WAN-IFRA India 2011
spurring to innovate to continue thriving
Covering various important aspects of newspaper industry in the changing phenomenon, WAN-IFRA India 2011 conference, consisted of Newsroom Summit, Printing Summit and for the first time in India, Crossmedia Advertising Summit concluded successfully, presenting an abundance of ideas and best innovative practices to around 600 senior newspaper executives in Chennai during September 06-08, 2011. With print circulation continuing to rise, Indian newspapers are in an enviable position. But publishers on the subcontinent still need to innovate – be it in cross-media advertising, digital media, or print quality and efficiency. It was the message that emerged from the 19th annual
WAN-IFRA India conference, complemented by IFRA Expo India 2011.
Though Indian print circulation continues to grow, publishers were urged to learn from mistakes made elsewhere. “Transition from print-centric to a multi-platform operation is a game of balancing the decline in print and the growth in digital,” said Raju Narisetti, managing editor of the Washington Post. In terms of advertising, “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place,” said Eamonn Byrne, director of The Byrne Partnership Ltd, borrowing the words of Lewis Carroll and noting that newspapers are set to drop from second to third place in advertising share worldwide, behind television and the internet. The answer, said Byrne, is to offer crossmedia advertising opportunities – in a carefully planned manner, with extensive training for salespeople and without the tendency toward heavy rate discounting that occurs far too often.
“Impact of internet is not much on our circulation,” said Christoph Riess, CEO, WAN-IFRA, Germany talking about India media industry size. Presenting an interesting analysis of the industry, he mentioned that India and Malaysia stand top on the list in respect of newspapers. Two copies of every three copies sold worldwide come from Asia. One forth of newspaper advertising revenues come to Asia region. Circulation increased around 40 percent in five years, thus bringing more ad revenues to the newspapers. Speaking on news creation and distribution Riess enumerated bottlenecks about online news as: ad hoc news – more; and irregular – variety of news. About internet vs mobile phone, he said that presently most of revenue generated online goes to search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, so content model for payment is still to be established. Mobile penetration is double than internet all over world, but in India it is about seven times higher.
“Content will remain king,” said Jacob Mathew president, WAN-IFRA, adding India’s newspapers are available with cover pricing equal to a cup of tea, apart from free access to online editions. He emphasized that fundamentals of newspaper need to be maintained constantly. “Increased Government regulations are not the right answer to meet the emerging requirement of the industry in India,” said Mathew talking about the proposed new press law and added that the Government should be supporting to print media more. He also highlighted Wage Board issue for newspapers, and criticized murder of journalists.
Larry Kramer, founder, CBS Marketwatch.com, USA made a presentation on 'the changing face of news publishing today and how can newsrooms cope with it’. Emphasizing that leadership in the newsroom is the need of the hour to take advantage of the changes in the news business, Dr Dietmar Schantin, executive director, WAN-IFRA Newsplex, Germany explained how to prepare the newsroom for the impending change. He also made a presentation on ‘Monetising digital platform — making content monetisation work’.
Raju Narisetti, managing editor, Washington Post, USA and board member, World Editors Forum pointed out how print/online newsrooms can engage modern day readers with quality journalism. Thomas Jacob, deputy CEO, WAN-IFRA, Singapore made an interesting presentation on ‘Monomedia to multimedia to smart media: a strategic approach for traditional media companies to leverage digital platform’. Yatish Rajawat, group editor, DB Corp Ltd, India explained how the largest newspaper group in India prepares its journalists for a digital world. The presentation of Rajesh Kalra, chief editor, Times Internet Ltd, India was focused on the effective manners to create pages on tablets that attract the reader.
Making interesting presentation on achieving operational excellence, CV Singh, chairman, IESEM, former vice president, Tata Motors, India explained how to approach and what the lessons are for publishers from other industries. Speaking on learning production techniques and optimized workflow, RD Bhatnagar, CTO, DB Corp Ltd mentioned the methods that give immediate results.
‘The road to complete automation’ was one of the most fruitful presentations, given by Thomas Unterberger, chief operating officer, Herold Druck and Verlag AG, Austria, in which he talked about automated reel handling, plate making, plate changing and many more - what are the latest offerings and how they can help to improve efficiency of production? Unterberger mentioned that if one has more jobs to produce with short run time taking 30 minutes, one can not afford 30 minutes for job change over. Thus, the automation, which ensures job change over in just three minutes, could be the best option. He appreciated solutions from manroland, QuadTech and Ferag to adopt automation in various ways.
