As the season of festivities closes in, every advertiser is optimistic about their ad spends, especially in the print sector, which has bounced back spectacularly after the Covid lull. Print promises to be a lucrative medium for advertisers during this period.

Taking a look back at TAM AdEx numbers, during the festive season of 2022, ads with festive themes of Diwali topped the advertising category list with a 45 per cent share, followed by Navratri/Durga Puja and Independence Day with a 12 per cent share each. 

Similar to previous years, there is an anticipated significant increase in large-format advertising this year. Clients are expected to witness substantial outcomes through impactful advertising campaigns.

Subramanian Swaminathan, Senior Vice President- Response, BCCL shared, “Advertising during the festive season accounts for a sizable portion of total advertising spends for the industry. Focus on large format advertising like Innovations, Gatefolds, Jackets, and Full Pages, which deliver impact and give brands visibility and recall.”

Newspapers are the only advertising medium where advertising is not seen as intrusive but as a part of the content, said Satyajit Sengupta, Chief Corporate Sales and Marketing Officer, Dainik Bhaskar. "Readers actually look forward to their newspapers becoming thicker as the festive season approaches."

During the past festive seasons, the retail, durable goods, electronics, and jewellery sectors consistently allocated substantial budgets for advertising throughout the festive month. Additionally, the BFSI sector has remained robust in its festive promotions, capitalising on the optimistic retail sentiment.

The BCCL executive shared, “While conventional festive categories such as e-commerce, clothing, F&B etc. will be on print, focus on other categories like furnishing/home renovation/improvement, media/OTT, local retail is expected to be aggressive.”

On the regional front, Onam was recently celebrated and consumers looked forward to offers and discounts from their favourite brands and at their preferred retail outlets.

Newspapers uniquely offer large format advertising along with the opportunity for consumers to pause and go through the content with ease. Newspaper advertising is hence very effective during the festival sales push by brands and advertisers, according to Varghese Chandy, Vice President of Marketing and Advertising Sales, Corporate Publicity at Malayala Manorama. 

The ad space increases by a huge margin during the last quarter of the year, making more space for full-page advertisements. For Malayala Manorama, it goes up by about 70-80 per cent as compared to a normal month. 

Swaminathan said, “Last year, we witnessed seven per cent volume growth in the festive period compared with the previous year. Also, festive 2022 saw 39 per cent volume growth compared to Q1.”

But in the world of pages and columns, there exist challenges too. BCCL observed there has been pressure on certain emerging categories that are PE-funded. This could be a challenge and will need to replace some of these erstwhile high-spenders through other verticals. 

Another point to focus on is that print is a medium where inventory is limited and hence inventory management becomes a bit of a challenge, Chandy shared. It requires immense planning and management to ensure that advertiser needs are met within the space available and on the days when advertisers expect the best impact for their message.

Jagran Media’s Director Shailesh Gupta noticed that there are more advertisers and less passivation in an industry like print as of now. Nevertheless, advertisers have been realising the importance of print and are looking forward to investing their ad spends on a medium that is again picking up pace. 

Readers have continued to display engagement with the medium and the sustained recovery indicates the "enduring popularity of print media in India" and also the advantages it possesses, like the ability to provide original and credible content and sticky reading habits. Festivals often provide people with some extra leisure time, especially during public holidays or extended weekends which can lead to an increase in print readership, highlighted Swaminathan.

Print media enables businesses to connect with a diverse audience, leverage the cultural and emotional significance of festivals, and promote their products and services in a visually appealing and targeted manner.

Political cartoonist Ajit Ninan, known globally for his outstanding caricatures, passed away today, he was 68.

Ninan was best known for the Ninan's World series in the Times of India. Of the thousands of characters Ninan inked, 'Detective Moochwala' in the children's magazine Target was his most famous.

Ninan regularly addressed social issues and day-to-day activities in keenly observed and humorous ways that speak to some of the universal pressures of managing the family budget and raising children in an increasingly globalised society.

Disney Star's ‘Let's Get Healthy’ project, which promotes healthy living across its Disney channels, is centred on developing interesting narratives and programming to entertain consumers while also reinforcing the idea of living a healthy lifestyle. They have partnered with brands to create programmes such as Disney Delicious with IKEA, Delicious Minis, Let's Get Healthy with Gary, and many more. 

