Shaping the future of the Newspaper.... Review on Advertisements in Newspapers

The free press is the mother of all liberties, and our progress under liberty.

by Adlai Stevenson

How we define a Newspaper:

'Newspaper' means any paper, magazine or periodical containing public news, intelligence or reports of events, or any remarks or observations thereon, printed for sale and published periodically or in parts or numbers, at intervals not exceeding thirty-one days between the publication of any two such papers, parts or numbers, and any paper, magazine or periodical printed in order to be dispersed and made public, weekly or more often, or at intervals not exceeding thirty-one days, that contains advertisements, exclusively or principally. [R.S., c.C-34, s.261.** Courtesy: https://efc.ca/pages/law/cc/cc.297.html

(n.) A sheet of paper printed and distributed, at stated intervals, for conveying intelligence of passing events, advocating opinions, etc.; a public print that circulates news, advertisements, proceedings of legislative bodies, public announcements, etc. **Courtesy: https://brainydictionary.com/words/ne/newspaper193999.html

A weekly or daily publication consisting of folded sheets and containing articles on the news, features, reviews, and advertisements. **Source: The Collins English Dictionary © 2000 HarperCollins Publishers.

The most important factor is that newspapers are businesses and businesses meant to be profitable. To make profit they should have readers, greater the circulation, the more advertising a paper can sell – which means more profit to the business. So, newspapers need to balance the needs to provide us with the most up-to-date information like news, features, the weather, sports etc.

Apart from this, there are two more important factors which govern the economics of the newspaper business are:

The higher-income readers(they are more attracted to advertisers) and

The lower-income readers(they build higher circulations).

Now lets have a look at the following:

Making of a Newspaper - Three key participants who are responsible for creating a newspaper are:

One: Newspaper Investors

Two: Newspaper Editors

Three: Consumer or Readers *

They together, make a newspaper Successful and Reachable to masses. Now lets see what role do they play in the making?

Both The EDITORS and the INVESTORS see its news-editorial staff in a different way. The Investor, today is focussed on the bottom line and to an Editor, the staff's main concern/emphasis is on its Commercialisation over the quality. For them the newspaper should be a viable commercial product. Therefore, they create the influence that makes the newspaper more viable commercially. For any product to be of commercial value, Advertisement is the only source of Income as well as its circulation. To be successful in the market, one has to follow certain rules:

1. Competition within the market(One should be capable of competing with his Rivals);

   
   




2. Commercial value of the product(From Editor's and Investor's point of view, it should carry highest commercial value);

   
   




3. Meeting demands of the consumer(Consumer's Motto-Quality is the priority);

   
   




4. Circulation of the product(Should reach out to the maximum number of people).*

   
   

Earlier the principle of Print Media was If you succeed the industry succeeds.Now the definition of success has changed. The emphasis is mainly on its commercialisation. Today the scenario has totally changed. It is more market-motivated, which creates an environment that is undemanding, unchallenging and pacifying.' It is the proprietor who has become more important than the editor.' Editors, these days prefer to seek other's opinion rather than giving their opinions. And thanks to that, their attention has shifted from quality to vulgarity and sex to make it more appealing and acceptable by advertising various products.

Advertisements in the current scenario make up a big part of a newspaper. So newspapers not only have to worry about what readers want to see in the paper but they also have to satisfy the needs of the advertisers. The advertisers use “tricks” to sell their products like colours, logos, emotions, and celebrity endorsements. They also pay special attention to the language used to describe products and their functions. The language used sometimes is vulgar and they exaggerate to make the product seem better? Most of the advertisements are not honestly described. They usually mislead the consumer.

Though as a reader we all understand that ADVERTISEMENT is one of the essential parts of a Newspaper. Hence, cannot be avoided.

But the commercialisation of newspapers, in short is alarming. Indian media has completely shifted from its sole ideology which is to create awareness among the citizens to commercialisation of news. It’s the beauty contest that makes the  headline of a front page of a daily newspaper and not droughts, flood etc. Or it is some scandulous news that makes the headline, highly politicised by media until the next such news comes into limelight.

What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising?

Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public.

by Vilhjalmur Stefansson(1879-1962), 'Discovery', 1964.

Comments awaited.

Kalyaniraat. 2003.