By Vincent Van Ross

Many of us buy a lot of newspaper and magazines these days—not because we need them. Not even because we read them. It is not a decision we take on our own. I do not know about the other parts of the world but, in India, it is a decision that the media tycoons are out to lure us into.

There are many media groups that are into publication of newspapers and periodicals. And, they have a whole chain of newspapers and magazines up their product line. If you buy one newspaper, it costs you Rs.3.00. If you purchase another newspaper worth Rs.3.00 from the same group, the combo price would be something like Rs.4.50 or Rs.5.00. That is quite an incentive, isn’t it?

It is not the newspaper vendor who takes care of all your newspaper requirements anymore. Newspapers carry out door-to-door canvassing these days. Particularly,…during summer months when they can rope in school and college students for their sales campaigns for peanuts.

Take the case of a tabloid sized daily newspaper which was launched last year as a collaborative effort between two rival newspaper groups in the capital. First, I was approached by a sales person who sold me an annual subscription at Rs.25.00 per month which would have cost me Rs.45.00 a month if I purchased the same from my newspaper vendor. To tell you the truth, I was never interested in the tabloid sized daily. It was the overnight bag signed by the cricket sensation of that time which was being offered as a gift with the subscription that clinched the deal!

A couple of months down the line, one of the two newspaper groups offered the same tabloid sized daily for free with its newspaper. A few months later, the other newspaper group followed suit and offered the same tabloid sized daily for free with its newspaper. There could have been duplication of this tabloid daily. But, our newspaper vendor saved us the trouble. He never gave us the free copies on some pretext or the other.

Then, there are groups publishing anything between two and half-a-dozen magazines. If you subscribe to one of their magazines for a year, you would be paying just two-third of its price on newsstands. Not only that, you would also be entitled to a free gift.
If you decide on an annual subscription for two magazines the subscription rate would go down further in terms of percentage cost. In addition to that, you would get a more expensive gift to go with it. And, so on…

You could pick up several different magazines dealing with different themes at a bargain price. In one case, you could pick up six different magazines dealing with politics, business, travel, lifestyle and so on for less than Rs.4,000.00 per year from a group. And, you would get a gift worth more than Rs.4,000.00. What more could you ask for?

Believe it or not, I get four newspapers and half-a-dozen magazines every month. That is not to say that I need or read all of them! I simply do not have the time to go through all of them. Then, why am I buying them? The newspapers arrive at a subsidized rate. The magazines come for free because I have already got a gift which is worth more than the amount of the cheque I mail to them. At the end of the month, I am happy…and, so is the junk dealer who buys old newspapers and magazines from me?!

Just look at how the media tycoons have altered your buying pattern. You need a flask; or, a watch; or, a sports shoe; or, a travel iron; or, a travel bag; or, a telephone instrument with caller ID and you don’t buy any of these. Instead, you subscribe to a magazine which offers these as a gift with its subscription. Sometimes you don’t even need what they are offering. Yet, you subscribe to a magazine just because you like the free gift that goes with it.

But, how do these publishers manage to offer you their publications for free. The secret lies in their advertisement strategy. If these magazines approach you for subscriptions without any incentives, you would not subscribe to half of them. So, with the gifts they offer, they manage to hook you and get your subscription. Once they have you and the others on their subscribers’ list, they can negotiate with their advertisers armed with the number of subscribers they have because as far as the advertisers are concerned, subscribers are committed readers.

I may or may not read these newspapers and magazines. That is not an issue with the advertisers. Nor is it an issue with the publishers. For, them the ultimate revenue is all that matters. And, it is all advertisement-driven!