Turning around Kolkata edition of The Asian Age
The Situation
Kolkata edition the flagship edition of The Asian Age in troubled waters in transit from One franchisee to another.
The Asian Age created history in India for one of the fastest growth by a newspaper. One of the key reason for its rapid spread and growth was its franchisee module. An unheard of concept in Media in late ’90s. However this also was the very reason for trouble for The Asian Age – Kolkata. Sensing huge losses the existing franchisee decided to exit and a new franchisee was brought in. However in the transit the edition virtually landed in No Man’s Land !! I was CEO of the smallest edition. I was borrowed from my parent group to move to Kolkata from Ahmedabad and turn the edition around.
The Task
I had my task cut out from the time I landed in Kolkata. First and foremost a hostile team ruffled with an outsider being imposed on them. No credit in the market. Virtually dried up funds. Worst the printing was still being done at the Printing Press of the out going franchisee. They were gleefully waiting for the product to collapse and exit. I had to motivate the team , give them a self belief, that even though we were all part of a sinking ship we also had an opportunity to create history. Manage within the limited resources available and above all find alternative infrastructure options with the sword hanging on us for ” No Printing ” by the hostile outgoing franchisee.
The Action / Approach
It called for some tough actions and parking extraordinary faith in people. We were virtually surviving on daily collections of copy sales. Buying Newsprint on daily basis. We started by improving our Ad revenue with some go getter executives. Got a new bunch of fully charged up youngsters. The first job was to fight the perception of our imminent closure and convincing our audience that we are fighting back. The biggest scoop was to convince one of the leaders in the segment to print our newspaper. Assuring them, that we were no direct threat but were fighting a common enemy. With a good quality product and increased Ad revenue, the atmosphere changed from being under pressure to being on momentum. We brought out a record breaking anniversary issue with multiple innovations and celebrated the same with Clients and Advertising Agencies.
The Result
The same team which had resented my taking over as the leader had an all night party at my home to celebrate the success of our turn around. Suddenly we were in the reckoning as a strong print option. I was then brought to Delhi to head three editions at the same time.
