Globalisation and the press

Globalisation and new technology have fused media that were once separate: a newspaper now runs a website, videos and podcasts. Music globalised fastest of all.

Many expected newspapers to decline because of TV and the internet. In India, the opposite happened: daily newspaper circulation rose from 39.1 million copies (2006) to 62.8 million (2016). The growth was led by Indian-language papers in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada.

Why Indian-language papers grew:

• More people became literate, especially in small towns and villages, and migrants to cities wanted papers in their own language. The Delhi edition of the Hindi paper Hindustan rose from 64,000 copies (2003) to 425,000 (2005).
• Papers went local: the Telugu paper Eenadu launched district dailies in 1989, with news from each district; Malayala Manorama brought out local editions.
• Simple language: the Tamil Dina Thanthi used plain, easy words to reach new readers.
• Automation and new printing technology made papers cheaper to produce.

But there was a cost. Lower prices made papers depend more on advertisers for their income. Papers began to treat readers as consumers to be sold to advertisers, divided into segments (young, rich, urban). This led to infotainment: a mix of information and entertainment, with more gossip and lifestyle stories.

The risk: if papers depend on advertisers, they may avoid news that upsets them, and cover what sells rather than what matters.

So print grew, but became a consumer product.