BY
Dr. K. N. Syamasundaran Nair, Vice Chancellor, Kerala Agricultural University
Historically the print media have been very powerful in shaping the destiny of this nation. Every thought considered press as the most powerful instrument in spreading the message. The power of the press has been and in fact still is, the most dreaded weapon feared most by the powers that be. The history of the freedom movement is replete with the heroes of the print media. But print media, during its golden era could be accused of elitist as the proportion of those who could assimilate and enjoy was relatively small since education had not been mass based. With the democratisation of the education, the second half of the present century found a sea change in the spread of the print media.
The penetration of the print media dailies and other periodicals, to the interior of the country has been phenomenal in the past two decades. The primary factor that contributed to it has been the fast spread of literacy. The gradual rise in the people's purchasing power and the rise in the level of political and general awareness among the population did also contribute to this transformation.
Now, the scenario is changing fast. The onslaught of television and satellite network and the emerging revolutionary phase of information technology are the invincible spirits that expedites this change.
The liberalization policies of the government have opened many avenues for the electronic media, which has resulted in the opening of super high ways of information technology, commissioning of multiple
channels of Doordarshan and foreign television networks in the country. These innovative introductions have become major challenges for the press especially in the areas of dissemination of information as well as advertisement.
Amidst these changes and challenges, the press has to survive. Those organizations having strong corporate configuration will survive this situation and the smaller one’s will be eliminated as the dictum goes "the survival of the fittest". Actually, this is the vital problem behind the sickness of the Express, the well-known and at one time a very powerful Malayalam daily.
Shri C.T.William, in his project entitled An organizational analysis of the Express - A Malayalam daily has systematically diagnosed the symptoms of sickness of this Malayalam daily in the chapter titled Analysis of performances.
Shri C.T.William has showed a professional touch in conducting the SWOT analysis of the company and in devising proper turn around strategies. The viability and feasibility study of the revitalization proposal formulated is evidently practical and convincing.
The deficiencies of the project may be nullified considering the limitations of the study.
Dr. K. N. Syamasundaran Nair
Vice Chancellor
Kerala Agricultural University
Thrissur, Kerala.