The Indian newspaper industry is growing 5% annually for the last seven years. This kind of growth is not a small thing and India happens to be one country to achieve such growth. The only thing is that compared to language dailies, English dailies are growing less – I Venkat
Eenadu, the largest selling newspaper in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with a circulation of 1,807,581 (according to the July – December 2015 Audit Bureau of Circulation report), has been able to grow pretty well in spite of having no political affiliations. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2014, Eenadu ranks sixth among the regional language dailies with a total readership of 5,608,000. The newspaper is published in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well as in four other cities – Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi through contract printing.
“Every district has got a separate newspaper apart from the main newspaper – this is something we started around 1987-88. Within the district newspapers again, we have two separate pages for each town within the districts,” says I Venkat of Eenadu. “We have around 20 printing units and recently we have started a plant in Adilabad district of Telangana. We keep on adding new high-speed machines depending on the increased circulation and it is a continuous process at Eenadu.”
Eenadu has been doing a remarkable job as far as innovations is concerned. Its innovations not only nurtured its falling advertising revenue, but also helped create a successful platform for groundlevel activation linked to advertising in print, digital and a little bit of outdoor. According to Venkat, Eenadu was the first to start the digital edition of its newspaper in around 2002 in the then Andhra Pradesh state. “For many years we remained at Alexa position three after Hindustan Times and The Times of India. Thereafter, The Times of India clubbed all its digital properties under Times Internet. So after that they became number one and we moved to number four or five as far as number of visitors are concerned.”
Digital media is growing very fast with many online newspapers coming up says Venkat. “The only difference is that unlike print newspapers, the digital revenue is very less – if the growth is 30-40% annually in terms of new online readers, the revenue generated is hardly anything. In such conditions, if someone is able to earn 2-3% of the total revenue online, that is significant.” Venkat says there are many reasons for that. “First of all, online news is free. Second, from the beginning, for whatever reasons, the rates have been pegged very low because nobody understood that medium at that time. Now because the supply is more with so many options available for readers, advertisers are trying to beat down the rates.”
According to Venkat, government ads comprise about 10-15% of Eenadu’s revenue while commercial ads from big players form 30-35% of the revenue. Eenadu generates a huge 50-55% of ad revenues from the Andhra Pradesh local market itself from various sources. Eenadu runs on a healthy revenue stream because it is not dependent on a single source for its ads. “As far as DAVP ads are concerned, we are the only newspaper in the country which does not accept such ads – it’s not now, but since the last 33 years. We stopped accepting DAVP ads in 1983 because the rates given by them are too small. We accept state government advertisements and they give a healthy rate. The government of India, whenever they want us, they give us our rates,” says Venkat.
About the Indian newspaper market, Venkat says that the Indian newspaper industry is growing 5% annually for the last seven years. “This kind of growth is not a small thing and India happens to be one country to achieve such growth. The only thing is that compared to language dailies, English dailies are growing less – although I won’t say there is a decline there. Language dailies are growing at a healthy rate both in terms of circulations and advertisements,” concludes Venkat.
