Content and Media Asia Pacific

World Statistics Day, or, Shooting in the Dark

2011-10-18T17:58:00.000+05:30

20 October 2011 is World Statistics Dayand I am tempted to comment and to provoke the industry with which Ihave been associated for over forty years — as a printer, publicistand publisher. These days I am not as isolated as I once was. I amnot the only person decrying the lack of social conscience or apractical sense of community in the Indian printing industry.

In our research company IppStar, Ioften comment on the unreliability of government data, even GDPstatistics and the RBI data, but I do not speak too loudly since myarea is the print industry where I am more sure of the numbers whichare based on a huge amount of face to face interviews of expertinformants, as well as a healthily sceptical analysis of secondarydata. I must admit that the general scepticism comes from ourdetailed work in the printing, packaging and publishing domain. Theparticular seems to give insight to the general and so we largelyignore the almost daily announcements of GDP projections andindustrial data ups and downs.

On 17 October 2011, a young colleaguewho is an avid reader of the Economic Times brought me a clippingfrom the morning’s paper of an article by Mythili Bhusnurmathtitled Economic Policy: Shooting in the Dark. She writes, “What wasIndia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate during the firstquarter of the year? Is industrial production rising or falling? Whatabout services? What is the inflation rate? Is it rising or falling?The list can go on and on. For, the truth, unpalatable as it mightbe, is we really don’t know. “As a result, economic policyformulation has become more like a game of shooting in the dark.Policy authorities don't know which way to turn in a scenario wherethe three pillars of a sound statistical database — credibility,timeliness and adequacy — are absent.”

Bhusnurmath goes on to point out thateven monetary policy decisions on serious issues such as inflationare being made on the basis of very poor data since there is verylittle real investment in the actual ground research. She writes,“Garbage in, garbage out! The RBI, in fact, has paid a heavy pricefor its reliance on dodgy data. As RBI governor D Subbarao pointedout in a recent speech, ‘Policy is framed real time and if theprovisional data that these are based on are inaccurate, theresultant policies can turn out to be suboptimal choices.’”

So the printing industry is not alonein its ignorance of real data or its lack of investment in datacollection, compilation and research. Nevertheless, to me it seems amiracle that bank loans for print projects upwards of Rs. 40 croreare approved mainly on the basis of relationships and trust since thedata available is really quite sketchy. Of course our multi-clientindustry research has subscribers but in our current project everysubscriber is a multinational company. Not a single Indian company ororganisation is supporting a massive effort that could actually maketheir projects and growth viable.

What I have written may sound like aplug for IppStar’s research and why not? While a few leadingprinters actually support IppStar in its work, many more call us upfor a few hints about the industry data. And many more ‘borrow’it without acknowledgement (even for a Red Herring prospectus for anIPO) and sometimes even print our research articles in theirassociation magazines without even a phone call or an email!

Like shooting in the dark, borrowing isour thing. I receive calls from Indian students every month who aredoing a thesis in some foreign university. Investing in data andresearch doesn’t really seem to be our thing whether it is thegovernment or industry or the individual. Actually our industry isvibrant and could easily play a leading role by investing in realon-the-ground statistical work. Perhaps this is something that theso-called leaders of the print industry can think about on WorldStatistics Day.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

From convergence to engagement –WAN-IFRA Chennai

2011-09-30T17:23:00.000+05:30

Apart from the reflected buzz emanatingfrom hyperactivity of the Tamil and Malayalam newspapers in recentmonths, the WAN-IFRA conference was interesting. The newsroom summitdiscussed innovative concepts that can continue to leverage thecontent leadership of print, and there were many presentations thatincluded case studies and examples from Asia and India.

This IFRA shifted from convergence toengagement. Raju Narisetti illustrated the example of The WashingtonPost, which a couple of years back had a website that was goingnowhere, like many other newspapers and magazines. The solutions wereto combine the print and web newsrooms which were earlier across theriver — away from each other — into a common web-first operation.This meant a robust multimedia CMS or editorial system instead of thethree separate systems that were in place. It also meant a new set ofskills and as Narisetti said, “Traditional newsroom skills are notsufficient in the digital space.” He emphasised the need topopulate the team with search, social and traffic experts.

As Narisetti illustrated, a print storyjust pasted into the CMS generally cannot work on the web. The webrequires packaging and essential elements to make a story ready forthe web. The story is ready when it contains some or all thefollowing elements — hyperlinks, further reading, galleries,photos, graphics, video, database and interaction. He gave examplesof how an interesting sidelight of a story highlighted by a blog or atweet can drive huge traffic and often even displace the main story.

It’s obvious that editors likeNarisetti are both intrepid and persistent. In his presentation aboutthe changes at The Washington Post he talked about creating a metricsdriven culture — the mere idea of which would have had him laughedout of any newspaper a decade ago. And finally he said that even ameasurable increase in traffic is not enough. The goal is engagementand this too is not rocket science. There are helpful open-sourcetools that can enhance daily stories, and increased social outreachcan spark conversation on newspaper websites.

While Narisetti is of Indian origin andnow heading a leading daily in the United States, Lin Neumann is ofAmerican origin with experience in several Asian newspapers. Neumannis the chief editorial officer of an English language start-up inIndonesia, The Jakarta Globe. His presentation at Chennai spoke aboutusing Facebook and Twitter to build up the new daily and its website.Neumann hired a fresh college graduate to get young people toregister on Facebook and Twitter through the Globe’s website. Hissingle employee in turn went to schools, colleges and shopping mallsto promote the newspaper and its website with the help of collegestudents who wanted to be part of the new social networking media.The eight most active helpers were rewarded with a Blackberry each.Thus by enabling the social networking inclinations of the youngpeople of the city, the new Jakarta Globe quickly gained traffic andimportance in their lives. Neumann also concluded saying that nowthat the traffic is there, the issue is engagement. How long can youkeep the reader on your site? How can you mobilise your readers asnews sources?

—Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

Interactivity for print

2011-09-29T18:08:00.000+05:30

In September 2010 IPP had startedInteractivity in Print, a feature that enables our readers to shareany article by sending an SMS with an email address. The article isinstantly sent to people the reader wants to share it with. Thesender can also include their email id to receive a soft copy of thearticle. Our readers are requested to make full use of this and giveus their feedback.

We are keen on making print a two-waycommunication activity. When you either agree or disagree with thecontent written in the editorial you can convey your ratings andleave comments for the author on our blog, helping us to have adialogue with you and bring more content relevant to your needs. Thisallows our readers and advertisers to do what they usually do ondigital media — rate, comment, and share.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

50 Fastest growing Indian dailies

2011-09-09T17:17:00.000+05:30

For the WAN-IFRA India special issue ofIndian Printer and Publisher we took some help from our researchcolleagues at IppStar. Although our assessment of the fastest growingnewspapers in India is based on the most recent publicly availableABC circulation and IRS data, we have also taken into considerationthe start of new editions, the increase in pagination and colourpagination, the building of new plants, absorption of new technology,innovation in media, and serious attempts to take on theenvironmental challenges.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

Breaking boundaries

2011-08-31T17:10:00.000+05:30

At one time, certainly before 1990,there may have been a tacit understanding or even an agreementbetween newspaper publishers not to encroach on the each other’sterritories, markets or languages. But the trend that began 20 yearsago with what was considered predation then, has now flowered into agreat expansion.

The newspaper industry in India overthe last 21 years has grown well in almost all respects and maturedin many just as the economy has. With a large parallel growth inliteracy, it has weathered the privatisation and multiplicity oftelevision news channels, as it takes advantage of the internet andgets ready for the convergent opportunities of a large base ofcell-phones and a tiny but growing base of tablets. The keyphenomenon has been expansion in circulation, new editions, morepages, more pages in colour, new media such as radio and televisionand new print media products as well.

In these years the first wave of FDI innewspapers has led to the first wave of foreign direct investment(FDI) and closely held family companies going to the stock market.Some consolidation has also taken place such as Bennett Coleman’sacquisition of the upstart Vijay Karnataka group and JagranPrakashan’s acquisition of Mid Day Multimedia’s print assets.There have been fissures and cracks among owner families too, butwhat is significant is that in most cases they continue to worktogether while facing the market.

There is a new confidence amongst theIndian newspaper publishers which has erased the old linguistic andmedia boundaries. Every fast-growing newspaper group has crossedlinguistic or geographic boundaries in the past ten years. Noterritory is sacrosanct as newspapers have to leverage their brandsto survive.

It is also nice to see that there is aresurgence among some of the strong newspaper groups that hadsuffered setbacks in the past decade. Amongst these one sees theresurgence of the Rajasthan Patrika and Deccan Herald groups inwinning back circulation and starting new editions as a reflection ofthe inherent strength of the Indian newspaper industry as a whole.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

Rajivnama — Distasteful self promotion from the Congress party

2011-08-21T19:18:00.012+05:30

Indian newspaper readers woke up to a bizarre print spectacle on 20 August, a day also celebrated as Sadbhavna Divas. Page after page contained advertisements issued by the Congress-led Central and state governments, and various public departments to commemorate the birthday of Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian Prime minister. Initial surprise gave way to shock which turned to irritation, and finally anger as the reader flipped through newspapers that carried the late Prime Minister’s handsome face staring somewhere into the space on almost every page.

In response to a similar advertising blitzkrieg on the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi in 2010, Ramchandra Guha had written, “A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that on May 21, 2010, perhaps Rs 60 or 70 crore were spent by the taxpayer — without his and her consent — on praising Rajiv Gandhi. Since the practice has been in place since 2005, the aggregate expenditure to date on this account is probably in excess of Rs 300 crore.”

If spending Rs 300 crore of the taxpayers’ money in self promotion through hero worshipping its former leader (incidentally, named in the Bofors scandal and accused of owning Swiss bank accounts) isn’t corruption, then what is? As the Congress-led UPA government struggles to save its reputation in the wake of accusations of corruption in almost everything it has undertaken in its second term in power, such shameless self advertisement can only ruin its image even further.

Pritam Sengupta from sans serif estimates that there were a total of 108 advertisements amounting to 48¼ of the published pages in the well known English dailies Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Mail Today, The Hindu, The Pioneer, The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Economic Times, Business Standard, The Financial Express and Mint (Berliner).

