Six newspapers join hands: None of us is as strong as all of us

Hindustan Times, Hindustan, The Telegraph, Ananda Bazaar Patrika, The Hindu and The Hindu (Tamil) have come together to create One India , a platform that will allow advertisers the ability to negotiate and buy space in these publications through a single window.

“Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director, HT Media Ltd., said, “The idea behind OneIndia is to provide an unduplicated reach like never before, along with a single-window service, in order to invite non-print and infrequent print advertisers to experience and profit from the significant benefits of print advertising.,” MXM reported .

The proposition is interesting, and while details are not available, one presumes that savings will accrue to the advertisers through the joint buy.

Currently, the platform has signed on 11 companies/brands: Godrej, Amul, Kelloggs, Britannia, Morgan Stanley, Garnier, Fortune (oil), ICICI Lombard and Marico.

The idea of targeting non-print and infrequent or low print advertisers makes sense, as these brands will not cannibalise higher yield existing spenders.

It is the logistics of the exercise that will be daunting, unless, of course, advertisers are willing to give the newspapers some leeway in either position or date of release or both. For example, if Britannia wanted to advertise on page 1 on May 15 and that position has already been sold by one or more of the 6 papers, Britannia might be asked to shift to another page or move the data around till it is convenient. Similarly, in the case of smaller units, getting simultaneous positions such as top of column will pose challenges.

Obviously, it is the full pages inside that will be the easiest to accommodate and fulfil.

The coming together will benefit the newest newspaper in the consortium, The Hindu (Tamil), the most as the paper is still being sampled by both reader and advertiser. Hindustan Times Mumbai edition will be another gainer in this tie-up.

Much of the success will depend on the consortium’s ability to quickly resolve the accommodation issues that will certainly arise. But there is no doubt that the only benefit that brands will look for is that they get rates which give them enough reasons to include some of these newspapers in a plan where, without the offer, they might not have done.

One India seems to have figured that all six members would gain from this coming together. In essence, they say, “none of us is as strong as all of us”. What clients will want to hear is “all of them make more business sense than some of them.”