WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit... A report by WAN-IFRA South Asia for Shaping the Future of News Publishing WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit 26 – 27 September 2012, Pune,

www.editorsweblog.org A report by WAN-IFRA South Asia for Shaping the Future of News Publishing

WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit26 – 27 September 2012, Pune, India

ExEcutIvE Summary

Efficiency at the core of newspaper production ................................................... 3

Knowledge city plays host to print media dissemination ...................................... 4

The media industry’s challenges from all corners, all fronts ................................. 5

Print can co-exist with diverse media platforms ................................................... 6

Optimising processes towards lean production .................................................... 7

Enhancing print quality and efficiency ................................................................. 8

The need to be an ever-flourishing company ....................................................... 9

Automation to help optimise operational costs ................................................. 10

Achieving operational excellence depends on your workforce ........................... 11

Making the most of digital asset management .................................................. 12

Digital asset management – the DNA experience .............................................. 13

Green initiatives of The Times of India ............................................................... 14

Living in harmony with nature and society. ........................................................ 15

Trends in newspapers around the world ............................................................ 16

Going forward, consumers are looking for greener products ............................. 17

Where the print media reign supreme ............................................................... 18

Succeeding in a constantly transforming media landscape ................................. 19

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Summaries of the WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit

Summaries of theWan-IFra India 2012 Printing Summit

Published byWAN-IFRA South Asia Pvt. Ltd.54, K B Dasan roadChennai 600 018, IndiaTel. +91.44.4211 2893 . Fax +91.44.2435 9744www.wan-ifra.org/southasia

Summaries written bySandhya Sridhar, Freelance Journalist and Editor, India

Photos: WAN-IFRADesign/Layout: Gordon Steiger

www.wan-ifra.org

3

IntroductIonIntroductIon 3

The Printing Summit of the 20th annual WAN-IFRA India 2012

Conference held in Pune in September offered interesting les-

sons on improving the efficiency of newspaper production and

adopting innovative ideas to help sustain a profitable newspa-

per business. The production function, which traditionally is

seen as cost centre, can in fact contribute to the healthy bot-

tom line of the organisations as presented by various speakers.

The two-day conference, which drew 365 delegates from 22

countries, was attended by publishers and top executives of

newspaper publishing houses. More than 20 suppliers of vari-

ous product and services to the newspaper printing and pub-

lishing industry were present. Jacob Mathew, President of

WAN-IFRA, said in his welcome address to the conference that

“The tools and modes of news gathering, editing, printing

and distribution are changing at a quick pace. We need to

equip ourselves to face the new business challenges.”

The conference also included an interesting session drawing

on the knowledge of other industries. Karadkhedkar Mukund,

in charge of Lean & Continuous Improvement at Bosch India,

spoke about how his company’s Nashik plant has been as-

sessed as a benchmark in lean production amongst all Indian

Bosch plants. Through various lean manufacturing techniques

customised to Bosch, their plants have achieved a high level of

cost reduction and import substitution successfully.

The panel discussion at the end of the Printing Summit

gauged the different operating styles of Indian newspaper

publishers. The panelists – George Jacob, Director, Malayala

Manorama, Sanat Hazra, Technical Director, The Times of

India, Sandeep Gupta, Executive President, Dainik Jagran and

K Krishnan, Vice President Production, The Hindu, shared how

they manage production costs, especially when it comes to

newsprint, and gave a rare glimpse of their usage of different

newsprint stocks, Indian manufactured and imported. The

focus of every publishing house was continuous improvement

of efficiency of operation, minimising the cost of production

and wastage, the panel concluded.

The conference also included two other parallel sessions – a

Newsroom Summit for editors, and a Crossmedia Advertising

Summit for advertising managers, giving the direction for the

future of news publishing business. A visit to The Times of

India printing plant in Pune was organised after the end of the

conference, thus providing an all-round experience to the del-

egates.

The following pages provide a summary of the various topics

discussed at the Printing Summit.

Efficiency at the core of newspaper production

4 WAN-IFRA INdIA PRINtINg SummIt 2012

Knowledge city plays host to print media dissemination

P.G. Pawar, Chairman, Sakaal Media Group, India

Welcoming the delegates to the 20th annual conference of

WAN-IFRA South Asia, P. G. Pawar, the chairman of the Sakaal

Media Group, said that “knowledge city” Pune was proud to

play host to a gathering where information on the print media

was being disseminated.

