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PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry will organize its first Media Summit: The Rise of Indian Language Newspapers & The Techtide on 13^th September at the PHD House. Print media is the oldest and among the strongest segments of media and communications in the country. As per industry estimates, the sector grew 20 per cent in 2021. In terms of revenue, it was at approximately INR 240 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to INR 250 billion in 2024.

Mr Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, will grace the summit as the Chief Guest. Mr Saket Dalmia, President, PHDCCI will deliver a special address at the summit. He will highlight the efforts of PHDCCI in general, acting as a catalyst for the Industry-government relations and the Media and Communications sectors in particular. This is an important and growing vertical within PHDCCI. The summit is being supported by the Dainik Bhaskar Group and its Deputy Managing Director Mr Pawan Agarwal who chairs the Media and Communications Committee of PHDCCI and The Times of India Group and its COO Mr Mohit Jain who Co-chairs the Committee.

The summit will see participation from a large number of media and communications institutes in Delhi NCR. These include the media departments of Amity University Noida; Manav Rachna University Faridabad; GD Goenka University Gurgaon; Sharda University Noida; IGNOU; Jamia Milia Islamia; Delhi Metropolitan Education; Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication; Lady Shri Ram College New Delhi and Trinity Institute of Professional Studies Dwarka.

Rise of the Vernacular Readership

The first session will be held from 11:30 hrs. to 12:30 hrs. and will focus on the importance of Indian language newspapers. Regional newspapers garner a higher percentage of advertising revenues than English newspapers. As per 2021 estimates, in 2021 Hindi newspapers bagged 40 per cent of advertising revenues compared to 25 per cent in English newspapers. This session will be moderated by Mr. Vipin Gupta, MD and Senior Partner, BCG. The panellists at the session will be Mr Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group; Mr Tanmay Maheshwari, Managing Director, Amar Ujala; Mr I. Venkat, Director, Eenadu and Mr Dhruba Mukherjee, CEO, ABP Group.

Attracting readership with quality editorial content

The second session will be held between 12:30 hrs. to 13:15 hrs., wherein the session’s primary goal will be to underscore the significance of quality and captivating editorial content and how it becomes the fundamental differentiator for media houses or publishers in an age of information overload. Even though expanding distribution networks is the key to the expansion of the publication footprint, it is the editorial material which plays a critical role in capturing and holding readers' attention. The session also aims to demonstrate how reader’s trust and loyalty are maintained by providing them with quality editorial content that needs creativity and skilfulness. The session will be moderated by Mr Sumit Awasthi, Consulting Editor, NDTV. The panellists at the session will include Mr Pratap Somvanshi, Managing Editor, Hindustan, Mr Lakshmi Pant, National Editor, DB Group, Mr Vinod Agnihotri, Consulting Editor, Amar Ujala.

Changing Advertising Trends: A Key to Revenue Generation

The third session will be held between 13:15 hrs. to 14:00 hrs. and it will aim to understand how media houses generate revenue for their sustenance as mere newsstand sales are not enough. As per industry estimates, while media houses earned INR 79.5 billion through circulation of copies in 2022, they got INR 161.2 billion through advertisements. This session will apprise the participants of how media houses utilize various sources of advertisements, hence tapping on not only their readers but also various brands that seek newspapers as profitable platforms to advertise their products. This session will be moderated by Ms Smita Jha, Media Consultant, Ex PwC and HT. The panellists in this session will include Mr Kaustav Chatterjee, Director Brand, Times of India; Mr Sanjay Joshi, Chief Business Officer, DB Group; Ms Hema Malik, COO, Lodestar; Mr Sushant Kumar, Marketing Head, Byju’s and Mr Naved Choudhary, Head, Marketing and Public Relations, Ingram Micro.

Significance of Free of Speech in Media

The fourth session will be held between 15:00 hrs. to 15:45 hrs. The session will deliberate on the importance and difficulties of free speech along with how it contributes to healthy public dialogue, protects individual liberties, and addresses issues like hate speech, false information, and the digital era. It highlights how free expression and appropriate communication must coexist in modern society. This session will be moderated by Mr Mohit Jain, Co-Chair Media & Communication Committee and COO, of Bennett & Coleman Company Limited. The panellists will include Ms Nalini Singh, Managing Director, TV Live India; Ms. Kaveree Bamzai, Media Consultant and former Editor, India Today; Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman and editor-in-chief, Businessworld and Mr. Rahul Shivshankar, Consulting Editor, Newwork18.

Technology as the Key Driver of News Consumption

The fifth and the last session will be held between 15:45 hrs. and 16:30 hrs. The session will aim to understand and explore the significance of technology in augmenting news consumption and readership. According to Comscore data, there were 467 million unique online news consumers in 2021. While a significant percentage of it was due to the lockdown, reading habits have changed for good in the past two years. At present a sizable portion of news is available online. The largest news platform in the world in this age is on technological platforms, demonstrating the extent of technology's influence on the news industry. What this entails for established media companies will be covered in detail in this session. There are two speakers in this session, Mr Sandeep Amar, Founder, of PDLab. and Mr Puneet Singhvi, CEO, of Network18.