Chapter 6

EVOLUTION AND GROWTH OF MALAYALAM PRESS:

A CASE STUDY

INTRODUCTION

We observed in Chapter 2 that the regional newspapers played a critical role in the freedom

struggle. However, their growth during that period was retarded for obvious reasons. For one

thing, newspaper reading as a ~abit was limited only to the educated elite who depended

almost entirely on English language for intellectual sustenance. Besides, publishing

infrastructure was largely confmed to a few urban centres. With the attainment of

Independence and the reorganisation of states on the basis of language, an environment was

created for the growth of the regional Press. The peculiar pattern of democratisation that has

been on in the country, especially since the sixties, further reinforced the growth process. The

adoption of new production technologies by language newspapers helped them respond

effectively to the impulses unleashed by the changed environment. Thus, the strengthening

of the regional Press became a significant feature of the growth phase of the Indian Press in

the post-Independence period.

In order to illustrate the nature of the conditions (environment) that shaped the regional Press,

which, in tum, modified the very conditions of growth, we take up in this Chapter a detailed

case study of the Malayalam language dailies. The choice of the Malayalam Press is not

without reasons. Malayalam is the language of Kerala, the state which has done exceedingly

•
well in tenns of quality of life and human development in comparison with the rest of India,

despite its unimpressive progress in the economic sphere 1, Besides, the Press in Malayalam

. has a history that dates back to the 1840s. The choice of Malayalam Press as a case study is

also dictated by the fact that the author, having been born and brought up in Kerala, has

relative advantage in understanding and interpreting the factors specific to the language Press.

The chapter is divided mainly into two parts. Part one discusses the historical evolution of the

Malayalam language Press through the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth

centuries. Keeping this as the general backdrop, part two analyses the growth patterns and

structural changes in the Press since the early sixties.

PART ONE

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

Of the studies that deal with the pre-Independence Press in Kerala there are a few, written

broadly in the tradition of the positivist sociology school, that look at the contents of early

Malayalam journals. Obviously, Press and journalism in these studies are treated as having

almost an independent existence of other social processes. However, in the course of

analysing the contents of specific magazines these studies could shed some light on the

structure of newspaper production in the language. A study that needs special mention is that

1
Michael Tharakan, "SocioReligious Reform Movements, Process of Democratization and
Human Development: The Case of Kerala, South West India" in Lars Rudeback and One
Tornquist (Eels.), Democratization in the Third World: Concrete Cases in Comparative and
Theoretical Perspectives, (The Seminar for Development Studies, Sweden: Uppsala
University, 1996).
of Priyadarsanan, which enquires into the nature of contents of the "dead" monthlies in the

language2 • Yet another set of studies comprises of historical accounts of some newspaper

houses and biographies of newspaper· doyens and prominent journalists. They are valuable

sources of information relating to the objective conditions - social, political and economic -

under which publishing activity 'was being carried out in the language in the early years3.

The analysis in the first part of our study draws extensively from the above sets of studies

and other relevant reports and documents pertaining to the period.

The Beginning

Despite its contiguous geography, and cultural and linguistic homogeneity, the region later

came to be known as Kerala, was lying divided politically till 1949. The northern part," called

Malabar, was a constituent of the Madras Presidency and under the direct administrative

2
See, [Link], Manmaranja Masikakal (The Dead Monthlies) (Kottayam: Sahitya
Pravartaka Sahakarana Sangham, 1971).

3
Notable studies in this genre are V.R. Menon, Mat/zrublzumiyude Katha (The Story of
Matlzrubhumi) , Vo!.! (Calicut: Mathrubhumi, 1973); M.J. Koshy, [Link] Mappilai:
The Man and His Vision (Trivandrum: Kerala Historical Society, 1976); K.P .Kesava
MCllon, Kazh;,~ill Ka/a/ll (Thc Bygollc Tilllcs) (Kozhikodc: MalhrllhhllllJi, 1(86);
Moorkoth Kunjappa, Ma/aya/a Manorama: Samskara Navolhanam (Malayala Mal1orama:
Cultural Renaissance) (Kottayam: Malayala Manorama Company Ltd., 1988); and
K.M. Tharakan, Portrait of K. C. Mammen Mappillai. (Kottayam: Malayala Manorama
Centenary Publication, 1988).

135
control of the Raj. Kochi, the region that lay at the centre of the state, and Tiruvitamkur,

which was constituted by the southern parts, were princely states. In 1949 Kochi and

Timvitamkur were amalgamated to form the Tim-Kochi State. Malabar was also added to the

state in 1956 as part of the efforts at re-organising regions based on language.

Printing and publishing in all the three regions of Kerala, as elsewhere in the country,

developed out of the anxiety of the western missionaries to 'spread the word of God'. The

first Malayalam Press was established around 1550's at Ambalakkadu in the state of Kochi

by the western (Jesuit) missionaries 4 • A priest by name Joannei Gonsalvez is understood to

have cast the first in types in Malayalam after putting in two years of sustained efforts 5 . Thus,

from the point of view of the development of publishing industry in Kerala, missionary efforts

should be viewed primarily as having contributed towards the creation of the publishing

infrastmcture in the state including printing and composing facilities, either by importing or

4
T. M. Chummar, "Malayala Patra Pravartanatilekku Oru Tirinjunottam", (A Retrospect
of Malayalam Journalism) (Kottayam: Malayala Manorama Diamond Jubilee Souvenir,
1950). The first printing press in India is supposed to have been set up in Goa by the Jesuit
priests by around the middle of the third quarter of the sixteenth century. See,
[Link], "Achadiyud~ Yugam" (The Era of Printing), Malayala Manorama
Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, Kottayam, 1950). B.S. Kesavan, Origins of Printing and
Publishing in Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1985)
points out that the earlier printing presses in India were all founded along the coastline of
the peninsula. Along the western of coastline, Goa, Kochi, PUllnaikkayal (ncar Cape
Comerin), Vypicotta (south of Crangannur) and Ambalakkadu (a village 20 miles south
-of Thrissur) were the places where printing was introduced.

his Malayalam types were cast in Amsterdam (Holland) and brought to India for the
purpose of printing.

136
indigenously developing the technology. In particu lar, the development of typefaces and the

craft of composing had been the significant· factors that helped accelerate the pace of

development of the 'printed word' in the crucial initial years. Such efforts had led to the

introduction of movable types in the language by the end of 1830s. This could perhaps to be

seen as the first major technological break-through in Malayalam printing. Also the protestant

missionaries insisted on imparting literacy to the local converts, so that they could read the

Bible independently. This led to broad basing of reading ability.

The first Malayalam newspaper Rajyasamacharam was born in 1847 in the courtyard of the

Basal Mission Church at IIIikkunnu near Tellicherry in the then Malabar6 . This was, however,

not in the genre of a religious paper. It was printed at the litho press started by the Mission

in 1845 7 • The mission stalted publication of another newspaper called, Paschimodayam, also

in 1847. In the Tiruvitamkur region, Gnananikshepam started publication in 1848 from the

Church Mission Society press. Newspaper publishing activity began in Kochi in 1860s when

a Gujarati trader, Devji Bhimji along with an English man, Paul Menwin Walter, and a few

natives· started a modern press called the Western Star and started publishing an English

weekly by the same name .under the editorship of Charles Lawson; who later became the

The man behil,d the newspaper was Dr. Herman GumJert, the German missionary who
contributed significantly to the development of Malayalam language and literature by
compiling a Malayalam English dictionary and an anthology, and writing, among other
things, books on Malayalam grammar and Kerala History.
7
Puthuppalli Raghavan, Kerala Palra Pravartana Charitram (History of Journalism III
Kerala) (Trichur: Kerala Sahitya Academy. 1983).

137
editor of the Mail in Madras8 . A Malayalam newspaper, Paschima Tharaka (1864) was also

printed at the same press.

By the second half of the nineteenth century, thus, a meaningful beginning had been made

ofthe Malayalam language Press. Newspapers by then were no longer a novelty in India and

the concept of language newspapers had already begun to take rool in the country'). A change

was visible in the nature of the Press in Tiruvitamkur around 1880, when the blatant

religiosity of the missionary Press was gradually being replaced by a more socially and

politically sensitive Press. This change was not so radical as the Press still was only

reflecting the temporal concerns of the Church or certain communities. The religious Press,

moreover, had a significant presence even in the beginning of the 20th century (See,

Appendix 6.1).

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF PRESS GROWTH

Though the spread of Western education had familiarised the concept of newspaper as a mass

communication institution to the English educated Malayalis, it was totally alien to the

common population. This was even true of those with Malayalam or Sanskrit education. At

the same time the English educated elite did not show any interest in newspapers in the local

8
Devji Bhimji had already established a joint stock company - the Malabar Printing
Company Limited - in 1860.
9
It must be remembered here that the first ever Indian language newspaper was launched
in Bengali (Samac/zar Dmpan) in 1818 by the Serampore Missionaries. This was followed
by the launching of a Gujarat.i newspaper, Bombay Somaclwr.

138
language. All these had a limiting impact on readership. Also, severe shortage of writers with

skills to effectively communicate through this novel mass medium might have added to the

disenchantment of the readers lO • Moreover, as the state was lying divided into three regions

readership was not likely to expand beyond the boundaries of each region. In Tiruvitamkur,

for instance, after the intial spurt around the turn of the century, the number of newspapers

did not show any perceptible change in the thirties and forties Cfable 6.1).

Table 6.1

Number of Newspapers in Tiruvitamkur:

Selected Years

Year Daily Weekly Monthly Others Total

1892-93 NA 1 4 5 10
1900-01 NA 3 6 1 10
1930-31 6 25 55 24 112
1934-35 7 33 65 25 131
1940-41 7 14 52 10 83
1947-48 18 28 '50 5 101
Source: Travancore Administration Reports
(Trivandrum: Government Press, various years)

10 Kandathil Varghese Mappillai, the founder of Ma/aya/a Manorama, was seriously

concerned about the crude Malayalam language that was being used in the newspapers
published by religiolls organizations. His efforts in the initial years of estahlishment of
Manoram<l were, hence, directed at bringing some kind of a change to this state. lIe was
one of the chief organizers of the 'Kavi Samajam' in 1891, which laler hecame the
'Bhasha Poshini Sabha'. The Sabha was to act as a common platform for poets to meet
and interact with one another, in the process of making the language richer. See,
Harisarma, Kalldafhil Varghese Mappi/ai.

139
 A major factor that acted negatively on the enthusiasm of the publishers was the inherent

problems with the then available technology of composing which proved cumbersome for a

complex language like Malayalam. For one thing, the number of leHers in the alphabet was

more than that in English. Further, the number of double or joint letters created problems for

compositors. While 2() letters each of hig and slIIall sizes were elHlIlgh for composition of

English malter, nearly 600 characters were needed in Malayalam. If one adds the joint letters

the number would increase by another 200. For the compositors it was a highly strenuous

exercise as they had to move their fingers through 800 matrices. Equally cumbersome was

the process of casting of so many letters. An article published by Kandathil Varghese

Mappilai around 1892 describes graphically the plight of the printers in this regard. He says

that if the manuscript had a word that contains a single letter that was not otherwise found in

the matrix of letters available with the printer, he had to get it cast through a laborious and

time consuming process. Workers possessing adequate skills for this work were rare to find.

Even if one found them, the labour charges were exorbitant. More than anything else, the

letter thus cast might remain unused ever after ll .

11 Varghese Mappilai, "Malayalamachadi" (Printing in Malayalam), Bhashaposhini Masika,

1069 M.E. (Reprinted in Malayala Manorama Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, Kottayam,
1950.

140
 It is also worth
12
The initial growth constraints began to wither away by around 1915 .

mentioning that the efforts of the Christian missionaries, and the government to popularise

education had, by then, led to significant leaps in the literacy levels of backward communities

(for example, Ezhavas). At the same time, the outbreak of the World War I in 1914

generated the much needed' news hunger' among the public.

By the middle of 1930's the overall level of literacy had increased (see, Appendix 6.2) and

newspapers diversified their content into other areas like science, geography, history,

biography, health, psychology, economics as also various branches of literature. The

Travancore Administration Reports mention that a few specialised newspapers focusing on

public health, medicine, commerce and municipal matters appeared on the scene by the mid-

thirties in Tiruvitamkur I3 . This was, perhaps, the major reason for the emergence of weeklies

as distinct from dailies as the latter could not cater to a variety of topics as the former did 14.

12 The editorial of Malayala Manorama on 24 March, 1915 stated that its circulation had
increased five fold since its birth. The company had to halt its growth as the existing
printing technology was insufficient in meeting the increasing demand for the newspaper.
The editorial also expressed the optimism that as education, modernization and general
interest in newspaper reading would increase, the paper could easily expand its circulation
to 50,000 or one lakh.

n Tn 193R-39 one newspaper was reported to have becn dcaling with isslles related
exclusively to labour. Travallcore Administratioll Report (Trivandrum: Government Press,
1940).

14 The Matlzrublzumi Weekly was launched in 1932 and the Malayala Manorama Weekly, in
1937. It was stated in one of the 1937 issues of the Manorama daily that' When the issues
of the (weekly) are bound together it should look like an encyclopedia'. Thus the weekly
was designed differently from the daily to cover more areas and topics.

141
The nature and pattern of growth of Press in the northern and southern regions took different

forms owing to the differences in the administrative regime, social infrastructure and political

climate. It is essential to understand the peculiar influences that shaped the identity of the

Press in both these regions in order to be able to fully appreciate its contemporary phase of

development. The following dis~ussion is woven around the distinct factors that influenced

the evolution of Press in Tiruvitamkur and Malabar.

PRESS IN TIRUVITAMKUR: ARTICULATION OF COMMUNITY INTERESTS

In order to explain the forces that shaped the emerging Press in Kerala in the late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries one needs to dwell upon in some detail the social and political

changes that characterised the region during this period.

