Express Newspaper Pvt. Ltd.: Challenges And Solutions

Production process of Express Newspaper Pvt Ltd

Question:

Discuss about t the Company that you can use is Express newspapers (PVT) limited Sri Lanka.

In an organisation there are multiple things that occur simultaneously and the better organisation is one that deals with all the situations and adversities and still resists within the environment. The report concentrates on Express Newspaper Pvt. Ltd. which is the leading publication and publishes the second largest newspaper that exists in Tamil. This printing industry was started in the 20^th century (Thompson, 2014). With the changing situation and increasing modernisation the internet phase came into existence and the printing industry starts facing the problematic situation. The packaging stream was also facing the hardships due to the eco-friendly environment and implementation of demat system. Even the cost of such resources and fuels were high. Along with this the new technology has also been invented which need to be understood and applied within the organisation so that better learning is implemented (Pew research centre, 2017).

The report states the description of Express Newspaper Pvt.Ltd. along with the explanation of functions that production team performs. Thereafter the challenges that the company is facing has been discussed along with its impact on individual and organisation. To improve the situation solutions are also suggested and in order to strengthen the position of organisation LMDP strategy could also be adopted to establish the strong position in market. Lastly, the recommendation for the improvement of situation has been rendered followed by conclusion

Express Newspaper Pvt. Ltd. is founded in first half of the 20^th century by Subramanian. The Express Newspaper Pvt Ltd. also owns Virakesari which is the second largest daily newspaper in Tamil. Subramaniam launched this newspaper to improve the conditions of the labourers and prevent them from the exploitation that is been occurring. He decided to start a newspaper and raise a voice on behalf of the labourers and fought for their right. The newspaper speaks out for the equality for the employees and the idea was to provide justice to the employees. It is the publication house that publishes the best quality newspaper Virakesari, the motive of such newspaper is to provide the classic and quality news that enriches the mind of the reader (Express Newspaper, 2017).

The newspaper production team initiate their work by collecting the unique and informative data from different sources. The authentication of the information is been checked and the gist of information is designed and decorated with the use of fancy words. The production team also focuses on printing the advertisement and distributing the news in different sections like metro desk, sports portion, business news, political issues, education area, fashion sense and other sections. For every section the production team has the particular researcher, editor, scrutinizer who check the reliability of the news and filling up the paper with quality news that derives clarity and aware the people by providing the current knowledge in terms of sports, business, political and legal changes and many more (Azyan, Pulakanam & Pons, 2017). The production team of the Express Newspaper Pvt Ltd. comprises of 3 sections i.e. pre-press, press and post-press. The pre-press comprises the team of editors where they get collected and have a discussion over the information that has been collected and the crucial portion are selected and the importance of such newspaper is calculated and accordingly the space is rendered to the news within the paper and in which page it is to be included. The other news and advertisement column and percentage of area has also been fixed which the sub-editor and chief sub editor decides (Ben-Ner & Siemsen, 2017).  The press section is further divided into 2 more sections that is Lithographic stage and Impression stage. The technology plays a vital role in the newspaper house, the sophisticated technology use CTP (Computer to plate) technology while some of the newspaper utilises CTM (Computer to Machine) technology. The post-press is the final stage of the newspaper printing; this is the distribution panel where the final newspaper gets ready to be supplied to the houses (Weedon, 2017).  

Challenges faced by printing industry

In an organisation there are varieties of issues that arise. Every organisation has different nature and according to it the different challenges turn up, out of which some of the challenges are previously known whereas there are some of the uncertain challenges as well that might occur due to the political or legal changes that take place in the external and global environment. On considering the press and printing industry there are variety of challenges that are likely to occur (Zimmerman, Tamir, Ihel & Tang, 2017).

Introduction of internet: The first challenge that is prevalent in the today’s time is internet. With the evolution in the time the internet has gained a lot more popularity and access to the news have become easier on just a single click. Previously the companies use to give up their advertisement in the newspaper by paying the required amount but with the initiation of the internet people construct their own website and post the advertisement. Even the online retailing has been inaugurated where no printing is required. Not only newspaper but the scholar journals, magazines are also affected with the introduction of the internet stream (Long, Pan, Zhang & Hao, 2017).

Demat documentation: Also the printing of documents have been curbed with the initiation of demat and no paper campaign. Printing is all about the knowledge and paper without paper the knowledge and awareness cannot be printed on the newspapers, magazines and journals. This thing highly affects the production of paper as well the business of printing. With the web advertisement and web business the business column is becoming shorten up. The documents are been scanned and saved in the email which removed the pain of holding safe the documents and the papers thereby reducing the printing work which might result in deceasing the job opportunity in the press and printing industry (Bennett et al, 2017).

