dear mr srinivasan
congrats. you have done a splendid job. your piece is informative and
directional as far as The Hindu & TOI are concerned. i don't think
anyone has ventured into writing such a piece which shows your
command over the subject. it requires lot of persistence, boldness, PR
acumen - PR people don't take the risk of offending those in the
newspaper world for obvious reasons.
pl keep prpoint flag flying high. god bless you.
yours sincerely
c.k.sardana
former General Manager/Corporate PR/BHEL & Chairman, Public Sector
Public Relations Forum, New Delhi. email id: casardana@gmail.com. M -
09893556483
On 2/6/12, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi all
>
> On behalf of prpoint group, I congratulate Mr Siddharth Varadarajan, the
> new Editor and Mr Arun Anand, the new CEO of The Hindu and wish them all
> success in their new role.
>
> The Hindu, one of the leading english newspapers is always a household name
> in Southern India, particularly in Tamilnadu. A soft, culture bound,
> non-aggressive newspaper, has suddenly gone into 'kolaveri mood', by
> releasing lot of advertisements against TOI in Tamilnadu, as a counter to
> their earlier ad. Now TOI is also releasing ad towards 'counter to
> counter'. Before going into what prompted them to do so, we will see how
> The Hindu has created milestones in the history of Indian journalism.
>
> *Profile of The Hindu*
>
> Presently, The Hindu is the second largest circulated english newspaper in
> India and third in the readership. Started in 1838 as a weekly journal
> with 80 copies, has now grown to 1.5 million circulation across India.
>
> Though, it is a family run newspaper, the Editors used to be from their own
> families. They train their family members in the hard core journalism in
> International institutions. Generally, their editors are not seen, but
> they are felt. Mr G Kasturi, who was the Editor of The HIndu for nearly 25
> years and Mr N Ravi, who succeeded Mr Kasturi as Editor till last year are
> considered as 'legends' in the journalism field. They were never seen in
> public platforms or TV shows.
>
> The Hindu, otherwise also called 'Mount Road Maha Vishnu' is perceived by
> their readers as neutral unbiased newspaper. Till date, there is no
> visible complaint against The Hindu for mixing editorial with
> advertisement. The readers of The Hindu consider this as the main 'core
> strength'.
>
> *Adopting modernity when needed*
>
> Even though The Hndu is perceived as a conservative newspaper, they never
> hesitated to adopt modern technologies to provide the best value addition
> to their readers. They are the first to set several milestones in the
> history of Indian journalism. Way back in 1940, they were the first
> newspaper to introduce colour printing.
>
> In 1960s, they owned an air craft to distribute the papers. Also they
> introduced facsimile system for the first time in India, to print
> simultaneously the pages at different centres through remote imaging
> techniques.
>
> In the 1980s, they were the first to introduce computerised photo
> composing, satellite facsimile transmission,
>
> In 1987, the Bofors scandal published by the Hindu rocked the entire
> country.
>
> India got the internet facility in 1995. In the same year, they were the
> first newspaper in India to publish the news in internet.
>
> *Post N Ram scenario*
>
> In 2003, when Mr N Ram took over as the Editor in Chief, the readers felt
> some changes. The Hindu was accused of leaft leaning, anti-hindusim,
> inserting views in the news, pro-china stand, pro-srilanka stand, etc.
> Though such things had some impact on the political news, it did not
> affect the business and general news. Unlike the past Editors, N Ram was
> seen often in the media and TV shows and public platforms.
>
> Only during Mr N Ram's period as Editor in Chief, The Hindu improved its
> international image. They started publishing exclusives on 'wiki leaks'
> drawing the attention of international community. Mr N Ram was invited by
> President Obama to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
>
> After some internal problems within the family, Mr N Ram, Mr N Ravi and
> others quit their respective positions and continued in the Board. The
> Board decided to bring in outside talents. They brought in Mr Siddharth
> Varadarajan, an eminent journalist as Editor. Mr Arun Anand, a brand
> expert has joined as CEO. Both the new Editor and the CEO had their long
> innings in TOI group earlier.
>
> Now let me come to the subject.
>
> *Entry of Times of India to Chennai*
>
> Everybody used to wonder earlier till 2008, why Times of India had not come
> to Chennai and The Hindu had not gone to Mumbai. This was a million dollar
> question in the minds of everybody. Whenever, such questions were raised
> to the Managements of both the newspapers, they used to smile and go.