The most significant factor that helped the growth of Press in Tiruvitamkur region was the

progress made in the field in education. Traditionally, the different castes (particularly the

upper castes) had been following indigenous systems of schooling l5 . The Christian

missio~1aries who were largely instl1lmental in popularising the medium of the' printed word I ,

especially among the lower castes, added a further impetus to the efforts in education. The

15 See, Michael Tharakan, "Socio-Economic Factors in Educational Development: Case of

the 19th Century Travancore", Economic alld Political Weekly, Vol. 19, No.45, 1984, for
a detailed discussion on the system of indigenous schooling followed hy different
communities in the 18th and 19th centuries. P.R. Gopinathan Nair, Educatio/1 and
Economic CllmlRe (Trivandrum: Centre for Development Studies, 1978) also contains
some information on this.

142
 16
rulers of Tiruvitamkur entered "directly into the field of education" as early as 1817 largely

in response to the demand from among the people. The emphasis given to primary and

vernacular schools was helpful in promoting mass literacy 17. Moreover, the settlement pattern

of the state was such that there was greater accessibility to educational facilities.

The distinct nature of the social movements in Tiruvitalllkur also had its share in shaping the

Malayalam Press in this region in the early years. It is true that the Malayali society was one

of the most differentiated in terms of caste, community and religion - truly 'a social system

of parallel societies'. By the late 19th century each such community had its own grievances.

The Nairs in Tiruvitamkur, known to be closer to the king and the palace, were unhappy with

the privileges enjoyed by the 'foreign' Tamil Brahmins in high administrative positions. The

Syrian Christians, who formed an ascendant class of prosperous merchants and entrepreneurs,

16 See, George Woodcock, Kerala: A Portrait of tile Malabar Coast. (London: Faber and
Faber, 1967). He states: "In 1817 the Rani of Travancore ordered that vernacular schools
should be set up at state expense in all the villages, with compulsory attendance for all
children between the ages of 5 and 10; in the following year 33 such schools were set up
in Kochi. At the same time, the first state-supported English school was established at
Mattancheri". p.224. The Travancore government set apart funds for the establishment of
special schools for backward communities for the first time in 1894-95. Over the decade
1884/85 to 1894/95 the government expenditure on education more than doubled (from
Rs. 2,18,000 to Rs. 5,96,000). See Gopinathan Nair, Education and Economic Change.
Also, with the introduction of grant-in-aid in the laIc IRGOs even missionary-run primary
schools could seek assistance from the government. Tharakan, "Socio-Economic Factors".

17 Tharakan, "Socio-Economic Factors" points out that hy 1900-01, in Travancore 95.2 per
cent of the schools were primary schools which accounted for ahout 83.7 per cent of
students. The corresponding figures for the Madras Presidency were 76 per cent and 57.3
per celli respectively.

143
wanted to assert their interests in public policies lx . The Ezhavas, like the Syrian Christians,

were particularly sore with the Nairs who retained their predominance in administrative

positions even after the' Malayali Memorial 119. The depressed lower castes' were stirring

to revolt against their cond ition ,20.

Inspired largely by the ideals of Western education, all the different caste groups initiated

reform movements with a view to free their communities of the social inabilities. They,

obviously, were focusing on caste-centred mobilisation of masses. This was natural as:

"The social structure with its rigid caste and sub-caste divisions practically
forced refOlmation to begin within their own group. Moreover, each group has
its own peculiar problems of harmful social customs, which had to be solved
before its members could look beyond ,,21 .

18 Woodcock, Kerala: A Portrait.

19 The 'Malayali Memorial' (1891) was a direct petition to the king deriding "Ihe denial to
the Malayalees of a fair share in the Government of the country and their systematic
exclusion from the higher grades of the service". It was signed by about 10,000 people
from all communities. However, Jeffrey points out that despite its image of an all
community representation, of the first 250 signatories whose names were printed, 168
were Nairs. There were 44 Christians and the others were Namboodiries, Ezhavas and
other castes. See, Robin Jeffrey, Decline of Nayar Dominance: Society and Politics in
Travancore, 1847-1908 (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1976), p.168. A
correspondent of the Madras Mail was writing about it in 1896 as 'Nair Memorial' and
Malayala Manorama, by the early 20th century, was complaining that the 'Syrians had far
greater grievances than the Nairs had some 10 years hack'. A Romo-Syrian Newspaper,
Malabar Herald referred to the organisers of the Memorial "as those shrewd men" who
"reaped the fmits of this mem<?rial and thus had their selfish ends gratified". Ibid., p.176.

20 Ibid., p.227.
21
Louise Ouwerkerk, No Elephants for the Maharaja: Social and Political Clzal1f{e ill tlze
Pril/cely Stlltl' l?/"Tr\'(/I/core (/921-1')47) (Delhi: M a \lohar, 1<)<)4), p. 58.

144
 The 1900s and 1910s are described as "the vintage years for the formation of caste and

communal organisations" in Tiru v [Link] kur22 . Many such organisations emerged: the

Tiruvitalllkur and Kochi Christian Association (I R9R), Sn:e Narayana Dharma Paripalana

Yogam (1902), the Keraleeya Nair Sangham (1905), the Nalllhoodiri Yogakshellla Sabha

(1908), the Pulaya Sadhujana Paripalana Sangham (1913), the Nair Service Society (1914),

the Lejanathul Mohamadiya Sabha (1915) and the Akhila Kerala Catholic Congress (1918)23.

These organisations tried to promote the consciousness of 'shared community' through the

launching of community organisations, establishment of educational institutions and

publication of newspapers24. In particular, newspapers played a significant role in the

aliiculation of the interests of castelreligious organisations and interest groups as they were

the only available mass communication medium. According to Woodcock the' newspapers

gave means to express the desire for change,25 and Ouwerkerk observes that "Travancore

became a nation of newspaper readers - and hearers ... Debate on government actions was

open and vigorous, and the Travancoreans early developed the art of agitation through the

press ... ,,26.

22 James Chriyankandath, "Electoral Politics and the Mobilisation of" COllllllunal Groups in
Travancore", Modem Asian Studies Vol. 27 , No.3, 1993, p.649.

23 See, Ibid; Tharakan, "Socio Religious Reform Movements"; and Woodcock, Kerala: A
Portrait.

24 Chriyankandath, "Electoral Politics".

25 Woodcock, Portrait of Kerala, p. 226.

2() Ouwerkerk, No Elep/wlIlsjl)r fIle Mal/(/rqja, p. 65.

145
 The first major attempt at launching a " community newspaper' was made towards the end of

the 19th century. About 30 Catholic priests and leading citizens under the leadership of

Nidheerikal Manikkathanar, requested the Mar Salinas, the Metropolitan of Varappuzha, to

grant permission to start a newspaper. This request was made on hehalf of the Nasrani

Jathyaikya Sangham (NJS), an ecumenical organization that aimed at uniting the various

discordant groups within Christianitl 7 • The result of this representation was Nasrani

Deepika. It started publication from the SUoseph's Press at Mannanam on 15 April, 1886.

Though the original goal was to launch a common paper for all the different sects within

Christianity, Deepika ultimately becaI!le a 'Catholic trumpet'2R.

The NJS could not last long precisely because of the dissonance within Christianity; but

Deepika continued to be published from Kottayam. Today it remains one of the oldest dailies

in the country. Two years after the launching of Deepika, in 1888, Kandathil Varghese

Mappillai founded Malayala Manorama as a joint stock company at Kottayam 29 . It is

interesting to note that he was a member of the NJS and an early associate of Deepika 30.

27 This interdenominational organisation, among other things, had schemes to start English
high schools and girls' schools in all Christian centres, a central college at Kottayam,
libraries in all parishes, and godowns in Christian centres to store surplus grains till prices
turned favourable to farmers. See Tharakan, "Socio-Economic Factors".

2H IJcl'pilili (;O/dCI/ .Il1hil£'(' SOlll'mi,.. (Kottayal1l: Dccpika. I<)X7).

29 It had a share capital of [Link],OOO and the Kandathil family to which the founder belonged
held 6 shares. Ibid.

30 He had earlier been working as the editor of Kerala Mitram at Kochi and involved in a
variety of activities including founding of an organization called Sadachara Sahodara

146
At the time when Malayala Manorama and Deepika were launched there were 12 newspapers

- three weeklies, two tri-monthlies, three fortnightlies and four monthlies - in the whole of

Kerala, i.e., Tiruvitamkur, Kochi and Malabar. In Tiruvitamkur their number was as small

as three - one monthly and two fortnightlies - and all of them were owned by different

religious sects. Jeffrey, in this context, points out that by the late 1890s almost all the

newspapers puhlished in Tiruvitamkur were Christian-owncd 31 •

The launching of Nasrani Deepika and Malayala Manorama was a particularly significant

landmark in the history of Malayalam newspaper publishing. They, interestingly, represented

a blend of sectarian community/religious interests and a peculiar developmental outlook,

which concerns only the interests of the emergent communities. This phase had combined in

itself two domineering features: the continuance of the hold of religious forces (as

symbolised by Nasrani Deepika) and the apparent realisation of the possibilities of

commercialising this ideological apparatus by exploiting its social and political prowess (as

exemplified by Malayala Manorama).

It cannot be seen as a historical coincidence that the first modem newspapers in the state were

started in Kottayam, a region traditionally considered as a centre of Christianity in Kerala.

The plantation boom in the high range had brought "renewed prosperity" to the place and jobs

Sanghal11 (Unitary Christian Youth): See, A.D. Harisarma, Kalldallzil Varghese Mappilai,
1126 ME.

31 Jeffrey, Decline (~r Nayar Dominance.

147
for young Syrians. Many of them learnt the business of plantation and "spread the idea of

cash crops among their kinsmen in the lowlands, who were already profiting from pepper and

who were later to grow lUbber"32. The demand for clerical and artisan staff in the plantations

urged the Syrians to take to education more seriously33. It may be noted that in 1901

Kottayam had the highest literacy rate in Kerala. As pointed out earlier, Christians, by all

means, was the ascendent community in the state with a definite ambition to establish

themselves at the helm of commercial and political affairs. Economic policies that favour

Christian entrepreneurial ventures, especially in the plantation sector, and entry into public

services, were the two immediate goals of the community. They needed appropriate fora to

uphold the interests as merchants and entrepreneurs. With the launching of Deepika and

Manorama a strong Christian Press was born in Tiruvitamkur - a Press that upheld their

interests and aspirations, though while pursuing such interests, it also enlisted, in course of

time, the support of other castes like Ezhavas who shared the same grievances and ambition .

The Syrian Christians came to dominate the newspaper business in Tiruvitamkur even at the

beginning of the present century. According to Jeffrey, by 1903, the state had 14 periodicals

with a total circulation of about 10,000 copies. Of this, Syrians owned nine papers having

34
circulation of nearly 6,700 copies . Malayala Manorama was the largest selling newspaper

32 Ibid, p.202.

33 Tharakan," Socio-Economic Factors" .

34 Jeffrey, Decillc oj Nayar Dominance.

148
in the whole of Tiruvitamkur. Between 1892-93 and 1900-01 its circulation increased from

750 copies per day to 1600 copies, whereas Deepika's circulation remained at 700 copies

althrough35.

Malayala Manorama, indeed, is an illustrious example of how the Press could be moulded

to represent and articulate the social. political and business intercsts of an ascending

community. Kandathil Varghese Mappilai, the founder of' the Manorama Company, was a

true representative of the Syrian Christian community with definite interests in commercial

opportunities. His brother and successor [Link] Mappilai furthered these interests. He

had made investments in plantations36. He was an associate of Aymanam [Link], the pioneer

among the local people who started rubber plantations in Tiruvitamkur, in his venture called

the Malankara Rubber and Produce Company37. Another dimension of the business interest

of Manorama was Mappilai' s involvement in the emerging banking and insurance sector in

the state38 .

35 Travancore Administration Report, 1892-93 (Trivandrum: Government Press).

36 In the early 1860s the Travancore government was forced by the British Resident to
declare a policy to promote cultivation of plantation crops. The former since then had
constantly been under pressure from the Resident and the planters' lobby to follow policies
. that favour plantations. Apart from extending htcilities like cheap land, ease of acquisition
of land, low land tax, and labour control measures, the government also spent huge sums
on construction and maintenance of roads and commullication ill the plalltations. See, Paul
Baak, "Planters Lobby in the Late 19th Century: Implicatiolls for Travancore", Economic
and Political Weekly Vol.27, No.33, 1992.

37 Koshy, Mammen Mappi/ai.

38 The Travancore National Bank, founded by Mammen Mappilai in 1912 was, perhaps, the
most potent business initiative he had ever laullched. It became one of the Ieadillg banks

149
Convinced ahoul 'Ille greal econolllk possibililies' 01 rubber plaillalions in Tirllvil:lll1kur,

Malayala Manorama tried to lure the' indifferent Travancoreans' towards it through articles

on the successful European experiments in places like Java and Malaya)'). On the issue of

promoting the plantation sector, the paper took the obvious position of an adversary many a

time. For instance, when there was a global move to increase rubber prices around 1935,

Malaya/a MaIlOI"(Jm£l urged the growers to agitatc against thc non-implcmcntation of thc

promise by the government that the quota allotted to India would he raised subsequent to such

by the late 1910s. "With humble resources it began in 1912 when its paid up capital was
Rs.13,OOO and its aggregate working capital Rs.33,OOO. It made indelible progress during
the war and post-war years. By 1922, its paid up capital and reserve reached Rs.2,84,000
and its deposits Rs. 3,75,000. Like other Indian banks, this bank seized the post
depression years for a policy of rapid expansion - parlicularly Ihrough mllllipikation of
branches. From Rs.4,22,OOO in 1932, its paid up capital short up to Rs.l1.61,OOO in
1936, while its reserve which was Rs.2,OO,OOO in 1932 leapt to Rs.3,50,OOO in 1936. The
steep rise of deposits was another consequence of the extension of branches. From
36,96,000 it sprang to Rs.l,77,65,000 in 1936". See, Koshy, K.C Mammen Mappilai, p.
129. The bank had its branches spread over Tiruvitamkur, Kochi, British India, Mysore
and Ceylon. In 1937 it was amalgamated with the Quilon Bank, founded in 1919 by C.P.
Mathen, belonging to Chalakllzhi, the othcr promincnt Syrian Christian family. Raman
Mahadevan, "Industrial Entrepreneurship in Princely Travancore 1930-47", Sabyasachi
Bhattacharya et a!. (Eds.), The South Indian Economy: Agrarian Change, Industrial
Structure and State Policy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991). Ouwerkerk, No
Elephants for the Maharaja, mel~tions about the keen interest shown by the Dewan
C.P .Ramaswamy Iyer in this amalgamation. According to her" ... although their (the
banks') biggest field of activity was in Madras. he insisted on the new Bank heing
registercd in Travancorc. In n:tllrn, hc promiscd thcm a largc govcrnmcnt dcposit alld a
share in government financial business. The Bank, moreover, was anxious not to appear
a purely Chrislian concern and inviled somc Hindus onlo Ihc Board of Dircclors: Sir C.P.
himself suggested one Ramanujam, a former official of the Imperial Bank of India".
(p.146). Before the amalgamation (the new entity was called the Travancore National and
Quilon Bank) Mammen Mappilai and C.P. Mathen started the New Guardian of India
Insurance Company, which according to Mahadevan had acquired Rs. 13 lakhs worth
business within six months of its launching.

