As the pandemic infected over 3000 Indians with over 100 casualties, its immediate impact was observed over the circulation of newspapers in Mumbai where the vendors ceased to work because of Covid-19 menace.
by Nava Thakuria
As an unprecedented lockdown continues in India, the newspaper groups face an uphill task to maintain its devoted readership. The complete shutdown, to continue till 14 April 2020 next
because of Covid-19 pandemic, instantly prevented the vendors to deliver morning newspapers at reader’s doorsteps as rumour spread that the paper itself could carry the novel corona virus even forced many publishers to drastically reduce their circulation figure.
As the China originated deadly virus started smashing almost all the countries on the planet resulting in affecting over a hundred thousand people and casualties up to few thousands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to front to lead the fight against the deadly virus. Modi in a televised address to the billion-plus nation on 24 March announced the lockdown break the chain of infection so that the spreading of Covid-19 can be prevented in the large country.
As the pandemic infected over 3000 Indians with over 100 casualties, its immediate impact was observed over the circulation of newspapers in Mumbai where the vendors ceased to work because of Covid-19 menace. Managements of all print media houses after a meeting with Brihanmumbai Vruttapatra Vikreta Sangh resolved to suspend publications for some time. The decision finally resulted in no newspaper day for the residents of Mumbai as well as Thane, Pune, Nagpur etc.
However, managements of The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Mid-Day etc made it clear that even though no physical editions would hit the stands on account of the new-found restrictions their newspapers would be thoroughly available in the internet. Many media houses started sharing the PDF version of complete newspaper free of cost. Journalists have also been extensively used for the purpose.
Acclaimed news magazine Outlook, RSS mouthpiece Organiser, sports magazine Sportstar, Manipal’s weekly Taranga, Hindi daily Mahanagar with few others have already suspended print editions. Most them vowed to continue their digital versions for the readers. The voice of ethnic Indians in USA, Gopal Raju’s 50 years old weekly India Abroad also faced the same fate on 29 March.
Soon after Mumbai the wave reached Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal along with Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Aizawl in northeast India, where readers missed their favourite morning newspapers as the local distributors decided temporarily to shut their works scaring the deadly virus. Guwahati newspaper-hawkers’ association, Manipur hawkers’ association, Tripura and Mizoram based newspaper vendors separately came out with the resolution that they would not distribute the newspapers for some days.
The region with a population of over 60 million supports over 50 morning dailies in different languages including English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Boro, Meitei, Karbi, Khasi, Mizo, Nagamese, Nepali, etc. Few viral posts on the social media identifying newspapers as a potential career of corona virus created panic to hundreds of newspaper agents and hawkers along with other media employees. Many families collectively prevented the vendors from delivering newspapers in the localities.
World Health Organization (WHO) has however asserted that newspapers remain safe to touch by anybody even though the corona virus can live on a surface for several days. The papers used in print media outlets are produced in highly automated mills and the process hardly needs human hands. Moreover, the likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes Covid-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low, it added.
From Sylhet (Bangladesh) to Colombo (Sri Lanka), Rabat (Morocco) to Rome (Italy), Vatican City to Jordan, Oman, Yemen capitals along with American cities like Pittsburgh, Seattle, Missouri, West Virginia, Lewisburg etc witness the temporary suspension of newspaper productions. Those media outlets have already committed for entering into the digital platforms completely.
The largest democracy in the world today supports over 82,000 registered newspapers with a cumulative daily circulation of 11 crore estimated to be a Rs 32,000 crore (5 billion USD) industry. As India has been improving its literacy rate up to 75 percent, more citizens now develop the capacity and resources to access newspapers and digital forums. More middle class Indian families now start using the internet for various activities for the first time in their lives. So advertisement revenues, earlier meant for traditional media, have slowly shifted to digital platforms.
Prior to declaring the 21-day nationwide lockdown to fight against Covid-19, Modi who did not bother to interact with news media groups prior to the sudden announcement of demonetisation (2016), abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu & Kashmir (2019), paving ways for the citizenship amendment act 2019, had managed to talk to some selected media barons in the country. The participants proudly offered suggestions to Modi over the issue.
Even Union information & broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar issued a statement asking everybody nobody not to believe in rumours. ‘You will not get infected by reading newspapers. There is just one rule to follow- wash your hands after doing any work’ stated Javadekar, who used to work as a professional journalist, adding that newspapers have tremendous credibility and those can play a constructive role in the time of crisis.
Understanding the heat of changing social engineering, various print media houses opted for boosting their presences in the digital media. As millions of Indians now start using smart phones with internet connectivity, the media owners come to the realization that they would now prefer to get all necessary and almost free news contents from the digital platforms rather than paying for newspapers or even news channels. So the advertisers have also substantially shifted their focus to the digital media space.
It needs not to be reminded that a newspaper in India is sold in the market at a lower price than its actual cost. The deficit (also profit) is managed by the commercial advertisers. They want a newspaper to reach more people (with a price or even without it) so that their products get necessary visibilities. Minus circulation, the advertisers would not support the newspapers anymore. So the inability to distribute newspapers (even it is duly published) simply means the shrinkage of advertisements for print media outlets.
Moreover, traditional advertisers of newspapers from the sectors like automobile industry, construction, home appliances, private education, travel, hospitality, etc have faced the shutdown equally and once the people lose the affording capacity for such items at least for the next few months, the advertisers would restrict their resources. Finally the newspapers may have to significantly depend on government advertisements only in the post-corona period.
The situation can emerge alarming for regional newspapers like those published from Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Aizawl etc, as the owners may not be able to sustain their publications for a longer period. It would directly impact the employees including thousands of scribes in the region. A number of media bodies came out with statements against the rumour that newspapers can carry the corona virus and also requested the concerned governments to support the media houses to deal with the situation.
Earlier a host of Guwahati based media houses including Asomiya Pratidin, The Assam Tribune, Dainik Janambhumi, Niyomiya Barta, Dainik Asom, Amar Asom, Purbanchal Prahari, Sadin, The North East Times, The Meghalaya Guardian, etc made a collective statement that there is no scientific proof for newspapers carrying the corona virus to the readers. The managements claimed that a section of electronic and social media outlets spread the incorrect news.
But strongly countering it, many social media users put a challenging question to those media houses if they could assure their valued readers of authenticated, credible and balanced news here after ! The world would return to normalcy fighting against Covid-19 after some months, but would the traditional media houses in the region ever get its dedicated readers back in the post-corona era, a difficult question to be pondered at this hour!!
The author is a Guwahati, India based media activist
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