IJSSER

Title: A STUDY OF HOW REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS MAINTAINED THEIR CIRCULATION DURING COVID IN INDIA
Authors: Miraya Agarwal
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Miraya Agarwal student at Step by Step School, Noida
MLA 8 Agarwal, Miraya. "A STUDY OF HOW REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS MAINTAINED THEIR CIRCULATION DURING COVID IN INDIA." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 6, no. 10, Oct. 2021, pp. 4036-4047, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2021.v06i10.031. Accessed Oct. 2021. APA 6 Agarwal, M. (2021, October). A STUDY OF HOW REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS MAINTAINED THEIR CIRCULATION DURING COVID IN INDIA. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 6(10), 4036-4047. Retrieved from doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2021.v06i10.031 Chicago Agarwal, Miraya. "A STUDY OF HOW REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS MAINTAINED THEIR CIRCULATION DURING COVID IN INDIA." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 6, no. 10 (October 2021), 4036-4047. Accessed October, 2021. doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2021.v06i10.031.
References [1]. para 2 and sub section titled “Print Orders drop upto 90%” The Wire article dated 03/04/2020, Covid 19 makes readers wary…(https://thewire.in/media/print-newspapers-coronavirus-salaries) [2]. para 1 of the article on the website of The Hindu in their national section on 24 March 2020 titled “Coronavirus \| How safe are Newspapers, WHO Clarifies. (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/how-safe-are-newspapers-who-clarifies/article31156164.ece) [3]. 2nd para of the book titled ‘Lincoln and the power of Press’ reviewed by David S Reynolds in the Book Review section of The New York Times October 31, 2014- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/books/review/lincoln-and-the-power-of-the-press-by-harold- holzer.html [4]. Chapter 2 Analysis of Registered Publications of Press in India 2019-20, section 2.6.1 https://rni.nic.in/all_page/pin201920.html [5]. Chart titled “Certified circulations figures for the audit period July - December 2019, tab - Highest Circulated Publications under Daily Newspapers table of the Audit Bureau of Circulation http://www.auditbureau.org [6]. Memorandum No. 2/5/2014-EII(B) of Govt. of India, Ministry of Finance, Dept of Expenditure - Reclassification of cities/towns on the basis of census 2011 https://doe.gov.in/sites/default/files/21-07- 2015.pdf [7]. 4th para of the home page article titled “Tier I and II cities of India, section Tier I, II and III cities of India - https://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/tier-1-and-2-cities.html [8]. On the website of British Library, section All discovery literature : Restoration & 18th century collection items titled The Bengal Gazette - An Anglo Indian newspaper. https://www.bl.uk/collection- items/the-bengal-gazette-an-anglo-indian-newspaper [9]. Page No 23 of Chapter 2 of The Press in India 2019-20, Table 2.3 titled No of Publications registered upto 31-03-2020. https://rni.nic.in/pdf_file/pin2019_20/pin2019_20_eng/Chapter%202.pdf [10]. Computed from the numbers given in Para 2 and 4, of the City Census 2011 on the website of Census 2011. https://www.census2011.co.in/city.php [11]. Item 4c of the Annexure of Order No 40-3/2020-D dated 24.03.2020 exempting Print and Electronic Media from lock down. https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/Annexure_MHA.pdf [12]. Section - Heavy losses to the vendors, in the website of “The Print” on their homepage in the article titled “Covid 19 hits print media hard, ads and circulation dip..” https://theprint.in/india/covid- 19-hits-print-media-hard-ads-and-circulation-dip-editions-see-major-digital-push/388514/ [13]. Para 1 of the article titled “HT Media Q4 results” on the Markets page of Economic Times dated June 18, 2021. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/earnings/ht-media-q4-results-co- reports-net-profit-at-rs-19-crore/articleshow/83635225.cm [14]. Para 2 of the Mumbai Dabbawala website to be seen together with the you tube video posted by themhttps://mumbaidabbawala.in/ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4pqDAIvtng&t=184s [15]. Para 5 of the article titled “Newspaper Circulation is almost back to normal in Southern India” dated July 8, 2020 in Media-Print in Exchange 4 Media. https://www.exchange4media.com/media-print- news/newspaper-circulations-are-almost-back-to-normal-in-southern-india-105956.html [16]. Slide No 11 of the Q4 Results Presentation for FY 2020 in Quarterly Results Presentation for the year 2019-20 in the investor-relations on ht media web site. https://www.htmedia.in/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/Q4-Results-Presentation-FY20.pdf [17]. Page 24 of the JPL Investors Presentation 2019-20 on Jagran Prakashan Ltd website, https://jplcorp.in/new/pdf/JPLINVESTORPRESENTATION2020.pdf [18]. highlight no 4 on Page 2 of the Press Release dated June 23, 2020 under performance highlights for FY 2020-consolidated. https://storage.googleapis.com/webimages.dbcorp.in/investor/D%20B%20Corp%20Q4%20FY2020%20F inancial%20Press%20Release.pdf
Abstract: The covid 19 pandemic of 2019-2020 exposed the world to an unprecedented challenge of survival. While the entire world was locked down, all kinds of transportation, businesses, institutions, school & colleges, everything was closed, except the limited supply of groceries, fruits, vegetables and medicines were permitted to be produced and distributed. Media was, though a part of the essential services, faced a unique challenge of producing the newspaper but not being accepted by people fearing that it could be a carrier of the virus too. This not only affected the sales of the newspaper, but also a huge loss of production and the major dent was on the advertisement revenues which had stopped due to closure of industries and businesses. The overall circulations of all languages combined declined sharply especially that of the English Newspapers 1 as the urban areas had more incidents of covid 19 cases than the regional areas. This research is intended to figure out the parity of the impact on circulation of Newspapers in the Urban and Rural/Regional areas of the country. The Newspaper used as a case study in this research is of Dainik Bhaskar one of India’s Largest Newspaper Group and the strategies adopted during the pandemic and how it maintained its circulation to a normal level. It was the Intensive people connect with very high frequency of promotions using leaders, doctors, and influencers to appeal to people that newspapers are safe and are not the carriers of coronavirus based on WHO’s 2 findings made the people in the Tier2 and below regain the confidence in Newspapers and hence it survived the decline. This reinforces that immediate decisions taken on the basis of the ground realities make even large organisations jump the curve and be more agile and adaptive even in most adverse conditions.

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