Speaking about the shift in growth patterns of the print media

across the globe, he stated that Asia, India and China are

places where growing competition and new technologies are

enabling growth in this sector.

Introducing the delegates to his home city, he said that Pune is

not just an auto centre with nine renowned brands but is also

a software city where the industry is worth close to 8 billion

dollars a year. Pune is an educational hub and a space for so-

cial service and charitable work as well, besides having a

strong agricultural history.

He invited the delegates to see the city, be comfortable and

imbibe the knowledge and information that were to be dis-

seminated at the conference.

5

WAN-IFRA INdIA PRINtINg SummIt 2012 5

The media industry’s challenges from all corners, all fronts

Jacob Mathew, President WAN-IFRA, and Executive Editor, Malayala Manorama, India

Welcoming the delegates to the conference, WAN-IFRA Presi-

dent Jacob Mathew’s talk focussed on the challenges faced by

the media on all fronts. He spoke of Pune being the apt venue

for the conference, the city being home to crusading journals

such as Kesari, the Maratha and the Harijan, all representing

freedom of expression at a time of momentous change in the

world.

He expressed concern over the two main challenges the in-

dustry faces – stagnating revenues and increasing operational

costs. In addition, revenue growth slowed in the last financial

year. He attributed this to the unsuitable business model in ex-

istence, the over-dependence on advertising income and cir-

culation revenues.

Readership changes, transformation in the way readers con-

sume media and increasing newsprint costs have all contrib-

uted to this state of flux. Besides, the recent wage board rec-

ommendations by Justice Majithia, he said, spell doom for the

industry of 75,000 employees and numerous newspaper ven-

dors by making the business unviable and unaffordable.

He expressed regret that in pursuit of revenues and lack of

ethical codes, some newspaper groups offered to publish paid

news amidst widespread condemnation, undermining unbi-

ased journalism.

The solution is good financial health for the industry, he said.

He encouraged media companies to make good use of oppor-

tunities offered by the new media, deliver content through

contemporary digital devices such as the mobile phone and

the tablet, and explore the world of video content. The back-

bone for all this is credible and quality content, something

that cannot be compromised in the digital age.

While bloggers and citizen journalists cannot rob media

houses of their business, entities such as Google do pose a

challenge, he said. He reiterated the need for credible content

saying there will be new ways to monetise this. The future be-

longs to those who embrace new ideas and innovations but

what matters most is credible content, he said. “Innovators

who follow the principles of good journalism and grab tech-

nology are likely to survive in the new age,” he said, adding

that publishers should uphold the principles of good journal-

ism, exercise self regulation and err on the side of caution.

6 oPEnIng kEynotE

Pichai Chuensuksawadi, Editor-in-Chief, The Post Publishing Public Company, Thailand

Pichai Chuensuksawadi spoke passionately about how print

can survive and succeed even while freely embracing and co-

existing with other media platforms.

To illustrate this, he gave the example of his own group, and

how they adapted, rewired, restructured and changed mind-

sets to create new playing grounds to explore growth in vari-

ous kinds of media.

The key, he said, is to set goals, look into the future and

clearly decide where you want to be.

In order to prepare for the challenges of a changing world, be

it economic or otherwise, we have to relook at our business

and deal with the generational shift that is happening and

that is in different stages in our region, he stated.

Print can co-exist with diverse media platforms

He believes in the staying power of the print media despite

predictions of its demise in a digital world. The Bangkok Post

and the group behind it have operated on this premise, suc-

ceeding through change and adaptation.

The “journey of change,” as he described it, began about a

decade ago for the Post, which had one newspaper and three

magazines. The 1997 financial crisis was the catalyst and three

years from then, the Post went through difficult times shed-

ding a large percentage of staff on the way. The group sur-

vived but finding their way forward was the challenge. Intro-

spection and constant adaptation became the norm. Even

while the group tightened systems in accounting and IT, out-

sourcing to manage technology better, they decided to em-

brace all media platforms, looking for opportunities and bring-

ing new businesses into the fold.

A business newspaper was launched, so was a free paper for

the student community. Television and radio programming fol-

lowed, so did video, Twitter, Facebook, an epaper, apps for

tablets and mobile. These changes were put into place over a

decade, clearly articulating goals and introspecting failures.

And the surprise, Pichai said, is that the print newspaper con-

tinues to bring in their largest share of revenues. Their digital,

the least. And in 2013 the group will launch its own television

channel.

