As print volumes and newspaper circulations decline, newspaper houses are exploring ways to find alternative revenue streams. While quite a few have diversified from legacy printing into media channels such as digital, broadcast, events, OOH, and eCommerce, others are contemplating re-energizing their production assets and moving to educational products, book printing, and packaging.
The circulation slide aggravated by the Covid pandemic has rendered the once-busy printing sections of newspaper houses idle for a major part of the day. In an attempt at cost reduction, newspaper houses cut pagination and merged supplements into the main book. For example, a newspaper with 24-30 news pages plus 8-10 supplement pages before Covid would most probably have 24 pages in total these days. During Covid, the main book was reduced to as few as 12 pages in some cases.
While some of the leading houses have managed to scale back, the recovery is uneven leading to an overall and continuous decline in pagination. Scores of medium and small dailies are still running compact editions with reduced pagination. In the good old days up to 2018, after printing the main newspaper at night, the presses would print supplements or contract work for other media houses or magazines during the rest of the day – although several had diversified to book printing even then. However, with many such alternative revenue sources drying up, the presses are currently idle for longer periods of the day – forcing media houses to look for ways to optimize their operations.
In such a scenario, although digital news and broadcasting have synergy with content creation and print, these two mediums are also struggling to find strong footing after Covid. Major challenges include the content creator economy of YouTubers and the direct-to-customer commerce that obviates the need for print advertising. An alternative revenue generator is seen in packaging or printing[ for packaging. But is it that simple? How feasible is it for a newspaper house to make a shift to packaging?
Though there are some commonalities, packaging is a vast world of its own and would require a different mindset, says Sudeep Bhattacharjee, managing director of Manroland Goss India, a leading supplier of web offset printing solutions to the newspaper and commercial printing industries. At the Wan-Ifra Indian Printers Summit 2024, scheduled to be held from 23 – 24 September 2024 in Hyderabad, Bhattacharjee is speaking on the ‘Transformation of web offset – from legacy printing to new applications.’ His presentation will examine in this era of digital disruption, the need for web offset printers to look beyond their traditional production areas to sustain themselves.
“I would be touching on why and how legacy newspaper and commercial printers can transform their business with existing as well as new equipment. I will also speak on the advantages of offset with the help of some live case studies and success stories,” Bhattacharjee said.
According to Bhattacharjee, newspaper houses need to first understand the business and decide what to do. It’s not as if one fine morning, a newspaper owner wakes up and decides that he or she wants to do packaging. Because, despite the similarities, the technologies could be different. For example, offset printing is not the same as gravure or flexo. Moreover, the printing substrates would be different or the format would not be the same, he explained.
“Printing on newsprint is not the same as printing on packaging paper or board or films… One may need to significantly alter the existing presses, add new sections, and even get new machines,” he said, adding that a major analysis is needed before making such a shift.
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However, there are some successful examples as we have written earlier. Amar Ujala, for example, has a commercial print setup in Noida called Impressions Printing and Packaging. It is investing ₹50 crore in a packaging plant in Jammu. Another Hindi daily from north India and a leading Malayalam newspaper have made a move toward packaging. There is talk of a top English newspaper house exploring the idea of packaging while a rival Delhi-based newspaper has dabbled in book printing.
The Indian newspaper industry, says Amit Khurana, CEO of Technova, a supplier of printing solutions, has continually evolved through disruptions such as the advent of television, the internet, and social media, and major shifts in printing technology. “Newspapers have adapted to changing consumer behaviors with customization and hyper-localization. After the Covid-19 setback, newspapers are now nearing pre-pandemic levels. Today, many are diversifying into new areas such as book publishing, packaging and digital printing to strengthen their core operations,” Khurana says.
In an interview with Indian Printer & Publisher in May 2019, a year before Covid struck, George Jacob of Malayala Manorama had cautioned newspaper owners of the need to find new revenue streams, even suggesting a diversification to packaging. “The newspaper industry must look at packaging as a viable diversification avenue. It is perhaps one of the few industries not suffering from shrinking volumes,” Jacob said.
Driven by the rising demand for hygienic consumer products and logistics after the Covid pandemic, packaging has continued to grow despite an uneven economic recovery. Many big and small commercial printers, battered by falling print revenues, have jumped onto the packaging, label converting, and book printing bandwagon to stay afloat. Newspaper houses too need to get their act together and seriously explore such alternative streams. But before that, they need to do their homework.
(This article was updated on 18.9.2024 to include a quote)