>
> Suddenly in April 2008, Times of India started their publication in
> Chennai. At that time, everybody, including the Management of The Hindu
> feared, that it may cause damage into the circulation of The Hindu. Times
> of India offered the paper at Rs.299-/ per annum. Till date, the same rate
> continues. This also made The Hindu to reduce the price. The Hindu is now
> sold at Rs.100/- to Rs.110/- per month. (approximately Rs.1300/- per
> annum as compared to Rs.299/- of TOI).
>
> At the time of entry of TOI, Hindu had a circulation of 3.85 lakhs in
> Chennai. (as per ABC figure). Now at the end of 2011, Hindu has shown a
> circulation of 4.22 lakhs at Chennai, in spite of their high cost. Times
> of India is not subscribed to ABC Audit at Chennai. However, Times of
> India claims their circulation at Chennai as 2.00 lakhs. Times of India
> claims that they are catering to youth segment.
>
> *The Hindu and Times of India - Core strength*
>
> Times of India and The Hindu have their own core competencies. Times of
> India is more dominant in Northern India, while The Hindu is dominant in
> South India.
>
> Times of India is considered as the World's largest circulated daily. Even
> in India, they are the largest circulated and also largest read newspaper.
> The Hindu is considered as one of the best newspapers in the world, on
> various parameters like quality of paper, printing, layout, classification
> of contents, etc.
>
> *Times of India - visual advertisement*
>
> A couple of months back, Times of India, started an advertisement campaign
> in all Tamil channels, ridiculing a newspaper that resembled The Hindu.
> The visual ad running for nearly one minute, showcase a newspaper, that
> resembles The Hindu as a newspaper that is dull and makes one to sleep. It
> ends with a caption "Are you stuck with news that puts you to sleep?".
> Final slide shows, "Wake up to Times of India". Please watch this
> advertisement.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5s2gUWnkIY
>
> When this advertisement was released, many people raised their eye brows.
>
>
> *The Hindu's counter advertisement*
>
> Suddenly the new team of The Hindu, packed with professional people woke
> up. They started releasing several visual advertisments. They are still
> running. In the advertisements, one anchor would ask general knowledge
> questions to several youth, like who is the Vice President of India, who
> will succeed Ratan Tata, etc. Everybody will give stupid answers. When
> they are asked some film related questions like Whether Aishywarya Rai's
> baby is a boy or girl, every one would answer correctly. The 60 sec. advt.
> ends with the tagline "stay ahead of the times" and a newspaper The Hindu
> is shown. Please see this advt.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckzsh9SpUAQ&feature=player_embedded
>
> Besides, The Hindu started carrying lot of advertisements in their paper.
> Some of the samples can be seen here.
>
> https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDs8XvZLvLxA605uLSymc9FyC4YRoreJUQjXTC-SGtNQwo8qokcDB-AkZNRtuBSenXfbcJ8V1plGmZ9KMYpZP87Ghk64F_AZwt17xFwxPlF6OdozKbRyjodfGX3yEWvSYyhybyLx4QvHY/s200/e+than.gif
>
> Now both the videos have been shared in facebook and other social media and
> have generated an interesting debate.
>
> When TOI described The Hindu as a dull newspaper, The Hindu countered TOI
> as Page 3 newspaper.
> *
> *
> *Times of India's counter advt. to counter The Hindu.*
>
> Now for the past three or four days, TOI has started releasing an
> interesting advt. in their editions. Pl see the ad copy.
>
> http://www.bestmediainfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/TOI-Chennai-ad.jpg
>
> In this advt., TOI hoped that The Hindu would emulate the approach of Times
> of India under the leadership of the new Editor and CEO, who have cut
> their teeth in TOI earlier.
>
> Is the Hindu going to react to this advt? We have to wait and see.
>
> *How youth react? - a quick study*
>
> I interacted with some youngsters. These advertisements have captured the
> attention of the youngsters. There is a mixed reaction.
>
> On a quick discussion, I observe that around 30 to 40 percent of the
> youngsters in the age group of less than 35 may be preferring The Hindu and
> the reasons given by them is for improvement in their career and knowledge.