‘Sadbhavna’ in Hindi refers to noble thoughts and having good feelings for others. But sadly the action of the Congress party at the centre and across some states displayed little nobility of thinking or action even on the day it has set aside to entertain noble thoughts.

For more on this, please visit
http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/rajiv-gandhi-birthday-108-ads-across-48-pages/
http://www.wahsarkar.com/2011/05/saare-jaha-se-accha-gandhistan-humara/
http://charts.medianama.com/indian-governments-print-advertising-spend-2009-2010-part-2/
http://sahaas.blogspot.com/2011/08/sycophancy-at-taxpayers-cost.html

- Avinandan Mukherjee

The Murdoch effect

2011-07-20T20:23:00.008+05:30

Phones have proved to be the nemesis for Britain’s oldest newspaper — News of the World (NoTW) — and the news of the world is that the symbiotic relationship between phones and journalists has become cancerous. That the latter cannot exist without the former has been the joke in the journalistic world for long. Talking on phone is easier than trudging up to meet somebody in person. It also saves time. Once cultivated, sources usually divulge the big news on phone and stories carrying information about one part of the world can be written sitting in another. But all is fine as long as we tread within the ethical domain and do not turn news gathering into eaves dropping, or worse.

NoTW, which published its last edition on 10 July after 168 years of existence, did just that. In its zeal to be on top of news it got inextricably enmeshed in the process of creating news. It hired services of investigative agencies which would hack into voice mails of people to gather information. In the case of a then kidnapped teenager Milly Dowler, the hacking of the voicemail box led her parents into the false belief that she was alive when she had already been murdered. Stories of the dirty tricks being adopted by NoTW reporters had been doing the rounds since 2005. But it was a whistleblower on the Dowler case published in The Guardian on 4 July that did NoTW in.

The paper had already been incurring losses. The immediate reaction of Rupert Murdoch — folding up the paper — initially looked like a tactical move by the media mogul to save the chances of being able to buy a lucrative television channel BSkyB. It never came to that. The public outrage over the revelations was so great that Murdoch had to withdraw the bid. Several conciliatory and remedial steps were subsequently taken but to little avail. The damage had been done.

The Murdochisation of media (read: thinking only of profits and treating the newspaper not as a medium of social communication but as a product which can be and has to be sold at any cost just like shampoo and soaps) has not left even India untouched. Though so far no media organization has been accused of tapping phones for the sake of getting stories, that being the preserve of the government and the intelligence agencies here, there have been enough cases of journalists being caught on tape discussing ministerial berths and passing information from one party to the other with obvious implications.

There have been very many other instances as well of Indian media houses entering into unethical barter deals and ‘creating news’ for money or planting biased reports in return for favours. The issue is not of journalists tapping phones but a broader issue of ethics. NoTW used phones to pry into the lives of people for the sake of stories, Indian journalists have been schmoozing with corporate brokers for the sake of personal gains. Some may argue that this is worse than trying to collect information for the good of the paper or making sales grow.
Amidst wide-spread condemnation of the tactics adopted by Murdoch and sons for the sake of sensationalism, there are also some voices of dissent which say he brought life to British media and revived its fortunes. This can also be said for one of the most successful media empires in India. But Indian media still respects the privacy of people’s lives to a large extent and doesn’t stoop to the level that tabloids in Britain have.

The NoTW case also brings to light the inevitability of news gatherers going to extremes for the sake of unearthing something different. In the age of Facebook and Twitter when everything and every information is available at the touch of a button, how does one create content which is exclusive? Cut-throat competition legitimises going to any extent for the sake of a scoop. Reporters are hounded endlessly by desperate editors to bring something different. Discussing private lives in public is what we have learnt from social networking. Is it any surprise then that a media house resorted to tapping phones of ‘news worthy’ people? What would have they learnt by tapping the phone of Afghan war veterans — possibly what kind of excesses were being committed by both the sides on war front. That would be both sensational and interesting. And if in turn it helps bring to light injustice done in the name of war, probably no harm in it either. But the same thing becomes unacceptable if it destroys somebody’s reputation or jeopardizes somebody’s life. As happened in the case of Dowler. If the girl had not been murdered or if the tapping had led to the murderer, probably it would all have been for a good cause.

Media houses which engage in sting operations take this risk all the time. It is the ultimate thrill for a reporter to be present at the scene of ‘crime’ while it is still being committed. There would have been nothing better for the ‘rogue’ NoTW reporters, when they were eavesdropping on phone conversations, than getting the story from the horse's mouth. Even if they had been able to see the outcome of their actions some years later, it is unlikely that any of them would have liked to trade their places with someone else. It is only when a sting goes badly wrong that everybody's wrath turns on the third person who had been trying to pry too deep rather than on the actual culprit. There is ultimately a thin line between right and wrong here.

(Aside: Etymologists would find an uncanny similarity between Murdoch and murder. Co-incidently, the name is also close to Mordor: the fabled dwelling place of the evil one — Sauron — in JRR Tolkien's mythical universe of Middle-Earth in Lord of the Rings).

- Shalini S Sharma

2011-07-20T18:18:00.004+05:30

The Save Food Conference

Something that most of us are taught in childhood — to finish everything on our plates or to take only what we can finish eating, was the subject of another international conference at this year’s interpack in May in Dusseldorf. I attended a similar conference during the iPackIma event in Milan in 2009 as well, but the recent conference was better organised, attended and focussed.

On the first day of the Save Food Conference we were told that consumers with high levels of education and those who fail to write a shopping list are more likely to waste food. A survey carried out across seven European countries by the German packaging group Cofresco found that more than 20% of household food expenditure in Europe was spent on food which is thrown away, and that more than half of that waste could have been avoided with better planning. Half of the wasted food consists of fruits and vegetables while 30% of packaged food is thrown away without even being opened. Dirk Lohmer, the CEO of Cofresco told the participants, “Only 6% of the respondents even admit that they throw food away.”

Subsequent presentations at the conference estimated world food losses at around 1.3 billion tonnes with the greatest share of this being fruit and vegetables. Europe throws away 71 million tonnes of food each year. Ulf Sonesson of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology said that a study conducted last year had found major differences in food wastage between the developed world and developing economies. In developed countries, food losses were very low at the start of the supply chain — at the farm end — but very high at the retailer/consumer end of the chain.

However, in the poorer and less developed economies, the opposite trend was observed — very high wastage at harvest and low wastage by consumers. According to Sonesson, a lack of supply chain infrastructure, including packaging, was at the heart of the food waste problem in developing economies.

The conference had some interesting presentations such as how to reduce food losses through international cooperation and exchange of post harvest technologies. Kenneth Marsh who made this presentation recommended a knowledge supermarket. The conference clearly tried to encourage entrepreneurship and investment in food processing and packaging technology in the less developed and emerging economies. As far as what packaging can do for the food supply chain, it was well argued that when packed, food waste and food losses are reduced by a factor of ten. That increase in packaging cost by Rs 50,000 can reduce food waste by as much Rs 15 lakh.

However, it was also clear that while international bodies talk this talk and even support institutions in the developing countries, there are miles to go before there is global harmonisation of phytosanitary standards. The issue of trade barriers by the rich countries and their huge subsidies to their farmers was also raised both by the moderator of the conference and by a participant in the audience without any real response. Thus there is still a huge disconnect between do-gooders, consultants, and even businesspersons who appreciate the opportunity to invest in food processing and packaging in the emerging economies on the one hand, and the governments of the rich countries who have been holding up the international talks on trade barriers for agricultural products, on the other.

- Naresh Khanna

Kasturi and Sons

2011-06-25T15:24:00.001+05:30

The issue is transformation in the face of competition and change

Excerpt from paragraph 8 of the CLB order of 20 May 2011 by Judge Lizamma Augustine.

“The far reaching consequence of the proposals is that a shareholder of the company will be perpetually debarred from holding the post of editor of The Hindu, which in my view is contrary to the tradition and practice followed by the company since its inception. Besides, it is doubtful whether the proposed advisory board which consists of members of the rival groups would be able to effectively guide the non family editor in discharging his duties. I am of the prima facie view that except ‘the wholesale removal of the family editors’, the present proposals do not take in any other aspect. The board had not addressed the aspects (retirement entry and exit norms etc), referred to in my earlier order. It also appears that the Board has given a go by to the idea of framing guidelines for succession or rather they have limited the directions of the CLB only to the extent of removing the entire family editors.”

It is not easy for us to add anything sensible to the dispute amongst the owners of the company that publishes The Hindu and Businessline daily newspapers, and the periodicals Frontline and Sportstar. Nevertheless as usual we tend to barge in where angels fear to tread. The dispute has been covered in the daily press which in India is generally loath to write about each other’s problems — most notably and in the main quite respectfully in Business Standard and The Mint. However the headlines and slugs have included, ‘Family Fight’, ‘Family Matters,’ ‘The Hindu battles to transform.’ Expressions such as ‘beleaguered’ have also been used.

We agree that the discussion, dispute and even the court cases are about change and transformation of the reputed family owned newspaper. The main issue is who will lead the transformation of the third largest circulated English daily in the country. The transformation is necessary if the The Hindu is to stand up to Bennet Coleman’s Times of India which has already made an impact with its Chennai edition and will soon add to its South India campaign with three new editions in Kerala in cooperation with Mathrubhumi. Meanwhile The Hindu continues to call itself India’s national newspaper without having editions in the major metros of Mumbai and Kolkata.

Transformation goes beyond new editions or contemporary design — it implies innovation, futurism and the building of a new publishing paradigm which turns several technology and media threats into a cross media opportunity. The organisation has a very strong production infrastructure which is wasted on a paper that is crying out for editorial innovation and juice. The professionalisation of the paper’s editorial, design and business functions is overdue and cannot be limited to one appointment, albeit even the first non-family member to be appointed as editor. Transformation will require many steps which have been stayed for a variety of reasons not by the court but by the dysfunction and inability of the owners to congenially map out and implement the plans for change.

