Calendar 2022 was practically the first near-normal year since Covid began in early 2020. The normalcy helped leading language dailies like Vijay Karnataka clock strong revenue and bottomline recovery. The readers and advertisers returned to strong brands as reading of one’s favourite morning daily is a well-established ritual connoting normalcy in daily life.
With masks and sanitisers slowly becoming a thing of the past, excessive usage of remote working and digital connectivity is wearing off. As the readers and advertisers of leading dailies are affluent and upmarket consumers, revenge physical consumption was seen throughout the year. Comeback to usage of newspapers is a part of yearning and returning to physical touch and intimacy. As the newspaper circulation and readership returned strongly, print-loving advertisers increased their ad spends in leading brands.
Events and IPs which were not seen during the Covid lockdown have also made a strong comeback. For example, we successfully organised large scale IPs covering diverse areas like farmer awards, college beauty pageants, a milk cooperative platform, mutual fund seminars and cookery contests. Clearly, after being starved for such physical events over the past two years, the consumers and advertisers are finding great traction in such initiatives.
What helped leading print brands clock such strong recovery? I would say the most critical driver is the excellent credibility that reputed brands enjoy. During the Covid lockdown period, consumers were forced to rely on news coming through unreliable pipes like social media, digital messaging etc. With the return of normalcy, print readers went back to their favourite newspapers for fact-checked and well-curated information.
Another reason driving the recovery is the prior satisfactory experience of print advertisers. Newspapers have always been an important part of a media plan. They deliver serious reach and impact especially amongst affluent customers. Immediacy is another unique deliverable that leading print brands bring to the table for an advertiser.
All these factors made the advertisers flock back to newspapers for getting their marketing messages across in an effective and safe way (several parts of digital media were considered unsafe and inappropriate during the past few years by advertisers).
Interestingly, new-age advertisers from categories like fintech, edtech, e-com and electric vehicle have used the credibility and impact power of newspapers during 2022. These advertisers have realised that mere usage of digital medium is inadequate for brand building as well as for customer acquisition. A judicious mix of print along with other media is far more effective in standing out especially in highly competitive categories.
What could have been better for leading print brands?
The year 2022 saw a steep inflation in newsprint and ink prices which has hurt newspapers quite badly. While it’s a global phenomenon, and the Ukraine war seems never-ending, publishers are looking forward to cooling prices for these key raw materials, going forward. High INR vs USD ratio has also been a headwind in a challenging year as a significant part of raw materials are imported.
The print advertiser base was very wide pre-Covid. Some of the categories/advertisers which haven’t recovered their businesses, haven’t returned to newspapers. In the coming year 2023, the opportunity is to create a path-to-print for such lapsed advertisers. Another area for growth next year could be deepening the usage and engagement of advertisers with the print medium. While newspapers have been around for 200 years in India, there is still scope for doing missionary selling/marketing of the medium with the advertising agencies and clients. The print leaders must continue investments in building and expansion of this credible medium.
In the coming year, I expect the leading newspapers to further improve their share of eyeballs, ad-ex and profitability. Print business requires investments, top notch management processes and good quality talent. This has made it an exciting ‘Winner Takes All’ business!
(The author is CEO, Vijay Karnataka & Bangalore Mirror, part of BCCL {The Times Group})
