It seems like a bad time to run a newspaper in Goa, especially if you’ve set your hopes on the steady flow of funds from government advertisements. If your newspaper functions as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mouthpiece or is owned by a rabble-rousing right wing organisation whose members have a track record of blowing up improvised explosive devices in public spaces, you might disagree.

Government advertising revenue, the kind which most newspapers see as steady income thanks to the numerous tenders ads, public interest announcements and quarter-page design fiascos with mugshots of ruling politicians, has shrunk drastically in the past year. This has happened ever since the BJP came to power in 2012, inheriting a shaky treasury and getting caught in a post-mining ban revenue crunch.

National newspapers such as The Times of India (Goa edition) have seen a nearly 20 per cent decrease when it comes to government advertising revenue (from Rs 1.09 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 88.89 lakh in 2012-13). Herald, a leading local English daily, has seen a 48 per cent decrease in revenues from government advertisements – from Rs 1.07 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 55.22 lakh in 2012-13.

No such misfortune for Goa Doot, though. The newspaper is perceived to be the mouthpiece of the BJP, especially the state’s chief minister Manohar Parrikar. While revenues of other newspapers bled considerably, Goa Doot which was started nearly a decade ago, is one of the three newspapers which has gained in ad revenues this year.

Goa Doot earned Rs 36.70 lakh from the Goa government in the form of ad revenue in the financial year 2011-12, but in 2012-13 netted Rs 43.03 lakh – an increase of 14 per cent. The gain might not appear very startling, but coming at a time when virtually all leading publications lost money, it does tell a story.

Sanatan Prabhat, a hardline newspaper operated by the controversial right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha – some of whose members were arrested in Maharashtra and Goa for exploding IEDs in crowded areas – also profited in these bleak times. Its government advertising revenue has increased by 66 per cent.

The only other newspaper to have marginally benefitted is the Belgaum-based Tarun Bharat headed by Kiran Thakur, which gained an extremely negligible 0.5 per cent. The biggest loser post the Goa government’s tightening the screws on media advertising revenue is perhaps Lokmat – a newspaper owned by Congress MP Vijay Darda – which has been running campaign after campaign (some justified, some outlandish) against the chief minister.

Lokmat earned Rs 84.30 lakh from ads released by the Department of Information and Publicity in 2011-12, but this year netted only Rs 47.17 lakh a dip of 44 per cent approximately. Parrikar knows that Lokmat has been gunning for him and during a recent discussion in the state legislative assembly, he even made a veiled reference to his battles with Lokmat.

“I know one paper which has been writing against me. It is a Congress paper. Its owner is involved in the Coal (block) allotment scam”, Parrikar told the Goa legislative assembly. While he didn’t take names, he appeared to be taking on Congressman Darda who’s been booked by the CBI in connection with the Coalgate scam. The non-Goa editions of Lokmat – which are published from a host of centres in Maharashtra – received Rs 28.27 lakh worth ads in 2011-12 while the Congress-led coalition government was in power. In 2012-13, when the Congress was replaced by the BJP, the Darda-owned paper received no ads at all. 

Another newspaper which has seen a massive downsizing of government ad revenue is Gomantak, a Marathi daily owned by Sharad Pawar’s nephew Abhijit Pawar, which had a 42 per cent slump from Rs 1.02 crore last year to Rs 58.61 lakh this year. Its sister concern, The Gomantak Times, a local English daily, also saw a drop of almost 65 per cent in government ad revenues.

The local newspapers alone have not borne the brunt of Parrikar’s ad spend cut. Hindustan Times‘ revenue dropped by 34.50 per cent in the last one year – from Rs 1.29 crore to Rs 84.57 crore. The ad spend on The Indian Express, The Times of India (other editions apart from Goa), DNA and The Hindu reduced drastically by 76.63 per cent, 94.15 per cent, 59.52 per cent and 72 per cent respectively. Other newspapers which have lost complete favour with the Goa government this year are Dainik Jagran (Rs 46.16 lakh ads in 2011-12, no ads this year), Rajasthan Patrika (Rs 36 lakh in ads last year, no ads this year) and Dainik Bhaskar (Rs 41.60 lakh in 2011-12, no ads this year).

Parrikar claims that the reduction in ad spend as well as elimination of newspapers from the advertising list was a result of a pruning exercise, tailored to save the government some revenue. “We have taken out newspapers which were not relevant to us… Now we will work out a clear policy on how to advertise”, Parrikar has said.

The cotton-picking of the newspapers which have been chosen though, show a very clear leaning towards which newspapers and editorial policies are “relevant” to the Goa government.

(Note: All the data has been sourced from the Goa government’s information and Publicity department records)