4 alternative income sources for print media

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the Government of India’s official agency for advertising by various Ministries and organizations, has introduced new regulations for awarding advertisements to print media. In this context, there are many newspapers which have not been getting ads and have been running at losses.

Earlier, there was no Goods and Services Tax (GST) on newspapers but the ruling government also made GST applicable for the print media.

In this connection, there is a lot of financial burden on the print media, including newspapers, magazines and periodicals. So, we explore five alternate sources of income for print media to lessen their dependence on government-sponsored advertisements.

1. Subscription-based model

The print media needs to work on exclusive news from its regional areas so that the local people can find it informative. By publishing news that is exclusive, the newspapers can find a mention in the conversation of the local people and see its popularity graph increase.

This will allow the newspaper, magazine or periodical to set a higher price than others and earn higher profits from the sale of its copies.

Also, the yearly subscription-based model should be implemented to earn a good revenue just from the sale of printed copies by offering some discount on the same. For instance, if a copy of a newspaper is priced at Rs 15 and there are 5000 subscribers for the same, the print media house can earn anywhere between 25 to 30 lakh rupees, without any ads.

However, the print media needs to analyze whether its content is of such a quality, that can lure the people to pay for its subscription. This is also applicable in the bid to attract local businesses for offering advertisements.

2. Online news portal

Another alternative way of income can be an online news portal, which can also help the print media to capture a new audience on the online platform.

However, the news website needs to be designed by a professional company like Adroit Cyber World which has specialized knowledge and skills in news websites.

There are multiple sources of revenue for websites including Adsense Ads and Ads on YouTube Channel.

3. Tutoring classes

Although this might seem to be out of context as far as print media is concerned, it is a reality in today’s world that people want to learn about the things that matter to them and the first medium is either Google or YouTube.

If you can share your experience in the form of video lectures or offline classes, like photography classes, it would not only fetch you a good revenue but will also attract a young population to the profession.

4. Coffee table book

The prospect of a coffee table book can also be a source of revenue for the publishers in print media.

A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is a large, generally hard-covered book designed to be displayed on a table in an area where visitors are entertained and from where it may be used to spark discussion or pass the time.

To gain some understanding of the potential earnings from a coffee table book, let us assume that you make a book on “Top 50 doctors in India”, you can ask for a publishing fee from the doctors who will be featured in the book.