Tony Raj & Kiran Prabhu from The Times of India group, spoke on continuous improvement in the efficiency of newspaper production using statistical process control (SPC). Talking about moving from single width presses to double width presses, K Krishnan, VP production, The Hindu explained: when is the right time, what are the considerations and preparations needed? Speaking on building a productive workplace through transforming culture and people, Santhosh Babu, director, ODAlternatives Pvt Ltd (India) pointed out the cultural and people challenges and the model to create powerful shifts in productivity and people.
Thomas Wiederkehr, managing director, IE Graphic Engineering, Switzerland spoke about understanding the engineering in installing presses to cope with natural disasters and challenging economical situations. PT Bhasi, deputy general manager-maintenance & production, The Mathrubhumi, India talked about the criterias to consider while investing in mailroom inserting systems, and the revenue opportunities created by such investment.
In a presentation on indigenous newsprint, MBS Nair, senior president, Emami Paper Mills Ltd, India pointed out the challenges in the industry and their roadmap for producing high quality newsprint for efficient production. While Anand Srinivasan, research engineer, WAN-IFRA South Asia talked about conformance of Indian and imported newsprints used in India to DIN 19306-4, focusing: what are the quality levels of newsprints available in India, what effect does the current quality levels have on our productivity?
Manfred Werfel, deputy CEO, executive director – competence centre, newspaper production WAN-IFRA, Germany discussed the implications of colour gamut reduction over time in a coldset process. Sarvesh Singh, assistant general manager- engineering, Jagran Prakashan Ltd spoke on achieving excellence in print quality and what takes them to be a member of the prestigious INCQC.
With the changing newspaper publishing phenomenon, advertising strategies have also been streamlined giving due importance to ‘crossmedia advertising’. At IFRA India Conference, ‘crossmedia advertising’ was discussed in elaborative manner. Dr Dietmar Schantin from WAN-IFRA Newsplex talked about its development in India and the Western world, while presenting the future trends, and how newspapers can take advantage and insights for the industry. While Eamonn Byrne, business director, The Byrne Partnership Ltd, UK speaking on how to set up crossmedia team to meet the demands of the advertisers.
The common closing session was also equally interesting in which CK Gan, director, newspaper segment, Kodak Graphics Communications Group called for growing the business with variable promotional content in newspapers.
Case studies galore
On the occasion several interesting case studies were presented, including: ‘Jawa Pos Group in Indonesia having 180 newspapers and very youth oriented’ by Azrul Ananda, director, PT Jawa Pos, Indonesia; ‘Audience-centric approach using multiplatforms: Malayala Manorama’s award winning Ente Naadu project’ by Santhosh George Jacob, senior online content coordinator, Malayala Manorama, India; ‘Crossmedia Advertising Strategies and integrated advertiser programmes implemented at VG, Norway’ by Jo Christian Oterhals, digital director, VG; ‘The Lokmat Aurangabad Premier League - the concept behind this success’ by Jwalant Swaroop, COO Publishing, Lokmat Media Ltd; and ‘How does advertisers approach crossmedia marketing and advertising’ by Anu Narasimhan, category director - health & wellness, Britannia Industries Limited.
Paramount platform for newspaper technologies
WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011, the second-largest international exhibition in the world for trends and practices in the newspaper printing and publishing industry, also marked success, with 65 exhibitors spreading over 4,000 sq m area in the Chennai Trade and Convention Centre. In addition to the conference attendees, more than 1,000 people from 21 countries visited the expo, featuring the entire newspaper production workflow: editorial and content management; advertising and archiving systems; electronic media and telecommunications, epaper and convergence; information technology and hardware; workflow management, newsroom management; digital imaging and photography; prepress, CtP, colour management and quality control; newsprint, newsink and other consumables; presses, press equipment, press ancillaries; mailroom and distribution, inserting, labelling, stitching; and wrapping and logistics.
