8/11/2019 Touchstone'14_Prelim Caselet_The Shillong Times (1)

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The Shillong Times

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The Shillong Times was established on 10th August 1945---the day UN was born! It is the secondoldest English Daily of the Northeast, second only to The Assam Tribune of Guwahati. Althoughin the beginning The Shillong Times used to be for the entire (undivided) Assam, postReorganization of the State and creation of the State of Meghalaya in 1972, this Daily has beencatering to the readers of Meghalaya mainly.

The daily enjoys a huge credibility at all levels. Thanks to the Editors who stood out withtheir exceptional qualities and skills. It is not out of place to mention that of its four Editors, twohave been conferred with Padmashri Award.

With its 12-broadsheet pages (Two color pages), The Shillong Times has a paid upcirculation of 32k+ (ABC Certificate 2014). For a 3-million-population State, the figure appears tobe a fair one, especially when considered in the light of the following factors:

a) The sparse population density of some 500 persons per sq. km.

b) Difficult terrain and geographical location of the land-locked State bordering as she doeswith Bangladesh on two sides and Assam on the other two.

c) Poor communication system obtaining in the State. There is no Railway service. Roadcommunication is challenging and time-consuming in the hill terrains. It takes 8 to 15 hours toreach some of the District Towns from Shillong. Obviously, there is a low outreach.

d) Low English readership. The rural tribal folks who constitute 80% of the State population,prefer to read language dailies rather than English Daily.

The management is putting in thoughts into starting a new Printing Press in Guwahati forexpansion plans.

Few other problems also include absence of aggressive marketing method, negligible market

share, owing to the limited appeal of the paper for the advertisers from the rest of the countrykeeping the ad share 40% less compared to the dailies from neighboring Assam.

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The Shillong Times has a sister publication "Salantini Janera", the only Garo daily of the world. Ithas a steady circulation of about 15k, but has no takers when it comes to ads on consumer goods.The house had a Bengali daily published from Guwahati (Songbad Lahari). After surviving for fiveyears, the Daily was closed down owing lack of circulation and ad revenue. The Company incurredheavy losses in this venture.

Against this backdrop, it will have to be admitted that The Shillong Times has not been able toattain its optimum market share of readership and ad revenue.

The challenge is to draw a road map for making the Shillong Times better known in the rest ofthe country; to improve its share of revenue by way of commercial and government ads; buildup circulation base beyond Meghalaya's territories (especially North-East), look for opportunitiesin new product categories.