The economic slowdown has hit many industries and the media industry is no exception. Apurva Purohit, President of Jagran Prakashan Group, adapted accordingly. Her company has been making it to the Great Places To Work list for the past several years, an achievement she is proud of, but wonders whether it has been good for business. "Just because we want to be a great place to work, we have often been softer in our approach," she says. When revenue generation became a challenge, she felt aggression was needed. "I used to tell my team to be collaborative and not be aggressive. Today, I tell them to be hugely aggressive. Soft collaboration to hard negotiation is a big mindset change."
Over the past year, Purohit has been focussing on maximising revenue monetisation, for which she has developed a 360-degree synergy across businesses (print, radio and digital). "I am not in favour of selling businesses together because I think it cannibalises various businesses. But clients are asking for 360-degree solutions as their budgets are tight too."
Purohit believes slowdowns are an opportunity to bring the house in order. In the past few months, costs have been pruned and focus on quality increased. "We are re-launching Sunday Mid-day. Even in digital (which she claims has grown 35 per cent last year), we have put many quality parameters. It's not just about page views or unique users; we are also trying to get them to pay by offering best-in-class content."