Market and revenue figures were shared in the course of his

talk about the transformation in their media strategy. Pichai

reiterated that “newspapers will remain the heart and soul of

the company and the core of our business” even while he ar-

ticulated the need to go further to develop new markets and

new businesses.

7


Mukund Karadkhedkar, Head, Lean & Continuous improvements, Bosch, India

Speaking on optimisation of production processes and making

them lean, Mukund Karadkhedkar, who is in charge of Lean &

Continuous improvements at Bosch, offered an overview of

the 125-year-old company that has a presence in three sec-

tors: automotive technology, industrial technology and con-

sumer goods and durables.

The strategy, he said, is to formulate processes for the achieve-

ment of their vision statements. The key being a lean ap-

proach through the Bosch Production Systems, or BPS, which

is customisation of their priority production systems.

He went on to explain that customisation is the key word for

implementing any changes in schedules or systems, and

merely copying and implementing will not succeed. Any pro-

cess has to be customised to the particular situation or envi-

ronment.

Minimising operational cost, driving change and involving

people are all part of the larger vision statement of the com-

pany. As a business, Bosch looks for production effectiveness,

localisation and tool cost reduction among others.

He reflected the thoughts of the keynote speaker when he

said that part of the process of change was introspection and

delineation of the goals, and to understand how to achieve

them best. As a business, the company seeks production ef-

fectiveness, localisation and cost reduction among others.

He stressed that lean initiatives require a top-driven strategy

and said the involvement of higher management is essential.

Change initiatives have to be linked to the strategy of the

business and should provide customer satisfaction as well as

business success.

The eight principles that drive the company's lean production

Optimising processes towards lean production

strategy are:

• Support of waste elimination

• Quality output

• Process orientation

• Flexibility

• Consumption controlled supplies

• Waste elimination

• Transparency

• Standardisation

Involvement of all associates is essential to the business of en-

abling lean production and operational excellence. Another

process that is key is Value Stream Mapping, which maps the

current status of the operation, and that each value stream

should align with plant vision. He said a clear road map is es-

sential for goals. Top-driven targets, a system calendar or a

process checklist, business process optimisation and change of

mindset in accepting new ideas will energise their lean pro-

duction goals.


He said printing plants must embrace automation from reel

handling through loading the printed copies in trucks, for effi-

cient production. He said Shizuoka Shimbun was able to mini-

mise web breaks and corresponding newsprint waste with

their automated reel handling system.

Speaking about achieving high print quality, Fujita said the

biggest problem they faced when using 4x1 and 4x2 presses

is fan-out. Though they were able to correct most of the fan

out with anti fan-out rollers, the mis-register was still not

within the acceptable limits. So Shizuoka Shimbun adopted

the technology of correcting the image in CTP to compensate

for fan-out in the press and is now, consistently, able to have a

register deviation less than 0.1 mm.

Fujita also emphasized the maintenance of the right tempera-

ture and humidity in the press hall. He said that Shizuoka

Shimbun was able to effect 45,000 reel changes in 2010 with

just two failures and that translates to a success rate of

99.995%. They are also able to keep their newsprint waste to

less than 1.6% for the past 10 years.

He added that a printing plant should be built like a fortress

that can withstand any natural disaster and continue produc-

tion even after an adverse disaster like the recent earthquake

and Tsunami in Japan. Through pictures and illustrations, he

presented the unique anti-earthquake system that supports

the entire printing plant. This system is capable of reducing

the effects of earthquakes tremendously he said. The system

proved its reliability during the earthquake that hit on 11

March 2012 when their plant did not suffer any damage. The

system ensured that not even a book fell off any shelves.

Teruo Fujita, Former President Shizuoka Shimbun Production Company, Japan

Teruo Fujita began his presentation with a brief introduction of

Shizuoka Shimbun, which was the first paper to adopt the

four-colour printing in Japan in the early 1960s and printed

daily papers with four color photos for more than two weeks

during the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The daily’s circulation is

now about 700,000 copies for the morning paper and ap-

proximately the same number of copies for the evening edi-

tion, with the print run totalling 1.5 million copies a day.

However, he said, the total circulation of newspapers in Japan

have been decreasing slowly during the past few years and

have declined by nearly 1 million copies. Still, Japan produces

more than 3.2 million tons of newsprint every year and there

is a heavy emphasis on reducing newsprint wastage, as well

as awareness of the impact on environment.

