered as economic activities have resumed. Girish Agarwal, Promoter Director- Dainik Bhaskar Newspaper Group, shared, “Print industry revenue across publications in India has demonstrated unexpected resilience over the last 2-3 years.” But, how has print been able to flourish alongside the digital wave? Varghese Chandy, Vice President Marketing & Advertising Sales of Malayalam Manorama explained that print is an active medium and if the advertisement is interesting for the reader, he will go through it whereas the tendency to skip the ad is very high in digital and the readers do not pay attention to the ad most of the time. Moreover, print readers are affluent in contrast to most digital consumers. So still there is a large audience that can be reached only through print. What fuelled the growth? For Jagran, getting into new places, identifying new growth categories, working on those, and finding a solution-oriented approach worked massively. Instead of selling column centimetres or plain vanilla print advertising, selling solutions to clients which includes some portion of print is the way to go. For example, Jagran Prakashan, which was not into OTT content production, got into it through its publication, Mid-Day. Agarwal elaborated, “As one of the major cost components for publishers the reduction in newsprint costs has helped balloon earnings growth. Additionally, sustained reader engagement and strategic adaptations to changing market dynamics have further bolstered the industry's financial outlook.” Strategic alignment with key events such as elections, the Cricket World Cup, and festive seasons has majorly helped Dainik Bhaskar. The company's omni-channel delivery mechanism has further amplified its reach and effectiveness. Manoj Singh, Vice President, Madison Media Plus is of the opinion that many publications have been able to stay afloat due to their timely and efficient digital integration. This is so much so that, phygital bundle selling is being done to advertisers now which is also appealing well to their clients. He also mentioned how experiential events are contributing to the growth of publications. For example, Lokmat’s Maharashtrian of the Year has become immensely popular and helped the publication create a strong revenue stream. Keeping a QR Code in the ad can take the readers to the brand's website and give a real-time measurement too. Various sectors have catalysed the growth of print by advertising on their medium. According to TAM AdEx data of Jan-Mar 2024, Cars, Properties/Real Estate, Two Wheelers, Coaching/Competitive Exam Centre, Hospital/Clinics, Retail Outlets-Electronics/Durables and Retail Outlets-Jewellers occupied the top 7 spots in terms of leading categories. Print has registered impressive growth in almost all segments like real estate, education, automobile, jewellery, BFSI, and Government, according to the DB Corp executive. Alok Sanwal, COO & Editor at I Next- Jagran Media shared, “There is a massive input cost challenge in the FMCG industry. Two to three years earlier, they were thinking of penetrating deeper into smaller towns or even rural areas but they seem to have, for the moment, given up on that part because they aren't getting conversions from high price point SKUs.” On the contrary, healthcare, pharma, well-being, finance, and non-core banking finance, are expanding rapidly. Healthcare, especially pharma, for the first time, is focusing more on OTC than ever. So pharma, which was traditionally not a print category, is becoming a big player in print, Sanwal added. Chandy revealed the two strong categories of Print that have shown good growth are education and auto. Electronic retailers and supermarkets are two categories which have taken huge volume in print after covid. Surprisingly, Personal ads that showed huge growth during covid are still growing. In an earlier conversation, Maruti Suzuki shared with e4m that print offers them targeted engagement, allowing advertisers to connect with specific demographics and tailor their message for local markets. This makes print an irreplaceable asset in their media mix, commanding roughly 25% of their advertising budget. Language papers benefit more Along with language paper, regional print media organisations appear to be in good stead as well. According to a Crisil estimate, they should witness an 8–9% rise in revenue this fiscal year as a result of strong growth in advertising revenue and a devoted subscriber base. However, this scenario is a little different when it comes to English dailies. For instance, Hindustan Times posted Rs 219 crore in ad revenue in the recent quarter (Apr-Jun), which was a 25% decline from Q4’24. In the last two years, language publications have been doing much better than English publications and for the latter, the challenge has been stagnation, as per Sanwal. In regions where Dainik Bhaskar operates, 70% of advertising is hyper-local or retail, particularly targeting retail sectors where print remains the most impactful medium for outreach. This effectiveness is evident in sales promotions, offering schemes, and executing tactical advertising strategies. Unlike metro markets, digital penetration is relatively low in these areas, as local communities still rely heavily on print for hyperlocal news and information. Additionally, print publications are offering native advertising and content marketing solutions that seamlessly blend with editorial content, enhancing relevance and impact for brands. These strategies enable print publications to offer comprehensive and effective advertising solutions in today's digital landscape, as per Agarwal. Sanwal highlighted the growth story of language is rapid. In digital, there is almost like a 10x growth on language content, and within that, Hindi as well. In broadcast media, there has been far bigger consumption of language content and so is the case of print. While English stagnates the moment it crosses tier 2 towns, language or regional papers thrive. Future prospects of paper co-existing with digital The Media sector follows National GDP growth and if GDP growth continues to be above 8%, we are confident to deliver good growth, Agarwal mentioned. Newsprint prices are currently at a smart low price of around $500 PMT which has come down from the high level of $950 PMT. If the same remains at the current level, print should be able to deliver strong earnings growth in FY 25. Chandy underlined that this year is expected to be good for print. Reduced price of newsprint is an added advantage after a few difficult years during covid. Singh concluded, “Print may not grow as much as they would earlier but definitely with technology-led solutions on the forefront, ground-level activities and more, print also wouldn’t come to a standstill.”
Sectors that helped restore print
Tags : Digital Age Print Ad Revenue Varghese Chandy Manoj Singh Madison Media Plus Mid Day Malayalam Manorama Print Sector Cricket World Cup Alok Sanwal