Akangjungla
The traditional media, particularly the printed newspaper has been slowly declining with readership and advertisements shifting mostly to the digital medium. The declining trend has been there for some years now. The already struggling newspaper industry was hit hard when the Coronavirus pandemic invaded the world. The newspapers were caught unprepared for transitioning to other mediums or channels and the consequences have been brutal.
The impact of the virus only worsened the condition as circulations completely discontinued in many parts of Nagaland, like anywhere in the world. Residents mostly in Kohima and Dimapur, which has the highest number of subscriptions, refused to let the local hawkers to deliver the newspaper copy even to the gate, forget about the door step, fearing COVID-19 transmission. Few discontinued the subscription as a step to protect their mental health from stressing out caused by the depressing reports of infections, deaths, collapsing health care sector, the failing government and its systems.
Fear and false assumptions did not prevail over the awareness and emphasized laid by the World Health Organisation and all the world governments that the Coronavirus cannot be transmitted through newspapers. “Do not believe in the rumors. You will not get infected by reading newspapers. There is just one rule to follow — wash your hands after doing any work,” Information and Broadcasting, Minister, GoI tweeted. Evidently, most of the readers choose to believe the rumors.
The nationwide lockdowns followed by cancellation of public transportation contributed to discontinuation of newspaper delivery to many parts of the State and beyond.
To cut down their budget, advertisers have become more selective, accelerating the loss of revenue, especially for small newspapers. The distribution of advertisement was already uneven and with the global economic slowdown, the gap is now much wider. The rising cost of transport, newsprints and other raw materials, has made it even more challenging.
A very small amount could be generated through monetization of the PDF versions of the newspaper. Regardless of numerous requests, some readers have been religiously distributing the PDF files free of cost in WhatsApp groups, not at all valuing the hard work put in to produce the newspaper every day.
Not able to bear the impact on the economy, the newspapers in Nagaland have been collectively drawing the attention of the State Government to clear the pending bills it owes for publishing their advertisements.
But before coming to the payment of pending bills, it is good to note here that the newspapers also have to deal with the challenge of disparity with regard to advertisements issued to various newspapers in the State. In a previous three part series on the COVID-19 impact on newspaper industry in Nagaland done by this newspaper, the Nagaland Page Editor cited with example that small-sized papers like Nagaland Page, Tir Yimyim, Capi, etc., hardly get as much advertisements from the State Government Departments. “So, you see, we are here also dealing with biasness, discrimination and partiality by the Government Departments. And the irony is that they have no problems giving us their press releases for ‘wide circulation’,” she said.
The editors and publishers of newspapers in Nagaland have been relentlessly raising the issue of streamlining the system of issuing advertisements and payment of the bills from the government departments to the newspapers. A directive came from the Chief Secretary of Nagaland to the State government departments to clear all pending bills to the media houses at the earliest to ensure smooth functioning and cordial relationship between the Government of Nagaland and the media. It was in March 2021. Not all departments have obliged to this directive.
Earlier, the editors and publishers have also jointly made a request to the Nagaland Chief Minister to grant a stimulus package to the newspapers to help the newspapers in their recovery from the impact of the lockdown. In the letter dated May 20, 2020, the Chief Minister was informed, ‘Since March 26, 2020, several Nagaland newspapers temporarily suspended their printing and circulation due to challenges caused by the lockdown. Nonetheless, the newspapers continued to operate, making payroll to employees, and ensuring that news and information were disseminated through digital platforms. Most of the newspapers have since resumed their limited print edition from May 5, 2020 onwards, while others continue with only their digital format.’
The newspapers are still waiting for a response, while reeling under a deeper economic crunch.
When Covid-19 pandemic struck, newspapers offices worldwide were shut down, some editions were canceled, there were pay-cuts, the number of pages was reduced and hundreds of journalists and employees were laid off, deepening the job misfortune, particularly for journalists. Gratefully, hardly any such incidents have occurred in Nagaland. Journalists have not been served with the notice to leave their job despite the financial difficulty. But there is an uncomfortable silence as none of the journalists bodies- be it the press clubs or the association have expressed concern to address the prevailing predicament the newspaper offices are in. Maybe, journalists fail to recognize the truth that the appeal and request of the editors and publishers would be heard louder through the voices of journalists.
With little or no improvement in the revenue generation, newspapers offices in Nagaland are crashing. The reality is that revenue has hit rock bottom and in the face of such bottomless crisis, it is unlikely for newspapers to regain their ground, unless the trend of silence and indifference is replaced by empathy and collective approach to carry on the existing newspapers in Nagaland.
Comments can be sent to akangjungla@gmail.com