Fujita said the most important goal in any newspaper produc-

tion is print quality. Reduction of waste and excess consump-

tion is important for efficient production and enhancement of

print quality.

Enhancing print quality and efficiency

9


wire its thinking. They used the measure “On time, a full 99%

of the time” as the yardstick to achieve their objectives.

Focusing on organisational goals, overcoming constraint re-

sources, shrinking turnaround times, ensuring co-ordination

between departments in keeping delivery schedules, and an-

ticipating uncertainties became the key goals to achieve oper-

ational excellence.

C J Jassawalla, COO & Executive Director,Printing, Thomson Press, India

His experience in the printing industry is only five and a half

years, but for C J Jassawalla, printing is just another manufac-

turing industry that lends itself to some of the same kinds of

improvements that can be done in other companies. Export-

ing to 90 countries and part of the India Today Group, Jassa-

walla explained how the business process re-engineering took

place in the Thomson Press.

Adopting the Kaizen method of implementing this, the group

used employee participation, focused on important projects

and became a learning organisation. He explained how during

a three and a half year period between 2008 and 2011, al-

most 700 people became involved in 157 projects and 418

people were rewarded for reaching their targets. A financial

savings in the range of 53 million rupees was also made dur-

ing this period.

Yet, what remained elusive were the important factors of cus-

tomer satisfaction and retention. Many loopholes needed to

be plugged – like the inadequacy of synchronisation between

departments and inconsistent delivery times despite having

highly trained people.

Since Kaizen projects leave out the support departments, he

said he discovered the answers in Dr. Eli Goldratt’s Theory of

Constraints, which extends to customer and manufacturing.

A reflection on their aspirations revealed this: We need to be

an ever-flourishing company. The organisation also articulated

its need to remain profitable and grow its profitability. There

was also the need to have a decisive competitive edge. A cus-

tomer satisfaction survey gave them “powerful insights” from

export customers – that good, consistent quality is a qualifier,

that prices should match the best offer (considering competi-

tion from China) and that the record of delivery is the clincher.

The feedback gave Thomson the information it required to re-

The need to create an ever-flourishing company


through proper research. Since the company invests in deliv-

ery, if the demand forecast has been misread, then it will lead

to a loss. Some of the factors to be anticipated are growth

and revenue potential, the handling of competition and inter-

national trends. Automation requires incentives for long term

investment, he stated.

ROI should be half the project life and the company should in-

vest in workflow automation and digital asset management as

well. There are some investments that offer you direct and im-

mediate ROI, he said, like the auto blanket wash that resulted

in the requirement for less manpower; image based cut off,

where you save paper, etc. Closed loop colour control offers

less waste and lower ink consumption, reduction in produc-

tion time, operational efficiency and a lot more.

A dynamic UPS system is a must, since unplanned power cuts

eat into productive time. He added that workflow automation

is also important.

Snehasis Chandra Roy, Associate Vice President,Manufacturing, ABP Pvt Ltd., India

Confessing that his company is a great fan of automation,

Snehasis Chandra Roy said that it has helped improve pro-

cesses and is getting good results.

Automation, he said, has to be end-to-end and cannot be

compartmentalised. Automating part systems would result in

bottlenecks was his observation. He compared partial automa-

tion to the flyover systems in Tier 2 cities in India, saying that

while these eased traffic in specific places, when you de-

scended the flyover, you got caught in a bottleneck once

again.

Automation is a must in this competitive world when capaci-

ties, reliability and delivery are essential factors. For this, he

said that they worked closely with the editorial team, factor-

ing in their inputs to maximise capacity and achieve consist-

ency in output.

Important levers in the automation process include a sound

technical team, centralised operations in Tier 1 cities and, of

course, a good knowledge of what the market wants. For the

last, he insisted on a first-hand understanding of the market

Automation to help optimise operational costs

11


Mala Bali, Human Resource Consultant, India

Mala Bali began by saying that her talk was meant to connect

the leadership thoughts inside the individual and bring an un-

derstanding of what works and what does not.

Leaders essentially give direction, alignment and commitment

in a context that creates outcomes for organisations, she said.

She highlighted the values, goals, philosophies that drive the

individual to achieve his or her goal, bringing forward the un-

derlying assumptions and unconscious beliefs, thoughts and

values that define each one.

