‘Timing is everything in the media business’, says India Today Group Chairman Aroon Purie

“Timing is everything in the media business and then you look to fill the information gap,” said Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-In-Chief, India Today Group. The media tycoon and pioneer was delivering the Subhas Ghosal Memorial Lecture 2022, organised by the AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) and the Subhas Ghosal Foundation, in Mumbai.

Reflecting on his 47 years in the media, Purie spoke of how his journey has been “a series of coincidences, accidents, happenstances and dumb luck”. Be it the way in which he stumbled into the printing press business when, by Purie’s own admission, he was living a good life in London; or how India Today magazine was initially targeted at NRIs (non-resident Indians) who wanted a taste of India. His grounding as a chartered accountant helped him take a good, hard look at the printing press (Thomson Press), leading to the realisation that to make money, “it would need its own work”. This was a high capex business with every job being different. “Idle time was killing it and that was the challenge,” said Purie.

In the case of India Today magazine, which was launched in 1975, the first big opportunity came in early 1977 when censorship was lifted after the Emergency. “The next two years, with a new government, allowed us to do very different stories, which was a marked difference from the dull newspaper reports. The magazine in colour was very appealing to the reader,” he recalled. The unique storytelling effort paid off handsomely – the magazine’s circulation shot up from a mere 15,000 copies in the beginning of 1977 to 100,000 by the end of the year.

The other turning point came in 1980 when the magazine predicted the outcome of the general elections using psephology. “We got it right and it greatly enhanced the credibility of the magazine,” he said.

Since inception, the group has launched 56 magazines across genres. On the matter of right timing, Purie picked the instance of Business Today, which hit the stands in 1992. “We were up against Business India (then market leader), but managed to do well,” recalled Purie. A changing India with a new government ushering in economic reforms helped in Business Today’s success story.

Referring to the success of Aaj Tak, the 24x7 Hindi news channel that has been India’s top news channel for several years, Purie said it started off as a 10 pm slot on Doordarshan (the state news channel of India) in 1995 before the launch five years later. “Newstrack (a monthly video news magazine) came about in 1988 and politicians were then not used to television journalism. It was a novel idea that worked very well and we learnt a lot about the medium,” he said.

But things have changed in the media landscape. Talking about print media in his address, Purie said that media is too cheap in India – something he termed ‘raddi economics’. “The newspaper is virtually free to the consumer based on what I call raddi economics. The consumer sells to the raddiwala the week's newspaper for more than what he pays for it. Also, I may add that this is perhaps the only product I know the consumer stops consuming, but the supply does not stop. So, people have stopped reading newspapers, but the paper keeps arriving because it costs nothing to the household,” he said.

He said that this creates dependence on advertising, and the media’s pliability to the wishes of the advertiser or the government.

Broadcast media too, he said, has policy shortcomings. Purie said that after the launch of satellite TV in the early 90s, there was an opportunity to set up a well-organised cable distribution system but the government only woke up when there were over 100,000 cable operators illegally rolling out cables in colonies.

The government, through TRAI, has now regulated the price of channels. But the governments of today, said Purie, think that it is the constitutional right of the citizens to get cheap cable connections. “This is just political populism,” he said.

From the past, Purie then moved to the future, and displayed his sharp understanding and acumen for the evolving nature of journalism and media. The future, according to Purie, will be about the digital revolution, where technology is continuously improving, and with multimedia at the core of the new experience. “Journalism is a noble profession and should serve society well. India is not just unique and different but extremely fascinating. A free press is essential for its survival,” he said, before mentioning that the India Today Group has launched 21 digital channels under the stewardship of Kallie Purie, Vice Chairperson, India Today Group. To his mind, nothing is as important as credibility. “Using advertising as editorial means you are destroying credibility,” he pointed out.

On what worked for him in his successful innings in the media, Purie said he did four things right. “Coming from an auditing background, I asked the right questions. Besides, I have always thought like an average reader,” he explained. The other two key attributes were “a passion for work and not having any preconceived ideas or agendas.”

Ideal attributes to imbibe for any leader in the media business.