> One HR Manager told me that they used to get lot of responses from the
> applicants within few hours, when they advertise in The Hindu.
>
> But majority of the youngsters prefer TOI. The reason given by them is
> that TOI is highly fascinating and cheap. Some of them even said they felt
> proud in carrying TOI openly in their hands.
>
> On the other hand, majority of the seniors, beyond the age group of 35 and
> 40, still prefer The Hindu. They perceive that The Hindu carries more
> credible and useful information for their career growth and profession.
>
> *Main challenge faced by The Hindu*
>
> Though, The Hindu has not lost its circulation and readership, even after
> the arrival of TOI, their advt. revenue seems to be not growing
> effectively, as per some media report. In spite of the high cost of the
> paper, The Hindu is still dominant.
>
> Now The Hindu's main challenge is to attract youth segment to their fold.
> That is why, they have released the counter advt. focussing on youth.
> Some of the people have expressed genuine fear that in the name of
> developing youth brand, the Hindu should not dilute their core competency.
> If they dilute the core competency, then, they may lose both segments of
> seniors and juniors.
>
> Many of the readers, who read The Hindu and TOI daily feel that both should
> maintain their identity and individuality independently. If the new team
> of The Hindu, trained earlier by TOI, tries to emulate the TOI model,
> treating the 133 year old traditional image of The Hindu as 'useless and
> outdated', then they may lose their traditional readers and may not attract
> new generation readers.
>
> If a reader wants TOI type of approach, then he will straight go to TOI.
> He may not prefer The Hindu, who may like to emulate TOI model. Ideally,
> the converse is also true.
>
> *Is the Hindu trying to re-brand its image?*
>
> Some of the readers think that The Hindu is trying to re-brand its
> traditional image. For this, they quote the following as an example of the
> confusion in The Hindu to re-brand their image.
>
> 1. Last year, a week before the arrest of Spectrum Raja, The Hindu carried
> a big interview justifying his action. For this purpose, The Hindu got
> advertisement from the Telecom Department.
>
> 2. On 1st Jan 2012, Front page of the Delhi Edition of The Hindu carried a
> full page advt. of a sycophant Congress leader saluting Sonia Gandhi.
> This attracted lot of criticism, as The Hindu never releases full page
> advt. in the front page like this.
>
> 3. The front page stories of The Hindu focus on national or international
> importance. Recently, they carried 'Kolaveri' song as a lead story in the
> front page. The over enthusiasm by bringing Page 3 item, as a lead front
> page story in The Hindu was a great surprise to the readers.
>
> 4. Recently, Nakeeran, a tamil magazine wrote an indecent story with
> objectionable content against the CM Jayalalitha as a cover story. When
> the police registered a case against the magazine, all the papers carried a
> news item stating that Nakeeran published 'objectionable' an article
> resulting in the police registering case. The Hindu carried the entire
> 'objectionable' story in their front page verbatim as a lead story, duly
> translating into English. Now, The HIndu is also facing legal problem
> along with Nakeeran. Probably, this was the first time, an indecent and
> objectionable content was published as a lead story in The Hindu's 133 year
> old history. On seeing this article, even I could not believe my own eyes.
> It was a great shock for all the readers.
>
> *Road ahead*
>
> These indicate that The Hindu is confused over the image, they want to
> build. If their advertisement is not growing, then they have to examine
> the real reasons. All of a sudden, they seem to think that the 'value and
> ethics based' image built over a century may not work in modern days.
> Many traditional readers feel that the confusion may be due to The Hindu
> team presuming their 'strengths' as their 'weakness'.
>
> The general view that the new 'professional team', which has now taken over
> should encash on their own current strengths and attract more youth and
> advertisement than resorting to fascinating short term marketing
> strategies.
>
> *Is The Hindu going to convert their 'readers' into 'market'?*
>
> So far, The Hindu readers have been supporting the paper, in spite of their
> pricing. Now the new 'professional team' should not convert the 'readers'
> into 'market'.
>
> On behalf of prpoint group, I wish the new Editor and CEO of The Hindu a
> great success.
>
> Srinivasan
> (Moderator)
> Prime Point
> 9176650273
>
--
Prof. C.K. Sardana
Editor/UPKRAM/Bhopal
General Manager (Retd.)/BHEL/New Delhi.
09893556483 - M
No comments:
Post a Comment