The Hindu Business Line : Call for more ties in media sector

India should look forward to many more joint ventures and partnerships in the media sector, predicts Polis, the journalism and society research forum from London School of Economics and London College of Communication.

"Large newspaper groups are no longer just looking to acquire a 10 per cent stake in Indian companies to see stocks rise, but they are looking at interesting partnerships that will extend into journalistic exchanges," says Mr Charlie Beckett, Director-Polis, Department of Media and Communications.

He was part of the team visiting India for London School of Economics third Asia Forum on `Challenging globalisation — Reform, governance and society'.

With the relaxation of foreign direct investment regulations, allowing foreign players a 26 per cent equity share in news and current affairs publications has seen the Financial Times, Independent News and Media as well as other international investment companies acquiring interest in the Indian media, and facsimile editions of international names, the last entrant being Vogue.

The nature of the modern media is globalised. And India, says Mr Beckett, is grappling with the same issues that challenge media across the world, like sensationalism, breaking news, high dependence on advertising revenue and marketing driven journalism.

However, he says, "Indian media is structurally different from media in other countries, since the pie in India is growing massively and continues to have scope for growth in individual streams. For example, I believe there are about 250 million newspaper readers whereas there are 350 million literates, who are possible readers."

Mr Beckett also warns against an increasing fragmentation of the audience, and a bias towards "the key group of young gun consumers with aspirational values, lifestyles and careers''.

"If I was a media group I would be a little worried about banking entirely on one niche audience," he says. The Indian media's heavy dependence on advertising is also of concern to him.

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