Delegates and other visitors found the opportunity to meet and discuss different offerings from the various suppliers, including: 3T Control, 4Cplus, ABB Switzerland, Adobe, Atex, Baldwin India, Binuscan, CCI Europe A/S, COMYAN GmbH, EAE Ewert Ahrensburg Electronic GmbH, Ferag, FlowControlServices, Fujifilm India, Goss International, Ingersoll Rand Industrial Products, J. Mahabeer & Co, Koenig & Bauer AG, Krause Biagosch India, manroland India, Manugraph India Ltd, Mediaspan, MGE Graphic Systems India, Muller Martini (India), Naph Graphics, Newstech (India), Nova Grafik, OneVision Software (India), Pepperl+Fuchs (India), Percept Print Solutions, Pongrass Publishing Systems, ppi Media GmbH, Prakash Webtech, Pressline India, Prime UV-IR Systems, Q.I. Press Controls India, QuadTech, Inc, Quark India, Reprographic Systems & Supplies, Ronald Weboffset, Safety Tek, Shakti Udyog, Shree Refrigerations, Standard Machinery Sales Co, Summit Information Technologies, Techniweb SAS, TechNova Imaging Systems, The Printers House, TKS, Tolerans AB, WIFAG-Polytype Holding, etc.
Three exhibitors’ observation
Talking to ALL About Newspapers, Daniel from Ferag expressed their happiness being an exhibitor at this show. They were able to meet with new prospects apart from interacting with existing customers and conversed with innovative tools offered by them to the newspaper publishers. Options of inserting ‘samples’ in the form of pouches and supplements have created new possibilities of growth bringing in more revenues to the publishers. Daniel also conveyed a positive note on the good quantum of orders to execute and for that a working pattern of 45 hours a week as against 40 hrs have been evolved for everyone at Ferag world over.
While Ch V Prasad Rao at Quark stand, commented that the distance of almost 100 meters between the expo and the conference venue, made the presence of delegates little restrictive resulting into very few people seen in the expo area. Barring the first day until lunch time which allowed delegates to be in expo area, the remaining days were very dull. He wanted AAN to convey this message to organizers so as to take preventive steps for future events. Steve Kirk-head of marketing, ABB Switzerland Ltd also pointed out above in the same way.
As per Nitin Garg of NBG, more regional papers should have attended specially from north India. The absence of medium size regional newspapers was being felt by many exhibitors.
"Let intelligence prevail across the industry"
says Sanat Hazra, director technical production, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, in an informal conversation with SK Khurana, editor, All About Newspapers on the sidelines of WAN-IFRA India 2011 event in Chennai.
Sanat Hazra
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Talking to Sanat Hazra, it was interestingly revealed that there prevails typical challenges in the industry where people willing to learn are very few. This kind of attitude in fact restricts the growth graph not only for the individual but for the industry as well in larger context. Contrary to this, if the intelligence prevails, it does bring in benefits in terms of information, which brings in knowledge and opens up vision further.
However, Sanat was quit upbeat on the presentations so made during the conference in all three days. Relatively much relevant and wider range of topics were tried to be presented this time as compared to previous year. Then during the expo too, there were few opportunities to learn about new concepts which could be adopted by the industry in our country. Particular mention can be made about Scoopshot introduced by an exhibitor from Finland which enables ‘pictures’ to travel from one source to multiple destinations retaining high res properties and bring revenues too for the initiators/photographers apart from benefiting the users without geographical limitation. Another exhibitor ‘BinuScan’ too was present with interesting & beneficial solution offering colour enhancement and ink saving options. They at TOI have tried/ tested successfully and implemented their solutions at most of the print locations.
Though a caution note also comes for Sanat about the penetration of internet into “NEWS” distribution or rather content distribution very significantly thereby affecting print medium at much faster pace. “The example of print media being affected in US or Europe, may repeat in India as well. We in the industry need to innovate with definite newer concepts which digital media cannot, for sure, play such role. At TOI, such innovations have in fact become a regular feature for quite sometimes,” said Sanat adding that the most recent being ‘fragrance’ related activities created by one of their publication Maharashtra Times during Ganesha Utsav.
Comparing to the newspapers in general in India with US ones, Sanat communicated his displeasure as with many newspapers too much of colour, and retaining little ‘harmony’ does not bring in a “good look and feel”. The overall appearance can be highly enhanced if certain parameters are specified and adhered too.
