Mathrubhumi installs 4th TKS at its Palakkad plant

SEED – A CSR initiative by Mathrubhumi

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Mathrubhumi
Mathrubhumi is one among the top ten dailies in India

Mathrubhumi is one of the top 10 dailies in India with a turnover of around 800 crores. Founded by KP Kesava Menon, Mathrubhumi is a Malayali daily published from Kerala, India. The history of the daily is synonymous with that of India’s freedom movement in Kerala. Ever since its inception in 1923, it has played a significant role in the socio-cultural and economic development of Kerala. Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged the daily’s contribution to the independence movement when he visited Mathrubhumi’s head-office in 1934 to unveil the portrait of its managing director, K Madhavan, in the Kozhikode town hall.

“We haven’t added any new editions in the last one year. There hasn’t been any expansion as well. But, we are currently installing a TKS press at our facility in the Palakkad region. We have also added 19,000 copies in the last 6 months and increased the number of color pages,” says MV Shreyams Kumar, joint managing director of the Mathrubhumi Group. This is the 4th TKS press ordered by the group. The press is equipped with a Ferag mailroom system along with a drum inserter. A 5th TKS press is likely to be installed at the company’s Kozhikode facility probably by this September or October and may also be equipped with the Ferag mailroom system.

The Mathrubhumi Medical Mission was awarded the Swachh Bharat award by the government in the media category. Grihalakshmi Vedi and Mathrubhumi Study Circle render yeoman service through humanitarian work.

MV Shreyams Kumar, joint managing director, Mathrubhumi Group
MV Shreyams Kumar, joint managing director, Mathrubhumi Group

In 2009, realizing the threat posed to the planet due to environmental degradation, Mathrubhumi launched an initiative called SEED – Student Empowerment for Environmental Development. The project aims to sensitize students in nearly 8000 schools throughout the country about the importance of environmental protection and to make such activities a part of their daily lives. Through this initiative, schools carry out simple steps in protecting the environment such as planting and protection of saplings, practicing agricultural activities, bio-diversity conservation, energy conservation, conservation of water bodies and practicing reduce, reuse and recycling of plastic waste. Mathrubhumi has assigned close to 350 volunteers from its offices at various locations towards the initiative. Every year, best performing schools are rewarded with trophies, certificates and cash rewards.

Mathrubhumi is circulated in almost every city and town in Kerala. It is also circulated in metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. Overseas circulation include major countries in the Gulf region. The company caters its customers with 16 editions of its newspapers. It also has a sizeable presence across 7 countries in the Gulf region. Mathrubhumi has a books division and 11 periodicals covering culture and entertainment segments.

Apart from print, the company has presence in radio and television formats. Club FM and Kappa youth channel ignited Keralite auditory and visual imaginations, especially of the selfie-swipe generation. Mathrubhumi News, a 24×7 news channel, has expanded its reach throughout Kerala. The company also has a presence in the online space under the name Mathrubhumi Online.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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