An evening with Mr Pradip Saha
Introduction
On October 25, we had an insightful session by Mr Pradip K Saha of the Morning Context. Mr Saha spoke about the relevance and importance of independent journalism.
About Mr Pradip Saha
Mr Pradip Saha is a co-founder of The Morning Context, where he leads the newsletters vertical. He previously worked at The Ken as a staff writer, at Mint as an assistant features editor and at the Deccan Chronicle as a copy editor. His writing spans the gig economy, farmers caught in the crossfire of technology, global warming and parents trapped in the edtech wave. Some of his best stories have come at the intersection of technology and human endeavour.
The future of journalism
What is independent journalism? Why is it important?
The journalism landscape is changing in terms of content, format, distribution, delivery, discovery. Many media publications are struggling or shutting down. A few examples are California Review, Atlantic Group, Vox, Huffington post in India and some India Today group magazines.
Some 60% of the readers are sceptical of traditional media (TOI, HT, NYT, WSJ, India Today). They feel that the traditional media is biased and has leanings towards certain groups. How do we keep journalism alive? Independent journalism is the way forward.
About independent journalism
Independent journalism focuses on the delivery of information without bias and ensures factual accuracy. It is free from the influence of corporate houses.
Independent journalism is necessary to gain public trust and ensure unbiased reporting. Independent journalism is necessary to capture diverse perspectives. Independent journalism strives to include narratives from marginalized communities. Independent journalism serves as the voice of the people who do not have a voice. It is free from external pressures. Independent journalism is answerable only to the readers. It can hold power and capital accountable. In an era where misinformation due to social media is common, independent journalism becomes even more important. There is a value to data based, fact based and research-based stories.
Some examples of independent journalism are Pro Publica, Guardian, Morning Context.
Challenges facing journalism today
Declining revenue: There has been a 40% fall in media revenues since 2008.
Political pressure: There are increasing threats and censorship in a politically charged environment.
Misinformation: Fake news makes it difficult for the readers to discern facts from fiction.
2024 trends in journalism
Mr Saha spoke about three trends:
- Digital transformation
- Use of AI
- Rise of subscription models: Subscriptions provide money and financial security to enable the media to serve as authentic voices. Financial strength is needed to hold capital and power accountable. Content is for the readers and not for the advertisers. It must be paid for by the readers.
Note: Mr Saha gave a very pertinent example. Mint Lounge, where he worked earlier, found it difficult to get ads. The themes of the premium pages were critical social commentaries. Companies did not want their ads to be associated with this kind of content. Today, no one wants to put their ads along with stories on Hamas but are ok to put their ad on a story which features a successful woman entrepreneur.
Audience engagement
Audience engagement is key to success. This can be achieved in various ways:
Build a community: Enable readers to interact with each other through forums, discussions.
Personalized content: Use data analysis to tailor content. This changes the lens with which the reader views the story.
Interactive content: Polls, comments can be used to encourage reader participation.
The path ahead for independent journalism
Independent journalism has a vital role to play in ensuring healthy democracy and providing checks and balances. This is the best time and worst time for journalism. Internet/technology and the easy availability of information means great opportunities. But everybody has the power to broadcast. So, voices can get drowned. It is even more important that we recognize the value of quality content and nurture independent journalism.
The Morning Context
The Morning Context is positioned as a global news media company. Subscriptions are the only source of revenue.
The Morning Context offers incisive analysis and not surface level coverage. It is meant for young upwardly mobile people who want to make the right decisions and want to grow in their career. They have less time but have the money to consume quality content.
Why does The Morning Context exist? No Indian media entrepreneur has built a global financial news media company, the likes of which we have come across in the West, like Bloomberg from the USA or the Financial Times from the UK.
Even as India became younger, with more economic opportunities and Indians became global, most Indian news media entrepreneurs, (Think of The Times of India group, the Bhartiyas of HT Media Group, Goenkas of The Indian Express Group, Business Standard owned by Uday Kotak, Network 18 owned by Reliance and NDTV, owned by the Adani group) have publications which are largely local. These entrepreneurs have not capitalised on the opportunity provided by the Internet to build a global digital media company.
Size of the opportunity
The target segment consists of:
- Young, upwardly mobile Indians living in India.
- Global Indians.
- Foreign companies and institutions doing business in India, the world's fifth largest economy.
The estimated market size is 250,000 paying readers with an average revenue per user of $30 per year.
Currently there are 140,000 email subscribers of whom about 12-15% are paying customers. Subscription revenues are growing at double digit year on year. The Morning Context is just 10% away from reaching a critical mass.
The articles published by The Morning Context are read by senior execs and businessmen and quoted by reputed media.
