Despite the pandemic’s terrible impact on print publications, it has had a superiority. It has given propulsion to their digital parallel. While the passage of many newspapers immerses during the first wave of the pandemic, more editors flocked to their websites for their daily dose of news.
The Business grade was also badly hit by the pandemic, and rumors were spreading that the virus may spread through contact with the newspaper. During the first wave of the widespread in 2020, the motion was down to almost 10%. While it has to recover up to 90% of its pre-pandemic levels, its digital supporter base has also been growing rapidly.
Sachin Phansikar, COO, Business grade, says in the next three to five years, the digital supporter will overtake print subscriptions.
Phansikar says the business daily is now on a growth route. He assumes double-digit growth for both print and digital. “Print its size should increase around 10-11%. And digital will be a bit higher,”
The almost five-decade-old organization is inscription towards becoming a digital-first proclamation. The website issues stories around 300 per day. Around 27 to 30 stories of these are opinion segments or analytical segments and are behind a paywall.
Business Standard was one of the first ordinary Indian newspapers to launch a paywall in 2016. Today, 85% of the income comes from advertising and 15% comes from supporters. Its other sources of income are through events and video shows.
The website attracts over 15 million unique visitants every month. It claims to be ‘the highest such number for any detached business newspaper website in India’. In a competitive market, editorial quality alone cannot bring in the bibliomaniac. A lot of the gush can be ascribed to its video shows. Nowadays Business Standard runs two shows- The Morning Show and The Banking Show.
“Almost 35% of the digital content is video now. So they launched those video shows which can be articulated on our website and on social media things. We ensure that we continue to settle with their position in the readers’ mind space
Business Standard is currently focussing on managing more events. Currently, since the events are held online, it would take to collect less than 5% of the income. But it is designed to increase it to 5-10% soon. More than revenue, it’s a great way to showcase our strength and leadership.
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