L. Adimoolam has been elected president of the Indian Newspaper Society, an apex body of the publishers of newspapers, magazines and periodicals in the country.
Mr. Adimoolam (Health and The Antiseptic publication) was elected president at the 81st annual general meeting of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) held in Bengaluru on Friday.
D.D. Purkayastha (Ananda Bazar Patrika) is the deputy president, Mohit Jain (Economic Times) the vice-president and Rakesh Sharma (Aaj Samaj) the honorary treasurer of the Society for the year 2020-21, the INS said in a statement.
Mr. Adimoolam, who succeeds Shailesh Gupta of Mid-Day as the president of INS, belongs to the family of Dinamalar, National Tamil Daily. He is the son of Dr.R . Lakshmipathy – a former INS president. Mary Paul is the secretary general of the Society, the statement said.
In his address, outgoing INS president Gupta said overall, the industry continues to shrink and several newspapers across the country are gasping for breath. “Shrinking readership and advertisement revenues, rising costs and an onslaught of digital and social media have taken a huge toll on its financial health,” he said.
“There is thus an urgent need to reinvent, explore new revenue models, effective cost cutting measures and above all improve the contents,” Mr. Gupta said.
The print industry needs to emphasise on quality and credible journalism as advertisers have started to prefer their brands to be associated with credible news sources which is a positive trend, he said.
“The Indian Newspaper industry’s growth will depend on futuristic and strategic thinking of newspaper publishers for upgradation, technology adoption and competence building in their manpower,” he added.