39 Tharakan. Portrait.

150
a decision40. Though the Depression years in the thirties gave a fatal blow to the plantation

sector in the state, Malayala 'Manorama's vigorous attempts did result in a spurt in

investments in this sector41 . By the end of the 1930s the paper presented itself as a formidable

social and economic entity. The Kandathil family hy then had hecome one of the leading

Syrian Christian business houses in Tiruvitamkur42 . It commanded considerable financial

clout by way of ownership of the most prosperous banking concern, elaborate investments in

the planation sector and a powerful communication medium.

It is interesting at this juncture to see how far the other dominant communities, namely, the

Ezhavas and the Nairs were able to make their voices heard in the public realm. The Ezhavas

came to he organized around issues that concerned their socio-economic interests by the end

of the 19th century, An 'Ezhava Memorial' was submitted to the king of Tiruvitamkur in

1896 signed by about 13,000 members of the community asking for the same privileges for

them as low-caste converts to Christianity, especially opportunity for education and

employment in state services 43 . The launching of Kerala Kaumudi in 1911, i.e., about a

40 Ibid.

41 Koshy, Mammen Mappilai, p.l02. In his capacity as a legislator Mammen Mappillai

argued for government protection to rubber industry in the state. On 3 November 1925,
while discussing the Income Tax Regulation Amendment Bill he argued: "At the present
time rubber industry is a profitable concern, but there may be time when it may become
a losing concern .. .It would be an inequitous state of affairs if the people were made to pay
the same amount of income tax when the industry is a losing concern and when it is
thriving well". See, Travancore Legislative Coullcil Proceedings, Vol. VIII, p.l87,

42 Mahadevan, "Industrial Entrepreneurship" .

43 Dick Kooiman, Communities and Electorates: A Comparative Discussion (~l Communalism

ill Colollial Illdia ([Link]: VU University Press, 1<)<)5); Ouwerkerk, No L1ep/wllts for

151
 decade and a half after the 'Ezhava Memorial', provided the community with an ideological

base in Tiruvitamkur to serve the constituency of the socially and economically

underprivileged. It, from the beginnillg, consciously tried to shape its image around issues

of social justice and upliftment of the depressed segments.

Curiously enough, at no point in the history of Tiruvitamkur in the nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries could the Nairs claim support of an intluential newspaper44. This

could perhaps be related to the peculiar, and often painful transformation through which the

community was going through owing mainly to the break up of the joint family system and

the ensuing complications from feuds, litigation and land alienation. The resultant conflicts

within the community must have preempted the rise of a single representative voice.

Moreover, the Nair caste had a variety of subdivisions within it which, unlike the Christians,

were not organised hierarchically. AI:;o, Nairs were widely distributed across the state, as

against the Syrian Christians who were concentrated only in certain pockets.

the Maharaja; and Woodcock, Portrait of Kerala. The Memorial was signed by about
13000 members of the community.

·14 The Mulaya/i SalJ/ia formed ill the early U~SUs was generally dubbed as a 'Nair Sabha'
and Malaya/i, the newspaper that was born out of the Sabha was known as a sympathiser
of Nair's interests than that of Malayalis in general. Jeffrey mentions about Kerala Patrika
(1888) of Kozhikode as a Nayar paper'. See, Jeffrey, Decline of Nayar Dominance, p.195.
Ouwerkerk calls Malaya/a Rajyam (1929) as the' Nayar's communal newspaper, for long
a supporter of the Palace and the Dewan'. Ouwerkerk, No Elephants for the Maharaja,

152
It may be mentioned that the so called 'Christian Press' emerged the most powerful

45
constituent of public debate in the 1930s with the launching of the Abstention Movement .

It is in this period that the conflicting interests of the Nairs and the Christians (who could

effectively enl ist the support of Muslims, Ezhavas and other hack ward castes on many crucial

occasions) became the most obvious. The Movement was the direct outcome of the

legislative reforms introduced in Tiruvitamkur in early 1930s. The new constitution

promulgated in October 1932 'led to widespread discontentment among the Christians,

Muslims and Ezhavas. It provided for a bi-cameral legislature. The government, however,

ruled out communal electorates or any system of reservation of seats in joint electorates on

a communal basis. It proposed to use the power of nomination to secure the representation

of under-represented communities. The Christians, Ezhavas and Muslims formed the All

Tiruvitamkur Joint Political Conference (JPC) to press for reservation of seats in muIti-

member constituencies. Given the system of franchise followed in the state (which was based

on payment of land tax) they calculated that the proposed electoral rules would get the Nairs

at least half the elective seats of 70, Christians a few seats, and Ezhavas and Muslims,

virtually nothing. The government refused to pay a heed to the demand of the JPC which led

to the latter deciding to express the protest of the affected cOlllmunities hy 'ahstaining' (and

hence the name Abstention Movement 46 ) from voting, standing for elections or accepting

45 See for details, Koshy, Mammen Mappi lai; Ouwerkerk, No Elephants for the Maharaja;
and Kooiman, Communities and Electorates.

46 This was called Abstention Movement as the leaders were eager to differentiate it from the
~

non co-operation movement of the Congress.

153
nominations. The Press took clear positions - pro-Nair and pro- Movement. The former

blamed it on the Christians that they were trying to make Tiruvitamkur a Christian State,

while the latter became critical of the Nairs and the then Dewan c.P. Ramaswamy lyer47.

In spite of such an overtly divisive pattern of societal change and political transformation, a

process of centralisation and consolidation of public opinion had also been taking shape since

the early 1920s with the Congress making slow, but steady inroads into the political arena of

the state. The reorganization of the Congress machinery and the division of India into

linguistic provinces' each with its. own Congress organisation' was a significant development

in the nationalist struggle. This brought together the three Malayalam speaking regions - the

British Malabar and the princely states of Koehi and Tiruvitamkur - as one such linguistic

province - Kerala - and "a wider all-Kerala outlook based on cultural affinities"4x. It may be

recalled that the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924, the peaceful agitation to assert the right of the

lower castes to walk on the roads around the temple at Vaikom, had the backing of both

Congressmen as well as upper caste Hindus who were not in the least supporters of Congress

ideals. Sympathisers of the Congress movement grew through the thirties and forties partly

due to the increased exposure to its actiVities elsewhere and partly due to the disenchantment

with the Dewan C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer and his ploys to subvert the attempts at establishing

47 Ouwerkerk, No Elep/zalllsIor [!Ie Ma//(Jr{~ia.

4X l/Jid.,p.115.

154
the respollsi'1)Ie government49 .

In this context, it is important to note that the social reform organisations in Tiruvitamkur,

despite being sectarian in nature, were all "inspired by an element of universalism in their

outlook which made them shun the suggestion of caste exclusivism ,,50. It seems that this sort

of an 'inclusive' nature - "the pragmatic politics of comlllunal rivalry and accommodation"51 -

has been very much a distinctive characteristic of Kerala's social and political life even later

and has directly impacted the pattern of evolution of ideological institutions like the Press -

being sectarian in essence, yet appeal to a wider readership. It is this inclusivism that also has

helped the spread of a wave of radicalisation through the entire state in the late 1930s which

eventually led to an early polarisation of political parties on the right and left of centre.

PRESS IN MALABAR: SPREADING NATIONALISM

Malabar, a part of the British ruled Madras Presidency, took a different pattern of

development and, hence, the Press took a different character from that in Tiruvitamkur. Both

commercialisation tendencies and growth in education and literacy, though were stronger here

than in other parts of the Presidency, they were weaker than in Southern parts of Kerala52 .

49 Even the overt supporters of the palace and the Dewan, like Mannath Padmanabhan, the
founder of the Nair Service Society, joined the State Congress on the eve of Indian
Independence. Ibid., quoting Malyala Rajyalll of 22 May 1947.

50 Woodcock, Kerala: A Pam'ail, p.231.

51 Chi riyankandath, "Electoral Politics".

52 Tharakan, "Socio-Reli!.!:ious Reform Movements".

~

155
Malabar was lagging behind in terms of educational efforts which reflected in the relatively

low level of literacy in this region compared to both Tiruvitamkur and Kochi (see, Appendix

6.2). Till 1951 the literacy rates for t\1e region, especially, Kozhikode and Palakkad, were

much helow the average for the state as a whole.

~

At the same time, Malabar was more exposed than the Southern parts to the happenings

elsewhere in the country, especially, the nationalist movement. Kozhikode became the venue

of the meeting of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1903. The political atmosphere in

the country was charged in the post World War I scenario. There was a new awakening

among Congress activists in the region in the beginning of 1920s following the formation of

Kerala as a separate Congress State. The non-cooperation movemcnt dcclared in the Nagpur

Congress in December 1920 received enthusiastic response within the stateS3 • Malabar

remained the centre of the Congress movement in Kerala through the 1920s and 1930s54 •

In order to propagate its ideals anti action programlllcs, thc Congress adopted various methods

like addressing public meetings and conducting training programmes for its activists.

However, the leadership did not find such separate efforts producing the desired effect of

enlightening the masses and enlisting their support. The best instrument that could achieve

this end was a newspaper that could reach out to a large number of people. In the beginning

of 1920s there were fi.)Ur Malayalam and two English newspapers published from Kozhikode.

53 Kesava Menon. Kazlzinja Kalam.

54 Woodcock. Kem/a: A Portrait.

156
The Malayalam papers - Kerala Patrika, Kerala Sanchari, Manorama and Mitavadi - were

either blatantly against the activities of the Congress or were afraid to demonstrate their

empathy for it55 . These papers, hence, could not be approached for publicising any of the

activities of the Congress. Nor it had any printing/distribution facilities at its disposal. All

these made the leadership to seriously contemplate the launching of a newspaper. Thus was

launched the Matlzruhhumi Company Limited at Kozhikode in February 192256 . It was

registered with an authorised share capital of Rs. 1,00,000 divided into 20,000 shares each

worth Rs.5 57 • The Company's Memorandum explicitly slaled that the purpose of launching

it was to "spread the ideals of Congress among people and to help the freedom struggle "5H.

In other words, Matlzruhlzumi was the first major newspaper that had a definite political

mandate at the time of its birth that defined its character and course of growth for the

subsequent years, at least upto the 1960s.

55 Ibid.

56 K. Madlwan Nair, Kuroor Neelakanthan Namboodiripad, Ambalakkad Karunakara

Menon, T. [Link] lyer, P. Achuthan and K.P. Kcsava Mcnon were the founding
directors of the Company and K. Madhavan Nair became the first Managing Director.
Menon, Matlzruhlzumiyude Karha, and Kesava Menon, Kazlzinja Kalam .

57 According to Kesava Menon, one of the founding directors, the general attitude of the
educated elite in those was not in favour of Malayalam Newspapers. Menon (1986), p.143.
Of the 10,000 shares issued, only about 4,000 shares were actually subscribed. Only
about 500 shares were traceable later. The rest must have been destroyed by shareholders
themselves for fear of action by the Raj. Active shares thus were only about 3,500. The
shares were widely scattered. Till the 1980s there was no specific controlling interest
behind Matlzruhlzumi. Ram Mohan, "Political Economy of a Phoney War: Mathruhhumi-
Times Story". 1992. Mimeographed, Unpublished.

5H Menon. Mar/mib/lllllliyude Kat/u/.

157
The Congress movement failed to fully appreciate the ram ificat ions of the pecu I iar pol itical

and economic situation in this region celltering mainly on the question of insecurity of tenurial

righ ts 59. Direct British rule had led to impoverishment of the lower strata of the peasantry.

Mathrublzumi, being a Congress paper, obviously did not consider it important to raise this

issue in public debates, leaving a major gap in its potential readership.

In the thirties, the Socialist Movement in Malabar (led by the Congress Socialist Party and

the Communist Party of India) was 'able to "effectively articulate the grievances of the

underprivileged in general, and particularly that of the inferior peasantry, labourers,

agricultural labourers, and the so-called depressed castes ,,()(). This radicalisation wave had cost

Malllrublzwlli its readers among the above sections. They shifted allegiance to PrablwllwlIl,

which was found as an organ of the Congress Socialist Party under the editorship of E.M.S.

N amboothiripad and later to Deshablzimani, the official organ of the Communist Party of

India -Marxist, which was launchcd in 1942 at Kozhikodc. Thc Malabar region became the

birth place of the official newspaper of the Muslim League - Chandrika - in 1934. Thus, in

a sense, Malabar emerged as the centre of an organised political Press in Kerala.

In short, during the six decades following 1888, the Press in the divided state of Kerala could

evolve into a powerful institution,. quite lively with newspapers representing divergent views,

59 Tharakan," Socio-religious Reform Movements", p .l34.

W Ibid., p.134.