It is apparent that in the Kasturi and Sons dispute, one side believes that only they can lead the transformation. This side not only wants to professionalise the paper but also wants to retain some kind of editorial control — ideological and political. Currently enjoying a majority of 7 to 5 on the board, this rival group wants to get rid of N Ravi and Malini Parthasarathy on the editorial side and is largely using the appointment of a professional editor as an excuse to deprive Ravi and Parthasarathy of the responsibilities and power that would have naturally and sequentially come to them as educated and experienced editors as well as part owners of the group’s publications.

While the Company Law Board in its order on 20 May 2011 gave relief to N Murali and restored his responsibilities as Joint Managing Director, it has postponed judgement on whether the 7 to 5 decision of the Kasturi and Sons board to throw out all the family editors including Ravi and Parthasarathy amounts to oppression and whether a special resolution calling for more than a simple majority is needed. The real issues are of editorial control and of who leads the transformation and who ultimately wields power in the process of the company’s growth as a newspaper business. Put simply, transformation may mean taking on Bennett Coleman and bringing in new investment. At this juncture, it may behoove the owners of Kasturi and Sons to remember that newspaper owners have to choose between fame, power and wealth. According to a sage editor, newspaper owners can aspire to any two of these at best, but not all three.

— Naresh Khanna (June 2011)

The parallel importation of books amendment

2011-03-28T12:25:00.000+05:30

Democracy at work

At the time of the Jaipur Literary Festival in January, there was a rash of articles in the English dailies that enlisted leading publishing luminaries in decrying an Amendment to the Copyright Act that will likely be enacted in the current budget session of parliament. Frankly the rash of articles where journalists suddenly became very knowledgeable, and publishers and authors very adamant, smelled like clever spoonfed journalism. This is a type of article that appears in several papers with the same outrage caused by a company or group or association doing a bit of strong PR or waging a campaign in order to use the power of the English language press in the capital to influence seemingly unwitting members of parliament on a fairly obscure subject.

Of course these articles were written without finding out or describing the offending amendment or bothering to find out if there was another side to the story. But weekends are a good time to get such stories into the dailies since our editors are even more asleep, and desperate for a live story with a byline and quotes from literary personalities.

In our print issue dated March 2011 we have published a debate where both exponents (bloggers in this case) say that there has not been adequate discussion and consultation on this subject. We concur, although we do not think that the Federation of Indian Publishers or the Association of Publishers in India or the Authors Guild are innocent in this matter. Associations in our country rarely discuss anything transparently with their constituents, let alone with each other, or their common constituencies — in this case the reading and book buying public. (Not to speak of authors and editors).

The Indian book market is large and in fact threatening to become huge. This phenomenal growth in the creation, production and consumption of content and books is impinged by technology allowing both easier and more transparent trade. The content and publishing industry will eventually have to reckon with electronic publishing and eBooks and eContent. The amendment on parallel importation of books threatens the territorial monopolies of some of the large publishers. It especially seems threatening to the English language multinational publishers. As Shalini has pointed out in her Alphageria column in the same issue, the Indian textbook market is itself worth US$ 2 billion.

During the Globalocal event in Delhi in November 2010, we asked the international publishers’ of English books, why there were separate publishing rights for Canada, Australia, India, the United States and Europe and we also asked them how long would this last in an eBooks world without borders. The answer given by Emma House representing the Publishers Association was, to say the least, a bit ingenuous. She said that the current system may last another 25 years and that if it was changed it would threaten the availability of inexpensive English language textbooks that are exported to India.

It is increasingly becoming apparent that the large international text book publishers are in fact generating original content in India for use around the world. This, coupled with the excellent and competitive book manufacturing capabilities of our printers, means that this is an important and interesting discussion. In a democracy there is an opportunity for us (however difficult and onerous) to create and shape the future. Serious publishers and printers need to talk more regularly and sensibly to each other and not merely leave it to their associations. Especially when the associations of the multinational publishers are far more media savvy.

March 23, 2011 | By Naresh Khanna

Chennai Book Fair robbed of relaxed ambiance thanks to cramped conditions

2011-02-12T05:38:00.000+05:30

The St George’s Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School on Poonamalle High Road is Chennai’s oldest school tracing its origins to the St Mary’s Church Charity School established in 1715. The red-brick buildings on campus are an unmistakable sign of heritage. The playgrounds are simply huge, occupying most of the 21-acre space. The school has played host to the annual Chennai Book Fair the past few years, after the fair moved from St Ebbas in Royapettah.

Despite the huge space available, the book fair itself is confined to smaller space and there is no doubt that the venue may be ideal if only its sprawling grounds are put to better use. For example, instead of the huge area outside the stalls being used for hoardings, posters and welcome arches, it can serve as space for stalls. And that would result in roomier stalls, perhaps even individual stalls for the bigger publishers and, most importantly, enough space for visitors to walk around freely and spend more time with books without being pushed and elbowed around.

This is something the organisers, the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), should seriously consider if they want visitors to enjoy the going-to-the-book-fair experience. It is one thing having 600-odd stalls, issuing 500,000 free tickets to school students in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kanjeepuram and talking about numbers or quantity, and quite another providing a top-quality feel to a book fair in southern India’s largest metropolis.

Most of BAPASI members are made up of small publishers and a couple of those-in-the-know IPP spoke to said that the publishers want equal space for everybody and are not in favour of bigger publishers (read English language publishers such as Penguin or Harper Collins) hogging the limelight with larger space.

“The space in St George’s School is relatively limited but they can use the available space better. The fact that the school operates during the day also provides some constraints. The other option is to have it at the Chennai Trade Centre but the feeling is that the venue in Manapakkam would not draw crowds,” is what K Satyanarayan, director, New Horizon Media Pvt Ltd, a top Tamil publisher told me when I asked him whether the space allotted to stalls was adequate. Satyanarayan went on to say that there is a general feeling among smaller publishers that if bigger publishers are given more space they will attract proportionately larger crowds. Since there are a lot of small publishers in the association who have a single stall at the fair, their words are likely to carry weight.

A strange thing I noticed was that although there were several make-shift ticket counters, most of them had the ‘closed’ sign and only one counter operated despite a steady stream of visitors.

Sashi Nair

A 100-year-old press moves with the times

2011-01-30T10:54:00.002+05:30

The MWN Press in Chennai’s busy Royapettah area, on Lloyds Road, has just completed 100 years. It was in 1910 that N.R.K Tatachari, a lawyer practising lawyer in the Madras High Court, launched the Madras Weekly Notes (MWN), a legal journal. A press was then set up to print the journal and it thus came to be called MWN Press. Tatachari soon took up jobbing work and produced the LIFCO dictionary (a sort of Bible for students in Tamil Nadu in those years), Sanskrit publications of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission, as well as publications of Orient Longman.

NT Ramanujam continued the good work started by his father, Tatachari, and managed MWN Press during the letterpress days. Under NR Srivas, Ramanujam’s younger son, MWN welcomed the offset press. Srinivas had studied printing technology from the School of Printing and it was he who really improved the equipment and set the tone for adopting a quality culture in the organisation.

A single-colour offset machine was purchased in 1984 and MWN quickly established a name as a quality single-colour printer. A second-hand, imported, reconditioned, 5-colour manroland arrived in 1995. Sadly, Srivas’s bright spark did not last long – he died in a road accident in 1998. This led to his elder brother, NR Kumar, a management consultant, stepping in.

It has indeed been a long journey for a press that started on a one-ground property – a dilapidated house with a courtyard. If the cramped space has been suffocating to a degree, business has not been smooth over the years. For example, in the 1990s, when pre-gummed labels for Hindustan Lever formed a major chunk of the business, Levers suddenly slashed volumes and prices because the MNC was going through a problem. It affected MWN Press quite badly, but Kumar says it was in retrospect one of the best things to have happened. It questioned the company’s survival and Kumar and his team knew that if they did not completely transform their style of operation, they would be in deep trouble.

And so, the focus shifted to controlling wastage and adopting a constant quest-for-quality culture in the form of Kaizen. To show that he meant business, Kumar ‘let go’ of four senior staff. That sent the message to the rest of the staff. In 2002, Kumar bought the Mitsubishi Diamond 1000 5-colour press.

Today, MWN Press is all set to shift completely to a new facility, an energy-efficient building, on 12-ground premises in Mangadu. The process has already begun. Paperwork has been reduced and accounting operations have been speeded up, with supplier payments being made by electronic transfer and staff salaries being credited directly to bank accounts. The present office may be serve as a marketing hub.

In six months, MWN Press is likely to add another 5-colour machine, complete with coater and extended delivery. Will it be another Mitsubishi? Kumar hasn’t decided yet, but he says technology has hit a plateau and he sees no difference between the Mitsubishi Diamond and V series. He doesn’t mind taking a look at reconditioned European machines. One thing he is certain about though, is that the new addition will double volumes for MWN Press.

Sashi Nair

Community for Governance of Intellectual Property

2011-01-13T16:01:00.002+05:30

There are many areas of our working and professional lives that need solutions that are sometimes bigger than us as individuals or even the organisations that we work for. For instance the issues of colour quality standardisation or environment guidelines for printers. As most of our readers know, these and many other serious issues have not yet been addressed in any serious way by the local and national printers associations. Nor have they been dealt with any of manufacturers associations as a group – be it the ink manufacturers association, the paper makers, or even the equipment and consumable manufacturing associations.

Don’t feel bad about this. The rest of the society with the exception of Nasscom and Mait (both deal with information technology) is also sitting on top of growth with abundant chaos. We are all so busy either surviving or making money, building new plants, buying new presses and attending exhibitions that we really have no time for all that stuff. Let the government do it and let those who are pleased to be part of government committees do what they can. May be they will call us as experts and even give us a free trip to forren.

The issue of copyright and intellectual property is based on the idea that people need to be compensated for their work even if that work consists of an idea, or producing a photograph, or a packaging design, or a machine design, or a type font, or a story or book. Software, music, videos and films are also intellectual property – creative and professionally processed work that according to the current state of civilisation and the Indian constitution need to be paid for.

