S.R.Seshu
The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the Government of India’s nodal agency for release of government advertisements on behalf of various central government ministries and departments, is one of the lifelines for media houses in the country. During the FY 2015-16 as on February 29, DAVP spent Rs.850 crores, on print and electronic media!
The agency, which comes under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B), spent Rs.402.79 crore or almost 48 percent of the budget on print media and Rs.353.31 crore or 42 percent on electronic media that includes television channels, FM Radio, digital cinema, SMS and internet.
For the first time, the Ministry framed a new print media advertisement policy for DAVP introducing a marking system with an aim to promote transparency and accountability in the release of its advertisements. Though the media owners’ reaction is not immediately known, the new system favors journalists and Press Council of India.
The New Marking System is based on six objective criterion with different marks allotted to each criterion. The criterion includes:
1) Circulation certified by ABC/RNI : 25 marks
2) EPF subscription for employees : 20 marks
3) Number of pages: 20 marks
4) Subscription to wire services of UNI/PTI/Hindustan Samachar : 15 marks
5) Own printing press : 10 marks
6) Annual subscription payment to PCI : 10 marks
The policy states that RNI circulation certificate shall be valid for a period of two years from the date of issue and in case of ABC, the current certificate shall be used for circulation certificate. It is stated in the policy that DG DAVP reserves the right to have figures of circulation checked through RNI or its representative. The policy also incentivize big category newspapers which are willing to publish the advertisements of Educational Institutions at DAVP rates by giving additional business of 50% in volume terms as compared to those which are not willing to accept.
The policy has classified Newspaper/Journals into three categories: Small (<25,000 copies per publishing day), Medium (25,001-75,000 copies per publishing day) and Big (>75,000 copies per publishing day).
“The new policy in pursuance with the broad social objectives of the Government has structured the empanelment procedure to ensure fairness among various categories of Newspapers/Journals. The policy also mentions relaxation in empanelment procedure to provide special encouragement for Regional language/Dialects small and medium newspapers, Mass circulated newspapers (circulation >1 lakh), newspapers in North Eastern states, Jammu & Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The policy emphasizes that DAVP shall make efforts to release more social messages and related advertisements which are not date specific to periodicals,” according to a press release.
To promote equity based regional outreach, the policy emphasizes that the budget for all India release of advertisements shall be divided among states based on total circulation of newspapers in each State /Language.