158
 interests ami ideological persuasions cq-existing in a fairly decentralised set up. However, it

was effectively dominated by a few newspapers like Mathrubhumi in Malabar and Kochi,

Malayala Mallorallla in central (and to some extent in south) Tiruvitamkur and newspapers

like Kerala Kaullludi and Malayali in south Timvitamkur. Individual newspapers gained their

popularity and growth by serving distinct readership segments, demarcated by political

ideologies and social and religious interests. All the newspapers combined in them, in

accordance with their proclaimed organisational mission, social and political issues in varying

proport ions. Viewed from a 'functional' angle, the newspapers in Kerala were striving to

disseminate information among the public by positioning themselves as adversaries with

respect to what they conceived as unjust government practices and policies. This observation

does not, however, mean that it had been enjoying absolute freedom of expression and was

able to influence and organise public opinion nonchalantly. They were subject to various

kinds of regulations throughout the pre-Independence period 61 •

It is evident from the above analysis that the Press in Kerala during the period before

Independence was largely moulded within the peculiar socio-political milieu that existed in

the region. As we observed, the northern and southern parts of the region had specific

features that characterised this milieu. As the Press in Malabar was going through a clear

ideological polarisation based on nationalist and leftist movements, in Tiruvitamkur, a phase

of consolidation had already begun under Malayala Manorama. It had by then successfully

61
For a detailed exposition of the restrictions under which the press in Travancore had to
function, see Appendix 6.3.

159
aligned the Syrian Christians, Ezhavas and other hackward sections on a clear economic and

political mandate.

The attainment of independence and the formation of the linguistic state of Kerala, more than

anything else, expanded the terrain of interaction and competition of newspapers in the

northern and southern regions, especially Malaya/a Mallorama and Matlzrublzumi. The course

of development of the Malayalam Press in the post-Independence period has manifested the

qualitative features of the earlier Press; but its' political' nature (meaning its involvement in

mobilisation and consolidation of public opinion) has been strikingly modified in a blatant

drive towards commercialisation.

In the following part we analyse the changes in the structure and pattern of newspaper

publishing in Malayalam since the 1.960s in an effort to understand the dynamics of the

regional language Press in the post-Indepemlence India.

PART TWO

PACE AND PATTERN OF GROWTH OF CONTEMPORARY PRESS

Growth Tre1lds

The growth of the Malayalam Press is analysed in terms of the growth in number and

circulation of dailies provided by the RNI. This data on the language newspapers suffer from

the same limitatiol1s as we discussed in chapter l. which arise fmlll a high illcidence of 1l01l-

160
reporting, ami from dubbing of independent titles and editions. Further, the additive method

of data constmction generates two sets of data on number - the registered as well as reporting

dailies. The picture of growth portrayed by these two series obviously differ. However, the

data would capture the broad contours of the growth process in the Malayalam Press since the

sixties.

The data in Table 6.2 suggest that the number of registered dailies in Malayalam increased

steadily from 19 to 174 between 1957 and 1991, whereas that in reporting dailies rose very

slowly throughout the reference period. The increase was relatively more in the sixties

compared to the seventies and eighties. The index numbers of circulation rise somewhat

consistently up to 1986, the year when the absolute circulation of Malayalam dailies was the

highest - 18,20,000 copies. Regarding the average circulation figures, one finds them

staggering around 20 to 25 thousand since the late 1960s through the 1970s. They, however,

seem to have increased from mid-eighties onwards. Figure 6.2 vividly displays the movement

in number, circulation and average circulation of reporting dailies.

The trend growth rate in registered dailies had accelerated after 1978 - it increased from 6.3

per cent to 8.9 per cent between 1963-78 and 1979-91. However, the growth rate in number

of reporting dailies was negative (-4.28 per cent) for the period 1979-91. Also, compared

to the registered dailies, they show a lower growth momentum for the previous period. The

trend growth rate of circulation for 1957-78 is found to be almost three times (6.03 per cent)

that of the period 1979-91 (2.2 per cent).

161
As in the case of the overall press·, here again, we observe the share of newspapers that report

circulation to be declining. It fell from 100 per cent in 1957 to just about 20 per cent by the

beginning of nineties.

The percentage shares of dailies belonging to different size-classes reveal that though there

was an increase in the proportion of very small dailies (having circulation of less than 5000

copies) in the total number until the mid-seventies (from about 40 per cent in 1968-70 to 58

per cent during 1974-76), their share in circulation has been insignificant throughout the

seventies and eighties (see, Appendix 6.4). Hence, as we did in the case of the aggregate

series, a reliable data series has been constructed by kaving the last size-class, i.e., dailies

with less than 5000 circulation.

IlIIportalllly. the reconstructed series reveals a lIIoderate growth experience for the Malayalall1

press in the seventies and eighties Crable 6.3). The growth rate in number came down from

1.62 per cent to 0.51 per cent between 1967-78 and 1979-91, while that in circulation

dec! ined from 3 .23 per cent to 1.44 per cent. It may be noted that during the period 1979-91

the number of repolting dailies was growing at a rate of 2 per cent and circulation at the rate

of 5 per cent for all India (see chapter 3).

162
 Table 6.2

Registered and Reporting Dailies: Numher, Ch-culatiol1

and 1\ vcragc Circulation

Year No. of Index No. of. Index Ratioof Circulat Index Average Index
Regd Report Regd. Ion Circulati
Dailie IIlg (0 of on
s Dailies Reporting Dailies
Dailies (' (00)

1957 19 100 19 100 100.00 240 100 12947 100

1958 22 111 21 111 100.00 305 124 14524 112
1959 28 147 28 147 100.00 421 171 15036 116
1960 30 158 29 153 96.67 527 214 18172 140
1961 32 168 31 163 90.88 579 235 18077 144
1962 36 189 32 108 88.89 070 275 21125 103
1903 39 205 20 137 66.67 051 205 25038 1<J3
1904 35 184 30 158 85.71 704 28(, 234(,7 181
1965 40 211 na na na 771 313
1966 42 221 na na na 746 303
1967 44 232 36 189 81.82 782 318 21722 168
1968 52 274 39 205 75.00 785 319 20128 155
1969 49 258 33 174 67.35 832 338 25212 195
1970 53 279 32 168 60.38 952 387 29750 230
1971 60 316 43 226 71.67 IIII 452 25837 200
1972 57 300 39 205 68.42 1032 420 26462 204
1973 66 347 48 253 72.73 1112 452 23167 179
1974 71 395 52 274 0<J :n 1084 441 20840 10 I
1975 84 442 56 295 (j(d;7 1057 430 18875 146
1976 46 461 54 284 01.71 1114 453 20630 159
1977 91 479 53 279 58.24 117 I 476 22094 171
1978 90 505 41 216 42.71 1121 456 27341 211
1979 48 503 50 263 52.36 1273 517 25460 197
1980 95 500 53 279 55.79 904 392 18189 140
1981 101 532 46 242 45.54 1380 503 30130 233
1982 59 576 54 284 49.32 1486 ('()4 2751<J 213
1983 89 599 58 305 50.99 1536 624 26483 205
1984 118 621 62 326 52.54 1586 645 25581 198
1985 122 042 54 284 44.20 1821 74() 33722 20()
I<J8(, 131 (,8<J 58 3()5 44.27 1785 72(, 3077(, 238
1987 143 753 43 226 3(J.07 1657 074 38535 298
1988 148 779 42 221 28.38 1737 706 41537 319
1989 159 837 43 226 27.04 1755 713 40814 315
1990 168 884 24 126 14.29 In9 504 51025 399
1991 174 916 35 184 20.11 1537 625 43914 339

Source: RNL (various years).

163
 FIGURE 6.1

Number, Circulation and Average

Circulation of Reporting Dailies
800~--~----~--~--~----~--~--~,--~,~~
. .
;
,,
:---- \ :

'V
~-t
700 : '---/ ~,
/ : :\
(300
: :
/-'->" /: :
;,:
x 500 . . /: : :
OJ :• . .• / : ' ; :,
---,of
:• :•
1J .J"-.,..... ....<--____ ..,...-:
'-.,/: :
:
:
:
. .
:
:// :
. : :/x,
/
c 400
. . : It;
:
.
.:.
/.- - .
-----~ ~
. .
~ ;+!'
>1\-<....
'!,-- .
300
h:
*- '
200
!/-/ !
/-(
""-~.:.
:
. *'
!
: /'io',:
,: ...,i.
: .
:
:
. ." _$
*:/ .~-w. : ' -;.;.~ :
I: * '--"';'
•
---="'\./
~.
',-,*
..
.: ., ~ .. /
.~-'"
--:
. ,~-~.
.~,
. ~
w.--'
..
100 ;', ,--: : :
1957 1965 1973 1981 1989
1961 1969 1977 1985
YeQr

- - Nurnber - - - Circulalloll \15 Average Cllculalio

164
The growth rates possibly indicate that the Press in Malayalall1 has already reached a plateau

as far as further expansion in outreach is concerned. The slow progression in circulation

intensity we observed earlier in chapter 3 is to be seen in this light.

Table 6.3

Number, Circulation and Average Circulation of Dailies

Circulation above 5000 copies

Dailies with > 5000 Circulation Index of

Year Number Circulation Average Number Circulation Average ~

('000) Cit:culation Circulation

IY67 17 745 43H24 IO() 100 IO()

IY6R 22 761 34591 129 102 7Y
1969 20 816 40800 I 18 110 93
1970 19 921 48474 112 124 III
IY71 26 1074 4130H 153 144 94
1972 24 991 41292 141 133 94
1973 26 1057 40654 153 142 93
1974 25 IOIR 41531 144 137 95
1975 23 978 42522 135 131 97
1976 23 1040 45196 135 140 103
1977 23 1101 47870 135 14H lOY
1978 21 1075 51190 124 144 117
1979 23 1225 53261 135 164 122
1980 30 1374 45800 176 184 105
1981 27 1356 50222 159 182 115
19H2 2Y 1430 4Y310 171 192 113
1983 30 1467 48900 176 197 I 12
1984 31 1504 48516 182 202 III
19R5 31 1757 56677 182 no 129
IYH6 33 1721 52152 194 231 I I9
1987 31 1632 52645 182 219 120
1988 31 1712 55256 182 230 126
1989 35 1734 49543 206 233 113
1990 20 1230 61500 118 165 140
1991 30 1521 50700 176 204 116
Source: Same as Tahle 6.1.

165
 FIGURE 6.2

Number and Circulation of

Malayalam Dailies

'f'
240
:· ~, :
... "
220 ····
•
'
..,
y

200 ·, ..
180
>< 160
OJ
u ,
c 140
120 ,
~
:~:
, ·: *~:
.. ,

100 ···
:,
,.
...
,
.·.
,
... "... :
...,
...

-- ,,, ,... ,
,·
...,
80 ···: ... ,
,
· .: .
60
1967 1975 1983 1991
1971 1979 1987
Year

- - Number - - Circulation )I! Average Circulalio

166
CHANGING SIZE-STRUCTURE

We follow here the circulation classification scheme adopted earlier in chapter 4. According

to this, the dailies can be classified under four circulatiol1 size-classes: (I) mega dailies with

above one lakh circulation; (2) hig dailies with 50,000 to one lakh circulation; (3) medium

dailies with 15,000 to 50,000 circulation and small dailies with 5,000 to 15,000 circulation.

The shares of these four size-classes are given in Tahle 6.4. The most notable aspect of this

data is the consistently high share of dailies in the circulation category of above one lakh and

the virtually stagnant shares of the small dailies in overall circulation throughout the seventies

and eighties. The share in circulation of dailies in the former category increased from 60 per

cent in the triennium ending 1968, to 69 per cent in the tricnnium ending 1991, whereas that

in number increased from 18 per cent to 23 per cent. The rise in circulation share was steady

up to the late seventies followed by a marginal decline. Thereafter, it remained more or less

stagnant
..... with marginal fluctuations throughout
"- ......the
. . eighties.
..

The small dailies, after a phase of illcreasing share 111 Ilumher that lasted until the mid-

seventies, show more or less stagnant share around 46-48 per cent until the late eighties. The

shares in both number and circulation of medium dailies virtually remained unchanged from

the mid-seventies onwards. On the whole it appears from Table 6.4 that the shares of all the

four size classes remained more or less stable between the late seventies the late eighties. The

share of medium dailies in the category 15,000 - 50,000, however, shows a perceptihle rise

towards the end of eighties.

~

167
 As we pointed out in Chapter 3, no conclusive inferences can he drawn from an analysis of

the shares of the circulation classes per se as we are not essentially following the continuous

method. The inter-class movements of various dailies cannot be captured in this situation.

In order to ascel1ain the extent of concentration in the market for Malayalam dailies we have

used the conventional measure of concentration ratio; in the case of Press, the concentration

ratio in terms of circulation is the m()st suitahle measure. In interpreting this measure we

follow the following prescription of Monopolies Inquiry Committee: "Where the share of the

top three producers is 75 % or more, the concentration can reasonably be considered to be

high ... the concentration may be regarded as medium where this share (of the top three

producers) is more than 60 % bUlless than 75 %; and as low when: it is more than 50 % but

less than 60 %. Where the share of the three top enterprises is less than 50 %, the

concentration may be considered to be nil ,,62.

62 See, Government of India, Report of the Monopolies Inquiry Commission (Chairman

[Link] Gupta), YoU, [Link].

