MAM
WPP’s Sorrell bearish about print media as an ad medium
MUMBAI: When WPP group CEO Martin Sorrell speaks, the world listens. And he does not pull any punches.
Sorrel, while speaking at the FT Digital Media Conference in London yesterday, said something that should make owners of traditional print media like newspapers and magazines sit back and do some introspection about their future. Sorrell said that advertisers should think about reducing the amount that they spend on newspapers and magazines and focus more on online and digital media.
The WPP group and its clients are already doing that. Come next year, and Google could well overtake News Corp next year as the place where the agency spends most of its clients‘ money.
Citing numbers, he said that 34 per cent of WPP‘s $72 billion media investments on behalf of clients went towards digital last year.
ews Corp – a relatively more traditional print media player with oodles of magazines and newspapers – was the biggest media outlet for its clients‘ communications at $2.5 billion last year. But Google is coming on strong and WPP spent $2 billion on ads across its products, which was a 25 per cent jump over last year.
By the end of next year Google could push News Corp away as being at the top of the list of media outlets where WPP spends its client money, he highlighted.
Citing data from the US, where WPP spends $40 billion a year on media, Sorrell said that there is a big disparity between advertisers‘ print spend and consumers‘ print usage. “We are investing 20 per cent of WPP clients‘ media budgets on magazines and newspapers, but consumers are only spending seven to 10 per cent of time consuming print. That has to change.”
He pointed out that the share of ad spend in other media such as TV, outdoors and radio is matching the time that consumers spend on them “TV viewing is about 43 per cent of consumers‘ time, (ad) investment is 43 per cent” he said.
He has also accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of being media owners masquerading as tech companies. “I do regard Google as a media owner, yes. These are media owners masquerading as technology companies. Google sells Google, Facebook sells Facebook. Twitter sells Twitter.”
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
