NEW DELHI: The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and News Broadcasters Association have told the apex court that the central and state governments should pay up arrears of hundreds of crores of rupees that they owe to newspapers as advertisement money.
“As per various industry estimates, Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) owes between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,800 crore to various media companies. A large chunk of this Rs 800-900 crore is owed to the print industry alone. Such amounts have been outstanding for several months and there is little prospect of realising the same any time soon,” the INS said in response to petitions filed by journalists associations.
It also said print medias advertisement revenue has hit rock-bottom in the aftermath of the lockdown. The print media thrives on the advertisement expenditure of industries like e-commerce, finance and automobiles, all of which had been hit by the lockdown.
“The newsprint cost of a newspaper establishment is about 40-60% of its expenses while wages are about 20-30% of the expense. The net circulation revenue, which is the cover price of a newspaper, covers only a small portion of the total cost. Hence, the lifeblood of a newspaper is revenue from advertisements,” the INS said.
The industry body also blamed the government for the “drastically reduced advertising much prior to the crisis”, attributing the reduced advertising as the reason for several papers being forced to reduce the number of pages in their editions. The INS has also argued that many newspapers were compelled to shut thRead More – Source
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