'Print media has power to ignite viral conversations'

By Aryamaan Jit Singh Bawa

“Today’s audience values non-intrusiveness on top of anything else, this is why brand recall is so high in the print medium and the top brands still pay to be advertised on print,” said Associate Vice President of Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd Sharad Mohan Mehrotra to explain to the students the importance of the print medium from an advertising and sales perspective.

The Times School of Media organized the guest lecture by Sharad Mohan Mehrotra and Associate Vice President of Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd Rishi Arora for the Business of Print students to teach them that while the digital medium may be taking over our minds, it is not the only major avenue to consume news and information.

“Print has reached the capacity to ignite viral conversations, what is on socials ends up on the socials, but something from print may become virtual and end up on socials with a much bigger impact,” Mehrotra said while going over the impact that print carries even in the digital age. “Talking about igniting conversations, Dove is an amazing example of this as the print medium enabled the company to advertise for social change, sparking conversations all over the internet,” he said while presenting a Dove campaign and the power it carried by being printed and not posted on social media.

“While the pandemic was surely a rough patch in the print business, the medium has bounced back and made up its losses by increasing its reading time better than pre-pandemic times,” Arora said when asked about the impact of Covid on the medium.

Throughout the session, the two shared their extensive knowledge in sales and the importance of ads in the print medium. “While delivering high quality news is of utmost importance, advertisements make up 90% of the revenue generated by a newspaper, it is the advertisers who keep us afloat,” Arora said to highlight the crucial role advertising and strategic sales moves play in the business.

Mehrotra also showcased many different types of advertisements throughout the session including the French window, a sky-bus, flaps and jackets to show the versatility the print medium offers to advertisers.

Arora helped the students understand the weight that a print ad carries and how much it costs the advertiser “While ads may look unassuming due to them being printed, but full-page display ads can cost up to Rs 3 crore depending on the ad, the customization of the page and the status of the advertiser itself,”

“Print has more potential than the digital medium in terms of brand recall, scope of advertisers and the variety it offers, while people believe print may be lagging behind, it is doing better than ever,” Arora said to conclude the session.

(The writer is a Semester II student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme.)