The issues are complex and the associations who are nominally supposed to be active on this front particularly with regard to authors, publishers, and printers rights and obligations in the area of what could be called ‘content’ are not particularly accessible, active or transparent. This is why yet another organisation is emerging – the Community for Governance of Intellectual Property.

At its first half-day meeting on 6 December 2010 at the IIC in Delhi there were 35 plus authors, publishers, printers and lawyers who discussed a host of things that need to be discussed and to get done – either by discussion and agreement, alerting the government, or by taking action in the broader interest as was done last year in the filing of an Indian authors and publishers point of view in the New York Court that is hearing the case against Google by the Authors Guild of America.

There were many good ideas – too many to discuss properly in just half a day. And those present were an assortment of extremely knowledgeable and forthright intellectual and professionals.

On 6 January 2011, the first follow-up meeting of the CGIP was held. It was jointly organised by the CGIP and our own Ipp Services, Training and Research Pvt Ltd. IppStar as it is known, felt the need to support this meeting with the help of the Delhi Master Printers Welfare Association because the printers need to contribute something positive to the publishing, software and content society of which they are a part. And the copyright issue is one that they face everyday since they have to be sure that their customer is actually bringing them an something for which he has the legal right to print. Printers are equally liable for counterfeiting and piracy under the law, as the publisher is. In addition, we everyday use copyrighted software and fonts – these are the tools of our trade.

The meeting on 6 January 2011 although it brought together printers, packaging desingers, software developers, authors, journalists, publishers and booksellers on a common platform once again, was not as exciting or well-attended as the first meeting. Nevertheless it was an interesting and mostly focussed discussion of the issues of publishing, software and piracy. Moreover, the CGIP will continue to hold such meetings on or around the 12^th of every month in Delhi. It will continue to address these important and complex issues issues with seriousness and transparency. Further details are available on http://www.cgip.org.

Of China scoring in commercial printing … and the plight of Indian writers

2011-01-13T15:53:00.003+05:30

From rotary printing presses (used in rotogravure, offset and flexography) to screen-printing, and now, to digital and web-based printing, commercial printing has come a long way and perhaps become just a little too complicated for a beginner trying to understand how the business works. While the gravure method is not much in India these use these days except for flexible packaging (because it runs on cylinders that are pretty expensive), according to Raju Seshadrinathan, Executive Director, Nagaraj & Co., a leading printer in Chennai, it’s digital printing that has gained considerable ground in recent years.

Although the cost per page is considerably higher than offset printing, digital printing is far less cumbersome. However, it is said to be suitable only for small volumes of print requirement. Seshadrinathan says that offset printing still rules in India as far as commercial printing work (annual reports, brochures, leaflets, danglers and point-of-sale material) and book printing are concerned.

While mentioning that commercial printers in Chennai and several other places are an unhappy lot, thanks to volumes having dipped and margins having reduced drastically, Seshadrinathan makes another interesting point – that the recession in the United States and Europe has indeed affected printing volumes in Chennai. China seems to have taken over the volume business from Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, he says, adding that the sheer speed with which the Chinese printers execute deliveries is “simply amazing.” He feels the Chinese Government is providing the print industry there with a lot of subsidy in terms of logistics, and shipping among other areas. “By and large, they have a stable currency. The only problem is language, and they have middlemen for that,” says Seshadrinathan.

Back to the Indian scene, and Seshadrinathan says sale of children’s books is picking up but writers, especially small authors (across the spectrum), are having a big problem with publishing houses. Reason: they may have to wait two years to get money! So, not many people set about writing a book although they may have a book in them. Seshadrinathan gives a simple example of how a book is priced in the market in Chennai. If the printing cost of a book is Rs 150, the price is suitably hiked so that 15 per cent goes to the author, 40 per cent to the publisher, and 60 percent to the seller. The customer thus ends up paying upwards of Rs 320 for the book. Books, fiction or otherwise, do not really sell in large numbers in India. An author is happy if his or her work has sold 2000-odd copies. Not everybody is a Khushwant Singh or Shobhaa De to touch the 25,000 mark, a number that is far, far below what an international author would expect to sell. That, of course, is another story.

The other aspect is also about writers in India generally not having a clue whom to approach and how to get their work published. Only if you know somebody who knows somebody else who matters in the publishing industry, does a project at least get a boost. Seeking a meeting with a publisher is sometimes almost like making a visit to the police station.

Sashi Nair

A question of ethics

2010-12-29T15:31:00.011+05:30

From where are today’s young journalists and those aspiring to get into the profession going to draw their inspiration? This is an oft-asked question nowadays, by well-meaning news publishers, editors and journalists. Part of the answer is that it is clearly going to be an uphill task for young and upcoming journalists to retrieve the goodwill of old and earn the respect of readers and those who are written about.

There is no doubt that with media gaining an unsavoury hue in recent weeks, the focus by the management in parts of the media, for the short-term at least, will be on cleaning the stables as it were. Another pertinent question is whether the clean-up operations will continue for long and whether after Radiagate has moved from the front pages of newspapers, some journalists will be tempted again by lure of proximity to power and perhaps money and other attractions to “string a source along”… to no actual good as we have all seen

One person who has come out clearly against all forms of lobbying or currying favour is N Ram, editor-in-chief, Kasturi and Sons (publishers of The Hindu). On a Karan Thapar show hosted by CNN-IBN immediately after the sordid details broke out, he stressed that were the tainted journalists employed by the BBC, The Guardian or The New York Times, they would have lost their jobs. Obviously, The Hindu, too, would not have tolerated such behaviour, he seemed to suggest. Why can’t we set the bar higher, he asked and went further to emphasise that all journalists must be governed by a code of ethics, or by codified rules.

Corruption is as old as the hills, as old as the oldest profession in the world. India happens to be one of the countries where corruption is most rampant. Corruption in the media in India is also nothing new. It is not as though the Radia tapes have opened out a whole new world that was hitherto unknown. What it has brought into the focus is the fact that even some of the superstars of media are dabbling in dangerous territory.

When I was heading the PR function in a large south Indian corporate group many years ago, I had come across fake journalists, those who brandished fake visiting cards to gain entry and helped themselves to dinner and cocktails. It was much later that I made it a point to debar entry to press conferences of all suspicious ‘journalists.’ The sad part is that very few, if any at all, PR and corporate communication practitioners make an effort to weed out the corrupt. For many, the more numbers at a conference the merrier. The management (of companies) in most cases is in the dark or has no clue. I made it a point not to dish out to reporters gift cheques or cash in envelopes. I insisted on gift hampers – products the company manufactured. There were some who asked for special gift hampers to be sent home.

Radiatapes or not, this is the sort of malaise that all well-meaning publishers, editors, PR practitioners and communicators must strive to eradicate. And this is what I emphasised to the participants at a media workshop organised by the Centre for Social Initiative and Management in Chennai recently. More than learning the nuances of good communication, it is imperative to work the right way – to be devoted to credibility, transparency and ethics. Nobody should be able to point a finger at you for a reason you cannot convincingly explain. At the end of the day, when there is credibility, you earn goodwill and respect.

Another worrying aspect is the power wielded by large corporate houses and its top executives and the link they have forged over the years with bureaucrats, politicians and journalists. It also brings into focus the aspect of whether a well-meaning editor in a top newspaper really wields enough clout to weed out the rotten apples or is he or she subservient to the management. How many editors are unwilling to accept a subservient role? And must the management of newspapers, for example, dictate what must go into its pages? These are issues that must be debated, not only in television studios where the same select few appear, but at other forums where the common man or reader can have a say. After all, newspapers and media owe their existence to the people of the country, don’t they?

Media was once considered the fourth pillar of democracy and twenty or thirty years ago journalists took pride in being independent or neutral, though there were occasional offenders. During the Emergency, the media played a significant role and asserted its authority. Two or three newspapers even blanked out editorials to send a silent message to the government, that curbing the freedom of the press was not appreciated. Press freedom was thus zealously guarded by the journalist and the media. It was, according to former chief election commissioner T. S Krishnamurthy, “the best period for media in India”. According to him, over the years journalists got tempted by certain developments. Not only were journalists making money on the sly, there was also management and corporate lobbying. They started contacting political candidates. Payment was very often clandestinely made to individual journalists, or made in kind.

“The media has tasted the fruits of paid news,” said Krishnamurthy, recently addressing members of the Public Relations Society if India in Chennai, and gave the example of a Bombay-based newspaper that did not disclose information sought by the Election Commission. “They have started systematically exploiting the loopholes. It’s a pity that this development is undermining democracy. In a country which was so much proud of its values, where so many leaders sacrificed their lives for freedom, it is unfortunate. This has become popular because there has been a media boom, high growth of literacy, influence of print and electronic media, and the price for paid news is becoming more and more attractive,” he pointed out.

For all well-meaning publishers, editors and journalists in India, Radiagate has not only come as a rude shock, it is also in some ways a defining moment, a turning point in a profession. Change must come, change for the better, by gradually discarding all the rotten apples and the muck that has come to stay. Will it be possible at all, is another question worth asking.

Sashi Nair

Seminar on copyright and piracy issues

2010-12-29T15:26:00.001+05:30

Building the graphic arts community

On 6 January 2011 at 2pm at the IIC Annexe, IppStar along with the newly formed CGIP will conduct an interactive seminar on copyright and piracy issues for Indian printers and publishers. (CGIP stands for the Community for Governance of Intellectual Property). The afternoon event is supported by the Delhi Master Printers Welfare Association.

The seminar which is free of charge will be led by the managing partner of Survan Attorneys-at-Law, Siddharth Arya, and feature panelists from the Indian Society of Authors, as well as the software and printing industries. Naresh Khanna, one of the founders of IppStar, which celebrates ten years of its existence in 2011, will also take part. Call: +91-9811664040.

‘Women changing India’ exhibition and book

2010-12-29T15:21:00.002+05:30

25 October New Delhi. BNP Paribas India is celebrating its 150th anniversary in India this year and to mark this milestone, the bank commissioned and put on a major photography exhibition by the Magnum Photo agency on the theme of ‘Women changing India.’ The exhibition held almost simultaneously in Mumbai and Delhi will subsequently travel serially to Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata from November to December. It is accompanied by a book of photographs and essays by Indian authors, focusing on the vital role that women play in India today. Next year BNP Paribas will take the exhibition to Paris, London, Brussels and Milan.