She highlighted the various assumptions that leaders carry

into work, which include:

• The Genetic View (born with leadership capabilities);

• Learned View (believe you can study and practise leadership

and keep learning)

• Heroic View (performs courageous, wise, benevolent feats

that others cannot)

• Top-Only View

• Social-Scripting View

• Positional View

• A Calling View

• Personal View

She explained each of these concepts and also asked the audi-

ence to think about one that describes themselves as well as

what views they have seen where they have worked. She used

a picture to demonstrate that two realities can co-exist. A

leader should question what he will be missing if he sees just

one view.

She touched on examples of leadership failure – what she

called “leadership derailment.” Leaders derail because of

problems with interpersonal skills, failure to adapt to changing

needs of business; or failure to hire and build/lead a team; fail-

ure to achieve business results; or because they have a narrow

functional orientation.

Successful leaders have diverse experiences, will acknowledge

mistakes and learn, create a network of co-operative relation-

ships, have greater emotional composure, go beyond techni-

cal skills, remain careful planners with an eye open for risks,

show interest in work and people, and do not try hard to

manage their image, was her take.

Transformational people strategies are created to drive and

cover excellence. Leveraging coaches to give feedback, have

managers share self development plans with co-workers and

asking for suggestions, etc, are some of the best practises an

organisation could enable to help mitigate risk, she said.

Achieving operational excellencedepends on your workforce


these systems exclusively and use it exponentially across func-

tionalities.

He went on to state that a single common database, a place

that acts as a hub for all kinds of content, a dedicated system

for records, a space from where content is shared and distrib-

uted is the need of the hour in any media organisation. This

hub will be a receptacle for all content – be it a photograph

from an individual or an agency – and this hub will also record

usage.

The second need is that once any material is used in a produc-

tion system, it has to revert back to the central hub for archi-

val – technically everything you produce must revert back to

this central database.

The third requirement is for a powerful search engine within

this database – something that works like your own Google,

as Resele put it – that will bring up anything stored within –

newspaper pages, individual photographs, audio, video or any

other format, linked with your key search – and will also dis-

play the publication history of the matter searched for.

If structured well, he said this would be a single space from

which anything could be delivered for content syndication. He

related how this works well as a platform for trading digital

editions and how some clients in Europe are effectively using

this functionality. All this, he said, is much more than media

asset management, and once used in this way, becomes the

content backbone of your media.

Peter Resele, Managing Director,Comyan Gmbh, Germany

Archives are not usually something people are excited about,

they are traditionally spaces in a basement where you put

things that you no longer need, Peter Resele said, but added

emphatically that archiving, in the digital format, has to be

factored into any workflow right from the beginning.

He said everyone in the industry uses varied production sys-

tems such as InDesign or Quark, and these work very well in-

dividually. But they are like silos of data coming in and each of

them has a database, the content stays there. When the need

comes in to exchange data between systems, one has to de-

velop an interface – thus the initial impetus was to use one of

Making the most of digital asset management

13

13PrIntIng SummIt 2012

fined as per requirements, are also part of the RNA.

Extending the digital asset management concept into syndica-

tion, the objective of business is to monetise, extending the

brand across geographies, technologies and mediums where

DNA is not present, besides being a third revenue stream for

the company.

Anita Pujari, General Manager – Research,Archives & Syndication, DNA, India

Building things from scratch, with no legacy collections, no ar-

chives, no resources. This was Anita Pujari’s start-up experi-

ence with the newspaper DNA, and her brief was to build an

archival system concurrent to the launch of the newspaper.

The challenges that she defined were – concept, strategy, im-

plementation, analysis and metrics monetisation.

She clearly stated what she set out to build – a function that

was going to be in the centre of the editorial workflow; as

well as in the hub of Brand DNA, DNA the newspaper and the

congruence. The intention was to add value across the organi-

sation, not just capture the daily output, but to organise the

capture, build the digital archives, create an archives architec-

ture that would be scalable, expandable, and be inclusive to

new media – central to production of the daily newspaper.

She said the following three values would make the archives

an asset:

• Research

• Reuse

• Repurposing

The goal was for the department, which was labelled RNA, to

not only be self-supporting but also be profit-making, taking it

beyond the enterprise into syndication.

