It was when I approached the office of Malayala Manorama, here in Cochin when I came to know that media is almost crippled of recession. Thomas Ravi, the General Manager( Circulation), in Malayala Manorama said, the paper need to cut almost 30 crores to keep its employees aboard. He said Manorama has not come to a position of laying off its employees till then. But its the case with newspapers like the Times of India.
Its the newspaper's huge dependance in advertisements, that is making it recession-prone. Moreover the newspaper is not gaining much revenue through digital edition,also which is available free of cost.When recession struck the corporates, it freezed its promotions which was a blow to media. Media, in order to stay alive, started laying off its staffs, which came to be seen as a hardline approach worked out by media groups.
But Western media houses, were awaiting this kind of crisis. Media crisis posed some symptoms very early itself. By the time it had posed an astronomical problem, the media giants could have checked it then itself, by catering to the needs of the changing world. But still there is a chance of survival. The online newspaper- trend is getting more prominent, these days. So newspapers can cash in on that, by making it paid for viewing e-paper. But, it will take some time to ease the current recession situation. For the sake of profit, we cannot sacrifice a tradition of "reading newspaper". For that, the newspaper need to reduce its price through overall cost cutting measures.
Mukund P Unny
mukundparakkat@gmail.com
