COVID-19 had a lasting impact on every business and economy worldwide. And the print industry is no exception to the pandemic. The endless lockdowns have led us to go digital for all the ongoing information of the world, resulting in slowing down the print business during that period. Although, India witnessed a massive drop in newsprint imports in the last five fiscal years. And the pandemic has contributed to a significant part of this decline.
Post Pandemic Impacts in the Print Industry:
Although, the industry started to revive pretty well during the last quarter of 2021. “We have touched 80-100% of 2019 levels and will sustain the same growth provided the third wave doesn’t happen,” said Suresh Balakrishna, Chief Revenue Officer, The Hindu. India will see the print media market revenue shoot up to INR 27,000 crores in the next fiscal year compared to INR 18,600 crores in 2021. Sadly, this is nothing compared to INR 32,000 crore in the pre-pandemic times, and the ad yield will gradually grow.
The newspaper companies have opted for newer ways to cope with the pandemic’s impact. They started to migrate to digital media by undergoing a massive technology transformation to match the pop culture. They have begun to adopt subscription models to keep up with the cost. The market expects to grow more by the following year as the working population will migrate to the metros after corporates start to resume working from the office.
Current Scenario of the Print Industry:
Due to the current geopolitical scenarios (Russia being the major exporter of newsprints for India), the prices of newsprints have been rising tremendously, so much so that the operating margins came down to 6-6.5 compared to 9-9.5 last fiscal year. The prices are to grow further and will continue to decline by the second quarter of the following budgetary year due to geopolitical issues or other waves of the pandemic. While the large newspaper companies can still make sound liquidity and strong balance sheets, the tiny print media houses struggle to manage their liquidity amidst these elevated newsprint prices.
Relevance of Print Media in the Digital Age:
According to a survey performed in the UK in 2021, 42 percent of people still find print advertising somewhat or very trustworthy. Print media holds an integral part of our lives to date, despite today’s digital news portals or social media relevance.
Many consumers prefer newspapers over any digital news portals. For instance, senior citizens still find it easier to catch up with the world through newspapers.
Print media is still considered to be the more credible media as compared to digital media. Digital media is more vulnerable to ‘fake news’ consumption than print media.
Advertising is far more cost-effective and more accessible in print media. The chances of ignoring print media ads are much less than a digital media ad.