With a team of 10, RNA encompasses six editions with decen-

tralised operations. It is possible to access any edition from any

centre, she stated. The root is the e-paper and the other five

editions came along and it was scaled up. Extracting of stories

is DNA intellectual property. RNA online is the front-end and

an amalgamation of information systems that include ar-

chives, images or photo search, statistical data, research or re-

lated stories, timelines, chronologies, flow from wire services,

and databases subscribed to, are its strength. Published and

unpublished images, single 24 x7 accesses across centres

through edit systems and the intranet, with access levels de-

Digital asset management – the DNA experience


S. Karthik, Senior Manager, The Times of India, and Peter Britto, Chief Manager, The Times of India

Green publishing is a lot more than saving newsprint, said

Peter Britto, Chief Manager, as he and his colleague S.

Karthik, Senior Manager, described The Times of India’s eco-

friendly initiatives. A media house with interests in publishing,

Internet, radio, television and outdoor advertising, the annual

scale of print operations are from 35 printing sites.

Talking about the need to be lean, Karthik pointed out that

green is lean, and this is a mantra that holds good not just for

the present, but the future as well. This green agenda is part

of every employee’s KRAs he revealed, saying that the annual

consumption of newsprint in the company is 3.6 lac tonnes,

54 million units of energy, 2,600 lac litres of water and 7,500

tonnes of ink annually. He touched on figures showing that

greening has a domino effect, not just saving trees, but saving

on CO2 emissions, and saving on water.

To bring about the change, Continuous Improvement Groups

were formed within the organisation, and the newsprint team

was one of them. Solutions to issues at hand and Best Prac-

tises at each plant were documented into a Best Practises

Manual, now available at every branch for ready reference.

Green initiatives of The Times of India

Awareness programmes were conducted for shop floor em-

ployees on the reduction of wastage and measures to improve

yield were put into place in co-ordination with suppliers. Start-

up waste was sought to be reduced and Karthik said 90% of

the newsprint that they used was recycled.

Besides newsprint, energy and water were two other re-

sources that were focussed upon. Some of the initiatives in-

cluded reduction of dependency on diesel generators and uti-

lisation of grid powers. This ensured reduction in CO2

emissions. External energy audits were conducted and the rec-

ommendations implemented.

Equipment such as ventilator blowers were wired for optimisa-

tion and timer controlled circuitry with different timing for dif-

ferent systems were installed. The Ahmedabad facility installed

solar panels for lighting load at night in the canteen as well as

for street lights.

Rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation modern sprinklers, usage

of outlet of sewage treatment plant for gardening, regulated

flow of water in taps in washrooms are some of the water

conservation initiatives adopted.

Ink presetting software optimises consumption and waste ink

is sold to smaller players in the print market, Peter said.

Public awareness is created on World Environment Day,

through use of recycled green coloured newsprint.

To validate initiatives, participation in industry competitions

has led to green awards for their Ahmedabad and Chennai

plants, Peter said. In addition, awards have been instituted by

the organisation for green initiatives by other industries.

15


maximising the output. Green purchase guidelines are given

to suppliers. The planting of trees is an ongoing activity with a

target of five lac trees in five years.

He touched upon many more initiatives that encompass not

only their dealers and associates but also the local community,

involving school children and the village people. The Toyota

team, he said, was motivated to spread awareness in society.

Joseph Saldanha, General Manager, Plant Administration, Toyota Kirsloskar Motors, India

Toyota Kirloskar Motors, a joint venture between Toyota

Motor Corp, Japan and Kirloskar Group India, is located in an

industrial area in Bidari, 40km from Bangalore, said Joseph

Saldanha, opening his talk on how his organisation leads in

green initiatives.

Lean, cost-cutting, or environmental initiatives all focus on

management and we want to live in harmony with nature

and society, he said. To do this, their main focus was made up

of three pillars: Eco Mind, Eco Kaizen and Eco Showcase.

To stimulate the environment friendly thought, everyone –

from operator level to the Managing Director – has to work

on the same platform, and this he said, is Eco Mind. Eco Mind

activities, the need to contribute to a sustainable society by

building eco consciousness among team members is the

learning phase, included creating awareness and offering

training using simulated models. The thought is then put into

practise, and improvements made – this, he said, is Eco Kai-

zen.

The main focus at their plants is reducing power and water

consumption, hazardous and non-hazardous water waste dis-

posal, and target setting oriented for all divisions within the

organisation. The management reviews the performance of all

and offers guidance where there is a shortfall.