168
 Table 6.4

Share of Different· Circulation Size-Classes in

Number and Circulation of Malayalam Dailies
(Three Year Moving Averages)

Share in Number Share in Circulation

Period I II III IV I II III IV

1967/69 18.61 3.63 38.25 39.51 60.27 7.17 24.36 8.21

1968170 19.74 5.18 29.38 45.70 64.43 8.13 18.78 8.66
1969171 20.09 6.46 26.46 46.98 65.24 9.96 16.01 8.79
1970172 20.37 6.18 22.02 51.43 67.12 9.04 13.17 10.67
1971173 19.76 3.95 20.94 55.34 69.37 5.32 13.01 12.30
1972174 20.16 4.03 21.41 54.40 70.16 5.29 12.58 11.98
1973175 20.46 4.09 24.55 50.90 70.00 5.42 14.05 10.54
1974176 21.30 4.26 26.28 48.17 70.19 5J12 14.74 9.45
1975177 21.74 4.35 28.26 45.65 69.79 5.64 16.17 8.41
1976178 22.43 4.49 25.91 47.17 71.35 5.34 15.29 8.03
1977179 22.43 7.38 22.29 47.90 70.01 8.68 12.64 7.66
1978/80 21.85 8.16 21.04 48.96 71.33 9.39 11.50 7.78
1979/81 21.32 10.27 22.09 46.31 69.09 12.12 11.14 7.65
1980/82 20.97 8.80 23.77 46.46 69.26 10.34 12.15 8.24
1981/83 20.97 9.08 22.38 47.57 69.18 10.82 11.15 8.85
1982/84 20.01 7.52 22.50 49.96 69.48 9.04 11.90 9.59
1983/85 20.65 7.88 23.63 47.85 69.34 9.41 12.12 9.13
1984/86 21.05 7.40 23.20 48.35 70.47 8.63 11.48 9.42
1985/87 22.12 6.32 24.28 47.28 71.35 7.67 11.77 9.21
1986/88 22.12 7.40 23.20 47.28 70.20 9.10 11.66 9.05
1987/89 21.72 7.28 26.61 44.39 66.92 9.27 15.34 8.46
1988/90 24.19 6.21 26.34 43.26 70.22 7.64 14.70 7.44
1989/91 23.33 4.13 27.70 44.84 69.56 5.41 16.86 8.18

Source: Same as Table 6.1

Note: The circulation size classes are defined thus:
J- above one lakh; II - 50,000 to olle lakh;
III - 15,000 to 50,000; and IV - 5,000 to 15,000

169
 TABLE 6.5

Share of the Top Two, Three and Ten Malayalam Dailies

in Total Daily Circulation in the Languages

Circulation ("OOOs) Share in Circulation

Year All Top Top Top Top

Dailies Three Two Three Two

1960 527 216 172 40.93 32.71

1961 579 262 20X 45.33 35.99
1962 676 309 244 45.74 36.15
1963 651 356 2X6 54.67 43.97
1964 704404 322 57.36 45.6l)
1%5 77144H 35H 5X.05 4().47
1966 7464H2 383 64.64 51.40
1967 782 512 408 65.49 52.25
1968 785496 387 63.16 49.37
1969 832 536 414 64.38 49.72
1970 952 575 438 60.37 45.97
1971 IIII 726 584 65.35 52.54
1972 1032 706 571 68.44 55.39
1973 1112 731 591 65.77 53.16
1974 1084 722 588 66.63 54.24
1975 1057 693 563 65.57 53.31
1976 1114 725 600 65.07 53.90
1977 1177 757 637 64.62 54.44
1978 I 121 812 685 72.43 61. II
1979 1273 924 780 72.63 61.24
1980 1423 981 838 68.96 58.89
1981 1386 994 865 71.76 62.39
1982 1486 974 846 65.57 56.96
1983 1536 954 828 62.11 53.91
1984 1586 1148 1028 72.41 64.80
19X5 IX21 1208 IOY3 00. :n [Link]
1986 1785 1152 1045 64.56 58.54
1987 1657 1260 1I I I 76.04 67.05
1988 1737 1259 1{)l)7 72.47 03. 15
1989 1755 1134 1134 60.43 57.21
1990 1498 1170 1170 71.60 60.79
Source: Same as Table 6.1.

Note: The fluctuations observed in these shares cannot strictly be attributed to changing circulation
levels. There are instances where some dailies or certain editions have not reported circulation. This was
especially so during the early part of the eighties.

170
The three-finn concentration ratio with respect to the Malayalam Press increased from about

41 per cent in 1960 to 58 per cent in 1965 and to 72 per cent in 1990 Crable 6.5). Thus,

measured in terms o/" three-firm ratio this language Press shows no or low concentration until

the mid-sixties and medium concentration thereafter.

The pattern o/" distribution of shares of the top three titles - M(/Iayala MaIlOlwIUl,

Mathrubhullli and Kerala Kalll7ludi - hetween 1960 and 1990 is quite revealing (Tahle 6.6).

The steady emergence of Malayala Manorama as the clear market leader since 1970,

overtaking Matlzrubl1llll1i and consistently surpassing the latter's share in the market is the

most conspicuous point that emerges from the Table. The circulation share o/" Mwwrllma

increased from about 18 per cent to 28 per cent between 1960 and 1974, and further to 44 per

cent in 1990. The share of MathrublzulIli was stagnant around 25 per cent since the mid-sixties

through the late eighties. The third largest daily, Kerala Kaumudi claimed, on an average,

12 per cent of the total circulation between 1963 and 1981. This share gradually deteriorated

and became negligible towards the end of the eighties.

171
 FIGURE 6.3

Movement in Shares of
Top Circu lation Dailies
180
170
160

1968 1976 1984

1964 1972 1980 1988
Year

- - Top Ten - - Top 1111(,e )It Topl wo

172
 Tahle 6.6

Share in Circulation of Top Three Dailies

Malayala Matlzrubhumi Kerala

Year ManoramQ KauII/udi

1960 17.55 16.57 8.55

1961 18.04 17.34 9.05
1962 17.23 19.77 9.87
1963 21.52 21.82 10.65
1964 21.60 23.96 11.32
1965 2 I. 13 25.59 12.16
1966 24. OS 2(i. (i2 12H)
1967 25.06 27.54 13.42
1968 21.28 27.84 13.90
1969 21.50 27.33 14.28
1970 20.29 25.94 13.96
1971 28.62 25.12 13.42
1972 29.63 24.81 12.83
1973 28.40 25.47 12.69
1974 28.35 25. It) 12.42'
1975 28.40 25.04 11.94
1976 29.58 24.34 11.20
1977 30.64 24.37 10.89
1978 36.13 24.34 10.96
1979 36.98 24.00 10.93
1980 36.13 23.82 10.27
1981 37.95 22.90 t) .35
1982 35.45 21.83 8.73
1983 34.35 22.73 8.14
1984 37.67 23.76 7.36
1985 35.47 25.55 6.63
1986 33.61 25.92 7.09
1987 38.81 2(i.38 8. 11
1988 37.18 24.22 (). to
1989 38.75 19.18 3. I I
1990 47.68 17.09 1.69

Source: Press ill illdia (!'orio[{s y(,urs)

173
The decadal trend growth rates of circulation of the three dailies demonstrate the differences

in their pace of growth. Overall, the growth rates suggest that the momentum of growth has

slowed down for all the three dailies since 1970 (Table 6.7). It may be remembered here that

our analysis of language-wise Circulation Intensity (chapter 3) did indicate that Malayalam

dailies, like their counterparts in Marathi and Tamil language, have undergone their

expansionary phase prior to 1970. The seventies and eighties were more or a stabilisation

phase. In terms of individual growth rates, over the decade 1961-70, Matlzrublzumi and

Kerala Kaullludi seem to have undergone more rapid increase in their circulation, compared

to Malayala Manorama. But in the subsequent decade, the growth pace of the former was

much less in comparison to the latter. Kerala Kaumudi, in fact experienced a negative growth

during 1971-80. During 1981-91, though Manorama's growth rate is more than that of the

other two, both Matlzrublzumi and Kaul7ludi seem to have improved their growth rates. The

revival of Kerala Kaumudi in the third decade looks really impressive.

Table 6.7

Decadal Trend Growth Rate of the Top Three Dailies

Title 1%1-70 1971-XO 19X 1-9 1

Malarala (i.n 5.54 1.4()

M (// /() fa 11/(/

Matlzrubhumi 8.93 1.77 2.03

Kerala 9.57 -0.20 2.11

Kaullludi
Source: Computed from RNI circulation figures

174
Looking at the market position of Manorallla and Mat/zrubhumi differently, one finds that the

average annual addition to circulation by the former exceeded that by the latter in the sixties,
~

seventies and eighties Crable 6.8). The diflcrence between the two was particularly striking

during 1970-80.

Table 6.8

Addition to Circulation pcr Ycar:

Ma/aya/a Mallorama and MatlzrubllUl1li

Year Malaya/a Mathrubhumi

Mall oralll a

1956-60 11,567 4,620

1961-70 19,600 16,459
1971-80 22,177 9,957
1981-90 20,417 11 ,194
Source: Same as 'Table 6·7

It needs to be mentioned that as they increased the level of circulation within the language,

both Manorama and Matlzrubhumi emerged as formidable Common Ownership Units dailies

on the national scene. In 1956, Matlirublufllli's rank amolH.!, national dailies was 11th and that
~.

of Manorama' s 14th. By the mid-sixties they became the fourth and sixth largest dailies

respectively. M1IIIOIWII1I eventually becalm: tlte largest daily ill tIle coulltry by the lIlid-

nineties. Interestingly, Matlzrubhumi still remained at the fourth place.

175
It is relevant here to briefly discuss the pattern of growth of other major dailies 111 the

language. Among these one could find two distinct classes - one consists of papers that
~ ~ ~

broadly follow all apparently liberal ideological position and the other comprise of papers that

have explicit affiliation to certain ideological persuasions. In the nineties the important titles

in the former set are Deepika (the older Nasrani Deepika), Mangalam, Express and
/

Madhyamam. Deshahhimani and Clzandrika are the leading political titles in the latter set.

All these dailies witnessed a decline in their circulation shares during the period between 1970

and 1990('~, signifying their marginal impact on the domain of public debate.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

We noted earlier that a significant feature of the Malayalam Press in the forties and fifties was

that a few newspapers dominated the various parts of the Malayalam-speaking region. Thus,

in Malabar and Kochi Mathrublzumi was the dominant paper, whereas the central part (and

to some extent the southern) part of Tiruvitalllkur was calered 10 hy M({/({y({/a M({I/orall/a. In

south Tiruvitamkur, the presence of papers Kerala KaulIludi and Ma/aya/i were prominent.

This was the kind of market segmentation that existed in the early sixties. The changes in this

pattern can be seen from Tables 6.9 and 6.10. The former shows the shift in market shares

of the three titles within each district. and the latter demonstrates the change in market share
~

of each of the top three dailies across districts.

63 To illustrate, the average circulatioil share of Deshabhimani declined from 4.95 per cent
in the early sixties to 3.50 per cent in the early 1980s and to 3.18 per cent in the late
eighties. Between the early sixties and the early seventies the share of Deepika increased
from 3.87 per cent to [Link] cent, but declined to 2.85 per cent by late eighties.
Chandrika's share came down from 2.14 per cent in the early sixties to 1.9 per cent by the
end of eighties.

176
The pattern in the beginning of the seventies is largely consistent with our earlier contention

regarding the dominance of the three dailies in the three geographical regions of the State.

Manorama's principal markets .were in the central districts of Alappuzha, Kottayam and

Idukki. It also had a larger share compared to the other two in the northern districts of

Kannur and Malappuram. Its largest market was Kottayam, where it could command about

69 per cent of the combined circulation of three dailies.

In 1973, Mathrubhumi had the largest share in the northern districts of Trissur, Kozhikode

and Palakkad. Its dominance in Trissur with a share of 72 per cent was particularly

noticeable. Tiruvananthapuram and Kollam were the two districts where Kerala Kaumudi was

the clear market leader. It c1aill1ed nearly 72 per cent of the circulation in

Ti ru vananthapuram.

By 1983, apart from increasing the market share in those districts where it already had a

dominant share, Manorama could capture the largest share of the market in Kochi and

Palakkad and the newly formed districts, Pathanamthitta and Wynad. Matlzrubhumi's

dominance was limited to Trissur and Kuzhikode. Ewn in these districts, its circulation share

declined. Kerala Kaumudi seem to have suffered a setback in all the districts. The decline in

its share in Tiruvananthapuram from 72 per cent to 42 per cent was particularly striking. The

consistently poor market performaI~ce of Kaul1ludi could be attributed to its lack of

177
 technological dynamism in relation to the other two, which we discuss elsewhere in this

. chapter.

By 1992, except in Kozhikode (where Mathrubhumi had a very marginal edge over

Manorama) and Kannur (where both the dailies had an almost equal circulation share),

Manorama had emerged the leader in. all the districts. However, between 1983 and 1992 it

had sustained a decline of about 11 percentage points in Kannur and five percentage points

in Malappuram.

A noteworthy observation about the distribution of shares of the top dailies is Kaumudi's

better performance in 1992 in the northern districts of Kozhikode, Kannur, Malappuram,

Palakkad and Wynad, and the central district of Pathanamthitta. Its circulation share in 1983

was less than one per cent in all these places. Equally noticeable is the deterioration in the

share of Mallorama in the northern districts between 1983 and 1992. It appears that the

market shares of both Manorama and Mathrublzul7li declined in the northern region between

1983 and 1992 because of Kerala Kaullludi's penetration. Overall one finds Manorama to be

the clear market leader in southern and central districts, and a formidahle competitor to

Matlzrubllumi in the northern region.