This project, initiated by BNP Paribas, combines the talents of Magnum Photo Agency and Zubaan, a Delhi-based publishing house specialising in books for and about women in South Asia. Six subjects covered by six well-known Magnum photographers — Martine Franck, Alex Webb, Patrick Zachmann, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Olivia Arthur, and Raghu Rai highlight the cultural and geographical diversity of women’s lives in India. Photographs and accompanying comment by well-known Indian authors speak to the changing roles, aspirations, opportunities and challenges that Indian women face, whether they live in villages or cities, whether they are students, taxi drivers, lawyers, movie directors or business leaders. The Women Changing India coffee table book published by Zubaan and printed by Pragati Offset is available for Rs 2000 – although there was a steep discount offer at the launch.

At the launch of the exhibition and book release at the Habitat Centre in New Delhi on 23 October 2010, Baudouin Prot, Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas said that the bank values its legacy in India and is active in Indian micro-finance and supports microfinance institutions, which allocate loans to entrepreneurs, most of them being women. Through SBI Life, a joint venture between BNP Paribas and the State Bank of India, it is also creating micro-insurance products such as Grameen Shakti and Grameen Super Suraksha, designed for self-help groups, 90 per cent of which are created by women. These products provide low-income populations with access to life insurance at extremely attractive rates. Geojit BNP Paribas has opened retail brokerage offices in several Indian cities that are dedicated exclusively to, and staffed entirely by, women.

Several of the women featured in the book were present at the Habitat exhibition opening including the painter Anjolie Ela Menon. Another subject Sivakami -- a government employee who resigned her job to become a full time activist — spoke of the paucity of women legislators in both the parliament and the state assemblies. With great dignity and eloquence she argued before the assembled glitterati the need for women activists to play an increasing role in the legislation of laws.

Although nobody in their right mind would praise almost any European or American bank’s performance in the past few years, the Women changing India exhibition and book wisely recognise Indian women. Together with Magnum and Zubaan, the bank has created a substantial visual and narrative document that upholds the better side of commemorative public activity and book making. — Naresh Khanna

Indian print barons: Conspirators in theft and in silence

2010-11-02T16:45:00.002+05:30

Plagiarism, a pathetic apology, a conspiracy of silence in print — old journalism vs the new

Some of you may have come to know that Aroon Purie the owner and editor of the Living Media Group and Thomson Press India was caught this month for publishing a publisher’s letter in the Southern edition of India Today in his own name, which contained a blatant and sustained piece of plagiarism — theft of content — word for word from an article by Grady Hendrix about Rajnikanth, published by the online publication Slate. While this happens quite often in publishing (and it is one of the main tasks of editors to check if the stuff they are putting out is original or attributable), it is in itself reprehensible.

In this case, Aroon Purie’s apology to the author of the two long paragraphs copied verbatim was pathetic. To some extent we do not know how to say sorry in any meaningful way. And unfortunately, we are equally bad at accepting apologies. We suspect that the person saying sorry doesn’t really mean it. He does not take it too seriously and will definitely commit the same error again, planning and hoping not to be caught.

The second issue is that many of you have not heard about this incident which took up a good deal of our emailing space in October. The reason is that many, if not all, of our great print editors and publishers declined to print stories about the incident — including stories that contained reactions obtained from Hendrix and Purie. If the Indian publishing barons turn themselves into a conspiratorial mafia they will only increasingly damage their credibility and abdicate the discourse and narrative of everyday life to the internet. It’s bad enough that they steal, but by maintaining a conspiratorial silence for one of their own, they make it more clear that the ordinary journos out there who speak up may be left to hang out and dry. Only the ordinary people’s heads will roll. While Purie will go on as the chairman of the management board of the Federation of the Periodical Press till the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress to be held in New Delhi from 10 to 12 October 2011.

Excerpted from Grady Hendrix’s comment on Purie’s apology:

“Plagiarism is the hobgoblin of journalism, and the Internet has been both a blessing and a curse: so many sources to steal from, but also so many people to catch you doing it. Back in 1999, VN Narayanan, the editor of the Hindustan Times resigned after being caught lifting entire columns from other journalists and publishing them under his own name, and India Today has been accused of plagiarism in the past. But one look at a photo of Aroon Purie and his sober suits and Serious Media Mogul haircut and you know that this is not a man who would want to write copy that reads: ‘If a tiger had sex with a tornado and then their tiger-nado baby got married to an earthquake, their offspring would be Rajinikanth.’

“Whether it’s intricate power politics — or intricate super-stupidity — that led to the plagiarism, how it’s played out has been a classic case of old journalism vs. new. The story was first broken by online blogs, including the media watchdog group, the Hoot, and when the cultural blog MumbaiBoss posted the story, India Today chose their comments section to issue their first public statement on what had happened. The apology was later printed in the Southern India edition of India Today.”

How can digital revenues for newspapers be increased?

2010-09-15T19:10:00.005+05:30

Terry Maguire is more optimistic than Christof Reiss about the revenue that newspapers could get from the net. Especially if they can get their act together. In his presentation at the WAN-IFRA conference in Jaipur, he gave several examples of how disfunctional the Indian newspaper websites are when it comes to helping out a business visitor to Jaipur who might have an extra day to look around the city. He even had a hard time getting the weather forecast and gave another example of a news story about an American citizen who was accused of killing his mother in Rajasthan. He couldn't find a news follow up as to what happened in that case in court, and lamented the lack off attention to the continuing life of a story that newspapers and their web sites can provide. "Keep that story going," he said and suggested that more newspapers could follow the Wikepedia model of constant updatation.

Using the tagline,"First with the best, and the last with the most," Maguire essentially said that although newspapers could be quick and or comprehensive, they are, too often, missing the boat on the internet where they could be bringing together a host of information or be the entry point to stuff that people need to live their lives. Newspaper sites could easily include the connections that people need on a daily basis such as their food needs or even education in a far more dynamic way than they are presently doing.

WAN-IFRA Conference in Jaipur, India

2010-09-15T12:53:00.002+05:30

The WAN-IFRA India conference began this morning in Jaipur in Rajasthan. The new CEO of WAN-IFRA Christoph Reiss made an interesting presentation on the The Future of Media Business. This was a refreshing presentation as far as this type of beginning of conference things go. Although there were the usual slides full of data, Reiss had used much of the data available about the Indian media industry particularly newspapers, to make his talk extremely relevant to the largely local news industry audience. Among the points that Reiss made two stand out: firstly that the Internet has been taking away ad revenue from print and not from television; and, secondly, that in India perhaps cellphones present a better window of opportunity than the Internet. He seemed to urge the audience that while Google continues to dominate the revenue from news on the net, the cellphone media is an opportunity that needs to be seized before the window closes for newspaper publishers.

Jagran group acquires Mid-Day's newspaper and web business

2010-05-08T13:12:00.002+05:30

It was cooking for a while and it happened yesterday. Jagran Prakashan announced on 5 May 2010 that it will acquire all the print business of Mid-Day Multimedia. The deal is done without any cash outgo although the Jagran group is sitting on a pile of cash. Mid-Day shareholders will get two shares of Jagran for every seven shares of Mid-Day Multimedia. Four newspapers of the publication arm of the group — the wholly owned subsidiary Mid-Day Infomedia — will come to Jagran Prakashan: the afternoon English daily Mid-Day, Sunday Mid-Day, Gujarati Mid-Day and Inquilab which is an Urdu daily. The deal also includes the website mid-day.com. The afternoon tabloid Mid-Day is published from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore the latter three being relatively new publications from a group that was during the freedom movement in 1938 with the Daily Inquilab. Inquilab published from Mumbai is currently the largest Urdu daily in the country. Sunday Mid-Day and Gujarati Mid-Day are also published from Mumbai only. MML would continue to own its seven radio stations around the country and its shares will continue to be listed on the Mumbai stock exchange.

The Hindi daily Dainik Jagran has the most readership of any newspaper in India with 54.2 million readers according to the IRS 2010 Q1 figures. Its 37 editions are printed from 30 locations across eleven states. The company also publishes i-Next a bilingual tabloid targeted at youth, a women’s monthly Sakhi, and an annual general knowledge digest Jagran Varshiki. The group also runs an outdoor signage business with an all-India footprint known as Jagran Engage.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Mahendra Gupta chairman and managing director of Jagran Prakashan said, “We will be able to not only improve the existing profits of MML’s print buisness, but also add value to the businesses of both the companies for the benefit of all the stakeholders.” Tarique Ansari the managing director of Mid-Day Multimedia will remain on the board of Mid-Day Infomedia although it is not clear whether he will also get a seat on the Jagran Prakashan board. In the stock exchange filing Ansari said, “the newspaper business will see some significant changes in the years to come. Scale and access to resources will critical factors in the success of any newspaper company. By aligning with Jagran we will be able to pool resources with the largest newspaper group in the country to grow profitably and deliver better value to shareholders."

Mid-Day was to some extent the David to Times of India’s Goliath in Mumbai in the days before HT Media and the DB-Zee TV partnership began publishing their English dailies there. Tarique Ansari was a bit ahead of his times in his ideas about multimedia penetration and the behaviour of his readers — or newsers as he called them. Jagran has used its FDI from the Independent News and Media group in a steady and organised way which is why even after the Independent’s considerable divestment in February 2010, it was able to attract a Rs. 225 crore investment from Blackstone in April 2010.

This is a great combination of two media groups that have come out of the freedom movement. Today they cannot merely fight for a political cause but have to contend in the marketplace as businesses and create new paradigms and tools. Together they present a range of geographies, languages, cultures and styles – the megalopolis with the heartland.

Technology versus content

2010-04-20T10:23:00.002+05:30

From Frederic Filloux: “Le Figaro’s new facilities are able to address several of its competitors’ printing needs. The most obvious is Le Monde whose printing plant is obsolete and costly to operate (too many people). The two papers now use the same page size (a ‘Berliner’ format), and are produced at a different time of the day. A perfect fit in theory. Mr. Morel [Francis Morel CEO of Le Figaro] denies vehemently having any intentions of harmingLe Monde. But there is no need to be a Wharton scholar to see the two torpedoes Le Figaro is firing at its competitor: one is the better looking and cheaper ads, the other a more commercially potent printing plant. At least, ‘Le Fig’ might print the business paper Les Echosand perhaps one of the three free papers.