Assumptions
The Morning Context has been built on the back of 5 key assumptions:
- The target segment wants financial information which helps them grow in their career or profit from this information.
- The target segment has less time and likes to get the news quickly.
- The target segment can pay for content.
- Incumbents have poor balance sheets and incentive so they cannot go after the target segment.
- Global media companies will never enter India to serve this target segment.
Clear focus
Some of the key tenets of The Morning Context are:
- Subscriptions led. Everything is behind a paywall.
- Fewer stories. Only 3 stories are published every day, 6 days of the week. The number is small since in-depth stories take time to prepare and also to read.
- 100% digital and focus only on business, technology and economic affairs coverage. This is what the target segment will pay for.
- Taking a stand and not sitting on the fence.
Competitive positioning
The following diagram captures the competitive positioning of The Morning Context.
Q&A
While working at Mint, Mr Saha, who had already written on a range of topics (and many of his founding team members) were bored. He and his cofounders felt something was inherently wrong. They wanted to solve the problem.
Mr Saha and the other founders realized that subscription driven model was the way forward. There would be no dependence on advertising or corporate houses. Investors would have no say in what was written. There would be more accountability and less of press release journalism.
Mr Saha joked that he often tells young people not to become journalists. On a more serious note, people should realize that journalism is not fun. One may have to start with night shifts. Mr Saha himself worked 4 pm – 2 am shifts in the Deccan Chronicle. The thrill in journalism comes much later in the career after identifying the niche in which one can excel.
But for the right people there is an opportunity to analyse and point out what is wrong. For example, Mr Saha noticed that in the edtech sector, a lot of money was flowing in. But it was not clear what was being done with the money. That is what attracted Mr Saha’s attention. So, journalism is ideal for people who are unhappy with the status quo and want to do something about it.
Independent journalism is tough. How do we get the money? The shift from mainstream towards independent journalism is happening but it is not such a big shift. It is similar to parallel cinema vs mainstream cinema.
it takes time to appreciate the difference between advertising driven and independent journalism. Many people become comfortable with ad driven journalism.
Enrolling paid subscribers is not easy. Many readers do not want to pay for the content even when they have the money. Mr Saha quoted a recent experience in this regard.
It is unfair on the part of readers to expect free content. If the traditional media had been doing a good job, they would have got this kind of content. There would have been no need for independent journalism and paid content.
But the traditional media has failed. They are more focused on making advertisers happy. That is why we see long press releases by companies like Mankind. Mr Saha wondered how such press releases even qualify as stories. So, independent journalism must be supported by paying for content.
One reader mentioned that he likes to get information from 15 publications. But he cannot take paid subscriptions to all of them. What is the solution? Mr Saha felt that if we are not in a hurry, we can wait for a series of good articles to be covered in one publication. Then we can subscribe only to this publication for just one month and unsubscribe afterwards.
KEN has reached a decent size. Scroll, which is based on donations, is also doing well. Alt news is also based on donations. Ravish Kumar has made a mark. Then we have Druv Rathee who has identified important problems and spoken about them the way they should be spoken. Another example is Akash Banerjee. Globally, Guardian (based on donations) is a good example.
Readers can register on the Morning Context website and log in. Every morning, they get a slice of the story by email. To read the full stories, they must pay.
At Morning Context, the focus is on editorials. The philosophy is to let the stories do the talking. Through the stories on Byjus, mobility, etc, The Morning Context has established a good reputation. Word of mouth is the best publicity. Mr Saha feels it does not make sense to splurge money on marketing. There is no need to reach out to the masses and be known by everyone.
The Morning Context wants to build customer loyalty by becoming a one stop shop and by making reading its news items a daily habit. This will not happen overnight.
Pressure cannot be avoided. Lawyers call up and threaten action. Others try to influence (and sometimes even offer to pay) what is being written. The Morning Context is currently facing three lawsuits across India. Independent journalism is not easy! But The Morning Context has not succumbed to pressure so far.
It is not the case that The Morning Context covers only what is wrong. He gave the examples of a social worker who operates an ambulance on NH 24 and also a skater. These stories did gain traction. But right things are right. They do not need to be corrected. It is the wrong things that need to be corrected. Of course, they also get the attention of the readers and go viral more easily.
Why is it that in India we are so reluctant to question the government? Mr Saha felt that this has not been the case always. There was a time when it was quite common to criticize the government. Recall Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure. But in the last 10 years, the practice has stopped. We no longer have the spine. But we will regrow it over time.
It is important to bring on board people who understand the vision and the values of the organization. They should like what is being done. Naturally, scaling up is not easy with this kind of a model.