CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. INDIAN PRESS-A GLIMPSE

There has been a remarkable growth of the press in India, the daily aswell as periodical press. The growth in circulation comprised of dailies, weeklies, fortnightlies, monthlies and others has advanced at a fast pace in between 1956 (10.932 millions) and 1993 (67.611 millions). This decadal study (Appendix-V) confirms that the Indian press has advanced considerably faster than its population. The reasons for the growth are the rapidly rising literacy level in the past few years, the demand for the Indian language papers, the addition to the population of university graduates and the rise in purchasing power are some of the factors supplemented the growth.

In the south, Kerala has been noted for its high rate of news paper publication and high circulation (Appendix-V). The Malayala Manorama, based in Kottayam, with editions in Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, palakkad and Thrissur, has emerged as the largest daily in the country, in any language with multiple editions. There are besides well circulated dailies, like Mathrubhumi, Kerala Kaumudhi, CPI(M) party's Desabhimani. There are several others with modest and small circulations like Chandrika, Madhyamam, Mangalam, Deepika and The Express.

Kerala leads the rest of the country in literacy added to which is the high degree of political awareness of its people and the ingrained habit of reading news papers. The fact that a large number of copies

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of news paper goes out of the country to satisfy the curiosity of several lakhs of the Keralites living there in the Gulf countries and give them reading matter which they look forward to and enjoy. All this accounts for the large number of dailies being published in the state from the various centres of urban growth and the large circulations enjoyed by them. The press in Kerala has even a greater reach than the TV, the only state in India to keep the TV craze under check.

1.2. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EXPRESS-MALAYALAM DAILY.

The Express-Malayalam daily was started in 1944 in the name of Cochin Express under the proprietorship of Sri.K.Krishnan, a veteran freedom fighter. The paper was printed and published from Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala.

It was a very good beginning because the management was able to publish an English Daily entitled The Kerala Chronicle in the year 1961. The paper had an eventful story of success till 80's. But with the growth of other corporate News paper establishments like Mathrubhumi, Malayala Manorama and Indian Express to the scene, it failed to keep up its infrastructure to compete with them. The Kerala Chronicle was thus forced to close down with the entry of Indian Express. The Express Malayalam Daily however survived the situation with its strong and committed readers till 80's.

In order to strengthen and expand the business, the company started publishing a best seller type weekly under the same title in 1985. The weekly was proved to be a success and its success supported the Express Daily. But the management could not compete


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with the other news paper establishments in terms of efficient management, technology and other marketing strategies.

In 1987 it was made to a public limited company under the title Express news paper publications public limited with an objective of modernization and expansion. The company invested an amount of Rs.60 lakhs for the purchase of desk top publishing units and a colour offset. The technology purchased was later proved to be incomplete and its full utility could not be tapped. At the same time it increased the employees of which capacity was not fully utilized.

Gradually the company showed signals of sickness. But the management instead of diagnosing the real causes of sickness, aimed at rejuvenating the company through incorporating other funding agencies. Thus, in 1994 the major shares of the company were transferred to Dr.Subramanyam Swamy of the Janata party. The company with all its sickness is now under the new management headed by Dr.Subramanyam Swamy.

1.3. PRESENT POSITION

Since the take over by Dr.Subramanyam Swamy, he invested Rs.90.00 lakhs for clearing out some of the pending liabilities due to the employees and the company. The new management is forced to confirm all the surplus employees which comes to 36 numbers posted by the old management. This has increased the financial commitment of the new management to an amount of Rs.20.00 lakhs in addition to 50.00 lakhs per annum.

The sickness with the company has inevitably resulted in the irregular publishing of the paper and consequently the readers,


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advertisers as well as the agencies have gradually withdrawn. Besides, Mathrubhumi and Malayala Manorama published from Thrissur have also contributed to the downfall of the Express Malayalam daily and the local readers were shared by them.

The spirit and enthusiasm of the new management have been also curtailed by the multiplicity of legal suits filed against them by the old management. Finding no scope of revival, so many competent employees left the organization in search of better opportunities. This resulted in heavy drain in right human resources and it is not possible for the company to make up the same with fresh recruitment. As on 31.03.1999 the accumulated loss of the company is 83.00 lakhs (Annexure-I).

1.4. THE PROBLEM

The problem is to develop strategies to revive the organization and to regularise the publishing of The Express daily and weekly and to recapture all domains of its circulation and advertisements.

1.5. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

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1.6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The Express daily is the first news paper printed and published from Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala. The paper was evidently a successful mission during 80's and it always stood for the right causes and the best interests of the people of central Kerala. The company is now sick due to managerial flaws especially in the areas of Human Resource Development. The scope of the study includes:-

I An organizational analysis with particular reference to the areas of Financial management, Marketing management, Human resource management and Human resource development.

II A turnaround strategy for the revival of The Express daily based on the above analysis.

1.7. METHODOLOGY

The study is carried out on the basis of secondary data collected from RNI's Annual reports, Annual reports of the press council of India, Advertisers Hand books and other official releases of the Public Relations Department. This data is used for the comparative analysis of news papers in the country by which the various causes of sickness is identified.

The primary data collected from the past and current management, employees, trade union activists, readers and advertisers through interviews and pretested questionnaires also used for the organizational diagnosis of the company. The data thus generated are processed with appropriate statistical tools and applied for the effective conduct of

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SWOT analysis. Based on this analysis the turnaround strategy is worked out and framed.

1.8. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Generally the news paper industry has a secretive nature of its own. Besides the paper under study itself is sick. Hence the limitations are inevitable. The major limitations are as follows:-

I Since live and pending legal suits are existing in between the old and current management, free flow of data and information is very difficult. This will have its impact on data analysis.

II Past performance of the company is the basis for the study. With the emergence of modern technology, the performance level has changed. This will have its impact on the inferences of the study.

III The changing policies and schemes of government and banks will definitely influence the suggested turnaround strategy.

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