As ministries and government agencies have shifted to the electronic distribution of notifications and information, media houses in the country are fearing their sustainability. The media houses in the country depend on government advertisements and announcements for revenue. The Finance Ministry last month notified all government agencies to go digital as part of austerity measures.
The copy of the national newspaper, Kuensel, published in 2013 carried more than seven pages of advertisements. Of them, the majority used to be announcements and notifications from government agencies.
But following the government’s cost rationalisation measures last month, Kuensel’s publication just has two pages of advertisements, mostly in-house advertisements filling up the slots.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Kuensel, over 40 per cent of every publication used to be filled by advertisements earlier. But now it hardly makes up 10 per cent.
“We are going through a very difficult time in terms of advertising revenue especially from the government because for papers and also BBS, the main source of ad revenue is from the government. That forms about 60 per cent of our daily ad revenue. And it has been decreasing over the years. When the government directs agencies to cut down costs, they immediately target the advertisements,” said Kuensel’s CEO, Ugyen Penjor.
Moreover, he said many organisations including educational institutions have unsubscribed kuensel online after the government’s announcement on cost-cutting. He added that rather than doing away with informational papers, there are many other unnecessary areas where respective offices can do the cost-cutting.
Similarly, other print media houses said the decision will worsen the already shrinking business.
“Many people assume that the revenue for newspapers comes from the sale of papers, but that is a very small part of it. The majority of all newspapers would be advertisements. And in the case of Bhutan, the advertisement is again mainly from government advertisements. This will lead to fewer plural media, less diverse media, and a less healthy media environment. So, I think there has to be a balance,” said Tenzing Lamsang, Editor of the newspaper, The Bhutanese.
“The government’s notification and advertisements are the subsistence of media in Bhutan. So, private media’s sustainability depends on it which is why the withdrawal of government notifications and announcements would mean a recession of private media,” said Tenzin Lhaden, a reporter for Bhutan Today.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister said the austerity measures are to ensure proper management of scarce public resources.
“We are designing a mechanism where we not only curtail unnecessary government expenditures but at the same time, we set the right precedence. We cannot be conventional in the way we function in the offices. This, I won’t call it austerity, this is basically to observe prudence for the rational use of the limited government resources. We are not saying that media announcements will be blocked for now but it is also good that we need to rationalise,” said Finance Minister, Namgay Tshering.
He added that media houses cannot always depend on the government.
The Finance Ministry last month announced that all office orders, circulars, notifications, and intra-office memos should be circulated electronically through emails, official web pages, and social media platforms as a part of cost rationalisation measures.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sonam Pem