“But the real potential for Le Figaro’s online revenue lies in the readership duplication rate between print and web. Today, only 20% of the print readers also visit the website, this is quite low when compared to the 30% to 45% its competitors experience. This points to the paper’s generation problem: 42% of Le Figaro’s readers are 60 years-old and above, compared to 27% for the rest of the French press; naturally, the web is expected to rejuvenate its audience. Today, LeFigaro.fr is the #1 newspaper site in France with more than 5 million unique visitors a month (OK, thanks to some questionable measurement tricks). Still, each time 10 web users are gained, this translates into 2 more print readers (along with 10-15 times more revenue per reader on paper side).” 1

Marie Benilde writing recently in Le Monde Diplomatique quotes the assessment of a banker at the French National Conference in Strasbourg in 2006: “Journalists are now in the same situation as steel workers in 1970’s : they are destined to disappear, but they don’t know it.” Benilde cites the loss of 2,300 jobs in the French press last year, and about the financial performance of the press last year she adds, “Every national daily in France, apart from the sports daily, L’Equipe, has lost money.” 2

The owners of the Indian news dailies are by and large not gamblers. Those who have made large investments in new technology are looking at a sure thing although it could take time. Nevertheless, to use their new and modern capabilities, they will need a huge growth in product and unfortunately they are thus far focussing mostly on their own product which will rarely if ever drive their presses 24/7. The new technology allows for better colour and more diverse offerings in the newspaper package and an integrated approach to new and cross media. The issue for the Indian news or media organisations is one of vision and content. Print is still growing as the most impactful part of the news package in this society but since the demographic is changing, for the news or media organisation of the future, the key issues are vision and imagination. Machinery and new plants can be bought – where will the content and engagement come from?

--Naresh Khanna

1. From A Case Study: Le Figaro’s Advertising Gamble
September 20, 2009 - 11:08 am Edited by Frédéric Filloux
2. The end of newspapers Le Monde Diplomatique Marie Benilde, English in Hard News, April 2010, New Delhi

Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. – A J Leibling

2010-04-20T10:18:00.003+05:30

As I recall from a media debate in New Delhi a few years ago, Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook said, “Newspaper owners often have three ambitions: fame, power and wealth. However it is almost impossible for them to achieve all three – they must choose, and in my estimation at most they may achieve two out of these three ambitions.”

There is righteousness and there is self-righteousness in every newspaper industry. While in much of the world the emperor is now naked, in the world’s largest democracy with the second-largest daily circulation in the world, we still seem to be clinging to our fig leaves. The question is how long can we owner-publisher-editors survive? If we are to grow, to communicate to a new generation, and to write and create new things, surely we need new people, the best people for the job – professionals who are passionate and engaged in the concerns of the day. Why should we expect the new generation of writers or editors to only be concerned about our own passions? And do we not need to grow fast enough to give an opportunity to those in the family who wish to grow the business? Why will they join the business if we do not grow fast enough to use their talent and their hard won qualifications? Is the Columbia School of Journalism merely a finishing school for the sons and daughters of the Indian newspaper owners or a place to train our best young journalists?

Adventures in Kindleland -- India

2010-01-01T11:36:00.003+05:30

Even before I could buy a Kindle eBook reader one of my new young colleagues beat me to it. It was quite a blow to my ego, fancying that I am usually the first person to buy another new gadget which is overpriced and usually, of little utility. Anyway full marks to the new generation for adventure-ness in Kindleland. I had a chance to handle the Kindle and try and get over my envy (in spite of the fact that the kid had readable books -- in fact I think he had Salinger's Catcher in the Rye -- one of my favourites). (You always think that anyone can buy a gadget but you are the one who knows what to do what to do it or books to read).

Anyhow, the next thing I know he has sold his Kindle over eBay. It's already gone because although he wanted to buy books over the Internet from Amazon, they were expensive. He's a reader and in spite of having a Kindle he had visited real bookshops and bought real books for prices ranging from Rs. 200 to 400 (US$ 5 to 8) which is what bestselling paperbacks cost here while the Kindle versions were anywhere from US$ 12 to 25 (Rs 600 to 1200).

Now of course I am envious of his quick decision-making and eBay trading skills. He was able to get rid of Kindle at a good price while I still have junk-filled cupboard including the Apple Newton that I bought second-hand from a tourist many years ago.

In another recent discussion/seminar in Singapore and reported in a Delhi daily, I think it was a guy from a paper company who said that eBooks will never take off in India until they are available for about US$ 3 each. Although I think that commentator was undervaluing the rising Indian buying power, he may have been right about the likely slow traction of eBooks and the high traction of print on paper in this country.

Even as average Indian disposable incomes rise and double in the next five years, the real issue is the price of content, digital rights and compensation to authors, and also the flexibility of the tablets to be format independent. Of course publishers fear this greatly since books will be traded as email attachments and USBs but this is one of great values of printed books -- you buy not only the artifact but the right to lend it and pass it on.

Yes the Kindle was sleek, legible, and excellent for carrying a library along but I'll try and wait for my disposable income to double before I buy an eBook. By that time I expect that the price of content will come down to half and it will become even more portable.

Will Kindle replace “real” books or newspapers?

2009-11-13T14:08:00.006+05:30

By Bimal Mehta

Six months ago, Amazon introduced a new product called Kindle. Many predict that Kindle sets out to change the way we read books, newspaper, weblogs and more. The Kindle is a watershed event in electronic publishing. It is not the first eBook device, and may not ultimately be the one that will prevail. Yet, Amazon’s Kindle is touted as one of the most ambitious projects after the Gutenberg’s printing press. Recently launched in India, priced at Rs.13,100, Kindle wirelessly downloads books, magazine, newspaper and documents to a high resolution 6-inch e-Ink display which looks like real paper.

Reading on Kindle is remarkably comfortable. Unlike a laptop or an iPhone, the screen is not illuminated, so there’s no glare, no eyestrain — and no battery consumption. You use power only when you actually turn the page, causing millions of black particles to realign. The rest of the time, the ink pattern remains on the screen without power. You can set it on your bedside table without worrying about turning it off.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that the first goal the Kindle team set was to emulate the book’s most crucial feature: that it disappears into the story as you read. However, Kindle does work differently than a paper based book. Kindle allows the user to experiment with different type sizes. A paper book offers nothing like this (just the thing for older people). Kindle is also designed to facilitate access to multiple or several books at a time. In the home screen, the most recently read items are at the top of the list (you can sort by title or author). When you leave any book, Kindle remembers your place so you can jump back in where you left.

Reading a newspaper is interesting on Kindle. Kindle newspapers are hyperlinked, like web pages. When you open a paper, you see its logo and front page with headlines and short summaries, followed by a table of contents. Click an article to read it; click the Back button to return to the article list; or just keep paging forward to the next article. But Kindle’s limited grayscale display makes photographs almost a complete loss. Kindle’s technology certainly deserves a mention. The single most interesting component is its paper-like display. Rather than the LCD displays used in most previous book readers, this display uses E-Ink technology invented at MIT’s Media Laboratory. E-Ink film has hundreds of thousands of tiny capsules containing white and black pigment. A circuit layer, underneath, applies electric fields to swap these pigments from top to bottom – turning the surface light, absorbent or reflective. Another notable feature of E-Ink is that it can be laid onto plastic substrate, even a flexible one! This means that Kindle is very resistant to the greatest threat facing LCD displays in laptops – cracking and shattering.

Kindle is not just a book reader. Thanks to its wireless connection, it is very convenient reader for many types of content: books, newspaper, magazines and blogs, not to mention Wikipedia and the web in general. One can access the Amazon online store and download any book from over 200,000 English titles within 60 seconds.

Kindle is also making an impact on the environment. According to a new study, eBooks are better for the environment than traditional paper books. Focusing on Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, the study was produced by Cleantech Group and stated that after 12 months of using it, the emissions it creates will have been offset. ”The new study finds that eReaders could have a major impact on improving the sustainability and environmental impact on the publishing industry, one of the world’s most polluting sectors,” Cleantech asserted in a statement published online, which added: “In 2008, the U.S. book and newspaper industries combined resulted in the harvesting of 125 million trees, not to mention wastewater that was produced or its massive carbon footprint.”

Technology continues to make changes in everyday life. We have seen musical recordings change form numerous times, until they became digital files; the once cumbersome reel-to-reel film is now downloadable; and many newspapers are now online.

Will books may be the latest victims of technology?

Till date, despite hundreds of millions of PCs in use around the world, only a few hundred thousands of their users have downloaded eBooks. The slow start is partly due to the perception that an eBook doesn’t fully replicate the book reading experience. Kindle does not give you the “holding, feeling, smelling” experience. Nor is it convenient to read to your children in bed.

According to Steve Kessel, Amazon’s vice president for Kindle, about 48 per cent of book sales in the US now happen via Kindle. He expects products like Kindle will replace physical books in future.

According to the Association of American Publishers, annual eBook sales had gained 150 per cent as of April 30th 2009. This contrasted with overall book sales, which dropped over four per cent. Overall, US$ 112 million (approximately INR 600 crore) worth of eBooks were purchased last year – a figure predicted to rise to $400 million in three years time.

Kindle is clearly aimed at the sort of book buyers who save their books to re-read, search, or use for reference — voracious readers with sprawling shelves and stacks of books. Those who read a book and then pass it on to a friend may not find the Kindle as attractive; it doesn’t offer many benefits to those who treat books as disposable items.

The brick-and-mortar experience will also impact Kindle sales. Several book buyers step into bookstores to buy a specific title that brought them to the store in the first place, but the consumer also may buy something that happened to grab his or her attention (for future reading). Most Kindle users will only download a book, when they actually want to read it. One exception is college students. Kindle provides a great advantage in having multiple textbooks available simultaneously without the burden of carrying them around, as students go back and forth to their classes.