Impact on the economy: The high impact on the economy could be seen as the industries now parted the way with printing the posters and hoardings for the advertisement purpose. Even in the field of digitisation the packaging has also been stopped. Earlier where the product was packaged in the several layers and wrappers have introduced the environment friendly and recycle packaging where only the single layer of packaging is done, thus, the printing cuts off at that point as well (Brotchie et al, 2017).

 Rising cost: Another challenge that the printing industry faces is constantly increasing the cost of raw material. The paper mills are even facing the untenable pressures. The expectations of the customer also rise up and to fulfil the demand with the limited resources is yet a big challenge for the printing industry to overcome (Pattabhiramaiah, Sriram & Sridhar, 2017).

Effects of challenges at the organisational level and how it could be resolved

Effect of the above discussed challenges at the organisational level and how it could be resolved

As discussed above the internet is playing the vital role in the development of the present era as well as discouraging the printing mode and media. The business of Express Newspaper Pvt Ltd. is positioned at the decline portion in the product life cycle and if discussed deeply they are in the question mark situation on the BCG matrix and are likely to face the dog situation if anything unique is not supported at its early time (Scott, 2017). The effects of these challenges at the personal level have been quoted below:

• As known earlier internet has took over the printing business but the loss to an individual is that they will not be able to gather the authentic and reliable information as various sites just post the fake news in order to attract the customers and earn the big amount just on the clicking the sites. These kinds of things results in manipulation of the information and playing with the mind of the public out there. The rumours get created and because of rumours many a time the less reliable site gains the popularity. This situation could be resolved if eth area of providing the news become specific and printing focuses on the niche market where only the certain type of news are available instead of the whole world news (Thames & Schaefer, 2017).
• The weekly magazine use to help many household people like old age people, housewives and similar sought of people to understand about the outer world and be aware of the external environment. Because of these magazines and journals the household people get to know about the outer world but due to issues in the printing through the innovation of internet and other related reasons the door step news had become endangered. These issues could be resolved by issuing the magazines weekly instead of daily and in such a magazine all the entertainment, political, legal and social news of the entire week has been covered so that only once in a while the lot of information is transferred from one brain to another (Graber & Dunaway, 2017).

Certain challenges those are most likely to occur and affect the printing industry at the organisational level are raising cost of the raw material and invention of the new technology. The individual could assess the news and update themselves from any corner of the world without needing the physical newspaper in hand. The legal system has been changed and due to it the tax policies are also revised. Imposition of tax has been revived and this might result in problematic situation for the organisation. Also the environmental factor has come up as one of the major issues in decreasing popularity of printing media.

• The problem with organisation is that the price of energy and fuel has gone up and to stay in the market and maintain the position the company might compromise with the quality of information or the clarity of news will not be there. As per the study annually the rates of fuel and energy is increasing with 20% (Printing Impression world, 2014). This issue of cost could be resolved by using the reserves of company in effective manner and allocating such income efficiently by investing it into introducing new strategies and implementing the current ideas.
• The technology of the company has become obsolete as new technologies have been introduced and in order to co-op up with the external market the new opportunities have to be created and prevalent area should be modified in the new version. The company need to clarify and strengthen up the research and development department of organisation. They need to analyse and evaluate the outer world and accordingly the strong point should be focussed on and weakness has to be figured out and converting them into the opportunities and efforts need to be made so as to attain the desired goal (Easley, 2017).

Concept of Learning, managing and developing people (LMDP)

For the development of the organisation the foremost thing that has to be carried out is to increase and retain the employees within the organisation. Human resources are the crucial resources that play a vital role in the development of the organisation, they are the one who can rise and fall the success rate of the printing organisation. In order to ensure growth and make the company to stay in the run for the longer period of time there is a need to render the appropriate training to the employees (Rees & Smith). The training not only increases the confidence but also changes perspective of the employee towards the things. They started taking things seriously in the different manner and things that were the big fail could turn out to be the great success for the organisation and self-motivation is also gained (Tsang, 2017).

Theories of Learning, Management and Developing People (LMDP)

Learning is the effort that the person makes to understand new things and grab certain innovative ideas. For that particular learning there is a need to put efforts and investment of time, money and energy. More the efforts better will be the learning and it will result into more productivity in the business. Also the learning relies over input of efforts that have been inculcated in the learning process. Learning management also states the theory of behaviours and stimuli as well. Learning is the versatile area and there is no particular subject that is attached with teaching (Heddy et al, 2017). Learning is the training that helps in managing the people in an organisation and demonstrates them with the criteria of the company and clarifies job specification to them. Due to the appropriate learning and managing the adequate training the development of people automatically takes place. The learning is connected with management and thereafter the development of people. Such training could be provided either by the teachers or through the World Wide Web which includes the virtual teachers to clarify the concept and develop understanding and manage things in an efficient manner. The modes used for learning are lectures, peer interaction with the student, email to the student and various tutorials (Hodges & Grant, 201).

