A recent report from TAM Media Research points out that the ad space per publication in Jan-Mar ’23 increased by 7 pc over Jan-Mar ’22. Another analysis of print media companies rated by CRISIL states that in FY ’24, the revenue of the Indian print media sector will grow by 13 to 15 pc to around Rs.30,000 crore, with 15 to 17 pc ad revenue growth. As per the report, the growth will be driven by factors like higher ad spends by corporates in key sectors and government/s around upcoming state and Lok Sabha elections.
What is the experience of English and regional language print publishers? Are they seeing volume and value growth?
According to Suresh Balakrishna, Chief Revenue Officer at The Hindu Group, the growth in print publications’ revenue is continuing.
“The Hindu has grown over the same period last quarter. So have media groups like HT, ABP and Dainik Bhaskar. The growth trajectory for publications will continue to grow both for regional and English. In my opinion, regional will grow faster than English over FY 22-23,” he notes.
Anurag Agrawal, CEO, Jagathi Publications, which publishes Telugu daily Sakshi, said that they have seen growth both in terms of volume and value.
“During the FY22-23, we exceeded the business – both in terms of value and volume – over pre-Covid year of FY 19-20,” Agrawal notes.
According to Satyjit Sengupta, Chief Corporate Sales and Marketing Officer at DB Corp, newspapers, and in particular Indian language newspapers, are on the rise.
“Indian language dailies have been full of advertising in the past few months/quarters. Advertisers have realised the continuing utility of print in delivering both impact and sales. Our last five quarters cumulative print advertisement has registered a massive growth of 24pc y.o.y. Hence, all categories whether traditional like real estate, education, jewellery, automobile, government are all embracing print. Besides, new digital app-based categories are also focusing on print for market outreach,” Sengupta added.
“Regional language newspapers play an important role in providing curated information to discerning readers. Digital fatigue, fake news, misinformation, and data privacy have reassured that print is more credible and trustworthy, especially the regional. The growth of regional players compared to the national dailies in the ABC reports is a clear indication of this trend. Advertisers and decision makers have realised this hence we definitely see growth both in terms of volume and value. FMCG, food, jewellery, consumer durables, modern retail, etc will be the main contributors to this growth. Moreover, elections are around the corner. We expect more government and political ad spending towards print in the next three years,” noted Devika Shreyams Kumar, Director, Mathrubhumi Group.
Relevance of print
Martin King, National Head – Connect (the 360 degree advertising wing of Tamil daily Dinamalar), noted, “It is nice to know that some research agencies have rightly predicted both space and the value is to increase in the first quarter of this year. The scenario is also expected to remain the same for the second quarter and thereon to the end of this fiscal, hopefully, and there are positive indicators. The print medium is growing for sure but not from the base of pre-Covid levels. It is showing some positive signs for all publishers and surely for regional language publishers too,” Martin said.
According to him, from the business perspective, Q1 has been much better for everyone as has been for Dinamalar. The publication has grown on both volume and value, he notes. Martin adds that today, volumes are increasing in all publications but it does not correlate with increase in revenue.
“In Tamil Nadu, many had a good Q1 this fiscal. Education and real estate categories invested very heavily on print, more so in the regional language print. We are seeing value growth, though very slow. Print will for sure grow beyond 2022. The market is positive towards print media,” he added.
What does the festive season hold?
Balakrishna explains that with Diwali falling even later than usual in November, is a good thing. “The festive period just by the dint of being a longer one will do better than last year. I expect the growth to be anywhere between 8 to 12 pc, the lower percentage is for English publications and the higher percentage for regional language publications.”
Agrawal expects the festival season to be one of the best in recent years.
“The economy is in a rapid growth phase as is evident from various macro-economic parameters as well as the performance of stock market indices in the recent period. Since advertising has a direct correlation with economic growth, we expect the bullishness to spread to advertising spends as well,” he said.
“We expect this festive season to be our best ever with ad volumes at an all-time high. Traditional festive categories like household appliances & durables, jewellery, lifestyle, mobile handsets, automobiles, real estate are all expected to do well,” noted Sengupta.
Devika is confident that The Mathrubhumi Group will outgrow the 2022 festive season revenue as it expects more activities in categories like jewellery, consumer durables, and textile.
“Mathrubhumi is the only Malayalam daily that has grown in circulation during the last ABC. We are sure that this will help us achieve a better market share from the previous year. Automobile, jewellery, personal finance/gold loan, consumer durables and small appliances, apparel, food, and modern retail will be major categories driving Onam sales. Elections are also around the corner, hence we expect the government to be spending during the festive season. This is going to help us generate new records in ad revenue by offering deeply engaged and affluent readers to advertisers,” she added.
“While all categories are likely to be buoyant, we expect jewellery, retail, consumer durables, consumer electronics, mobiles and automobiles to drive the advertising during the upcoming festive season,” said Agrawal.
According to Balakrishna, consumer durables will still forma huge chunk of the growth.
“Retail and jewellery will be big this year. All those categories which are the traditional festive categories will fire more than what they did last year; the volume and value will go up. Volume on the back of some new advertisers coming in, retail volumes will go up for sure as far as the value is concerned,” he said.
He notes that there is a lot of pressure on rates from organised large agencies and also from standalone clients. Hence overall, the yields may go down and value will go up, he expects.
“One category that has completely disappeared is edtech, but automobile has stepped in. A lot of facelifts and new launches are scheduled for this year across all major manufacturers that will help in the volume growth. Tech giants like Facebook and Google will continue to advertise which will help the publications further,” he observed.
“Categories that are print-driven like education, retail, textile and jewellery, besides auto, are expected to propel growth. We are treading carefully so as to protect our yields. There is no fun in carrying volumes without gaining reasonable values. Every page added is a huge cost; our partners have to realise this. The news in the newspaper may be old, but the way it is reported, analysed and expressed is most valuable to the reader who is the audience for the advertiser. I am sure one will realise the true value of print media,” Martin added.
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