Fiction and everyday reading will probably still have a market in physical books. One thing that keeps paper books going as a mass market is inertia. The current generation is used to the habit of reading paper books. Although in the decades to come as older generations die out and younger ones come online, and as generations in the middle try eBooks, and realize their advantages, the use of eBooks will accelerate.

In conclusion, will Kindle replace “real” books?

In Technoland, nothing ever replaces anything. eBook readers won’t replace books. The iPhone won’t replace eBook readers. Everything just splinters. They will all thrive, serving their respective audiences . . . somewhat akin to the old ”TV will replace radio” sentiment. The advent of TV obviously changed the radio industry as the advent of technology will change the publishing industry. However, I don’t think print will ever go away.

Bimal Mehta is the executive director of Vakil and Sons in Mumbai

Copy right and wrong

2009-10-14T11:56:00.006+05:30

By Aakriti Agarwal

At the Delhi Book Fair a lively panel session on copyright was organised on 31 August jointly by Kitab, the joint venture of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The panel included Urvashi Butalia, publisher Zubaan; copyright lawyer Chander Lall, two representatives from the Federation of Indian Publishers – Anant Bhushan, General Secretary, Indian Reprographic Organisation (IRRO) and Siddharth Arya, legal advisor to the IRRO. The discussion was moderated by Naresh Khanna, editor of Indian Printer and Publisher.

Butalia with over 35 years of experience in publishing, said that the industry is structured around the copyright issue. “India has been at the forefront of leading developing countries in recognizing the imbalances in the power of place of knowledge and therefore demanding this historical imbalance should be set right. So India led a move in the international copyright arena of compulsory licensing which meant that if a foreign publisher was not willing to make a cheap edition of their book available in India then given certain conditions, the Indian publisher had the right to publish and print the book in India compulsorily by taking licenses and had to pay royalties. But there has not been one book that was published in India using compulsory licensing although this was a very important move for India to make,” said Butalia.

Pirates are not bothered about knowledge, they do it for the money. Butalia adds, “the issue is whether small and big publishers could publish ethically,” and she discovered that it was possible. She said that buying the rights was an issue because it was expensive but foreign publishers can be convinced to make rights available at reasonable rates if they are convinced of the business issues in a particular market.

Reflecting on some numbers, Lall told the audience about the scale of copyright infringements. The Association of Indian Motion Pictures does about 700 cases a year and the Indian Music Industry (IMI) does 3,000 cases a year for the music industry. There are at least 10,000 copyright cases in the criminal justice system of India, he said. There is less litigation over print, Lall pointed out, because publisher’s budgets are lower. However a lawyer who is associated with a Publisher’s Association does 100 cases a year. The average time for resolution is very long, he says and “it does go into years unfortunately.”

There are four intellectual properties -trademark, copyrights, patents and designs. “The moment you create, you get copyright, not only in India but across the world,” Lall said. Any work of creativity is a subject matter of copyright. The six copyright areas are literary works, musical works, artistic works, dramatic works, sound recordings and films. Coming to the digital media, every matter on the Internet is a subject matter of copyright. If you cut and paste, copyright is violated. Even if someone takes a few seconds of a music piece, s/he becomes a copyright infringer. Scripts and films are subject to copyright too.

Copyright is a bundle of rights. Lall explained that to translate a book is one right and to sell it in a different country is another. Publishing it in paperback or hardback are two different copyrights. Music to be sold in VCDs and DVDs require two copyrights and if you have the right to run a movie in one theatre then it cannot be run anywhere else. Copyright is not given verbally, it has to be in written or else it is considered piracy or infringement of law.

The duration of copyright cover on any creative content is the life of the author plus 60 years which implies that till after 60 years of the author’s demise, the work cannot be copied. Lall pointed out that if the author dies in January then s/he gets one extra year because the year the author dies in, is exempted.

The difficult realm of copyright is to gauge how much of the content is an inspiration and what percentage is copied from another source without due credit. If you have created and given rights verbally and not in writing to anyone then it is legally with the creator of the content. Explaining that copyright is a very untested and uncharted area, Lall described a case against a movie rental library where movies were contributed and exchanged among members of the club. It was a non-commercial activity and sounded like “reasonable use” but the High Court ruled it as case of copyright infringement.

Siddarth Arya added that, “It is usually cheaper to get the permission than try to circumvent it.” Arya talked about the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) which helps authors and publishers with copyrights, photocopying, and scanning issues. The publisher thus goes to one place, applies for the rights and gets it at reasonable price. There is a Reprographic Rights Organisation (RRO) in many countries and IRRO has bilateral agreements with them to help Indian authors and publishers.

Although the discussion mainly centred on illegal use and plagiarism and not strictly on piracy in publishing, the connections were there. It became clear that although this is not a difficult subject there is much to learn and a great amount of detail and compliance to sort out for both publishers and authors.

Delhi police cracks down on book piracy

2009-10-14T11:48:00.004+05:30

Pirate warehouse and printing press sealed

The Publishers Association and Association of Publishers of India have met with success in their anti-piracy effort against local a publishers and printer in Delhi. The raids that took place in Delhi over two days – 21 and 22 August 2009 were conducted following an investigation in which the PA unearthed a major book pirating operation covering consumer trade, academic and STM (science, technology, and mathematics) books. Many of these had been illegally reproduced and printed in preparation for the start of the academic year and were intended for sale both on the streets of Delhi and around the country.

The police raid was carried out on a number of targets including the printing press. Over 3,500 illegal copies of trade books were seized, including Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, Harry Potter titles and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, all of which are established favourites in the Indian consumer market. Police also stopped the illegal production of three major academic titles, seizing 80,000 incomplete copies of these books as well as negatives and printing plates. Amongst the unfinished books were two software programming titles by Indian authors published by Tata Mcgraw Hill, and a GMAT guide published by John Wiley and Sons. The printing unit was closed down pending further investigation. An FIR under Section 63 and 65 of the Copyright Act, 1957 was registered at the New Ashok Nagar Police Station.

The PA and API state that illegal copying of textbooks and other titles has a lasting and irreparable impact on the investment their members make in reprinting their textbooks for the Indian market. In order to make them available at a reasonable price, these are purportedly published with the aim of enabling Indian students to access academic and educational material at a tenth of the US sale price.

Emma House, International Director of the UK Publishers Association said, “We are delighted the police responded to our complaint and swiftly took appropriate action. Illegal copying destroys the legitimate businesses of publishers who invest in measures to provide Indian students with cost effective access to UK and US published materials. We are extremely grateful to the Delhi police, and in particular Deputy Commissioner Anand Mohan, under whose command the raid was conducted with professionalism and skill.”

Sanjiv Goswami, President of The Association of Publishers of India said, “We congratulate the Delhi Police for their swift and effective action. Effective enforcement against illegal copying will further encourage international publishers to expand their low priced reprint program to benefit the students in India.”

The Publishers Association is a trade organisation serving book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK. The Association of Publishers of India is the representative body of foreign publishers to deal with all matters pertaining to the promotion and advancement of their presence in India and to protect the common interests of members and professionals engaged in publishing in the SAARC Countries. Naresh Khanna

Why a Content & Media newsletter in print?

2009-09-03T13:01:00.004+05:30

We have published, printed and distributed copies of two 8-page newsletters called Content & Media at the Delhi Book Fair. These mainly cover the DBF and some of the events held at the show. Why have we brought out these newsletters with the same name as our blog?

As the book publishing industry grows, it will become more complex and interesting for the professionals who drive it. We also think that the professionals will want a networking platform. This could be a virtual platform driven by the Internet and by the blogs which are already proliferating -- but there is the possibility that at certain junctures such as book fairs it would be nice to have a regular print platform as well.

Thus this newsletter is named after our new blog – Content and Media Asia Pacific – contentmediaap.blogspot.com. Let us know if you think there is a need for this print newsletter to connect authors, literary agents, publishers, translators, distributors and book shops. Our own thought is that as book industry grows it should also become more fun. Let me know what you think at editor@ippgroup.in.

The Book Police

2009-09-03T11:21:00.003+05:30

Why would I write about 'Haryana Police Academy'? Or because one of my reporter friends once wondered aloud (in front of the Haryana police!) if all the Haryanvis join the Delhi police who joins the Haryana Police? Or Because of their alleged reputation for less brains and more brawn? Or maybe just maybe they have done something which no other police force in India has done?

The last statement holds promise, but they could have set up any number of infamous records ( our civil society prejudice reflects). No its not a record, its something even Delhi Police with its
"With you, for you, always" slogan and TV show on DD in the late nineties could not do, it is publishing books. Books about FIRs (First Information Reports), how to file them what to do if the police is unwilling to file them, 3rd Degree, its illegal how to take action if you have been subject to it, Women's rights, what are they, how to get justice for themselves, women traficking, juvenile justice. Books on RTI(Right To Information Act) Babus beware !, books on NREGA, books on the consumer act.

Sounds a bit out of character wouldn't you think. Here is the police of India and none other than the Haryana Police publishing books on the very topics we thought one could never get any information from police ( or at least, any thing of value which can stand up for scrutiny).

Had enough pleasant surprises, or should I say 3rd Degree shocks here is another its the police officers themselves who author these books and some are even in the syllabus of the police academy. Don't believe me then visit the Delhi Book Fair, the first time a police force in India is is participating in a book fair to meet people and tell them about their rights and make them aware. They have participated in bookfairs in Goa, Patna, Nainital, Dharmshala, Chandigarh, Noida, Ludhiana and Gurgaon.

All visitors to their stall can expect to fill out one of these questionnaires
1. Gender rights and equality
2. 3rd Degree
3. Legal rights and procedures
4. Castesim and communalism.

There is even more I spent a good 45 minutes listening to what these men and women in khaki had achieved and there is so much more, but more of this later when I visit their website and their model police station.

Its truly a a a... I don't quite know how to put it in phrases (or for that matter prose, which it so rightly deserves) but I will try and describe it--

Its like, the answer lies within the question, the antidote is made from the poison. The answer to police corruption, brutality, heavy handedness, and the many other evils that plague the Indian Police services are not with spotless white khadi cloaked politicians its with the underpaid, overworked and khaki wearing police.