178
 Table 6.9
Market Share of the Top Dailies Within Districts
-----.---
_._. _ _ _ _ •• N_
- .- - - ..
- - - - --
I 1973 1983 1992

District MM MB KK MM MB KK MM MB KK
-
Alleppey 49.45 26.29 24.26 55.14 23.56 21.30 59.98 24.61 15.41
Calicut 44.46 55.46 0.08 49.29 50.40 0.32 45.40 46.50 8.10
1\ Kannur \51.31 148.671 0.02\57.32 42.58\ 0.10\46.46\46.63\ 6.92
i Kochi 45.98 44.06 9.96 53.70 42.24 4.07 58.84 38.35 2.81 \I
.......
Idukki 164.30117.87117.83168.14121.66110.20167.40126.881 5.72
--..J
\0
Kasargod nil nil nil nil nil nil 49.08 45.59 5.33
Kottayam I' 69.31 1'17.991' 12.70' 76.04\' 16.85 7.11 I' 77.37\' 16.85 8
5 .7 \\
\ Malapuram 51.05 48.86 0.08 56.44 43.47 0.09 51.17 40.73 1 8.11
Palakkad 148.60150.961 0.44150.59148.841 0.57 1 5 1.22 1 44 . 22 4.56 \
1 [Link] nil nil nil 70.92 28.45 0.63 63.01 26.21 1 10.77
Kollam \38.36116.36145.28134.15129.94135.91 \45.82\32.09 22.09 1
1 Tris5ur 22.38 72.40 5.22 46.21 52.20 1.59 50.87 47.68 1 1.45
II ;_puram \19.8111]
~~~2171.981 ~~.!6 32.07 14:~~7 !!.~~ ~4.77 2~.!~ I I I I
~ynad ~ nil ~ nil~6 42.54 ~~~39.62
~~
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulation (January-July 1974, 1984 and 1993)
Note: MM - Halayala Hanorama; MB - Hathrubhumi; and KK - Kerala Kaumudi.
The figures are percentages of the total circulation of the three
dailies in each district each year.
As far as the distribution of circulation shares of the three dailies are concerned, we observe

that all the three dailies could realign their circulation shares across districts in such a way

that concentration of circulation in one or two districts is considerably reduced (Table 6.10).

For instance, in 1973 about 60 per cent of Manorama's circulation was in five districts,

Kochi, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Kannur and Alappuzha. By 1992 the share of these districts

in the circulation of the daily came down to nearly 48 per cent. In the case of Matlzrublzumi,

the northern districts of Kozhikode, Kannur and Trissur, and the central district of Kochi

accounted for more than 67 per cent of the circulation in 1973, which came down to 49 per

cent by the beginning of the nineties. The extent or concentration or Kerala Kaul1ludi's

circulation in the southern districts of "Kallam and Tiruvananthapuram reduced from 69 per

cent in 1973 to nearly 50 per cent in 1992.

180
 Table 6.10
Distribution of Market Share of the Top Three Dailies:
District-wise Analysis
- ---------- ------- - -

1973 1983 1992

District MM MB KK MM MB KK MM MB KK

Alleppey 10.85 6.67 11.74 7.72 4.47 12.77 7.21 4.25

Calicut 10.97 15.83 0.04 8.77 12.14 0.24 7.67 11.28
Kannur 10.83 11.88 0.01 10.30 10.36 0.08 6.62 9.54
Kochi 19.07 21.13 9.12 15.15 16.13 4.91 15.36 14.37

I
'-
Idukki 3.16 1.02 1. 93 2.67 1.15 1. 71 2.65 1. 52
-
00 Kasargod
Kottayam
nil
12.83
nil
3.85
nil nil
5.19 12.39
nil
3.72
nil
4.96
1. 72 2.30
11.02 I 3.45

I Malapuram
Palakkad
[Link]
5.59
6.42
nil
6.18
7.79
nil
0.02
0.13
nil
6.03
6.27
7.27
6.29
8.19
3.95
0.04
0.30
0.28
5.35 I 6.11
6.00
6.03
7.44
3.60
/I Kollam 110.06/ 4.97 /26.21 1 6.201 7.35127.901 7.671 7.72
Trissur 4.84 18.10 2.49 8.77 13.41 1.30 10.36 13.95
[Link] 5.38 2.58' 43.121. 6.661· 11.05 ·45.51 10.57 12. 62 1 3 1.66
Wynad nil nil nil 1.81 1.81 nil 1.76 1.84 1.05
-- ------- -

Source: Same as 6.9.

Note: Figures are·percentage of circulation of each daily across districts.
We have tried to sum up the above findings in Tables 6.11, 6.12 and 6.13 that compares the

market concentration of the dominant dailies through the seventies and the eighties. It vividly

shows the progressive increase in Manorama's dominance over more districts, especially in

the seventies. The number of districts where Manorama's share in circulation exceeded 50

per cent increased from 4 to 9 between 1973 and 1983 and in Kottayam its dominance became

almost absolute by the eighties with more than 75 per cent share in circulation.

Table 6.11
Changes in Market Configuration of Top Dailies: Malayala Manorama

Circulation share (%)

Year < 50 50-60 60-75 >75
1973 Trissur, Kollam Kannur, Idukki, -
T. puram, Kochi, Malappuram Kottayam
Alappuzha,
Kozhikode
Palakkad
1983 Kollam, [Link] Alappuzha, Kannur, Idukki, Kottayam
Kozhikode, Kochi, Malappuram, [Link]
Thrissur Palakkad, Wynad
1992 Kannur, Kozhikode, Alappuzha, Kochi, Idukki, Kottayam
Kasargod, Kollam, Malappuram, [Link]
T. puram Palakkad,
Trissur, Wynad
Source', 1able CD· 9

182
 Table 6.12
Changes in Market Configuration of Top Dailies: Mathrobhumi

Circulation Share (%)

Year < 50 50-60 60-75 > 75

1973 Idukki, Kottayam,Kollam, T. puram, Kozhikode, Trissur --

Alappuzha,Kannur, Kochi, Palakkad
Malappuram

1983 Alappuzha,IdukkiKottayam,P .thitta Kozhikode, -- ---

Kollam,[Link] Kannur, Kochi, Trissur
Malappuram, Palakkad, Wynad

1992 Alappuzha, Kottayam,Idukki, P. thitta, -- -- --

Kollam, [Link], Kozhikode,
Kannur ,Kochi,Kasargod,Malappuram,
Palakkad, Trissur, Wynad
Source: Table 6.10.

Table 6.13
Changes in Market Configuration of Top Dailies: Kerala Kaumudi

Circulation Share (%)

Year < 50 '50-60 60-75 > 75

1973 Alappuzha, Kochi Idukki, -- [Link]

Kottayam, Trissur, Kollam --

1983 Alappuzha, T. puram,Kollam -- -- --

1992 All the Districts -- -- --

Source: Table 6.10.

Note: Kaumudi's circulation share in the districts of Kozhikode, Kannur,Malappuram and Palakkad
in 1973 and 1983 were less than one per cent, and hence are not considered here.

183
The foregoing discussion ori the changing market positions of the top three dailies invariably

points to the breakdown of the kind of segmentation prevalent earlier, wherein the daily

market was divided into distinct segments with three individual papers acting as quasi-

monopolies in each of them. This came to an end by the beginning of the nineteen eighties.

By then a tendency towards monopoly had become evident.

Monopoly in the context of the Press may be qualified here for the sake of clarity. It may be

defmed as a situation where an organisation controls a substantial share of circulation to the

practical exclusion of others, in a larger part of a specific region64 • This implies that a

particular publishing interest exercises greater control over information distribution, and

organisation and consolidation of public opinion. The 45 per cent share of Malayala

Manorama in the overall circulation of dailies in the language needs to be interpreted and

understood from this angle.

Nature of Competition

Given the above situation, the likelihood of a new paper coming to any significant position

looks difficult. Those having lower le,:els of circulation, logically, should try to combat the

competitive pressures by emulating the leader in quality or taking a route that is different

from what the leader(s) is foHowing and make a distinctive appeal in the readers and

advertisers market. This obviously involves significant physical and intellectual investment.

64 See, Report of the FPC.

184
 A third option is to reduce prices. Thi.s is suicidal for any small or medium publishing firm

as the cover price of dailies is already below the average cost. Moreover, price competition

historically has not played a vital role in inter-firm rivalry in newspaper industry65. At the

same time, price can become a competitive weapon in the fight for market share between two

large dailies. The virtual price war between Times of India and Hindustan Times in the Delhi

market in recent years is a case in point66 •

Empirical evidence do exist to show that overt or tacit collusive price agreement were

common among newspaper firms at least in the initial phase of modernization artd growth67 .

A pertinent indicator in this respect is identical prices of major newspapers68. After analysing

the retail prices of 89 dailies from different languages the FFCNE observed: "The uniformity

in the prices charged by many of the dailies .... would lead one to· infer that there would

appear to have been a unified effort amongst many newspapers to fix by common

arrangement informally, a price to be charged for the dailies"69.

65 Merrilees, "Anatomy of a Price Leadership".

66 Sanjay Baru, "Rules of the Game: Fair Play in a Competitive Market". Times of India,
13 July 1994 (Ahmedabad Edition).

67 See, for instance, Merrilees' analysis of the Australian newspaper industry during 1941-
73. He contends that price collusion preceded the phases characterised by price leadership
and price war among newspaper fi~s in Australia.

68 It needs to be stated here that identical prices are not a fool proof device to determine
whether collusion is present. Ibid., p. 294.

69 FFCNE, p.190.

185
In the absence of any comprehensive data with respect to the per copy price movements of

individual papers, one has to conform oneself to the available limited information from

published sources like the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Table 6.14 compiled on the basis of

the ABC data, demonstrate the movement of cover prices of five major dailies in Malayalam.

It is observed that prices varied considerably across the dailies during the period between

1976 and 1980. In December 1976 when Malayala Manorama, the leader in the daily market

with about 30 per cent share in circulation raised its price by ps.5 to ps.30, others chose to

keep it at ps.25. However, after the lapse of two and a half months Kerala Kaumudi raised

the price by ps.2 (i.e., to ps.27) and after a lag of three and a half months the second largest

daily Mathrubhumi caught up with Manorama. The situation has changed since 1980, when

the dailies started charging identical prices. This would possibly suggest either an overt

collusive agreement or a tacit price co-ordination among the newspaper concerns.

186
 Table 6.14
Changes in Cover-price of Major Malayalam Dailies

RII BB II Deepika ClIandrika Deshabhiaaai

July - Deeeaber 1972 8.14 8.14 8.14 8.14 8.15 8.15

pto 15.1 19~i

July - DeCfiaber . 8.13 8.13 8.13 . 8.15* -- 8.13
froa 16.11. T3 8.17 [Link] 8.17 8.16* 8.17 8.17
January - June 1974 8.11 8.17 8.17 8.16 8.11 8.17
July - Deeeaber 8.25 8.25 8.25
1976
IJi 8.25 8.25
lfroa
.12.T6}
January - June 1977 8.38 8.27 8.25 8.25 IA 8.25
U!r.7T} U!i~1T)
8.38 8.21
(fron (froD
1U.71) 16.3.71}
January - Juae 1978 8.38 8.38 8.21 IA 8.25 8.25
July - DeeeDber 1988 8.35 8.35 8.33 8.35 8.38 8.35
(upto (upto (upto
3L8.88) 31.8.88} 38.9.88}
8.45 8.45 8.48
(upto {upto (upto
1. 9. 88) 1.9.88} 1.9.88}
July - Deeeaber 1981 8.45 8.45 8.45 IA 8.45 8.45
Jaauary - June 1982 8.55 8.55 IA 8.55 8.55 8.55
July - Deeeaber 1983 8.55 8.55 8.55 8.55 8.55 8.55
July - Deeeaber 1984 8.55 8.55 8.55 8.55 8.55
lupto
6.8.84}
{upto
I5.S.S4} l
upto
5.S.84}
lupto
6.8.84} l5.8.84}
upto

8.78 8.78 8.78 8.78 8.78 8.78

(froa (froa (frOD (froD (froa
11 .8.84) 17.8.84} 16.8.8C} 17 .8.84} I6.8.84}
July - Deeeaber 1985 8.78 8.18 8.78 8.78 -- 8.78
July - Deeeaber 1986 '1.98 8.98 8.98 8.98 8.98 8.88

Souree: Audit Bureau CirculatioD (farious years)

Rote: * Deepika vent for price refisions in ROfeaber and Deeeaber, 1973.
187
Our discussions with industry representatives did indicate a collusive arrangement in deciding

on prices70 • According to these accounts the cover prices are fixed jointly at the meeting of

the regional branch of Indian Newspaper Society (of which the Malayalam newspaper

establishments are members) .. However, the price revision are announced/implemented on

different dates in order not to be construed as joint announcements of mutual agreements and

any possible legal complications. According to the data presented in Table 7.10 at least for

one year - 1984 - four out of the five firms implemented the revised price on the same day,

while the remaining one implemented it a day earlier.

Such collusion makes the going tough for firms in the fringe due to mounting pressures

imposed on them by periodical hikes in raw materials, especially, newsprint. Moreover, in

collective agreements, the smaller firms would be reduced to the status of followers of the

decisions taken by the dominant firm in spite of the underlying bargaining process .
•

Notwithstanding their weak competitive power, the major newspaper publishing firms in

Malayalam have been trying out various methods to remain in the business of producing news

and views. We shall now tum to the significant strategies used by the newspapers III

Malayalam in their efforts at least to be in the same position as they are.

70 Personal Interviews with G. Venugopal, KWJA, Thiruvananthapuram, 13 June 1992 and

Karthikeyan, Kerala Kaumudi, Thiruvananthapuram 7 August 1992.

188
STRATEGIES OF COMPETITION

Product Differentiation

It is interesting at this stage to reiterate the ideas put forth by Reddaway71, who argued that

a variety of classes can be discerned in the case of newspaper industry. Each class

accommodates closely competing papers that are unique in character. The point that deserves

mention here is that the newspapers though compete within the same class can not be

considered as substitutes. No two newspapers, we may infer from this, can serve the needs

of the readership the same way. How well the reader's ideological persuasion matches with

that of the newspaper? Does the compulsion of family tradition make reading of a particular

paper a sheer habit? These and similar questions determine a reader's allegiance or affinity

to a particular newspaper. Each newspaper has to make a distinctive appeal to the readership

and try to be a different class altogether.

While Reddaway described what can be termed as 'class differentiation " Thompson pointed

to the existence of 'product differentiation' within the press. His emphasis was again on the

distinctive attributes of titles which made it possible for each of them to enjoy a particular

market position based on a multitude of elements like size, format, content emphasis, regional

orientation, language, periodicity, price, etc. As far as the press in any specific social and

cultural context is concerned, the essence of both Reddaway' s and Thompson s arguments is
I

the possibility of having variety in content and, thereby, the differentiation a reader makes

between newspapers. This phenomenon is analogous to product differentiation understood in

71 Reddaway, "The Economics of Newspapers" .

189
conventional economy theory.

A close look at the Press scenario in Malayalam indicates that product differentiation has been

an important competitive strategy used by the large newspaper fIrms since the 1930s. They

appear to have exploited its immense scope. All the major newspapers in the language started

off as bi-weeklies or tri-weeklies and Slowly graduated to the status of dailies. Again when

they found that along with an expansion in readership, readers interests also diversifIed,. there

were attempts to fmd alternative formats which could accommodate topics of general interest.

Thus, Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi diversifIed into the weekly market and in 1939

and 1932 respectively. Weeklies, when they originated, were thought to be the best medium

for catering to a variety of needs of general readers.

The second level of differentiation had been in terms of content emphasis. This marked the

'demassifIcation' phase in the 'progression cycle' of Malayalam press, where the publishers

started thinking in terms of fragmenting the output across various segments of the population.

In this sense this may be called' a specialisation stage'. It is, however, difficult to obtain

disaggregate level information about newspapers of different content emphases in Malayalam.

For purpose of illustration we present in Table 6.15 the major products of the prominent

COUs in the language in 1991 classified according to the general content, frequency etc72 •

72 By the middle of 1990s, all the major titles had launched, apart from the ones listed in
Table 6.11, various supplements targeted at students, farmers, sports lovers etc. as part
of the marketing strategy.

190
 Table 6.15

Product Profile of Major Newspaper Publishers in Malayalam: 1991

Title Frequency Category

Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd.

l. Malayala Manorama Daily NI*

2. Malayala Manorama Weekly NNI**
3. Vanitha Fortnightly For Women
4. The Week (E) Weekly NI
5. Balarama Monthly For Children
6. Bhasha Poshini Bi-annual Literary

Mathrubhumi Publishing

l. Mathrubhumi Daily NI
2. Mathrubhumi Weekly NI
3. Grihalekshmi Fortnightly For Women
4. Balabhumi Monthly For Children
5. Chitrabhumi Fortnighly Fim-based

Kerala Kaumudi

l. Kerala Kaumudi Daily NI

2 Kala Kaumudi Weekly NI
