Content Is King
As the center of gravity in the world is shifting globally from the US and Europe to Asia, there is a shift in India, too, especially on the media front. Foreign multinationals have started understanding India much better now, and as their penetration rates increase, they are encountering the Indian language media.
“As the center of gravity in the world is shifting globally from the US and Europe to Asia, there is a shift in India, too, especially on the media front. Foreign multinationals have started understanding India much better now, and as their penetration rates increase, they are encountering the Indian language media,” says K Yatish Rajawat, Editor-in-Chief, Business Bhaskar.
Content remains the king. But with changing times, the definition has to be broad based. Primarily, you need good quality content to attract your reader/ viewer. It is good content which attracts the advertiser as well. Hence, advertising follows good content. But, it is a close second. Without advertising (read it as revenues), you cannot spend on promotions, marketing and retaining good talent through salaries. The effect is cascading.
“Content remains the king. But with changing times, the definition has to be broad based. Primarily, you need good quality content to attract your reader. It is good content which attracts the advertiser as well. Hence, advertising follows good content. But, it is a close second,” says Shishir Joshi, Group Editorial Director, Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd.
The media today is very dynamic and we need to continuously delight the reader to grab and retain his or her attention. There is just too much stimuli out there. So, the biggest challenge will be to keep the reader interested month after month. But keeping the reader interested is also an opportunity for us to keep innovating. Creatively, we have lots to explore.
On the Net you get only short stories, for example, about a car launch or so on, but you don’t get feature write-ups or stories around it. That is what a magazine is about. I agree that an Internet presence is very important today, but a magazine is acceptable and will always be acceptable in the long run. Magazine is the only solution – one can take it everywhere and anywhere, and read at leisure. The print medium is very strong and it won’t be replaced any soon. However, one can never predict about the next generation.
The first big crisis for journalism came after 9/11 and the media industry failed that test. The essential crisis was: ‘what is the role of journalism in the face of a national crisis?’ The media industry globally failed that test. They became polarised very quickly and began to reflect largely their governments’ views. This was particularly true of the British and the American media. Though the media industry has recovered from this, I am not sure whether it would be able to act substantially differently in the face of the next national crisis, which is very sad.
India is a very big and a very vibrant market. My understanding is that about 85 per cent of the homes watch the NGC channel. It’s is a huge audience we are talking about in India. However, the factual audience is very small in proportion to the several million in India. That’s one huge opportunity.
Ashutosh, Managing Editor, IBN-7, says that Hindi news channels have changed beyond recognition in the last few years; the pace is phenomenal, but they have also dumbed down the content and moved away from news. He wonders whether Hindi news channels today are news channels or something else!
Rena Golden, Senior VP, CNN International, points out that the most obvious difference between Indian and Western news channels is the difference in audiences being targeted. CNN-IBN, NDTV, Doordarshan, etc., and the others are competing in a national market in India and CNN is not competing with them. The audience is the prime differentiator, she says.
Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor & CEO, Janmat, says there is there is a mad rush for breaking news and everyone wants to be the first, which at times leads to misreporting. “We have to be mature enough to put in place some control mechanism. We should focus on responsible journalism,” he says.
Veteran journalist, Member of Parliament and political commentator, Dr Chandan Mitra balances all these roles easily. Having joined The Pioneer as Editor in 1996, he took over its ownership in 1998 when the 140-year-old publication was threatened with closure. In this special conversation, Mitra makes several candid admissions.
Gary E Knell, President & CEO, Sesame Workshop, says the question is not just that television teaches, but what does it teach. Popular for its programme 'Sesame Street', Sesame Workshop creates innovative Educational content for children from birth through age 12 in over 120 countries. For Indian children, Sesame Workshop is developing a multimedia initiative for 2-8 year-olds modeled on Sesame Street.
“I don’t think FDI is required. We have the monies. In fact, Indian companies should be encouraged to emerge as multinationals. Instead of looking at the US and Europe for a shop-out, we should look at publications there that we can grab. It is a reality. If I get the right buy at the right price in the right atmosphere, I will definitely venture into it.”
Gireesh Kumar Sanghi, Chairman & MD, Vaartha Group, and a Member of Parliament, holds that the Indian media industry needs another body parallel to ABC to ensure that publications and advertisers get the benefit of these studies. He also holds that there is no need for FDI as the media here has the monies.
To explain his argument about the dog eat dog situation, Deepak Segal, EVP, Content & Communication, STAR India, mentions that Sony and Zee were not bothered about STAR Plus and didn’t take even STAR One seriously. “We have seen what has happened in that case,” he says.
“What excites me about the Indian BPO industry is that it’s open to anything, ready to try anything”
Rusty Weston, Founding Editor, Managing Offshore, talks about the Indian BPO industry at length, its strengths and challenges, as well as CMP Media’s tie-up with Cybermedia to bring out an outsourcing publication, website and events.
![“Advertisers are really seeing the value of the [V] brand today”](https://exchange4media.gumlet.com/news-photo/fs_17700.jpg)
What had started as just music has now evolved into a more flanked offering, says Amar K Deb, Head-India, Channel [V]. The music channel has a young, raring-to-go team and is the country’s numero uno creative hothouse, he claims.
Jason Dasey, a popular face on ESPN STAR Sports, sees the exclusive India focus of SportCentre as an exciting challenge. Production standards are what set ESPN and Star Sports apart from other sports networks broadcasting in India, he says.
In a turbulent teen readership landscape, 'Seventeen' is perhaps one of a kind. The magazine is targeted at young women between the age of 12-24 years across India. Suparna R Motwane, Editor-in-Chief, 'Seventeen', discusses the strategy behind introducing Seventeen.
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