New Media Policy for Govt Ads. Only 20% for English dailies
A change has been imposed in the advertising policy by the central government, as per the new rules which state that around 80% of its total advertising space will be reserved for dailies which have an Indian language influence, and the remaining 20% will be given to English Newspapers. The proposal came forward from the Print Media Advertisement Policy under the Government of India.
“The above norms are indicative and should be adhered to in the overall media strategy of the Ministries/Departments to ensure maximum coverage at optimum cost”, The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said. The Government however has left the scope of deviation for government ministries but, with regard to that, the ministries need to present a detailed justification for the same. The policy has been put to the word by the I&B Ministry which states that 15% of the newspaper advertising space can be given to smaller newspapers while35 percent of it can go to medium dailies and the rest 50 percent is kept aside for bigger newspapers. This step as the ministry says will ensure “balance”
Types of publications
The policy also defines, the small, medium, and big publications. As per the policy concerned, Publications which have a circulation of up to 25,000 copies per publishing day are considered “small” whereas publications with a circulation between 25,001 and 75,000 copies per publishing day are considered as “medium”, and finally publications with a circulation of above 75,000 copies per publishing day are considered “big”. The government’s initiative is a step towards the upliftment of underrated regional languages and create a situation of fair play for languages like Bodo, Dogri, and Garhwali, among others.
Publications made must be carried on regularly without any interruption for a period of not less than 3 years for it to become eligible for empanelment and that may eventually be reduced to a period of six months for underrepresented regional languages like Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani and Maithili, among the others. As per the information revealed from the sources it was said that Government took this measure to drive peoples attention towards these regional languages and help them to acquire their desired level of recognition and a chance of fair play, for this regional and tribal language publication in a world, where competition is very high. Publications having their origin from border areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including others will also get the benefit as per the policy.
More Power to BOC.
The result from the policy has also an effect on the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC), which was set up on 8th December 2017. The policy has made the agency very powerful by integrating various other departments.
“The BOC would maintain a list of approved publications for release of advertisements by impaneling acceptable publications. The BOC would impanel only such publications which are found suitable for issuing advertisements of the Government of India,” the ministry asserted.
The policy is also clear on the point that “government advertisements are not intended to be financial assistance to the publications”.
BOC works as a primary organization for paid outreach campaigns that are done on behalf of client Ministries or Departments and organizations of the Government of India through print media, electronic media, outdoor media, social media, websites, etc.
