Comments on: The humble newspaper as an index? http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/ Knowledge is Scrumptious Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:13:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sukumar http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1230 Sukumar Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:47:40 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/#comment-1230 Vinu, Thanks. Tibet would be an aberration due to the variety of issues it faces. Yeah, NYT is really bulky. Vinu,
Thanks. Tibet would be an aberration due to the variety of issues it faces.

Yeah, NYT is really bulky.

]]> By: vinu http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1229 vinu Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:38:50 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/#comment-1229 Interesting... I also vaguely remember Tibet being the only/ one of the places where there is no news paper as there is no news really to publish. But, not sure if that can be related to 'size' of economy. I would rather relate that to how peaceful people's life are. NYT is really bulky and I honestly don't think anyone is going to read it end-to-end, or any other news paper for that matter. :) Interesting… I also vaguely remember Tibet being the only/ one of the places where there is no news paper as there is no news really to publish. But, not sure if that can be related to ‘size’ of economy. I would rather relate that to how peaceful people’s life are.

NYT is really bulky and I honestly don’t think anyone is going to read it end-to-end, or any other news paper for that matter. :)

]]> By: Sukumar http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1189 Sukumar Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:42:38 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/#comment-1189 Thanks Sibu. I think you are right about Radio and TV as well, but the difference is that there are some radio channels (xm, sirius) and tv channels (premium channels like HBO..) are totally subscription funded. So i think there will be a correlation to the economy maybe a bit different. Maybe you should write a post on how newspapers can leverage the longtail. look forward to it. Thanks Sibu. I think you are right about Radio and TV as well, but the difference is that there are some radio channels (xm, sirius) and tv channels (premium channels like HBO..) are totally subscription funded. So i think there will be a correlation to the economy maybe a bit different.

Maybe you should write a post on how newspapers can leverage the longtail. look forward to it.

]]> By: Sibu http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1182 Sibu Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:56:30 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/#comment-1182 Reminds me of the Seinfiled quote - 'its amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper’ ! Well, from what I learned with my experience with the industry - there are just too many factors determining the number of pages - Advertising being primary and Subscriber base secondary. The number of pages can be varied by day and by week and the Newspaper operations will almost always be flexible to accomodate one last ad, especially in todays declining newspaper subscription. Ad spend is almost proportional to economy - so Sukumar, your conclusion is on target for Commercial Local Newspapers, National newspapers with local editions too count. In the same length, so will be the number of available channels (radio/tv)? On a side note, newspaper is one industry that can leverage the Longtail business model - calls for a separate post. Reminds me of the Seinfiled quote – ‘its amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper’ !

Well, from what I learned with my experience with the industry – there are just too many factors determining the number of pages – Advertising being primary and Subscriber base secondary. The number of pages can be varied by day and by week and the Newspaper operations will almost always be flexible to accomodate one last ad, especially in todays declining newspaper subscription.

Ad spend is almost proportional to economy – so Sukumar, your conclusion is on target for Commercial Local Newspapers, National newspapers with local editions too count. In the same length, so will be the number of available channels (radio/tv)?

On a side note, newspaper is one industry that can leverage the Longtail business model – calls for a separate post.

]]> By: Ganesh http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1121 Ganesh Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:54:44 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/12/02/the-humble-newspaper-as-an-index/#comment-1121 Sukumar, I concur with you. Looks like there needs to be two categories, and within them population and economics could be used to judge the size of a paper. A slight aside - When I came to the US, I was really surprised to see the number of pages the news papers dedicated to local news and happenings than national ones. Not only that, these local news took precedence in terms of front/first page print. And I always wondered why? Is it because of the more individualistic/capitalistic nature of the country? Or did they not care about national politics and what affects/afflicts the country large? I cannot buy this latter argument, because in times of national crisis, the whole country comes together as one and rallies around quickly. The individualistic nature of the people could be the partial answer. Perhaps, the reason why we see Hindu and TOI dedicate more pages to national news could be because we are still socialists in mind? There is some credence to this theory, since I am seeing some papers dedicated to extremely small communities such as "Mylapore Times", "Adyar Times" etc. Perhaps as India becomes more individualistic and capitalistic, we will soon see "Chennai Times", "Coimbatore Chronicle" etc. Yet another sidebar: The first time I read Indian Express (IE), I was surprised to see columns that started in the first page, but continued in other pages. In "the Hindu", any column that was started in a page always finished in that page. Looks like IE wants to hook in the reader with all the important news in the first page. This was disconcerting a bit initially, but something I have gotten used to. Ganesh Sukumar,

I concur with you. Looks like there needs to be two categories, and within them population and economics could be used to judge the size of a paper.

A slight aside – When I came to the US, I was really surprised to see the number of pages the news papers dedicated to local news and happenings than national ones. Not only that, these local news took precedence in terms of front/first page print. And I always wondered why? Is it because of the more individualistic/capitalistic nature of the country? Or did they not care about national politics and what affects/afflicts the country large? I cannot buy this latter argument, because in times of national crisis, the whole country comes together as one and rallies around quickly.

The individualistic nature of the people could be the partial answer. Perhaps, the reason why we see Hindu and TOI dedicate more pages to national news could be because we are still socialists in mind? There is some credence to this theory, since I am seeing some papers dedicated to extremely small communities such as “Mylapore Times”, “Adyar Times” etc. Perhaps as India becomes more individualistic and capitalistic, we will soon see “Chennai Times”, “Coimbatore Chronicle” etc.

Yet another sidebar: The first time I read Indian Express (IE), I was surprised to see columns that started in the first page, but continued in other pages. In “the Hindu”, any column that was started in a page always finished in that page. Looks like IE wants to hook in the reader with all the important news in the first page. This was disconcerting a bit initially, but something I have gotten used to.

Ganesh

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