However, Sanat also has another important point of view that at the expo there is hardly anything interesting to see and learn about newspaper printing industry by the student / youngster category of visitors. No doubt that people having spent many years already know most of the activities but what about the new comers to the industry? How to make the next generation linked to the industry with keen interest, remains the sought after tasks. Something needs to be done seriously on this front by the organizers in consultation with the industry majors.
A unique visitor to WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011
Jain Kamal: a legend in newspaper designing
Visitors came from different disciplines during recently concluded WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011 in Chennai and one such prominent visitor was none other than
well-known designer Jain Kamal.
An accomplished graphic designer born in 1959 at Mihijam-Chitranjan in West Bengal, Jain Kamal has been contributing to the newspaper industry in India with his outstanding designing skills. Presently he provides his consulting services to various newspapers across the country. As per Dr Aroon Tikekar, group editor, Loksatta, “The ‘new look’ Loksatta has been executed under the art direction of Jain Kamal who has vast experience in designing many English and vernacular newspapers and periodicals. He always emphasized on using clear and readable typefaces, making the newspaper attractive.”
Master in Applied Arts from BHU (Banaras Hindu University), Kamal started his professional career as graphic designer in 1980 and during the last three decades, he has designed over 50 magazines, in-flight journals and daily newspapers in the country. What he conceptualized and designed include: India Today, Bombay, Debonair, USP Age, etc among magazines; Sunday Observer, Indian Express, Sunday Afternoon, Express Newsline, Loksatta, Lokmat, Dainik Bhaskar, Prabhat, etc among Newspapers; and Namaskar, 24 K, British Airways Free & Easy, etc among the in-flight magazines. “Kamal is one of the most genuine and dedicated professionals who designs fonts, typefaces for magazines and newspapers. In Indian Express 2000, he also overlapped fonts, shown them huddled together, arm on one another’s shoulder which shows a futuristic approach to typography. For the first time in a newspaper, the masthead has been cut in half and the picture represented all the senses – eyes, ear, lips, brain,” commented Behram Contractor, Sunday Afternoon. (Source: Booklet ‘NAMOKAR MANTRA for World Peace’ by Jain Kamal)
Talking to SK Khurana, editor, All About Newspapers, on the sidelines of WAN-IFRA India 2011 event, Kamal expressed his unhappiness over some of Indian newspapers hiring newspaper designers from overseas. “Due to very nature of readers in India, newspapers’ design generally differs than that of western newspapers. In this case, a newspaper may adopt western style, but it becomes hard to keep its originality continuing for long. Ultimately, neither Indian nor western style survives, being replaced with the mixed layout. So it may be better option if Indian newspapers avail the services of skilled designers within India, who shall be available at economically charges and can create innovative designs with Indian flavor,” he conveyed.
What sets Kamal apart is his passion to understand the latest development in the world of designing as well as printing. To keep pace with the western world, he keeps investing on software, hardware and latest books on design, art and technology. For his skills Kamal has achieved various accolades, including the All India Lalit Kala Academy Award in 1981 and Lalit Kala Academy Award, Ahmedabad in 1983, etc. Besides, to educate the next generation about his art, Kamal also contribute as a visiting faculty for various institutions. His quest for newer and newer medium to express his feelings, passion and message saw him delving into Jain philosophy in a big way. Kamal felt that Jainism is the most simple and easy religion in the world and so he has contributed to it the most via the medium of art. After eight years of research Kamal tried to capture the essence of Jainism with his theme ‘Namokar Mantra’ – graphical paintings using different types of fonts instead of the conventional brush and paint. He is one of the first artists to primary use graphics and fonts through mix media on canvas.
Taking control of time and money with the SaaS
The formation, delivery, discovery and sharing of news is constantly changing. With media outlets and the process people undergo to acquire, ingest, and distribute information constantly evolving, it is imperative for companies to keep pace. The economics of our business also continue to evolve as publishers concentrate their resources on creating and distributing meaningful content rather than buying and managing infrastructure. In this scenario, new trends such as consolidation and ‘software as a service’ or SaaS are quickly becoming popular and effective ways for publishers to keep their systems current while saving time and money on capital expenditures.