As part of Healthy Living, the network has set nutritional rules to ensure that its brands promote healthful foods and beverages to children while also conducting responsible food marketing to adults. All food and beverage products advertised, sponsored, or promoted on Disney Channel, Hungama, Disney Junior, Super Hungama, and Disney International HD in India, as well as Disney-owned online destinations geared towards families and children, will be required to meet Disney's nutrition guidelines.

In a conversation with exchange4media, Gaurav Banerjee, Head- Content, Disney+ Hotstar & HSM Entertainment Network, shed more light on the initiative and the entertainment network's endeavours to promote healthy living.

What does healthy living mean for Disney Star?

In India, we launched this initiative under the umbrella of ‘Let’s Get Healthy’ in 2020, and through our kids-targeted destinations, we have been consistently working towards building this initiative across multiple touchpoints, hoping to inspire kids and families to embrace a healthy lifestyle. The health of kids is critically important, and we are pleased to be playing our part in encouraging smart eating and exercise. We have introduced initiatives across our platforms that showcase fun, easy ways to incorporate healthy living practices into the fabric of everyday life.

In addition to engaging initiatives that convey the message of Healthy Living, we have also taken the commitment further by only associating our kids’ brands and characters with a more nutritionally balanced range of foods through advertisements and sponsorships.

Why would an entertainment organization venture into the health space? 

As a brand that engages our young fans through stories and characters, we are powerful influencers and are in a unique position to shape their thoughts and their world. It’s an immense responsibility and we take it very seriously. This presented us with an opportunity to step into a role that empowers kids and families to make healthier choices. We aim to nurture a generation that is more health-conscious about the decisions they make, and we believe that we can guide them down that path, starting from an early age.  

We have identified – nutrition, hygiene and physical activity - as focal points that we want to emphasize. Over the past few years, we have advocated these through various iterations of Let’s Get Healthy in India – our successful on-ground initiative called Stay Fit with Mickey and Minnie, animated shorts with Jojo, cooking based shows like Delicious, Delicious Minis, Let’s Get Healthy with Gary and bit-sized quick paced formats like Healthy Hacks across our television and digital platforms.

 Which has been your most successful Healthy Living campaign and why?

In India, we have been curating a wide array of initiatives to promote this initiative and take great pride in presenting the communication through a fun, narrative setting that doesn’t interfere with the viewer experience but effectively delivers the message. We embarked on this journey with Mickey and Minnie, launching this initiative with Star Fit with Mickey and Minnie which has also become one of our most successful campaigns, reaching out to 3 million kids in schools and generating 100+ Mn views across social media platforms. In the nutrition space, we observed fans wholeheartedly embracing Disney Delicious which has garnered about 10 million views on social media.

What are the various touchpoints that you have identified to communicate the message of Healthy Living?

Storytelling has always been at the heart of what we do, and we ensure that we weave in wholesome, entertaining and enriching messages within a fun, engaging narrative – whether it’s through on-ground or content initiatives spanning long-form or short-form content.

For India specifically, we believed the most effective approach for dissemination was through our strong network of kids’ channels – which today holds a leading position with a 30% network share* along with our social media platforms which have a reach extending to a fan base of 10 Mn+. 

Since the nutritional guidelines were implemented in October 2021, what are the implications and industry sentiments like? 

Globally, these efforts have garnered critical acclaim and recognition from parents, nutrition experts, federal regulators, and the advertising community worldwide. In India as well, the industry sentiments have been extremely positive, and we observe an increasing number of brands introducing healthier alternatives and joining us in our endeavour to promote a healthy lifestyle. In the past three years, we have collaborated with like-minded brands that were enthusiastic about collaborating with us as we embarked on this journey, and we are confident that this initiative will continue to gather momentum as we progress.  

What kind of advertising impact have you seen after implementing these guidelines? 

We have been working with a wide range of healthy products, as they benefit from an added boost and validation through advertising on our platforms. Also, our position as the leading network in the genre attracts brand categories beyond food and beverages that view us as a preferred brand to collaborate with and to connect with kids and families. Consumer Durables has been a consistent category along with FMCG, Health and Wellness, E-commerce, fashion and lifestyle and consumer electronics who continue to advertise with us.

Brands understand that the kids’ genre presents an opportunity not only to reach kids but also parents due to significant co-viewing. Moreover, they understand that kids nowadays exert an increasing influence on family decisions and are more discerning and knowledgeable in their choices – hence the advertising overall, hasn’t been as impacted.

