Print is back: 3 business newspapers to hit stands; will they win trust?

For years, business journalism in India was largely aimed at an English-speaking audience, the executives and investors and those who were already part of the formal economy. That is changing as more people enter the stock market and look for financial information in their own languages, points Jarshad NK, former dean of the ACJ-Bloomberg Financial Journalism Programme.

The shift comes at a time when, after a gap of 18 years, three new business newspapers are set to hit the stands in the next four months. All three are from the south, even as the internet is flooded with financial videos, influencers, investment tips and real-time market updates.

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Express Publications is set to release Financial Standard, an English daily based in Kochi, by October. The Kumudam Group in Chennai plans to roll out Kumudam Business and News, a Tamil-English daily with at least four editions across Tamil Nadu by mid-September. Dinamalar, meanwhile, is introducing a 16-page dedicated Tamil business daily across all 10 of its existing publication cities.

Notably, Dinamalar’s paper will be the first dedicated business daily to be launched in Tamil, while Kumudam Business and News will be bilingual.

The sudden expansion raises a larger question: Is the regional market finally ready for business journalism?

‘Tamil media to catch up’

Director General of Chennai Institute of Journalism, A S Panneerselvan, said the move reflects how Indian economic journalism has evolved since liberalisation, though regional-language media has taken longer to catch up.

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"There are two issues here. One is India opened up in 1991, and after liberalisation we saw the boom in domain-expert newspapers like Business Standard, BusinessLine, and Economic Times becoming multi-edition newspapers. But somehow the market and the economy were consigned to the English-speaking public. This is a very late move by the Tamil media to catch up. I don't see anything unique here. I see lagging behind the national curve," he said.

Panneerselvan pointed to the rise of publications such as Mint and the success of international financial agencies such as Bloomberg and Reuters in India, saying the latest Tamil launches are essentially the regional media catching up with a trend that began much earlier.

Changing audience

But the market itself has changed, and so has the audience, Jarshad said, adding that the capital markets are no longer restricted to a small, English-speaking class. "Now the capital has become democratic and more people who are keen to join the stock market and also take advantage of its bull run. They are keen to do so with information that they receive in their own languages," he said.

He said business journalism has also moved beyond simply reporting on the markets and companies.

"The capital makers initially were all of a particular class and they were all conversant with each other in English and that was the common language they used. And they were comfortable with it, but that has been broken. Now business journalism has also changed. I mean it's no longer about capital, it's also about participating in growth. That means that the business journalism itself has to be more democratic," Jarshad said.

Finding the right talent

While the opportunity is growing, producing quality financial journalism in regional languages could be a major challenge. Jarshad said translating complex financial concepts into Tamil without losing clarity or context would be one of the biggest hurdles for the new publications.

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"It's not whether people can read and write or understand balance sheets, but whether they can do it in Tamil. There are people who write very well in Tamil, but whether they'll have the same nuance when it comes to understanding financial numbers, that's yet to be seen. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it hasn't been done yet," he said.

Question of trust

Beyond language and talent, the new business papers will have to build credibility in a space where reporting can directly influence investment decisions.

All three parent companies already have a strong reader base through their existing publications. But whether that readership and trust will automatically move to their business papers is another question.

Panneerselvan said credibility in specialised journalism cannot simply be transferred from an established brand. "Every time, you have to earn it. Wherever you get into, whether it's a sports newspaper, a sports magazine, a business newspaper, an economic newspaper, you have to earn trust. It's never given," he said.

"In the area of finance and markets, your trust is either really high, or if it dips, it brings the product down. The product will not survive."

Why print now?

The three launches are also coming at a time when financial information is available almost instantly through social media, YouTube, apps and messaging platforms.

"Right now, there's not just interest, but there's also a purpose behind these organisations launching Tamil financial dailies. A person reading it isn't reading it just for information, but also probably for an investment decision. And I think that's the difference right now," Jarshad said.