MediaSpan is one of the companies who have been providing SaaS solutions. “At WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011, we are promoting their the SaaS solutions emphasizing that SaaS platform will continue to be a growing trend as more and more companies reallocate resources. Presently, MediaSpan has 100’s of publications on a SaaS platform and now offer entire product suite from advertising, circulation, production and editorial and web content management solutions on either a self-hosted or SaaS platform,” conveyed Manish Popat of MediaSpan.
Advantages of MediaSpan’s SaaS solutions include: global availability - with a SaaS solution one can access the information anytime, anywhere from any device; platform agnostic – allowing to utilize software form a Mac or a PC; reduced server and IT costs - by choosing a SaaS platform - MediaSpan hosts all your data on their secure servers); bundled cost packaging – with a MediaSpan SaaS solution your firm gets one regular monthly fee that includes support, maintenance and all upgrades; shorter deployment time - from sales order to installation and training, MediaSpan’s SaaS based model cuts deployment time and costs.
The USA-based MediaSpan Group Inc (Formerly Harris Publishing and Harris & Baseview Inc) powers digital content management, online marketing, advertising and business productivity solutions for the world’s leading media companies including Sun Media, Advance Publications, MediaNews, Paxton, Heartland and Radio One. With more than 4,000 newspapers, radio, and television properties relying on its solutions, MediaSpan is the world’s largest network of local media companies and media consumers.
A successful event for manroland
At the recently concluded WAN IFRA India Expo 2011 at Chennai, manroland concluded a successful show with its presence attracting a tremendous response from the Indian newspaper and commercial printing industry. Having widespread product range, the company has successfully positioned itself as the expert for offering solutions for the customer in the newspaper and commercial printing sector. At the show, manroland presented the revolutionary 4 X 1 newspaper printing concept: CROMOMAN. The floor mounted press, which has been especially designed for the Indian market is certified to print on Indian newsprint and run without airconditioning. Moreover, the press can tolerate severe power and voltage fluctuations and is designed with a height of 5.4 metres in order to easily fit into existing Indian pressrooms.
manroland conducted several presentations at its booth which attracted a large number of visitors from the Indian newspaper industry. The comprehensive presentation and information on newspaper and commercial printing were well received by the customers, with topics such as 3D printing, inline finishing and revolutionary design and folding concepts in newspapers. Additionally, manroland also launched its printcom range of certified press consumables for the newspaper and commercial web sectors.
“With a wide range of groundbreaking and high productivity newspaper and commercial web printing solutions, we highlighted our stronghold in the Indian market. The energy and enthusiasm shown by our customers reflected the vibrancy and dynamism of the Indian printing industry. We are delighted by the response of customers and look forward to further strengthen our presence in the market” said Anil Bhatia, managing director, manroland India.
Enabling to simulate newspaper production
The provider of the simulators, France-based Sinapse Print has started offering their solutions in the Indian market through Standard Machinery Group, Chennai. Sinapse simulator software Version 5 was recently installed at South Asia’s first simulated press training facility launched in Chennai, which helps choose the ways of correction involving the lowest possible production cost. The simulator can simulate three configurations of press - 2x1, 4x1 and 4x2, both broadsheet and tabloid. Nikhil Kumar of Standard Machinery was present at the WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011 to promote these solutions.
INITIATIVE
Getting breaking news photos economically
In news publishing industry, instant coverage of various happenings is of utmost importance for all. But resources are too limited to create a chain of photo journalists across the world. To maximize the scope of achieving such photographs, Finland-based P2S Media Group has come forward initiating the groundbreaking Scoopshot photo service. Brokering news photography between mobile Scoopshooters around the world and the international media through the Scoopshot Store, this service is set to revolutionize the publishing world.
Fully developed by P2S Media, Scoopshot software solution provides a simple yet effective solution for streamlining workflows for crowdsourced photography content and creating innovative mobile campaigns locally and globally. Scoopshot Store makes it easy to find fresh newsphotos taken by mobile Scoopshooters around the world. One can purchase and publish photos instantly from selection or create photography tasks and assign a Scoopshooter to the scene.
The company claimed that their news photos are no older than 48 hours, and they also take care of all the copyright stuff for publishers. The major advantage of their Scoopshot services include: providing access to unique and relevant content, lower cost of photography, continuous stream of local content optimal for local news publishing and fully searchable databank availability.
The company is looking for local media partners in India and Asia to expand their user base and towards this participated prominently in the WAN-IFRA Expo India 2011.
