The rural newspaper revolution

BY ninan| IN Regional Media | 28/06/2004

Reprinted from the Hindu, June 27, 2004

 Sevanti Ninan with Sushmita Malaviya in Madhya Pradesh

SOMETIMES at the crack of dawn, sometimes a little later, newspapers are increasingly being dropped onto village thresholds, bringing a unique national-local universe into their homes. They do not reach villages in the interior as yet, mainly reaching villages connected by some kind of a road. Nor do they reach a large number of village folk who cannot afford to pay Rs. 80 plus a month for the newspaper bill. (Hindi newspapers cost more than many English dailies.) But newspapers in Madhya Pradesh are busily competing for the patronage of a rural clientele, trying to crack this price barrier by offering incentives. In a lesson neatly learned from the Times of India, the Nava Bharat`s circulation manager in Bhopal, Brijesh Sharma, cites the example of an invitation offer for first time readers to get the paper at Rs. 1.50, which works out to approximately Rs. 45 in a month.  

Are rural households biting? He says that while panchayats remain the main subscribers, there has been a discernible increase in subscriptions from rural households as well. Ajay Gorkha Maheshwari who doubles as both newsagent and journalist for Nava Bharat in Pipariya, says earlier, in the villages, the newspaper went only to the Patel, poor Harijans never got to see it. But today children of these communities also go to school, the family is keen to read and they take a lot of help from their children. Social activists demur, asserting that for the most part Harijan and Muslim families are not among those that can afford newspapers. But Maheshwari thinks the difference has also been made by the literacy campaigns in the district.  

Two years ago newspaper publishers in these parts witnessed a decline in circulation because of the influence of the electronic media. But now there is a whole new territory being carved out in Hindi-speaking rural India by newspapers which see their urban markets stagnating, and advertising being taken away by TV channels.  

By increasing distribution centres, using an improved road network to reach newspapers further into the hinterland by early morning, and hiring stringers to send news from very local centres for separate district pages, publishers are making an aggressive push to increase their circulation. Take any major newspaper in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh or UP. They have all fine-tuned their publication and delivery schedules to reach their newspaper by 6 a.m. to villages in every district of the State. A newspaper published in Bhopal is sent to Itarsi by jeep and then put on the Itarsi-Jabalpur shuttle which reaches Pipariya at 5.20 a.m., then they reach the distribution centre and the hawker picks them up and begins distributing them by 6 a.m.  

As a result, rural India is developing the newspaper reading habit. And rapidly becoming discerning. "Readers are very difficult to please," says Maheswari. . "Because of the competition in the market, they will drop one paper if the hawker brings it late and take another. Earlier, they had limited choice. They would read the newspaper that they would be able to lay their hands on. Today readers are aware and want papers to cater to their tastes, to be on time. Apart from the local news, the supplements lure readers, because there is something for everybody — for intellectuals, for the elderly in the family, for youth, for women and for children."  

When Nava Bharat dropped a few of its supplements, he adds, readers turned their backs on the paper. "This has affected the circulation here. Although we have given our feedback to the proprietors, I have not heard from them yet. In sharp contrast Dainik Bhaskar takes such things very seriously. If hawkers and agents give the proprietors some feedback, there is an immediate redressal."  

Small things make a difference to daily circulation. He feels the number of people taking newspapers has increased because a lot of children from neighbouring villages come to Pipariya to study. When people come to the city to visit their children they buy the newspaper and take it back to the village. Panchayats receive newspapers because the Government foots the bill, and other subscribers are village dhabas, teashops, government employees, students, local businessmen, and traders who find the information on mandi prices most useful. Talk to hawkers and they give you varied insights on what goes on. "Traders take Raj Ki Duniya because they need the rates of chilli and dhania and other things they sell. Everybody reads Nava Bharat and Dainik Bhaskar," says one.  

Kamlesh, a farmer who distributes papers in rural areas on his cycle, says he has been doing so for 15 years. "People in the villages are buying newspapers and are willing to pay for it. People want more and more information, especially if it is about a cricket match etc. The day after India won the match against Pakistan, papers sold much more. Similarly, during elections, important matches and when examination results are declared we ask for more copies." It takes him five hours to deliver all the papers. Another hawker, Santosh, just out of std. XII, says that newspapers also sell here because many people have built their farmhouses here and are living in the village.  

A Dainik Jagran agent in Pipariya cites Sunday supplements as being a major attraction, because there is enough reading material on religion, vaastu, ayurveda, sports, and politics. "These days the printing of newspapers have improved and with newspapers going colour, people are keen to have a look at, say, Saurav Ganguly lifting the Samsung Cup in colour." The people working at Eklavya in this town tell you that many read Dainik Bhaskar because of Kuldeep Nayar`s columns  

And then there are some kinds of interests newspapers cater to which are most intriguing. In towns in this State, people keep track of numerals in the "Blondie" cartoon strip and bet on the numbers. They read Dainik Jagran because of the "Blondie" satta. The paper`s agents and circulation managers estimate that nearly 80 per cent of the copies are taken primarily for "Blondie".  

