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Kerala's print publications launch ad-war, vie for market-share, mindspace

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Major vernacular dailies in Kerala are engaged in a war of words claiming supremacy in readership.

In a seemingly endless campaign to woo more readers and advertisers, they are trying to belittle each other, much to the amusement of the readers and advertisers.

It all started with the Malayala Manorama, the oldest Malayalam daily after Deepika, launching a relentless ad-blitz claiming its supremacy in Malayalam newspaper circulation.

After a long spell of silence, a pained Mathrubhoomi, the second largest circulated Malayalam daily after the Manorama, hit back -- by publishing an advert with a massive picture showing a newspaper agent weighing up the same day's newspapers and selling them off as waste paper.

Headlined "Today's newspaper sold as waste paper?", the ad said selling off undistributed copies of today's newspaper was "for some, a means of establishing circulation leadership. But never at the Mathrubhumi".

The Mathrubhoomi, the ad said, had a "natural circulation" of 717,0666 copies and added, "Think. Are you paying more for advertising in unseen, unread, undistributed copies?"

The ad appeared in mass-circulated English publications like The Hindu daily and Outlook weekly newsmagazine. The latest and the sixth edition of the Mathrubhoomi is from Kottayam, the hometown of Manorama. Others are from Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kannur.

The Desabhimani, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, commented on the ad carrying a story entitled "Newspaper bundles sold off to claim No.1 position in circulation". It also reproduced the picture showing an agent placing bundles of newspapers on a weighing machine to dispose them of.

The Desabhimani noted that Manorama had hurt the Mathrubhoomi by advertising that the No. 2 paper in Malayalam was lagging far behind the No.1.

The Deshabhimani went on: " The advertisement exposes well the Manorama's gimmicks to hoodwink the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The advertisement describes the clandestine work of printing papers far in excess of the real subscribers and selling them off as waste paper.

The Madhyamam, the youngest among popular Malayalam dailies, too reproduced the picture in the Mathrubhoomi. The daily noted that the ad said the circulation figure was calculated after taking into account the unsold copies and remarked: "This inner secret had been brought out by the second largest circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhoomi. The ad that unveils the circulation secrets of the No.1 Malayalam paper falls short of actually naming the paper concerned. It is clear who is the target."

Cultural leader and well-known orator Sukumar Azhikode says that it is not the number of sold copies that is important. The test of a paper lay in how the readers rated the paper. "Newspaper managements should ponder if the newspaper views find a place in the country's crucial think-tank. Even if a paper is read by 200,000 people, what matters is if at least half of them would not believe what they read. Those who think that circulation is the yardstick of victory should have a soul-search," he says.

The Kerala Kaumudi, meanwhile, has come out with half-a-page ad showing a kangaroo and its cub. The ad headline read: "This is not a kangaroo! Even if '92 lakh' (9.2 million) people believe so it is not at all a kangaroo. To conceal truth some may say so. But we say it is nothing but a kangaroo. That itself is the truth."

According to the Manorama, its total readership is 9.2 million, the figure referred to in the ad.

The ad then lists the nine qualities of the paper, which has "upliftment of the downthrodden" as its motto.

The ad ends thus: "Don't you too need protection? Don't you too know the truth? The Kerala Kaumudi is first in credibility then, now and always."

According to official figures, the Manorama is the first vernacular language newspaper to cross the million-mark in circulation. Although the paper came next to the English daily The Times of India with 1.013 million copies, the paper considered its feat more credit-worthy. "We crossed the landmark without gimmicks like price-cuts. All our editions are from Kerala, while The Times of India is published from six states," said a senior circulation official in Manorama.

Of late, the circulation of the daily, which started with around 500 copies toward the end of the last century, has been registering a phenomenal growth.

In 1997, the paper's circulation shot up by 129,000 copies and, within in the first six months of last year, it rose by 55,000 copies, taking it past the one-million-mark. Until the mid-1950s, the paper was pulling on with difficulties with a circulation of only 30,000 copies. The major turnaround came after the current chief editor K M Mathew, 82, took over charge in 1954.

Founded by Kandathil Mammen Mappilai, the Manorama and its sister publications are run by his descendents. Mathew's sons are in key positions in the publication group as also its other business groups.

The current competition in selling words in the highest literacy state in India is reminiscent of the local newspapers' competition a couple of years ago in boosting their readership and ad revenue through various insurance schemes offered to subscribers.

Although the electronic media are catching up at a frenetic phase in Kerala, the magic of the printed word still haunts the literate Keralite.

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