Did some brands stop advertising with Disney Star after implementing these guidelines?

It’s interesting to note that while we couldn’t continue our association with certain brands’ there have been a lot of brands who have been in dialogue with us to see how they can modify their product composition to work with our guidelines.  

What are your plans to amplify the initiative? 

Let’s Get Healthy will remain a significant initiative, and this is only the beginning for us. During special occasions like National Nutrition Week, our endeavour is to combine the fun found in Disney’s stories and characters with the enriching message of adopting better and healthier lifestyle choices. 

The Editors Guild of India  has issued a statement after  FIR’s were filed  against the members of the Guild.

The  Guild in its statement has said that it is disturbed by the registration of First Information Reports (FIRS) by the Manipur Police against the President of the Guild as well as the members of the fact- finding team that had visited Manipur to study and document media's coverage of ethnic clashes in the state. The Guild also stated that it was shocked by the intimidatory statements made by the Chief Minister of Manipur, Mr. N Biren Singh, in response to the report.

“The Guild would also like to reiterate that the underlying idea of the report was to enable introspection and reflection on the media's conduct in such a sensitive situation. The Guild urges the state government to close the FIRS”, read the press note. 

Here is the full copy of the statement:

The Editors Guild of India is disturbed by the registration of First Information Reports (FIRS) by the Manipur Police against the President of the Guild as well as the members of the fact- finding team that had visited Manipur to study and document media's coverage of ethnic clashes in the state. The Guild is further shocked by the intimidatory statements made by the Chief Minister of Manipur, Mr. N Biren Singh, in response to the report.

The Guild had received several representations from civil society as well as the Indian Army raising concerns that the media in Manipur was playing a partisan role in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Chin minority. The Guild had sent a three-member team to Manipur to examine the media's reportage in the state as well as the effects of internet shut down. The team met a cross-section of reporters, editors, representatives of the Editors Guild of Manipur, All Manipur Working Journalists Union, civil society activists, public intellectuals, women affected by the violence, tribal spokespersons and the representatives of the security forces operating in Manipur.

The report was released on September 2, 2023.

The Guild is extremely disturbed that rather than respond to the concerns raised in the report in a meaningful way, the state government has registered FIRs invoking multiple provisions of the IPC. The Guild has already acknowledged and corrected an error that was pointed out regarding a photo caption, and we remain open to further discussion.

However, the Chief Minister's labelling of the journalists body as "anti-State" and "anti- national" is deeply disturbing, especially given the way the Union Government has emphasised the country's democratic credentials as well as the spirit of freedom of speech at the global stage for the upcoming G20 summit. The Guild would also like to reiterate that the underlying idea of the report was to enable introspection and reflection on the media's conduct in such a sensitive situation. The Guild urges the state government to close the FIR’s.

Malini Parthasarathy who resigned from the board of The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd in January 2023 has criticised the paper for carrying a full-fledged election poster.

In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), she wrote, “A full-fledged election poster made ready for @arivalayam in the pages of @the_hindu ! If this full-page encomium for the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme is not evidence of the blatantly partisan bias of the current editorial management, what else is? Deeply concerned about the deterioration of editorial standards at our prestigious legacy newspaper as all pretensions of fairness & impartiality are being abandoned!”

A full fledged election poster made ready for @arivalayam in the pages of @the_hindu ! If this full page encomium for the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme is not evidence of the blatantly partisan bias of the current editorial management, what else is? Deeply concerned about the… pic.twitter.com/crqv1EKNlV

— Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP) September 3, 2023

At the time of her resignation, Parthasarathy had hinted at differences with the Board, Parthasarathy, in a LinkedIn post said, “My term as Chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing ends. However, I have also resigned from the Board of the THGPPL as I find the space and scope for my editorial views shrinking. My entire endeavour as Chairperson and Director, Editorial Strategy was to ensure that The Hindu Group revives its legacy of fair and unbiased reporting.”

Malini had two stints as Executive Editor of The Hindu. Her last stint was from 2015 to 2016.

Venugopal Kasturi has been elected as the Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Ltd., The Hindu Group's holding company.

Venugopal Kasturi was the founding Executive Editor of Businessline.

He is the youngest son of The Hindu's Editor G. Kasturi.

The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd. has a number of publications, namely The Hindu, Businessline, Frontline and Sportstar.