The news universe is quite different in district editions. While newspapers contain enough national and international news, the hook for new readers comes from local news, so local as to even cover his village. Brijesh Sharma, circulation chief of Nava Bharat in Bhopal says that in Betul, Guna, Rajgarh, Sagar, Raisen, Vidisha, Harda, Hoshangabad, Sehore and Damoh, the increase in readership is only because of the local news that papers like his give.  

Suresh Dubey, who doubles as bureau chief as well as circulation chief for Nava Bharat in Itarsi, has 11 correspondents in the district, working "to deliver the best stories." Five paid, six unpaid correspondents. "We are aware of the local situation, and we present our news with the local flavour. With increased local news, we have got a very good response and then we have published more local stories."  

Itarsi has got people working in the railway yard, ordnance, and it has traders (wholesale, retail and small merchants). The newspaper tries to cater to their likes and dislikes. "We always try to highlight the problems of Railway employees, who often do not have very good facilities. We carry stories about them not getting water and we raise issues on their behalf. As far as the ordnance factory is concerned, our stories revolve around the friction between administration and employers. Issues such as employees not getting their salaries for the last two months are very good stories for us. When these stories are covered, people feel that the media has been able to exert pressure and they feel the media is with them in their times of trouble."  

The needs of readers vary. Ravi Kant Jain, the circulation manager of Deshbandhu in Bhopal, says there are many people from around the State who come to Bhopal in search of work. They desperately search for news from their native areas, a demand that the proliferating 24-hour news channels do not meet. There are also many people from other States whose needs have to be met. So in Madhya Pradesh, the daily Dainik Jagran caters to the interests of people from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, while the daily Nava Bharat caters to the interests of people from Maharashtra because the paper is based in Nagpur. Deshbandhu caters to people who come from Betul, Raipur and Guna."  

In a competitive scenario, papers strive to strike a chord with their readers. Which, according to rural activists can sometimes lead to ridiculous news judgement.  

"Four posters being put up to protest Valentine`s Day becomes big news. Or the fact that earthen pots and watermelons are available in the market get a lot of space and their pictures are used. Most of the time, the front page is plastered with the Police Rochamnama (daily crime file). Tell me something; what is the importance of a gambler being caught with Rs. 25? Is a newspaper a loudspeaker for the police," asks Gopal Rati who works for Eklavya in Pipariya. He adds that while newspapers have increased their local coverage, coverage and analysis of problems in villages is missing. Local stringers lack the vision, and resources to pick up issues and report on them. "They report issues, only when issues reach them."  

The interesting thing about newspapers aspiring to a rural circulation is that some of them actually now try to make covering grassroots movements and social injustice their USP. Says Rati, "I never used to read Dainik Bhaskar. After N.K. Singh took over as Dainik Bhaskar`s editor, we have found a platform for our issues, because grassroots issues make headlines." Adds Ravi Kant Jain of Deshbandhu, "The identity of our paper is the `Sarokar` page, which carries people`s issues. And in that sense you could say that our paper is targeted for those involved in social upliftment." He adds, "Deshbandu writes about peoples` issues, roads, hospitals, lack of infrastructure. Only recently we carried a story from Jabalpur where a ward boy was running a Government hospital. Although three doctors were sanctioned for that post, no posting had been made."  

So what kind of change is rural newspaper penetration bringing about?  

Regional and district newspaper expansion has several consequences, one of which is a slicing up of regional identity. Even as newspapers reach thousands not reached before, they are giving their readers an excessively local identity, which worries many. They do not waste pages on news from the neighbouring district. For instance a single Lok Sabha constituency Hoshangabad-Narsinghgarh (including Barelli tehsil and Raisen) has been geographically divided by newspapers. So to read about one constituency, one will have to ask for papers of all three or four regions. On political issues, says rural activists, "We do not know what is happening outside our block."  

The localisation is as much to get local, district level advertising as for other reasons. Sachin Jain, a Bhopal-based media advocacy consultant for Action-Aid, feels that with the newspaper wanting to earn more, they have lost their identity as State newspapers. "Many of these papers have thus been reduced to district newspapers. Somebody in Hoshangabad is reading something about his district that nobody else gets to read. This limits everybody`s reaction. So in short while there has been an expansion in the market, there has not been an increase in the impact of stories."  

Suresh Diwan, secretary of the Gramin Sevak Samiti in Hoshangabad, says that the advantage for his organisation has been that they have been getting news about farmers, small and marginal farmers, women, adivasis, panchayats, sarpanchs and panchs from these editions. Consequently they have been able to raise issues regarding the above at the regional level, the state level, and the all-India level. However, the disadvantage they face is that when they raise issues, which need to be taken up at the State and National level they have been stuck with publicity in only two districts. For instance, the plight of mahua pickers is a State-level issue but has been reduced to a regional issue. "When we raise our voice at the grassroots level, our voice is heard only here and it never reaches the policy makers sitting in Bhopal."  

But within districts, local issues are drawing the attention of the administration as never before. Says Sachin Jain, "People are getting more space for their issues. When organisations raise their issues, there are reactions from the administration. When you talk about working in a rights mode there is always the element of reaction and pressure. We have now got plenty of space to highlight our issues."  

This article is based on research supported by the National Foundation for India.