For a more subtle and mature version please visit our website

Is Delhi becoming a real city that demands a real book fair?

2009-08-31T12:25:00.005+05:30

The 15th Delhi Book Fair is first of all a fair – a mela. It is a retail event where all types of publishers from around the country come to sell their books to the diverse population of approximately 15 million in the Delhi National Capital Region. It is a chance for families to have an educational and recreational outing at the centrally located Pragati Maidan fairgrounds.

Nevertheless some professional publishers also try to invest the event with a larger purpose – apart from the book readings and author signings to help sell books – to the exchange of ideas and the networking that is essential to not only expand the trade in books but also to make it more productive and profitable for everyone involved. The issue is whether to continue slow and uncertain growth or to try and purposively (and thus collectively) give a serious push to the book publishing industry.

Of course our various associations will have to do a better job of this whole thing. Otherwise a professional and competent organiser will seize the opportunity to organise a great book fair for what with all its politics and problems is becoming a real city. Real cities or agglomerations such as Delhi want real book fairs with all their complexities.

Ban Unbanned

2009-08-30T16:47:00.003+05:30

The Federation of Indian Publishers is organising events everyday at the Delhi Book Fair. The events include book releases, panel discussions, copyright symposium, seminars and programs. On 29 August 2009, the federation organised a panel discussion on ban on Jaswant Singh’s book – Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence.

The event was attended by Jaswant Singh, the author of the much talked about book, Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of State (IC) for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs; TN Chaturvedi, former Governor of Karnataka; Justice CM Nayar, Judge, retd., Delhi High Court; Ramesh C Govil, President, The Federation of Indian Publishers; DN Malhotra, President Emeritus and Chairman, Freedom to Publish Committee and Tushar Gandhi, Head, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation.

It was a very lively discussion and all the panelists criticised the ban. Chaturvedi said, “No one can create history and make facts. One can collect facts, collate and re-assemble them.” Khurshid said that people are talking of the book being against national interest but what is the national interest, nobody knows. He said, “Maulana Azad banned his autobiography for thirty years because he felt that his book had some very straightforward comments which he probably thought would create uproar or upset his colleagues. Area of intellectual disclosure cannot be banned. This book comes nowhere near the ban zone.” Khurshid opined, “We all are against the ban and all sensible people should be against it. It is not a very exciting thing to worry about. We have faith in honorary Supreme Court and right decision will be taken.”

Jaswant Singh was invited to speak but he said that he had no intention to speak about his book at a panel discussion because it may seem like a self promotion which he felt was not right. But he continued and reflected on some historical events. Singh after the event went to the stand of Rupa & Sons, publisher and distributor of the English version of Singh’s Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence. He diligently signed copies of his title, making sure not to give an autograph to anybody who would come to him without a copy of his book.

Inauguration Delhi Book Fair

2009-08-30T16:43:00.006+05:30

The 15th Delhi Book Fair along with the stationary fair was inaugurated on 29 August 2009, by Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, at Pragati Maidan (Halls 8-12). Also present at the inauguration were Jawahar Sircar, Culture Secretary with additional charge of I&B, Dr. Subas Pani, secretary Planning Commission, RC Govil chairman FIP and Rajiv Yadav executive director of ITPO. At the inauguration just below the auditorium in hall 8 of Pragati Maidan was a display of books from the North East on loan from the Sahitya Academy, approximately fifty from each state. The walls were covered by biographies of some of the more celebrated authors of the North East.

At the inauguration the speakers addressed the issue of declining readership and the advent of other forms of media which some people perceive as threatening to books in their present form. They also spoke about the focus of Delhi Book Fair on publishers from the North East. More about the North East will be learnt with the seminar on “Publication scenario of North East states-past and present,” organized by the Tripura Publishers Guild and the FIP on 31 August from 10 am to 1:30 pm. This will be followed by a panel discussion on Copyright Issues organised by Kitab from 2 pm to 4 pm, and a seminar on “How to get maximum from Frankfurt Book Fair” organized jointly by the FIP, CAPEXIL and GBO from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.

The first day saw a slow start to the fair with most exhibitors still opening up and stacking their shelves till late afternoon. Some of the exhibitors we spoke to at the fair said that the fair was a very prolonged affair and because of the duration there wont be any serious business enquiries in the first one week and all of the pile up will be on the second weekend and the last two days of the fair. From a business point of view quite a few exhibitors were enthusiastic of the business they would get at the fair -- both retail and wholesale. Business networking will mainly happen on the sidelines and not at the fair as there will be a loads of visitors to the fair looking for good books and even better deals.

Building the community

2009-08-27T17:19:00.003+05:30

As at most of the IFRA India conferences, the hottest topic is how newspapers need to adapt and change. Years ago, at one of these events N Murali of The Hindu in his speech spoke about the need for daily newspapers to build “communities.” This is not an easy concept for a daily newspaper and it is still not clear how Indian newspapers will do this in a way that strengthens or protects their business.

Of course the implication was that there should be more interaction with customers and readers but whether it meant helping to organise sports and cultural events or taking part in local education or developing readers as reporters beyond the letters columns was not exactly clear. There was a subtext that the Internet and the cellphone would play a role, and these were part of “cross-media” and “convergence” as concepts and technologies. However it is still not clear whether or how publishers can monetise new media. And ultimately the idea of building communities is also not clear. This seems to now mean for the most part, social networks on the web. Even blogging, which seems to have caught on in India, seems to be growing without much link to the local publishing industry except that it borrows and leans on published content.

Our organisation of course is smaller than the smallest newspaper in the country but since it tries to cater to the printing, publishing and packaging verticals, it is ideally poised to try and create a community. It does this by holding seminars and conferences such as the recent Monsoon Summit for process standardisation and ISO 12647. And it can also do this with its websites; weekly email newsletters, and a new set of three blogs – the Print Asia blog, the Print Experts Asia Pacific blog and the Content and Media Asia Pacific blog. Have a look – comment – and let us know if you would like to join the blog team. See links and web addresses on contents page 5.

Delhi Book Fair
Beyond this we will be taking part at the Delhi Book Fair together with Quark in an effort to meet the more than 200 book publishers there. Apart from demonstrating software, Itu Chaudhuri will speak at our stand in Hall12A on Typography and Book Design on 1 September at 4pm. On 3 September NS Manku will speak about Excellence in Book Binding at 4pm. Other activities at the stand include valuable prizes for the Best Book and Cover Designs. Come by to Stands 15 and 16 in Hall 12A for a chat, and to submit your entries for best designs. We will also write and produce together with Quark on the stand for the most part, two A4 show bulletins called Content & Media. These will be dated and distributed on 31 August and 3 September.

IFRA Expo Chennai
Further, at the IFRA Expo and Publish Asia conference in Chennai in late September we will together with IFRA India publish the IFRA Gazette on 24 and 25 September. This will also be an A4 publication containing all the show news and some feature articles and interviews generated at the show. We also hope to develop the Content & Media blog at the IFRA Expo.

IPP XII The Wake Up Print Conference
Our main effort at building the community over the last 8 years has come from IppStar our industry-supported organisation for standards, seminars, and conferences. This year IppStar will hold its 12th Conference on 19 December in Mumbai. IPP XII will be a one-day event on Marketing Strategies for direct mail, transpromo and digital print. New print marketing strategies for the new consumer are required. The Indian printers too must re-invent themselves and they must become part of the print buyer’s marketing strategies aimed at the new consumer. This event is planned as a “thought leaders” or a “wake up” print conference. This is our way to take part in the building of our community.

From Austrailia -- a Print 21 online article about the Melbourne Writer's Festival

2009-08-20T13:03:00.000+05:30

I am pasting an article from the Print 21Online newsletter (print21@bluelinemedia.com.au) published by my friend Patrick Howard. It is interesting not only because of the phenomenon of printers realising that their best friends could be their own national writers and publishers, but also because of the larger issues of territory based publishing rights for English language books. Printers in many countries want to export printed books and to some extent to limit the import of printed books. Publishers on the other hand often feel ill-served by their local printers and in some cases find them uncompetitive as well.

Printers set to lobby Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Members of the printing industry are being urged to rally along with authors and book publishers at a forum opposing the Productivity Commission’s recommendations on parallel imports of books at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival this weekend.

Part of the week-long festival will feature an open forum discussion featuring opponents of the recommendations including publishers, leading authors and printing industry representatives along with representatives of major booksellers and the Productivity Commission. The forum will be held at 7pm on Saturday 22 August in ACMI 2, Federation Square, Melbourne.

Printing Industries CEO, Philip Andersen, is urging those in the printing industry to attend and raise their concerns. “Together with our coalition partners of the Saving Aussie Books campaign, we are encouraging members to attend the forum and, where possible, to provide some practical support through signing and handing our petitions,” he said.

“We are also looking for assistance with the preparation of signage that attendees can use to show their support for our campaign.”

Discussions are currently taking place with book printer, McPherson's and local government members from Maryborough, where book printing is a major source of employment for residents, to see if either parties can attend the forum.

Andersen added that organisations and individuals outside of Victoria can also help by signing petitions which can be downloaded here and by participating in the Choice online poll on the parallel importation of books which has been re-opened following a temporary absence.

New beginnings and sorting out

2009-08-20T11:40:00.001+05:30

This a fresh initiation of our blogging efforts. The idea is to create a discussion of the content and publishing issues peculiar to Asia and maybe even more provincially to India and South Asia. There are two sides to playing with geography and nationalities especially with cultural issues. On the one hand everyone wants to know about the other (including other regions and cultures) and on the nothing is really very interesting unless it is grounded in detail or particularity.

Ideally we would like to create a texture or backroom for ideas, content, and publishing. The publishing could pertain to books, magazines, newspapers, eBooks, podcasts etc. There will some things of technical interest but hopefully also a good discussion of ideas and content shaping media as well how technology mediates media. This will be a team blog and we will invite people who we think are expert and articulate. If you would like to join the team of bloggers please contact editor@ippgroup.in. You can suggest names of experts that we could invite. Alternately you can join the conversation with your comments.