Yes, it’s a newspaper cover price war. Delhi-ites will remember that some years ago a similar war broke out when The Times of India came out with a reduced ‘invitation’ price of Rs. 1.50. Its main (and only) rival in Delhi, the Hindustan Times followed suit and for quite some months, Delhi-ites had the best of both worlds at a little more than the price of one.

History repeated itself this month when The Times of India (TOI) went back to its old price of Rs. 1.50 on weekdays (Monday to Saturday) and it wasn’t long before the Hindustan Times (HT) followed suit. It is not clear what brought on the attack by TOI, but media observers believe that it has crept up very close to HT’s circulation and the present battle is to give the HT one final push and relegate it to No. 2 in Delhi. This is based on the fact that HT, the unarguable leader in Delhi, saw its lead over TOI going down to a shaky 40,000 odd copies (TOI 879,617; HT 920,492—ABC Report July-Dec. 2001). TOI is believed to have seen an opportunity here to dethrone HT in Delhi once and for all.

Some background for lay readers is necessary. The battle is for only the Delhi edition of the two newspapers. But, Delhi edition does not mean papers sold only in Delhi or the NCR. TOI initiated the strategy of publishing ‘Delhi’ editions from various places in the country to swell the Delhi City edition figures. HT at first decried this practice but following the precept "If you can’t fight them, join them" also spread its ‘Delhi’ edition to various upcountry locations. Actually, if one looks at actual sales in Delhi only, HT sells 550,393 copies and TOI 500, 114, the latter just 50,000 behind. Since both papers are now back to square one, the fight this time is restricted to Delhi alone, there is no change, so far, in the cover price of ‘Delhi’ editions outside Delhi.

What is surprising, however, is that there was no indication at all that the Times of India was girding itself up for war. In fact, it had jacked up the price of its Monday and Wednesday editions from Rs. 1.50 to Rs. 2.00. The Hindustan Times had also raised its price from Rs. 2 on four weekdays. TOI also ran an aggressive promotion for three months recently with gifts for people caught carrying the paper on the streets extended, later, to keeping the newspaper at home when a surprise visit by a TOI man would entitle the household to a gift. Nowhere during this intensive promotion campaign was there any hint that TOI contemplated a price war.

Observers comments indicate that TOI probably found that the promotion was not being as effective as anticipated and, therefore, a more direct assault on enemy territory was warranted.

That the two newspapers intend to find it out to the bitter end is indicated by the changes in the pricing of the Sunday edition. TOI had made its invitation offer on weekday editions only. The price of the Sunday edition remained at Rs. 2.90. When HT joined battle with TOI, it not only met the weekday edition price cut head-on, it promised its readers a surprise on Sunday. This turned out to be a reduction in cover price from Rs. 3.50 to Rs. 2.75. It also announced a contest (restricted to readers in Delhi and the NCR). The contest starts from July 14 and details have yet to be announced. TOI, which sells its Sunday edition at Rs. 2.90, refused to be cowed down. It upped the ante by reducing the cover price of its Sunday edition to Rs. 2. As of writing, HT has not reacted to this.

R. Sundar, Director, Times Group, explaining why it started the price war said, frankly, "because it sells better and brings in more subscribers." He said that, although in monthly pay-out terms, the difference was hardly Rs. 10 which is not very attractive to the affluent Delhi-ite, it was good for the reader since it forced HT to also reduce its cover price. He had no convincing explanation, however, of why TOI increased the price of two mid-week editions to Rs. 2 if it was going to reduce it again so soon. Observers say, however, that the increase in the cover price by TOI of two weekday editions had probably gone unnoticed by the majority of Delhi-ites, so little difference did it make to their monthly bill.

Obviously, it is going to be a dog-eat-dog battle, with each newspaper trying to bleed the other to the point where it starts hurting. However, as both of them are very well-heeled, this could be a long and weary battle. Meanwhile, media observers feel that with circulation in Delhi having, more or less, reached the saturation point, neither paper was likely to gain significantly. In fact, they feel that while there is no major benefit for readers or the battling papers themselves, the industry, per se, is likely to bear a huge adverse impact. Decrease in cover prices has, necessarily, to be covered by a higher ad tariff. But since circulation is expected to go up only marginally because of the lower cover price while ad rates are increased, both the papers will definitely find their ads going down. It may even result in more ads going to the electronic media.

In fact, it is the considered opinion of the knowledgeable here that raising circulation in a saturated market depends more on better content and presentation of news than on the cover price. Newspaper cover prices in Delhi are, probably, the lowest in India. They are definitely much, much lower than those in Srilanka, Pakistan or Bangladesh where papers sell for the equivalent of Indian Rs. 10 each. There is, therefore, scope for raising the cover price rather than reducing it. Reader resistance is not likely in view of the very small dent the monthly cost of paper makes in the monthly domestic budget.

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