KARACHI- The Sindh Provincial Committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society at its meeting held under the chairmanship of its Convener llyas Shakir has noted with concern the unprecedented price hike of newsprint in the international market, increase in the dollar rupee conversion rate and enormous slash in the advertisement quantum have resulted in the financial crunch for newspapers in the Sindh province.

The Committee has, therefore, noted that this situation warrants increase in the cover price of newspapers and proposed that the high-priced newspapers should increase their prices for rupees two and the low priced newspapers should increase by Rs one. The recommendations of the Provincial Committee are being placed before the President and Executive Committee of the APNS for approval. The meeting after thorough discussions concluded that if the cover price were not increased, the budget of newspapers would badly affect and would result in hampering their expansion, development and progress. It may also result in the closure of those newspapers, which cannot procure sufficient advertisements to cover their increasing costs.

The members were of the opinion that the extraordinary burden caused by the above factors has denied the newspapers establishments to acquire latest machinery and computer technology and increase the remuneration of their workers in proportion to the inflation rate.

The Provincial Committee has noted that during last ten years the prices of newsprint has increased three-fold whereas the quantum of advertisements slashed to 31 percent. On the other hand, the costs of petrol and electricity and the prices of printing ink and other material used in newspaper printing has increased over 50 percent which has resulted in the financial crisis of the newspaper industry. This crisis can only be addressed by the increase in the cover price of newspapers.

The Committee decided to request the Akhbar Farosh Union to extend their support in the crisis situation. The committee also recommended that the newspaper agents should be registered with the APNS for which a committee would formulate the rules and regulations of the registration process. The Committee also decided to evolve a formula for the distribution of Sindh Government advertisements for which the Committee shall hold a separate meeting shortly.

The meeting was attended by llyas Shakir, Daily Qaumi Akhbar, Mohammad Aslam Kazi, Daily Kawish, Dr. Jabbar Khattak, Daily Awami Awaz, Syed Sarmad Ali, The News International, Anwar Farooqi, Daily Aghaz, Javed Mehr Shamsi, Kaleem and Mukhtar Aqil, Daily Jurat.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:10/25/2000