Simple Kaizen activities and improvement contribute, and Sal-

dahna made the point that every paisa thus earned contrib-

utes to the rupee saved. Small Kaizen activities from members

contribute to the large overall impact, waste management ini-

tiatives encompass all their shopfloor divisions, from steel to

paint shop and solar power is used to dry sludge. Waste steel

is sold off to smaller suppliers who in turn use it to make com-

ponents. Packaging, said Saldahna, is 100% reusable – no

cardboard is used. Instead metal and plastic reusable boxes

are sent back to suppliers for reuse. The Eco Factory concept is

important, he said, optimising the manufacturing process and

Living in harmony with nature and society


Thomas Jacob, Deputy CEO, Managing Director, APAC, WAN-IFRA

Thomas Jacob informed the delegates that WAN-IFRA's World

Press Trends collates data from around the world in terms of

circulation and revenue, to offer a view of where the industry

is headed, so publishers can benefit and strategise. Data from

more than 150 countries is collected but only 90 countries

gave advertising data, he said. But on a statistical basis, this

comprises more than 90% of newspaper revenue and is suffi-

cient to reflect trends, he explained.

The newspaper is the world’s most influential media, Thomas

said, with a readership of 2.5 billion as opposed to the 2.2 bil-

lion that the Internet enjoys. But the industry is going through

a major change process and its 400 years of legacy can be lev-

eraged better than other media, was his take.

The year 2010 saw a slight dip in overall newspaper circula-

tion globally, but in 2011 the trends were positive, growing

1.1% from the previous year. Free newspapers contribute

about 36 million copies to the aggregate circulation.

Data from across various parts of the world finds that the Asia

Pacific region is showing 15% growth in the past five years,

he said, as opposed to the developed markets of Europe and

America. While penetration of the newspaper in Europe

stands at 218 copies per 1,000 people, North America has

182 per 1,000 and Asia shows 128 per 1,000. Thomas said

the figures show the opportunity for the industry to grow in

Asia. The way forward is to go for targeted, segmented audi-

ences in order to print a higher circulation.

The digital audience is growing but engagement is lacking, he

pointed out, offering figures to show that though there is a

percentage of people who visit online newspaper sites, the

time they spend on the site is negligible due to a lack of en-

gagement.

Pointing out advertising trends, revenues show sharp decline

in North America while in the other markets it is not so promi-

nent. Europe, Thomas said, is stabilising after the decline while

Asia shows a slight increase. Advertising revenue shows 19%

to newspapers and 40% to television channels, and a better

picture emerges when you consider that the latter revenue is

actually split among many more players since the number of

channels is constantly expanding. The digital advertising fig-

ures show that there has been a 30% increase in spend here -

however the majority goes to search engines such as Google

and Bing. He also wondered if the tablet would be a game

changer with users showing higher engagement on this de-

vice than with the desktop. Consumers who are willing to pay

for content through mobile pricing systems is also increasing.

The debate though, is the pricing mechanism, he said, and

the fundamental question of whether to charge for content or

not.

Newspapers are all pervasive, but they must transform to ad-

dress new and multiple media platforms, Thomas said. It will

be a strategic transition from mono media to multimedia, on

multi platforms and multi channels. Strategies should be put

in place understanding customers and creating products for

niche audiences, aggregating them as a whole.

Trends in newspapers around the world

17


Manfred Werfel, Deputy CEO, WAN-IFRA, Germany

Green production and sustainable workflows have been dis-

cussed much more at this conference than at any other, said

Manfred Werfel, Deputy CEO, WAN-IFRA, observing that in

the past couple of years, newspaper printing has been at-

tached with green arguments. Research has showed that

75% of European consumers assume that there is a direct re-

lationship between deforestation and paper, he said, adding

that reality shows a different picture.

More than half the wood from the world’s forests is used for

energy and only 11% of forest wood is used for paper. And

only 11% of this 11% is used for newsprint. He drew dele-

gates’ attention to the fact that in the decades since 1950,

European forests even grew by 70% and they are growing

dramatically every year.

He compared newspaper print wastage to that of other paper

products, observing that it was less, and so were the CO2

emissions. Newspapers use renewable raw material, and most

of it comes from certified forests. Certifications validate that

forests used to make this paper are sustainable, he said.

Highlighting the fact that Indian forests are growing by 15%,

he said that about 1 tonne of newspaper generates about 1

tonne of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 14 years of subscrip-

tion. He further said that a research about magazine produc-

tion showed that one year of magazine reading emitted CO2

equal to 8km running of an eco friendly car.

