TRIVANDRUM: Circulation and advertisement was the subject of today’s [Aug 18] lecture by Mr. C.R. Srinivasan of the “Swadesmitran”, Madras, under the auspices of the Travancore University at the Jubilee Town Hall. He started with the theme that the majority of newspaper readers in India did not pay for their copies.

In India, it had been estimated that every copy of a popular daily might on an average claim as many as ten readers. He added that the majority that did pay, paid less than the cost of production. The answer to this riddle lay in the advertisement columns. To establish a newspaper under modern conditions of mass production and competitive service, a very large investment by way of mechanical equipment was called for. In India we had a long way to travel yet before we could equal the progress in the West but very definitely, we had reached the stage when newspaper enterprise had assumed the proportions of a large scale industry … How far the invasion of hard-headed businessmen in a field of service calling for the best that men of ideals and character could give [bodes well] to the spirit of newspaper venture, it was early yet to judge. — New Delhi

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2019