For years (actually decades), there were only two English newspapers in Chennai/Tamilnadu
- The Indian Express and The Hindu. While both were a study in contrast, they were pretty much settled in the scheme of things, which divided the market between them. I do not have access to their market shares then, but it would be safe to assume that The Hindu would have
been leading by a really big margin. The Hindu was miles ahead of The Express in almost all attributes that define a newspaper, starting from newsprint quality, printing quality, news content, the various daily supplements (Property Plus on Saturdays, Opportunities on Wednesdays, Metro Plus on other days etc) that it gave out etc.
In my opinion, the only attribute where The Indian Express scored over The Hindu was with
its Sunday supplement with a varied content of cartoons, movie gossip, some nice articles on Travel, Living, Sport etc. Oh yeah, before I forget, the mandatory pictures of some beautiful women from the movie/modelling industry. So much that I always made it a point to buy only the Express on Sundays, while I would stick to The Hindu on all other days. The Hindu on the
other hand had one of the most boring Sunday supplement editions - informative, but not
something you would want to read on a lazy Sunday. But this attraction of the Indian Express
was also gone after the paper went through a huge overhaul and the Sunday supplement as it
is today became a watered-down version of its erstwhile self.
And then, the status quo gets disturbed by a new entrant to the scene. The Deccan Chronicle (DC) stepped in into the Chennai market, where it saw space for another player. The existing players just dismissed the new entrant scornfully. And rightly so, given that the content and quality of the DC could not be compared to theirs by any stretch of imagination. But then, to their surprise, it did not take long to realise that quality is not everything, atleast as far as newspapers are concerned. The glossy pages of the tabloid-esque DC with its movie/party
gossip, Page 3 Personality news and most of all the attraction of all this at 1/3rd the price of
the competition was enough to help it dig its claws into the market.
The guys at DC were intelligent enough to know that they wont be able to sell their new rag
by pricing it anywhere close to the existing players. While the Hindu and Express were priced
at Rs.3 plus change daily, (except for Sundays when it cost around 5 bucks) the DC was yours
for a mere Rupee 1. To get an idea of a Rupee's buying power, let me see what I can get for a rupee. I can get 1 matchbox or 2 mints or maybe make a panhandler happy by giving him a
rupee. The cheapest railway ticket is Rs.3, even the platform ticket that just gets you access
to the railway platform.
Basically there ain't much that you can do with Re.1. So, when someone offers you a news
daily for Re.1, quite some people are sure to go for it. Which is what happened in Chennai also. Slowly readership caught on. I am not a regular subscriber to newspapers, but over time I also changed to the DC, even as I admit that the quality is shoddy. And to compare it with that of
The Hindu would be sacrilege.
However, once they gained a foot-hold here, the DC started increasing prices. Initially they informed the readers about raising prices from Re1 to Rs1.50. While it looks like only a hike
of 50 paise, it actually is a 50% increase. Still it was cheaper than The Hindu or The Express. Then they made the Saturday and Sunday paper to cost Rs.2, while retaining other days at Rs1.50. Not sure if this was brought to the reader's notice or done covertly. And finally they increased the cost for all days to Rs2, while keeping Sunday paper price at Rs2.50.
As if three newspapers was not crowd enough, a 4th entrant jumps into the fray. The North-Indian newspaper "The Times of India" (ToI) sees an opportunity in Chennai. Maybe their marketing guys thought, "If DC can make it, surely we also should be able to do it". And so Chennai-ites get another newspaper choice - content and presentation almost on the lines
of the DC, but quality a tad better. I grew up reading the ToI in North India at a time when
I had not even heard of The Hindu and I was of the opinion that the ToI was the best English daily in the country. Sadly, my opinion just crumbled after reading the pages of The Hindu. There simply was no competition here.
ToI also knew that they would have to play the pricing game if they had to sell here initially.
But instead of pricing copies low, they adopted a different route. They gave out annual subscriptions for an absurdly low price - Rs99 for a year or something like that, which when translated to daily price, becomes as low as less than 1/3rd of a rupee. Plus this also results in them getting a captive subscriber base for a year. If you instead opted to buy the paper on a daily basis, it would be Rs.2, which is pretty competitive too, since DC had upped their rates
by then to around the same price.
Ofcourse like any market leader, The Hindu initially would not admit to any change in status-quo as far as readership figures are concerned. They even disputed readership figures for Chennai put up by DC. But ignoring a problem does not make it go away. And so even when
they did not acknowledge the DC as competition, indirect acknowledgement came from their reducing their price (something not done by them for as long as I can remember) and also by ramping up the advertisement for their newspaper. Today, you can see advertisements for
The Hindu on the sides of the city buses, at bus stops, MRTS stations, billboards etc. And the price currently is Rs.2.50 for all days except Sundays when it costs Rs3.50. Same goes for
The Indian Express who also were forced to cut prices.
So, while the guys at The Hindu & Indian Express must be worried about the competition
snipping at their heels, I think the gainers are the consumers who now have a wide range of newspapers to choose from. Our office subscribes to The Hindu and ToI, so I get to glance through them during lunch break. But when it comes to buying, I usually stick to DC or when
it is not available, the ToI. For a mere Rs2/- I get my dose of daily news, given the fact that
my TV is used only for viewing DVDs (satellite dish conked out). Ofcourse the bonus being
the tabloid-esque supplements that feature the happening events in town - parties, product launches, fashion shows etc.
To sum up, I am glad that the 2 new entrants came in to jolt the existing duopoly out of their
complacent slumber and to pull their act together, resulting in a better deal for newspaper
lovers like me. Who ever said 4 is a crowd ? It actually means more options for the consumer and that too at lower prices.
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