3. VeW Nakshatram Fortnightly Film-based
4. Katha Weekly Literary

Deepika

l. Deepika Daily NI
2. Deepika' Weekly NI
3. Kuttikalude Deepika Monthly For Children

Deshabhimani

1. Deshabhimani Daily NI
2. Deshabhimani Weekly NI
Note:* NI - News Interest Newspaper **NNI- Non News Interest Newspaper

191
It may look paradoxical that the same Malayala Manorama Company brings out a down

market mass weekly and limited copies of a serious literary magazine,Bhashaposhini, aimed

mainly at the scholarly community. In short, one sees a direct translation of the logic of

commodity production in the Malayalam Press. To ensure variety and to appeal to various

segments of the readership, the same publishers bring out differentiated newspaper products

just like a 'multinational manufacturer produces differentiated soaps' for the premium and

downmarket customers73.

From the point of view of production, a variety of products ensure optimum utilization of the·

existing printing facilities and help firms operate at lower unit cost. Different products with

different readership and advertisement profiles can effectively cross-subsidise each other. As
.
a result, some are sold at a much cheaper price than the others, especially those that target

specialized markets. This sort of a co-existence of 'mass' and 'customised' products makes

.contemporary newspapers a distinct category.

Another strategy that the malayalam weeklies effectively employ may be called

'personalisation of news'. Through this it has created wide market for matrimonial

advertisements, started devoting increased space for deaths and accidents and promoted social

welfare schemes (like life insurance) and began sponsoring competitions and entertainment

73 See, the interview with Mussafar Ahmed, "Newspapers: Wrong Agenda" in Padabhedam,
May 1-15, 1991.

192
events. This is nevertheless cannot be seen as innovation of the Indian papers. In fact, these

tendencies have obvious parallels in the western newspaper industry. Westney explains this

phenomenon as "the new journalism", which included,

"a simplified style and a more visually appealing format, more entertainment and
general information, and a closer relationship with the reader through contests, public
welfare campaigns ... , and columns that responded to readers' queries or comments.
Practitioners of the new' journalism also acted to create news by sponsoring and
publicizing special events, especially sports and entertainment"74.

The design and implementation of the aforesaid strategies must have been facilitated by the

introduction of new technologies, especially those based on the information technology, in

the eighties. We have already observed that the distinct nature of the new technologies

enabled the Indian Press to vertically disorganise production, but with fair degree of

centralised control over production processes. We now turn to a discussion of the

technological changes in the Malayalam Press.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND EDITIONALISATION

After overcoming the initial restricted growth phase up to the 1920s, the major bottleneck in

market growth of Malayalam dailies was in terms of lack of affordable technology options

in both printing and composing. Unlike the English press the Indian language newspapers

took longer to effect the transition from the old to the new technology in both printing and

composing. The oldest technique of manual composing proved to be cumbersome for a

74 Eleanor D. Westney, Imitation and Innovation: The Transfer of Western· Organizational

Patterns to Meiji Japan. Cambridg~ MA.: Harvard University Press, 1987. p.

193
 language like Malayalam where the characters are numerous and very often complex. It needs

to be noted that the process of adoption of mechanical composing techniques was rather slow

in Indian languages as they were originally developed in the west for the purpose of

composing Roman scripe5 •

Under the 'hot metal technology regime' it was inconceivable for a Malayalam newspaper

to have more than one edition, primarily due to the exorbitant costs involved in the purchase

and installation of printing and composing machinery at more than one place. In such a

situation, efforts of leading newspapers were basically directed at consolidating the captive

market segments within given geographical areas. However, there had been a growing

realisation by the newspaper organisations that newspaper publishing was primarily a

commercial activity76.

Technological advances in newspaper production began disseminating in the Malayalam press

well after 1970. In printing the technological transition from hand/cylinder to rotary press

happened over a span of 60 years since 1888, the year when Malayala Manorama was

launched. Until 1950 the predominant printing machinery in the language was hand press or

cylinder press77 . Compared to 'hand operated flatbed press, the cylinder press was much

faster. Yet, on an average the cylinder press used to take nearly twelve and a half hours to

75 See, FFCNE.

76 Kesava Menon, Kazhinja Kalam.

77 Menon, Mathrubhumiyude Katha.

194
print 10,000 copies of a four-page newspaper78. It may also be mentioned that rotary letter

press was at an advanced stage of development in the West by the end of the nineteenth

Rotary press came to the Malayalam newspaper publishing industry in 1950 when

Mathrubhumi introduced it at Kozhikode. It was followed by Manorama in the same year,

while Kerala Kaumudi switched over to the technology only a decade later. Printing with

rotary press was not without problems. The press was heavy, it consumed more power and

its maintenance was rather difficult. The offset press, developed in the West in the late forties

as an improvement over the cumbersome and expensive printing process, was introduced in

the language by the mid-sixties. But it became popular only in the eighties.

It may be worth noting that Deshabhimani at Kozhikode acquired a standard web offset

machine as early as 1980, which according to this organisation was the first of its kind in

India80 • Very often Kaumudi was late in catching up with such developments. For instance,

it was using the rotary press till the mid-eighties. Its central facility at Thiruvananthapuram

started operating a rotary-converted offset printing machine only in the year 1986, though,

its new facility started at Kozhikode in 1984 had offset printing at the time of inception.

78 Westney, Imitation and Innovation, p.168.

79 Trevor 1. Williams (Eel.), A History of Technology, Vol. VI, The Twentieth Century C.1900
to C.1950, Part II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978).

80 Personal interview with [Link], 3 August 1992.

195
It is obvious that as better printing technologies were adopted changes became imperative in

the associated sphere of typesetting ~lso. According to a study conducted by the Press

Registrar based on a sample of 301 dailies in various languages, mechanical composing was

still not introduced in the Malayalam press in 1960.

Towards the end of that decade, in 1968, Manorama introduced linotype at Kozhikode, the

second facility it had started in 1966. It took a decade and a half more for this organisation

to introduce photo-typesetting, to begin with at its central facility at Kottayam. Around the

same time Mathrubhumi too shifted over to photo offset. Kerala Kaumudi took a few more

years to catch up with the leaders. In 1987 Manorama units got interlinked through newsscan

facsimile system.

The adoption of new technology and attempts at expanding market reach through opening up

of newer editions appear to have moved together in the case of the top players in the

language. As mentioned in the earlier chapters, technology holds key to the process of

editionalisation. The first newspaper to launch a second edition in Malayalam was

Mathrubhumi. In 1962 it started an edition at Kochi. It was evidently trying to make inroads

into the captive market segments of Manorama. Between 1965 and 1985 the Malayalam press

had seen frequent changes to better and more modem versions of offset printing, particularly,
.
by Malayala Manorama. By the middle of the sixties Manorama moved to the north of the

state with a new edition at Kozhikode:

196
 Again the late eighties witnessed an increasing tendency towards editionalisation. The close

association between technology changeover and market expansion is clearly visible in the case

of Manorama. The proliferation of its editions in the post-1987 period could well be

attributed to the technology capability that Manorama acquired after changing over to

facsimile process. This has facilitated quick transmission of print-ready pages across places.

The local facilities confme their activities to newsgathering and printing, whereas the rest of

the processes take place at the central facility. In terms of organization and management this

meant greater centralised control over news production as compared to the now popular

modem technology, whereby composed matter is transmitted column by column between two

transmission points with the help of a link, generally the telephone line. Some have argued

that this latter technology provides more flexibility to the newspaper as it enables the resident

editor to choose matters of local importance 8!.

For an organisation like Kaumudi, which was rather sluggish in launching multiple editions

of its daily, we have seen that the seventies and early eighties cost very dearly as it

experienced substantial erosion in control even over its captive market segments. The

response came in early nineties when it started two editions.

While the pace of technology adoption even by the top newspaper firms in the language can

be said to be tardy till the beginning of the eighties, the period thereafter seems to be one of

8! P.N. Malhan, Communication Media: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (New Delhi:
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1985), p.ll5.

197
 intensive modernisation efforts not only by the direct competitors in the market, Manorama

and Mathrubhumi, but the fringe publishers like Deshabhimani and Deepika. The new

technologies have not only helped them 'go places', but aided in reaping the benefits of a

greater degree of product differentiation and operating in highly fragmented markets. In fact,

once the initial stumbling block in terms of technological backwardness was overcome, the

fIrms have been consistently carrying out innovations in a bid to survive in the market. They

have been in search of a wider spectr:um of niche markets. As P'lrt of such efforts are the

special festival issues of Mathrubhumi directed at different communities, career guidance

supplements of Manorama, the target of which is the educated unemployed youth, special

weekly supplements of Manorama for students etc.

The most enlightening example is that of Deepika in the nineties. Started and run by Catholic

priests, it has always been identified with religious interests. It was one among the' inferior'

competitors in the market with an average share of about 3 - 4 per cent. By the end of 1980s

there was a drastic transformation in its ownership structure. 'Rashtra Deepika' Public

Limited was registered in 1988 with the help of local and non-resident Kerala capital, along

with the Catholic Church82 •

82 Business groups with interest in textiles, jewellery and engineering are on the reconstituted
director board of Deepika. Personal Interaction with Dr. [Link], Deepika,
Kottayam, 10 September 1994. •

198

•
 The viability of the strategy of editionalisation demanded localisation of news, what Jeffrey

describes as 'getting close to people,83. Consequently, there has been the decline in relevance

of mofusil newspapers - the small town and regional newspapers - which were the real

representatives of local issues and interests. Malayala Manorama has not really introduced

any substantial journalistic innovations after the days of Mammen Mappillai. The basic

character of the paper remains to be the same. But with the help of the new technology it

could decentralise the whole system of news collection and distribution, while retaining

centralised control over the selection and processing of news. The innumerable rural editions

of this paper effectively preempted the growth of small local newspapers.

The logic of this sort of market fragmentation goes much beyond the accepted explanations

of how and why newspaper fi~s expand circulation or market reach. The theoretical and

empirical research in the area done in the seventies and eighties in the western contexts argued

that there is a difference between optimum and maximum levels of circulation and there exists

a trade-off between circulation growth and profitability. The experience of the• Malayalam
•

press shows that even in a limited market like that of a small linguistic region appropriate

technology decisions and innovative marketing strategies can enlarge the scope of circulation

growth. Here the word 'marketing strategies' is not without qualifications. Newspaper is as

much an ideological product as it is an industrial one, and hence, it is obvious that the

producing firms resort to the neo-j~urnalistic strategies to gain direct control over the

readership habits of the public.

83 Robin Jeffrey, "Malayalam: The Day-to-Day Social Life of the People .... ",
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. No. January, 1997, pp.18-21.

199
EXPLAINING THE GROWTH OF MALAYALAM PRESS

In the specific context of the regional language of Malayalam, the above study highlights two

distinct, but related sets of issues in the -growth of the language Press. Our analysis of the pre-

Independence Press in part one demonstrates the ways in which peculiar socio-political

conditions determine the character of the Press at given historical junctures. The discussion

in part two which centered on the contemporary growth experience of the Malayalam Press,

has brought forth the various dimensions of the transformation of Press in the wake of

influences like development in technology which led to large scale commercialisation of the

very same features that characterised the pre-Independence Press.

We found that in the early years when the market for dailies in Malayalam was divided as

unique niche segments with a limited potential to grow, individual dailies could enjoy

privileged markets. Particularly, the intrinsic limitations of the then prevalent technologies

of composing, printing, news transmission and distribution evidently would have set limits

on any singie firm's attempts to expand circulation beyond certain captive segments.

Moreover, the state was divided politically and administratively into three regions -

Tiruvitamnkur, Kochi and Malabar till 1956. In such a situation, market expansion would

have been thought of as an unviable proposition. Any firm that tried to extend the market

beyond the given geographical limits had to encounter strong entry barriers and incur

exorbitant marketing costs. The newspaper concerns were thus operating within the confines

of their own markets and under the protection of their barriers.

200
· In such a situation individual newspapers derived their distinct constituencies through their

ascribed images as representing particular ideological persuasions and community identities -

Manorama, thus, was a patron of Syrian Christian interests in the beginning and, later, of all

'politically deprived' segments, Deepika, became the 'trumpet of the Catholics', Kaumudi

was the champion of interests of Ezhavas, and backward classes in general, Malayali and

Malayala Rajyam were 'Nair papers'. Even, Mathrubhumi, with its apparently pan-Indian

outlook cannot escape a sectarian .stamp, as the nationalist movement itself was identified with

the educated Madras-educated Nair youth of Malabar joint families 84 . Dailies like

Deshabhimani and Chandrika by virtue of their political connection, came to have definite

constituencies among the population of newspaper readers.

This kind of a market segmentation based on ideological affiliation was logical till the

beginning of the 1960s. The political unification of the state in 1956, for the first time, broke

the market boundaries not only at the physical level, but at the ideational level too. It had

awakened the newspapers to a new possibility of surmounting the geographical barriers and

crossing over to each other's captive market segments. As the process of democratisation

