Who killed national dailies in India

Chapter 13

Times of India reported on 23rd February 2016 that Great Britain is starting a national daily newspaper called Trinity Mirror. It will be the first national daily in 30 years to be published by the popular Daily Mirror. It is known for its coverage of bold and beautiful literati and glitterati. . What does it mean? There was no national daily in England. Don’t be surprised, even India doesn't have a national daily newspaper. Once upon a time Times of India and Hindustan Times were known as national dailies. Because they used to carry national news on its front page and local stuff buried inside. There were no state or district editions of these national dailies. The Delhi station would be airlifted to the rest of the country and distributed around noon. But now both these national English dailies of yesteryear's and even Hindi dailies like Jagran, Amar Ujala and Bhaskar have district editions. Take a look at Times of India, it will flaunt its editions like TOI South Delhi, TOI Gurgaon, TOI Noida, even Greater Noida. On an average every major daily has around 100 odd editions.

Why? It attracts local FMCG ( fast moving consumer goods ads). Major corporate don't find it worthwhile to advertise in all district level editions. Accordingly, these new avatars display local stories in preference to the so called national stories. Take for instance 23rd Feb TOI> It leads with water crisis in Delhi because of Jat quota stir and JNU students agitation. Both emanated from Delhi city and much lesser impact in the rest of the country. If you look at Noida edition of TOI, it would have published a Noida-centric story, so on and so forth.

Trinity Mirror has claimed in its today's announcement that it will try to reestablish the dignity and honour of national daily. It might be a philanthropic desire but yes to seen how far practical and viable. The demise of national dailies has been mourned all over the world. In the US, New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and Boston Globe are no more national dailies. They have also been reduced to district level newspapers.

There is an exception. Dailies like Hindu in India maintain their stoic posture by taking a national and leftist stance in their posture. People still wait for their Tuesday book review pages. Similarly, Indian Express is identified with its anti-establishment and adversarial point of view. But they are few and far away. A noise in wilderness. They do have a committed readership but in a minuscule percentage. The new generation looks at newspaper only to prepare for the competitive examination. Similarly women folk look at supplements like Delhi Times and HT City. They were launched for its page three coverage. But now the page 3 has been graduated to page one. The times are changing. Let's celebrate.