BUSINESS OF PRINT

- III
Print industry: A Broad Overview
CHALLENGES FOR THE
PRINT INDUSTRY
 Print is once
a day, and Limited reach New readers
one day old are moving
to mobiles

Poor Cost of
connect with production is
readers hurting
papers
 FORMS OF
NEWSPAPERS
 Broadsheet

PHYSICAL
PAPER
Mainstream Newspapers

1. Printed on white newsprint Tabloid

2. Size: Broadsheet / Tabloid /
Berliner

Berliner
BUSINESS
NEWSPAPERS
1893: Financial Times was the first
business paper to print on pink newsprint
Reason: Two reasons are given:
1. It wanted to look different to its rival
Financial News
2. Salmon pink newsprint was cheaper
India
Economic Times, Financial Express,
Business Standard turned pink in the
1980s; Mint chose a shad of pink when it
launched
Businessline prints on white newsprint.
 E-PAPERS
1. Electronic replica of physical newspaper

2. Advantages:
a. Global reach
b. Produced at incremental cost
c. Source of revenue
d. Valuable resource for researchers

3. Disadvantages
e. One-day old news
f. No updates

Major change caused by Covid: Going behind paywall

NEWSPAPER
WORKFLOW
 EDITORIAL
• 11 am – Editor meets top Editorial team to discuss day’s stories/decide edits
• 3-5 pm: Editor reviews and clears edits
Planning • 6-7 pm – Editor reviews major reports and finalizes Page 1 reports

• Chief of Bureau/Chief Reporter/Sports Editor/Business Editor/Chief Photographer assign tasks

News • Reporters / Photographers fan out across city to gather information
gathering & • 5 pm onwards: Reporters reach office and start filing reports
Writing

• 2 pm onwards: Copy Editors start editing wire / reporter’s copy and start making pages as per the page
release schedule
Editing & • By 3 pm: Ad department releases first dummy
Page making • By 7 pm: Final dummy is released

Dummy Last page release schedule - LPRS

HOW IS A NEWSPAPER
PRODUCED
ACTIVITY AFTER 5 PM
 KINDS OF
ADVERTISEMENTS
CLASSIFIE
D ADS
Advertisements run in small type.
Placed by individuals or small
traders
Charges based on the number of
words used
Reflect newspaper’s strength
DISPLAY
ADS
Set in large point size
Uses visuals
Main source of newspaper revenue
GOVERNMENT
ADVERTISING

Centre: Bureau of Outreach and

Communication
Earlier known as Directorate of Advertising
& Visual Publicity (DAVP)
States: Information Directorate
Low rates; Don’t compare well with
commercial advertising
Released to empanelled publications only
TENDER
ADS
Ads that invite contractors / organizations
to bid for supply of products / services /
Construction activities etc

Released by both government

departments and private companies
 ADVERTOR
IALS
Mix of two words – advertisement and
editorial.
Same look and feel as editorial content.

Publications label such content as

“Advertorial” or even “ADVT” to differentiate
it from news content.
 SUPPLEME
NTS
Prepared around themes such as real estate,
medical equipment, Diwali shopping,
education, real estate etc.

Ad executives sell the theme to advertisers

who are provided content space in lieu of
ads.

Seasonal such as Holi / New Year

supplements

Regular supplements such as Education /

Real Estate
 Ratio of advertisements to editorial
content

Ex: When Ad-Edit ratio is 50: 50 then half

the newspaper is advertisements, and the
AD-EDIT remaining half is news.

RATIO Ad-edit ratio decides the number of pages

Ex: Around Diwali /Christmas / New Year

the number of pages go up dramatically
because there is a sharp spike in ads
THANK YOU