The penetration of Internet in Europe and the United States has put the newspaper industry under stress. Many publications have shut down their print editions to go online. There are fears that the rise of Internet might destroy the print news medium in coming years. But nothing like this has happened in India as print newspapers continue their impressive march ahead with regional language dailies expected to grow further. Some of the popular Hindi newspapers have daily circulation of about 3.57 million copies.
Being much more accessible in India’s hinterland, owners of print newspapers know that a few developments can be the game changer. Things can only go bad for the print media in India just like the US where the newspaper industry took a beating only after the country’s economy was slowdown. Other than this, the growing popularity of smartphone that is helping people access news easily and that too free of cost added with the penetration of Internet is the biggest challenge. The situation is such that print publishers can only ignore these emerging factors at their own peril.
The cut-throat competition to capture the expanding mobile market that will enable news just at a go has already begun with giants like Facebook and Google shifting their focus on India now. The fight is for having heavy presence on mobile. It was this that compelled Facebook to go for a landmark $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, the world’s biggest mobile messaging service.
Besides, US big online dailies like Huffington Post already have an Indian edition on the web. london’s The Guardian, Open Democracy too are trying hard to increase their online footfall in India. Many websites have mushroomed.
The future of news is on the smartphone
With India missing the desktop generation, it is understood that the country is fast catching up with the smartphone revolution with Cisco’s VNI Global Data Traffic Forecast report pointing out that by 2019, India will have 651 million smartphones. Moreover, it is also predicted that mobile traffic will witness 13-fold rise. The report further stated that by 2016, India will have over 200 million smartphones surpassing US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world. This number will reach 651 million by 2019.
And the growth in smartphones will lead to significant rise in mobile data usage. Mobile traffic will also grow thrice as fast as fixed IP traffic between 2014 and 2019. Mobile data traffic will account for 28 per cent of total Internet traffic by 2019, up from 9 per cent in 2014, according to report.
Targeting this audience, social media giant Facebook has already launched Instant Articles, specially catered to mobile users. Right now the experiment is going on in the US and UK with major publications like The New York Times, National Geographic, NBC News, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel Online, Bild and BuzzFeed being its partner. The main purpose is to not only make news reading and sharing much easier and fast on mobile but also watching videos and big photos faster.
Search engine giant Google too is in the race and has already started giving ad content in Hindi so as to encourage readers to view it.
Digital India Programme
Above all, the Digital India Programme launched by the Narendra Modi-led Government to prepare India for a knowledge future is to further expedite the process. Under the Rs1.13 crore project, India is to be transformed into a digitally empowered society with Internet penetration reaching small villages. High speed Internet shall be made available in all gram panchayats and the work for laying cables has already begun.
Even though an ambitious plan, it is not known how far the Government will succeed in executing the plan as the MTNl continues to struggle to provide a glitch free top-notch Internet service in Delhi. But smarphone can change the way things are moving. Its access and availability will certainly help news guzzlers to access news websites on their phones.
The price war
Since smartphone landed in India a few years ago it has replaced the traditional phones at least in the metros. The biggest hurdle of its penetrating India’s boondocks is its price. Things appear to be changing with Chinese and many local Indian companies pushing cheaper smartphones into the market with amazing features.
Despite the efforts, the penetration has been slow with many in villages continuing to stick to their old traditional phones not compatible to accessing news online. It is understood that as the price war between local companies escalates bringing down the price of smartphones in the range of Rs3,000 to Rs5,000, nobody would stop its spread.
Sensing the future, Google has started mounting pressure on online publishers to make their website responsive, compatible to not only smartphones but also tablets. Websites lacking these features have been warned that they would not be ranked by Google and might also lose advertisement. Some like Hotstar.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star India, has already begun the experiment of delivering news and other stuff on phablets. The website was a huge success in this IPl with many cricket buffs watching live matches. Started a few months ago, the website is available in seven Indian languages and has an impressive ranking of 217 as rated by Alexa. Besides, sports, viewers can also watch movies, soap operas and other entertainment clips on their mobiles and PCs. live football, tennis and kabbadi matches can also be watched.
In a few years’ time, everything will be in the smartphone with many people preferring to watch even news. Also efforts are on to make viewing video on phablets better. The latest report emanating from the US points out that Facebook’s video traffic has reached 4 billion daily views, making the social network YouTube’s first real rival in online video. Moreover, online publishers are trying their best to carbon copy the print newspaper layout on smartphone in a better and easier format.
The challenge for journalists
The rise of Internet and smartphone will not only change the way readers access news but also put extra pressure on journalists. Only tech-savvy journalists will survive with the line between newsdesk and bureau getting blurred. And as technology advances, the days are not far away when reporters will be asked not only to file a report but to take photos, video grabs and even upload the story on the website sharing it across social media platforms. Some newspapers are already pressuring their staff to go digital like opening their Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus accounts.
Mobile and 3G Internet and who knows 4G in a few years to come will make a lot of impact with many online publishers getting the benefit to show event live (streaming) on their website.
The way forward
For many the changing digital trend has come as a relief with journalists like Siddharth Vardarajan, who after resigning from The Hindu as its editor has started his own website. Many mainstream journalists are becoming entrepreneurial journalist. And the good news is that the Internet that is yet to peak in India has become as a primary source of reference and breaking news for many. The web editions of Indian newspapers find an eager readership — not just in the metros, but even in small towns. What is more interesting is that the online versions of Indian newspapers are read in 62 countries.
The coming next few years would be a big challenge for print newspapers in India with new players taking a plunge in online journalism and making their presence felt. With publications that are still banking on print with feeble online presence have to think fresh about how to stay afloat in the coming years as the smarphone revolution is five or eight years away. Those who will be able to produce content tailored for smartphone at high speed will only survive.
(The author is Deputy News Editor at The Pioneer)