Digital News Media – India and Enterprise WordPress – VIP

Overview

A new study from the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford and my interactions with several news media organisations and thought leaders, over the last few months underscores why it’s such an exciting time for digital news media in India, with WordPress in a very strong position to drive wider adoption, and continue its mission to democratize publishing.

India already has 530 million smartphone users: that’s more than double the number in the United States, and that number is set to double again by 2022. Americans currently consume 16 times more data per person than Indians: but India’s digital energy consumption is predicted to grow at twice the global average for next 4 years.

Print is Proof

Many countries see digital growth as the salvation of declining print media. But the situation in India is quite different, with steady growth in print circulation of newspapers over many years, led by both English and regional media.

Regional newspapers - 7 times bigger in print circulation over English newspapers (176mn vs 26mn) and also growing much faster. Ongoing “Print is Proof” campaign by top newspapers across India, is a testimony to print media’s continued pre-eminence.

Mobile phones - Digital media growth driver

Many attribute the growth of the Indian digital audience, to innovations in the mobile space. 76% of traffic is accessed by mobile devices and 31% use “only” mobile devices to read news online, higher than any other country, according to the Reuters Institute report.

The digital news market has been expanded by many factors while entry of Jio mobile services stands out, as it brought down average price of data from Rs.152 ($2.20) to just Rs.10 ($0.14) per GB since its launch in September 2016. Jio also got 100 million subscribers in first 170 days of launch, bringing the internet within the reach of a larger proportion of the Indian population.

Digital media landscape

Traditional newspapers are gearing up their digital presence for internet news and opinion leadership, while news aggregators/apps and new age digital websites, mostly set up and led by editors/journalists from traditional media, with a specific focus on a region, vertical, and specific interest groups, are also making their mark.

There is a huge headroom for digital news media growth through twin engines of,

User engagement: Indian internet users ranked 14th in the world for user engagement, at 108 minutes per month, will improve with better technology and model.

Revenue generation: Strong double digit growth outlook in digital media advertisement over next 3-5 years, which is being chased with analytics and content to commerce initiatives.

Collaboration by top news media companies

The creation of a Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), bringing together ten of India’s biggest media companies, points to growing recognition within the industry of the importance and revenue potential of the digital publishing space. DNPA brings focus on providing credible news across languages and also aims to promote business and editorial interests of its members.

Enterprise WordPress - VIP

Digital news/media companies and publishers in India pursue various business models, ranging from paid subscribers to advertisers focused to mix of advertiser support and paid subscriber or creating a niche model, can leverage the power of WordPress CMS.

Enterprise WordPress – VIP, with its growing data centre, partner, community, support and manpower presence in India, and a platform proven at the most extreme scale, is keen to enable established publishers and new challengers, to make the most of WordPress and global VIP expertise.