Globally, the focus on environment is increasing, also thanks

to the environmental disasters of the past two years. There-

fore, a new political environment has been created with new

demands from the people at large. Consumers are not just

looking for good products, but for green products, and he an-

ticipated stricter environmental legislations. One has to go be-

yond the demands of consumers for greener products.

Going forward, consumers are looking for greener products

He offered the view that the printed newspaper is more eco

friendly than the digital one, for when you read for a long

time, a lot of energy is used.

A newspaper can market their print plant as an eco friendly

production centre, and their offerings as carbon neutral print

products. Then the advertiser is offering carbon neutral adver-

tising as well.

The newspaper industry can grow green in three steps – ana-

lyse sustainability, verify emissions and reduce energy con-

sumption. These are steps to attract new customers, orient

the organisation for the future and improve the paper’s mar-

ket, he concluded.


Eamonn Byrne, Business Director, The Byrne Partnership Ltd., UK

Confessing to be a sucker for every digital device known to

man, Eamonn Byrne went on to offer a word of caution about

the digital future and the opportunities it presents. He spoke

about the growth forecasts predicted for Internet advertising

and said that while one has to embrace social media, there is

no revenue in it. Though the hype around social media is im-

portant, from a business perspective, it has little relevance.

He touched on trends in advertising revenues saying that tele-

vision has the greatest slice of the pie, and the Internet has

overtaken newspapers globally in this space. He added that

any occurrence in the US has a disproportionate effect on

world figures and that this trend has to be broken.

The drop in revenue thanks to the Internet in the current time,

has been predicted in the Asia Pacific, including India. But Ea-

monn’s view is that India is a different marketplace and that

newspapers will continue to reign supreme. In India, he said,

the revenue of the printed newspaper has not been falling as

much as it has in the rest of the world.

He sees an opportunity for revenues in print since the digital

medium is yet to give a good yield in terms of a market. He

said the printed newspaper supports good journalism and

good news operations – the digital version cannot yet pay for

good editorial framework since serious journalism needs

money.

Globally, circulations are growing and the growth will con-

tinue till 2015, and most of the revenue will come from this

region, he said, referring to India.

He addressed the Indian print media by saying they have a

brilliant marketplace and that they should fix distribution is-

sues, invest in the digital space, stabilise and grow circulation.

He said the industry has the intelligence, the skills and the

people to develop the media business even further. The need

is to prepare for a multimedia environment and to develop

sales teams that are capable of selling this multifarious me-

dium. He also said the digital investment will garner revenue if

packaged with the print medium.

Keep calm and carry on, were his closing words.

Where the print media reign supreme

19

19cloSIng kEynotE

Succeeding in a constantly transforming media landscape

Arun Anant, CEO, The Hindu, India

Arun Anant’s talk spanned the media’s mood of transition and

of attempting to understand what the future will be. He

stated that new delivery vehicles and new gadgets, are chang-

ing faster than the news we read. He wondered what it is that

the individual wants as a reader and a consumer.

He commented on the newspaper habit saying he reads one

since it is delivered to his home every morning, and that he

would miss the newspaper if it were stopped, initially, but that

he would soon get used to not having it.

Lifestyles are changing, people have longer days, go to sleep

later, wake up earlier. The early morning newspaper has also

to compete with activities like yoga and exercise, and more

time spent commuting.

Less time is thus spent on the newspaper – with some media

organisations reducing the word count so that they could

“steal” time from the reader.

He stated the findings of a Hindu research on social media

saying that people do their maximum conversations on sub-

jects related to sports, entertainment followed by technology.

Current affairs and politics are lowest on this list.

He wondered if the voice of coverage should differ, consider-

ing the tastes of the urban Indian youth. Do people like read-

ing bad news in the morning? Should the newspaper become

an opinion paper, showcasing more points of view?

For people active on social media, the stories they post are a

statement about themselves. He wondered how this impacts

newsgathering itself. When the reader forwards a story, he

becomes an editor, when the reader blogs, he becomes a

journalist. The world, said Arun, has become more homoge-

nous and individualistic. All this will affect how society ex-

presses itself in the future, and will in turn affect newsgather-

ing in the future.

He said the media should go back to the reader, not to the ad

sales person, to the journalist, or to the advertiser.

Arun’s talk engendered much thought about the role and the

purpose that media serve in a changing world.


Documents

WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit... A report by WAN-IFRA South Asia for Shaping the Future of News Publishing WAN-IFRA India 2012 Printing Summit 26 – 27 September 2012, Pune,