It is very difficult for many elderly and senior citizens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to start their day without a filter coffee and a news paper in hands. But that comfort may get paused for a longer time due to lockdown.
Telugu news dailies are facing heavy blow with national lockdown. Almost all the popular newspaper companies buy newsprint paper from European countries like Italy and Russia directly. They buy in bulk to meet the requirement for a month. So, every month they need to import this paper to continue the activity for subsequent month.
Coming to the other news dailies and tabloids those have lesser circulation, they buy the news print from dealers located in Mumbai and Chennai. Those dealers also import the paper from Europe to meet their business requirement for three to six months.
Now coming to the point, there is an assumption that the national lockdown may continue till April 30th and will be relaxed in gradual stages from May 1st week onwards.
The first step in relaxation will be the international borders, the state borders, amusement parks, movie theatres and other public places will be kept closed but the public within the states can move freely.
If that is the case, the Telugu people may not see the news paper in print version from May 1st. Because, the present stock available in various print houses, as per the inside information, is only for the next 20-25 days.
After that if they wish to buy from Europe, the international borders will not be opened. Even if they wish to buy from Mumbai and Chennai dealers, the state borders will be under closure.
In case if the state borders are opened, the national dailies in Mumbai and Tamil dailies in Chennai will buy entire stock available with the dealers locally. Even if they manage to buy, the prices will be very high and many readers may unsubscribe if the news paper is also priced high.
So, the Telugu dailies have to restrict to epaper. Foreseeing all this, a popular news daily that is already in heavy financial tension has laid off 60% of their employees giving their last salaries this month. They retained only those who are needed to report and write at least for epaper.
The print section employees are facing the blow for their employers.
