IFRA

Prior to joining Malayala Manorama in India, Mathew was with Chase Manhattan Bank in the Management Consulting Center and then at Lab Morgan for JP Morgan in New York. With more than 500 million page views a month, Manoramaonline.com is one of the largest websites in India. Manorama Online houses several verticals within the brand, and the company launched two niche classified verticals this past year. For details on Beyond 2009, visit http://www.ifra.com/beyond.

WAN-IFRA: What do you imagine will be on most executives’ minds coming to this year’s conference in Barcelona?

Mathew: The print industry is under tremendous pressure with declines in circulation and advertising revenue. There seems to be no signs of recovery on the horizon. The industry as a whole is facing an existential crisis which is being augmented by the current economic crisis. Media consumption habits of readers are changing. Online and mobile platforms have taken over from print as the source of information. Social media sites have become virtual meeting grounds for discussions among like-minded people. The advent of e-readers has further changed the nature of the business. Most executives including myself are hoping to learn from success stories on how print media all over the world has managed to capitalise on the strengths of these different mediums to co-exist harmoniously to its advantage, i.e, widening the reach of the product as well as increasing the revenues coming from the project.

WAN-IFRA: How is broadband developing in India? Is it too slow to the point that users might go directly to the mobile-based web?

Mathew: There are nearly 50 million Internet users in India (Source: Internet and Mobile Association of India report). Of these, 6.8 million subscribers have broadband connections in India. On the other hand, as of July 2009 there are close to 480 million mobile subscribers in India. This low penetration of broadband is due to many bottlenecks which include high data costs, slow broadband connections (India ranks a low 63rd among 66 countries in terms of broadband quality according to a study by Universities of Oxford and Oviedo), and lack of aggressive thrust from telecom service providers. With an existing large mobile customer base, we can expect a big shift in users towards mobile-based rich media content once 3G takes off. Consumers in rural India looking for specialised local content will probably move directly to the mobile-based web.

WAN-IFRA: How are newspapers dealing with these issues in terms of the products and services they are offering, and will offer...?

Mathew: Increase in the average Internet bandwidth across the world has made the web and mobile much more popular in the last few years. Newspapers have felt this through the recent readership declines, particularly among the younger audience. The younger generation’s media consumption habits are influencing the technology of today and hence changing the media usage patterns of the older generation as well. For newspapers, broadband video offers an opportunity to reconnect with the younger audience. Since both web and mobile are now capable of delivering high-quality videos effectively, there are more users. The potential for revenues from this kind of service is also high through pre-roll, post-roll advertisements.

Also, print publishers are increasingly viewing mobile as an easy way to increase their reach, find new audience and generate additional revenue through ads and subscriptions. Another advantage with mobile-based services is that advertisers can reach a very local and targeted audience. Almost all newspapers such as Malayala Manorama have a mobile version and have special services such as ring tones and wallpapers. However, revenues are still small because everyone is in the experimenting stage. Worse, mobile operators and the government in India make more than 90 percent of the revenue from these value added services. In most cases, newspapers keep less than 10 percent of the revenue.

WAN-IFRA: How are newspapers in India looking into search opportunities?

Mathew: Newspapers in India recognize there is tremendous potential in search. It is no longer about giving news but about understanding the topics of interest of the readers. It increases the stickiness of the site by giving additional information.

WAN-IFRA: What about the debate of paid vs. free that is going on... what are your thoughts on this?

Mathew: I think at some point in time for this industry to understand its true worth, we need to go pay. The question, however, is how and when this will happen. It is easier for special publications with hard-to-find information to go pay. General news publications will find it difficult to get people to pay because most of the content has become commoditised. The media industry needs to act together to make this work.

WAN-IFRA: How are Indian newspapers positioning themselves regarding resources and investment in print vs. online?

Mathew: India has more daily newspapers than any other country, and has overtaken China in paid-for daily circulation. The Internet penetration in India is still only at 50 million users (Source: Internet and Mobile Association of India report) and what’s more, Internet advertising revenue is only a little more than 1 percent of the total advertising revenue in the country. However, Indian publishers are not complacent and realise the importance of having a strong online operation in place to face the inevitable global switch to the web as the dominant medium of content publication and distribution. There has been a flurry of activities in the past six months and a very determined effort is being made by Indian newspapers such as better designs, innovative products, and value-added services.