MAM
Pubnation: Cover prices form important part of print media revenue
NEW DELHI: In the last few years, the input costs for newspapers has gone up coupled with the economic slowdown. It has been a point of concern for the publishing houses as their business model is much tilted towards advertising.
At Pubnation, the virtual roundtable organised by Indiantelevision.com, in which representatives of leading media houses were present as panel members. This includes The Hindu chief revenue officer Suresh Balakrishna; Malayala Manorama VP marketing and ad sales Varghese Chandy; Punjab Kesari Group director Abhijay Chopra; Sakshi Media Group ED & CEO Vinay Maheshwari; HT Media Ltd executive director Rajeev Beotra; The Pioneer general manager Gurudatta Jha. The session was moderated by IndianTelevision.com Group founder CEO and Editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.
Experts stressed that it is important to strike a balance between the cover price and advertising. Companies should not rely on one specific model to run the business.
Overdependence on this kind of business model is creating a lot of pressure.
In the past few years, many newspapers have been hiking their cover prices. Experts believe that it's a necessary measure. Right now, cover prices across publications are 35-40 per cent higher than what they were three-four years ago, said Maheshwari. “They are certainly going to go up further, but it is not because of Covid situation. We increased the cover price last month and have not lost an iota.”
Punjab Kesari also increased its cover price without any impact on its circulation, claimed Chopra. “I believe the cover price describes your product. The fact your newspaper is so expensive because you are putting in good content, and associating your brand to a premium level actually leads to an increase in ad prices. It will also help the advertiser movement,” he explained.
When it comes to pricing, Balakrishna proudly stated that The Hindu is the most expensive English newspaper in the country by a mile and a half – because of its great content, and users should pay for it. “We are at 63:37 the ratio of the advertiser to subscriber money. It is quite handsome for a newspaper. The moment you are less reliant on advertising revenue you can have proper pricing; you need not be pushed by media agencies.”
However, having a different view from the rest of the panelists, Jha asserted that the cover price does not contribute much to their revenue and the business was mostly dependent on advertising revenue. “Even if we think of increasing the cost price it will not help us, and in the last few years, we have not increased any cost price. Our newspaper is only Rs 3, and still, we are doing pretty fine, our e-papers are also free. We have 90 per cent advertising revenue and 10 per cent subscription.”
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