Discussion in context of applied theories

When the above discussed concept of learning, management and developing people has been understood clearly and the theories have been briefed, it is the time to practically apply the theories in detail upon the organisation to create even better understanding.

Behavioural theory

Behaviour theory is not only about learning the academic theory but also to understand the behaviour that is how to react in which situation, it is also linked with the decision making skills (Walker, 2017). In context of the printing industry the behaviour theory reacts upon the news that is been published and make the editor learn about using the appropriate language and quote the authentic data so that adverse situations are avoided and trust over the paper gets developed (Duval, Sharples & Sutherland, 2017).

Cognitive theory

The cognitive theory is much like the behavioural theory but the focus of this theory is on solving the problems and introducing new concepts. The concentration over the observation is less and this theory solves the problems in fair manner. In context of Express newspaper Pvt. Ltd. The problem associated with the newspaper printing is that the cost of energy and fuel has been increased and with the evolution of internet and demat system the paper work has been reduced. Thus cognitive learning will assist the company in resolving this issue by publishing the weekly magazine or the specific newspaper that covers up only the particular portion of world to gain the popularity and by providing the quality news along with clarity will help the organisation in setting up the new position in the market (Seufert, Wagner & Westphal, 2017).

Constructivism theory

It is different from the other two theories, it is gained from the experiences and previous learning that took place. Learning is the continuous process and lot more knowledge is gained when the particular area of knowledge is explored. In the printing and publishing industry the importance is paid to the research and development where the cognitive theory works well. The success is gained when the readers and viewers link themselves with the knowledge and awareness that has been passed. The motive of printing is fulfilled when the basic idea of the news is clarified to the audience. This theory involves the deep discussions, writing of blogs and journals with the required knowledge and using the previous experiences (Harasim, 2017).

The Express Newspaper Pvt. Ltd. is the publication that launches leading newspaper of Tamil namely Virakesari. The publication house was established in 20^th century. The focus is on the key issues that the organisation is facing. It could be recommended that with the increasing modernisation the printing company need to analyse the external environment and predict the changes and accordingly measures need to be taken to accept the dynamic environment and cracking out the opportunity out of it. As the internet phase has been introduced the company could open their page on the social media sites and start their promotion as well moving ahead with the moving world and gradually increasing the pace by implementing the varieties of new ideas that are been generated and suggested by the employees. Another issue that has come up is increasing cost of the paper and fuel and changes that are appearing in the documentation. With the introduction of the demat phase the printing has lost its business to the great extent. In such a scenario the company could use the environment friendly paper and recycle the paper to reuse it in the better manner. The quality of news should be improved and focused presentation need to be made. The e-news channel could also be operated so as to stand firmly in the market. Another issue is packaging issue of the products; the packaging done should also focus on the best quality and use the modern technology to decrease the cost and manage the budget of the company. The political and social deviation that occur in the organisation due to the changes that takes place in the external environment. The management need to analyse the outer world as well to understand the situation and get prepared for the upcoming changes and extract out the opportunity out of it instead of losing hopes and facing failures. For accepting the challenges and becoming resistant to changes the organisation need to implement Learning, Managing and Developing People strategy (LMDP). The LMDP concept connects learning with the management and thereby the development is derived.  The learning is connected with the training, the employees need to be given the appropriate training as per the dynamism so that they could resist the changes and development takes place along with the growth of the organisation. This enhances the management skills of the manager and the employees as well if decentralisation mode has been adopted. The decision making skills get improvised and therefore adequate results start to appear.

Conclusion

Hence, it could be cultivated from the report that printing industry is facing a lot more issues in continuing their worth within the market. The Express Newspaper Pvt. Ltd. has been focussed in the report and the brief introduction in context of the organisation has been included along with the production team that functions with it. Thereafter the key issues that the industry in general faces has been discussed followed by gaining specification and drawing the focus on the individual problems and the organisational challenges as well. The relevant solutions have been suggested as well to solve the problematic situation personally and with organisation as a whole. In order to allow improvement and stabilising the organisation in the era of changes there is an immense need to initiate the learning techniques and adopt the learning theories to improve the management and thereafter development takes place. With the help of adequate training the simultaneous growth of organisation and individual are likely to take place.

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