INMA 2012: Opportunity arises from complexity

The sixth edition of International Newsmedia Marketing Associations (INMA) South Asia conference opened on 7th August 2012. The theme for this conference was ‘Complexity Advantage’. The various topics discussed ranged from the need of newspaper companies to become multimedia organizations, to the future of news and on how cost deflation could be achieved.

 

The delegates of the conference were welcomed by Sanjay Gupta, President ,INMA, South Asia ,CEO & Editor, Jagran Prakashan Ltd. The inaugural speech was given by Ravi Dhariwal, President INMA Worldwide and CEO, The Times Of India Group. Dhariwal spoke about the Indian newspaper. He pointed that there is a great optimism in the newspaper industry although all is not well economically. He also said that of late the newspaper business is being treated as “one shot fits all” and this strategy needs to change if it has to cater to the needs of the consumers. Publishing business has to be at the forefront of change. They have come out with campaigns to prove this point. He gave examples of Times Of India’s ‘Lead India’ & ‘Teach India’ campaigns. He also stressed the need to deliver extra value to the advertiser and reader. He was also of the opinion that all papers should give a single rate to the FMCG advertiser who prefer television to advertise.

 

Bhaskar Das, President and Principal Secretary to Managing Director, Times Of India Group noted that the newspaper business is rapidly changing and they will only survive if they adapt to the changing environment.

 

Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIAI, Planning Commission , Govt Of India, was of the opinion that the newspaper industry should integrate with the  digital format to reach out to a larger and younger audience. Technology is bringing dramatic changes in how media is being consumed he said.

 

According to Earl J. Wilkinson, Executive Director & CEO, INMA said that the Indian newspaper industry today is at crossroads. The reason being there is  growth beyond the usual demographics . Newspapers  today have to  deliver value to advertisers even as multimedia and digital pose a challenge. He also said that integration across platforms is bound to happen for readers and advertisers. The problem of complexity may arise across platforms but this where opportunity lies, according to him. As per the new model there would be more focus on competence and value rather than on the product. To conclude he said that multimedia organizations need to manage print for profit and digital for growth. 

 

Another interesting session was seen at this venue. This session highlighted how college students view newspaper reading. Most were of the view that they preferred going through trending artices and video links clearly showing that digital was their preference where news consumption was concerned.

 

Ashish Pherwani, Partner Advisory Services, Ernst & Young said that newspapers organizations should pool in their back end resources, for e.g. printing facility to cut costs. He added that all newspaper industries go through three  stages: decreasing wastage, optimization and partnering with vendors and India is presently in the third stage. It is imperative to build a right product with the right price and this can be done by creating a win-win relationship with the vendors.

 

On an end note the panel also highlighted that harnessing inner potential is necessary for growth. This can bring about great change for the newspaper industry and emerge as a game changer for them.