gathered momentum in Kerala and political polarisation sharpened in an era of competitive

politics, many of the dividing lines that separated the readership of various newspapers were

either overstepped or disappeared. However, the absence of suitable technological options

84 Ram Mohan, "Political Economy of a Phoney War".

201
 to reach out to the prospective readers in distant markets remained a formidable obstacle on

the way to enhance circulation at this stage.

The technological possibilities emerged in the late seventies and eighties enabled the

publishing firms to braek out of the limitations imposed by market barriers. This however did

not appear to have intensified competition among dailies in the language. On the contrary,

it resulted in marginalisation of a large number of small and medium dailies and gradual

extinction of many. The structure of the market eventually converged towards of monopoly

by the end of eighties. The contention of Scherer and Ross that newspapers are as a classic

case of monopoly in local or regional markets85 seems to have been borne out by the

Malayalam Press.

The crucial question one is concerned with here is what has led to the thriving of a monopoly

daily in an environment like that in Kerala, known for its pluralistic ideological persuasions,

and hence, multiplicity of voices. One expects this situation to led to the Press playing "a

zero-sum game for limited patronage", and small market shares, rather than a progressive

movement towards monopoly.

85 Scherer and Ross, Industrial Market Structure.

202
A careful reading of the later development experience of the Malayalam Press leaves one with

certain clues to answer the above question. It appears at the outset that Manorama' s success

in consolidating its market at an' early stage has helped it emerge as the clear market leader

in the eighties. Between 1960 and 1991 the increase in Manorama's circulation share was to

the order of 27 percentage points. At a general level, the typical political situation in the state

seems to have aided this paper in the process of consolidation of markets. Kerala is one of

those states where two distinct political fronts have come to be established by the end of the

sixties with a fair degree of permanence. Operating in such an apparently stable political

scenario, Manorama has profitably adopted a strategy to appeal to the masses and build the

market share. The technological and managerial dynamism of Manorama's ownership must

have helped it to effectively operationalise the strategies of product differentiation and

editionalisation.

In explaining the growth patterns and structural changes of the Malayalam Press, Westney's

account of the growth of Press in the Meiji Japan appears to be convincing and insightful.

According to him,

"The political orientation (in Meiji Japan) did indeed mark an important departure
from the older approach of the elite and the political press. It followed the model of
the new journalism in the west, in which patriotism (which offended no one) offered
a safer approach for the mass market than partisanship. The newspapers of the new
journalism often took clear stands on public issues, but whenever possible they took
them on the moral high ground of the public interest and the nation, beyond the realm
of partisan politics,,86 . .

86 Westney, Imitation and Innovation, p.207; emphasis added.

203
In a different way Ken Ward also narrates the onset of a 'depoliticised Press', as commercial

journalism changed its style to a 'personalised human outlook'. "Journalists sought out new

angles which would continue to interest a readership which was less concerned with the civic

enlightenment than with daily entertainment,,87. In this sense Press becomes' popular'; a large

number of people buy newspapers, whose views are not necessarily represented by the Press.

As ward argues, in such situation the Press ceases to be an arena of debate. It remains just

a means whereby constructed images of society are presented to the consumers in a form that

is 'least capable of offense to the largest number'. In other words, the popular Press seeks

and constructs areas of consent rather than conflicts by creating ideas of the masses and

simplifying the language of politics through symbols and stereotypes. Their crucial roles -

credible informational and adversarial - get modified to address only the day to day crises.

Seen this way, one could observe that as the Malayalam press progresses over its historical

trajectory, the practices of new journalism and a larger process of depoliticisation overlap to

marginalise multiplicity of voices and ideological dissention, that ought to characterise an

essentially pluralistic, democratic Press. It is clear from the case of Kerala that dailies

pursuing exclusive political ideological positions have not been able to grow beyond the limits

set by the growth in number of readers sharing the same positions/concerns. The largely

constant market shares of Deshabhimani, Chandrika and Janayugam bears evidence to this.

Even the growth experience of the second largest daily Mathrubhumi seems to support this

87 Ken Ward, Mass Communications and the Modern World (Hampshire and London:
Macmillan Education, 1989), p.25:

204
proposition. Since the mid-sixties its share, on an average, has not shown any substantial

increase. The image of a nationalist (the national Congress to begin with) and politically elitist

daily seems to have imposed on it an ideological stamp, in this case, appealing to a much

larger section of the readers than, for instance, Deshabhimani or Chandrika. The daily could

not transcend this in later years. However, given the image, it could reach out to more

readers in other locations within the state thanks to the availability of suitable technological

options. As our earlier analysis at the district level shows it has not been able to break into

the captive segments of Malayala Manorama.

Ma/ayala Manorama seems to exemplify most accurately the change over to the 'popular

Press' in the Malayalam Press. Its partisan politics in the 1920s and 1930s was never covert.

Nevertheles, in the later years it shed much of Christian identity and religiously tried to toe

in with broader anti-left sentiments. Importantly, its management realised the potential

inherent in assuming a position that appeals to a wider spectrum of readers and thereby

building on the market share rather than limiting circulation to an exclusive niche.

Manorama's strategies of competition and market expansion amply demonstrates working of

this logic and its growth experience in the post seventies bears testimony to the success this

logic could achieve.

205
SUMMING UP

Against the broad backdrop set by the analysis of the previous chapters delineating the general

growth patterns and structural features of the Indian Press and the factors that influenced

these, we, in this chapter, focused on a specific language Press, namely, the Malayalam

Press. Spatial and linguistic diversity being a significant aspect of the Indian Press, case

studies dealing with the specificities of regional and language Press are highly relevant. The

case study of the Malayalam Press was expected to highlight the specific ideological,

political, economic and technological factors that moulded and modified it at specific

historical moments, in the [Link] getting themselves and their interrelationships modified.

Interestingly, the case study found that even within linguistically segmented markets, the

articulation of Press may take different forms as revealed by the differential pattern of

growth of the Press in the northern and southern parts of Kerala in the early phases. It also

demonstrated how the drive towards commercialisation, intensified particularly in the

eighties, resulted in the strengthening of monopoly tendencies in segmented markets and

increasing adoption of neo-journalistic techniques by. market leaders which almost necessitated

'depoliticisation' of the Press. As a consequence, the Press became 'popular'; but it ceased

to be 'pluralistic'.

If the Malayalam Press could be regarded as any pointer to what a language Press would look

like as it matures through the growth trajectory, the findings of the study raise serious

concerns about its position as a significant social and ideological institution. Press which is

206
dominated by a tendency towards greater centralisation, obviously, is antithetical to the image

of it being 'cantankerous, obstinate and ubiquitous' in its 'search for truth and independence

of authority' 88. This is an important aspect of the growth of the Indian Press that needs to

be explored in greater detail.

88 Herman and Chomsky, "Manufacturing Consent", p.298.

207
 I
I

KERAlA

klllNNVIl. •

I<O;ZHIKOOE

I
I
IDuI< 1'1
•

AI-APPUZHA.

I
I
 APPENDIX 6. 1
Newspapers of Different Position and Tone: Tiruvitamkur (1903-04)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name Periodicity Proprietor Editor Circulation
ReligiOO5
!1a1ayala l1i tram Monthly Church Mission John Chandy 375
Society
Gnanan1kshepam Monthly Church Mission Rev.T.K. 750
Society Benjamin
Kudumba Priya Monthly The Christian Rev. T.K.
Vadini Literature Benjamin
Malankara Edavaka Monthly The Syrian [Link] 1f2021
Patrika Christian
Association
Syrian Evangelist Bi-m::mthly The Syrian Rev. Joseph 2502l
Gospel Deacon
Association
Flower of Carmel Monthly Rev. [Link] Rev. Fr. Alexander 14ro
------------------------------------------------------------------
General Political/ Fducatianal/ Social
[Link] /1anorama. Bi-weekly MM Co. Ltd. [Link] 1430
Bhasha Poshini Monthly Bhasha Poshini K. C. Philip 525
Sabha
Kerala Tharaka Weekly The Kerala C. M. N. Panikker 770
Tharaka Co.
Nasrani Deepika Weekly Rev. Fr . Alexander V. O. Joseph 502l
Subhashini Weekly K. Govinda Pillai M. Govinda Pillai ge0

Nayar Bi-roonthly [Link] Pillai [Link] Pillai 1200

Kerala Ranjini Bi-roonthly C. Varghese N. Neelakanta Pillai 800
Sarasagarom Bi-roonthly [Link] [Link] 750

Keraleeyan Weekly [Link] [Link] Pillai 6e0

Viciva Vinodi.n1. Bi-roonthly Subbiah Tennadu Subbiah Tennadu 502l
Reddiar Reddiar
Sujana Nandin1. Weekly Kesavan Asan Krishna Pillai 502l
Kerala Panch1ka Weekly T . Marthandan P . Govinda Pillai 1f2021
Thampy

Tiruvi tamkur Tri-weelliy [Link] [Link]

Abhimani
------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Travan(.;·ore Administration Report (1904-05).
 APPENDIX 6.2
Growth of Literacy in Kerala
~--

1901 1911 1931 1951

Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women
Malabar
Kannur 20 3 25 4 32 8 53 23
N
o
Kozhikode 19 4 22 4 27 6 48 20
\0 Pal ghat 17 3 21 4 24 7 40 22
Thuvi:tam101r-Kochi
Trichur 22 5 28 7 45 22 59 39
Ernakulam 24 5 25 6 42 18 65 43
Kottayam 32 5 35 8 48 24 71 55
Alleppey 30 4 33 7 48 23 73 51
Qrilon 19 2 23 4 39 14 64 43
Trivandrum 23 4 28 6 38 14 46 34
Kerala 22 4 26 5 37 14 57 38
All India 10 1 11 1 16 3 25 8

Source: Gopinathan Nair, Education and Economic Change; p.27, Table 3.2.
 Appendix 6.3

Press in Tirvitamkur and Rule of Law

The newspapers in the princely states of Tiruvitamkur and Kochi were relatively free of the

colonial impact as they did not come under the direct influence of the British rule, Malabar,

having been part of the Madras Presidency, the colonial policy had a direct effect on the

newspapers published there.

However, even the princely states were careful not to give the Press an unconditional free ride
..
and imposed from time to time regulations to control its 'undesirable' growth. The fIrst major

regulatory measure was the Tiruvitamkur Press Regulation Act of 1079 M.E. (1903-04)

which prohibited the sending of 'any books or newspapers wherever printed and published

which contains or whjch has on its cover by words, marks, or designs of an indecent,

obscene, seditious, scurrilous, threatening or grossly offensive character' by Anchal (the

indigenous postal system)89. The Tiruvitamkur state most successfully used its power to

'condition' the newspapers when it deported in 1910, the managing proprietor and editor of

Swadeshabhimani, a newspaper published from Trivandrum on charges of 'defaming the

King, his Government, the Dewan and other offIcials of the Durbar,90.

89 Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual (Trivandrum: Government, 1906).

90 Report submitted to the Travancore Durbar by the then Dewan Mr. P. Rajagopalachari,
August 15, 1912.

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The incident did not result immediately in a newspaper act as feared by the Tiruvitamkur
$

newspapers. There was a widespread fear among the Tiruvitamkur newspapers that the

government was about to formulate a new regulation to control them. This concern was

resounded in the editorials apgeared during this time in many Malayalam and English

newspapers published within and outside Kerala. Majority of the language newspapers wanted

to preempt an all-embracing Press law. The enthusiasm shown by many newspapers to

support and rationalize the administrative action in no unclear terms must have been a

reflection of the uncertainty that loomed large over their existence. A few were also

concerned about the rightness of the King's action of deporting Pillai without making a public

enquiry into the allegations91 • Editors of a number of newspapers felt the need to have a code

of conduct that would help avoid a fresh Press law as also save individual journalists from

falling victims to the wrath of the executive92 • It did, however, led to repercussions in the

subsequent years as the government started keeping a close watch on the newspapers

published from Tiruvitamkur. A Press Room was opened in 1915 under the immediate control

of the chief secretary to the government with a view to keep the accredited representatives of

the Tiruvitamkur and outside Press authentically "informed of the important administrative

acts of Government". The Press Room was assigned the duties of examining newspapers,

collecting useful and instructive articles from English newspapers, marketing important

articles of interest on general administrative questions and policies and submitting daily

91 See, Manorama (Kozhikode), 30th September 1910.

92 For instance, see the editorials of The Western Star (Trivandrum), 4th October 19iO; The
Swadharma (Trivandrum), 30th September 1910).

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 reports 93 • The scope of the Press Room was enhanced in 1931 and was styled as the

Department of Information in 1935 under the Director of Information who acted as the link

between the Press and the government. While describing the functions of the Press Room the

Travancore Administration Report of 1930-31 says: "The increasing interest evinced by the

Press in the political developments taking place in British India and their natural repercussions

in the state necessitated more detailed examination and closer scrutiny of the newspaper than

before ... " .

In 1926, the Travancore Newspaper Act was promulgated, by which the fee for obtaining

license was fIxed at Rs.500 or below. The government was at liberty to cancel the license and

forfeit the fee in case the newspaper contained "any words, signs or visible representations

which are likely or may have a tendency directly or indirectly whether by inference,

suggestions, allusion, metaphor, implication or otherwise apt to excite disaffection" against

the king, his government, any member of the ruling family or "cause feelings of enmity

between the different classes of people". It was upto the government to decide whether a fresh

license be issued or not94 •

The government made use of this Act to cancel and forfeit the license of Malayala Manorama

daily on the charge that the paper "in its issues dated September 2, 1938, September 3, 1938

93 Travancore Administration Report (1929-30),

94 T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual (Trivandrum, Government Press,1940).

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 and September 6, 1938 contain words, and visible representations as seen from the head lines,

which are likely or may have a tendency directly or indirectly to excite disaffection against

or to bring into hatred or contempt the Government of Travancore" 95 • On the same charges

the Ma/aya/a Manorama Press was place under attachment96 •

95 Government Order No. 287/38/CD, 10th September 1938, quoted in Koshy Mammen
Mappilai.
96 Ibid.

213