The newspaper has been a part of our daily routine from a young age. English dailies have been played a major part in not only providing authentic news, but also in helping readers improves their English language skills. Regional dailies have helped readers stay in touch with the latest happenings in their native place in their native language. India’s vast regional, linguistic diversity is visible when we look at this vast panorama of newspapers in different languages.
With the advent of mobile technology, the new generation of readers are accessing news through their mobile device and print seems to be going out of fashion slowly. A newspaper gives authenticity to the news, which is why it is still very popular. There are companies bringing the e-paper versions to the news paper readers, such as PaperBoy.com. The company recently launched as an online platform to bring all newspapers under one roof. Team Estrade spoke to Jonna Venkata Karthik Raja, Founder of PaperBoy.com. Following are the excerpts of this interaction.
Jonna Venkata Karthik Raja, Founder – PaperBoy.com
Paperboy was founded by Karthik Jonna, an energetic 20-year-old, final year college student, in 2016. An avid reader and traveler, Karthik came up with the idea of Paperboy when he noticed that despite the massive digitization, accessibility of local news and newspapers online was still a major challenge, especially when it came to regional dailies and Tier 2 and 3 cities. Paperboy was founded to address this challenge and provide readers with first-hand information on the current happenings in their city/town, from their favourite local daily, in any part of the world.
An innovator at heart, he acquired his business acumen from his father, Vijaya Bhaskar, Director, Paperboy. Karthik has a keen interest in aviation and holds a student pilot license. Travel for volunteering (teaching or being a gardener in organic fields) is another one of the things he loves as he finds them to be the perfect way to explore the world, different cultures and meet likeminded people.
About Paperboy:
Paperboy is an online news discovery and distribution application that aggregates newspapers and magazines accessible on any platform. With a clean and simple interface, the app contains no pop up ads or interferences, and lets one access their news both in online and offline mode; thus, making it easy for people to read the newspapers at their convenience. The idea was born from a simple idea of the importance of newspapers in all our lives. All of us are familiar with having grown up with the daily habit of reading newspapers as a ritual either in the morning or at some time during the day. However, a large part of the nostalgia comes from reading a particular newspaper presented in a particular form, be it English or Regional. Paperboy provides the same experience of reading newspaper but on a screen which is the most in-vogue format of choice today.
Imagine you are travelling and are craving your daily dose of your favourite newspaper. Paperboy is then your answer at your fingertips.
- Team Estrade: Tell us about Paperboy and its services?
Paperboy is an online news discovery and distribution application that aggregates newspapers and magazines accessible on any platform. With a clean and simple interface, the app contains no pop up ads or interferences, allowing one to access their news both in online and offline mode. Therefore, making it easy for people, to read the newspapers at, their convenience. It gives an online – real time – print newspaper experience, featuring most of India’s English and Regional Newspapers as well as Magazines. Imagine you are travelling and are craving your daily dose of your favorite newspaper. Paperboy is then your answer at your fingertips.
This cloud based platform is accessible from any device and lets one subscribe to daily print versions of newspapers, online, free of cost.
- Team Estrade: What prompted you to start the company?
The idea was born from a simple observation, of the importance of newspapers in all our lives. All of us have grown up with the daily habit of reading newspapers, sometime during the day. Growing up, it has been a part of our everyday ritual, which most of us face difficulty following today, due to time constraint. A large part of the nostalgia comes from reading a specific newspaper, presented in a particular format, be it English or Regional.
Being an avid reader and traveler myself, I really missed starting my day with my favourite newspaper, when away from home. I noticed that despite the massive digitization, accessibility of local news and newspapers online was still a major challenge, especially when it came to regional dailies and Tier 2, 3 cities. Paperboy was founded to address this challenge and provide readers with first-hand information on the current happenings in their city/town, from their favourite local daily, in any part of the world. Also, addressing today’s most common issue of time constraint, Paperboy provides the convenience of browsing through their desired publication at their own comfort.
- Team Estrade: What is the size of the market you are currently competing in, both in India and the world?
We see this as a new and emerging segment. All newspaper readers old and new are our opportunity. Anybody with a smartphone is a potential Paperboy user. With the world now moving towards digitization, a multi-screen experience and information consumption model this opportunity is only inevitable. While it is difficult to pin a number to the market, we see this as an exponentially growing business.
Considering the fact that in the first stage of development our focus primarily is on
Indian newspapers, Indians anywhere in the world would be our opportunity.
- Team Estrade: How do you see Paperboy’s growth vis-à-vis growth of the industry?
We are quite optimistic about Paperboy’s future in the industry. People are usually resistant to change, especially when it is a change in their daily habit. Even if a change in the daily routine is incorporated, they are still nostalgic/ reminiscent of their old habits and look for opportunities to fit it in their everyday ritual somehow. Paperboy being a one of its kind solution in the industry, gives people the opportunity to stick to their daily ritual while also allowing them access to their favourite news provider anytime, anywhere, in its most authentic format.
- Team Estrade: Who is your competition in this space? What do you have that your competition doesn’t have?
Paperboy is a one of its kind product/service and there is no direct competitor of ours in the country so far. There are some portals from elsewhere around the world that can be considered as indirect competition when considering a broad spectrum of the industry. These portals are primarily news aggregators that allow their subscribers to access news articles available online, or provide snapshots of an online news piece. Paperboy on the other hand is a newspaper and magazine aggregator that gives an online – real time – print newspaper and magazine experience, while also providing the information in its detailed, authentic format on a real time daily basis. Subscribing to a particular newspaper ensures that you get a notification on your phone as soon as the newspaper is delivered.
- Team Estrade: Purely in value terms, how are you differentiating yourself in the market from the local smaller companies?
We are an aggregator unlike some other service providers who only publish their own newspapers. Here you have the option of viewing newspapers, editions, languages and supplements without any intrusive pop up advertising that can spoil your experience. We believe that we have a very unique value proposition that sets us apart in the market place.
- Team Estrade: What is your marketing strategy?
We are looking at organic growth at the moment. We see our early adopters being the hordes of newspaper lovers who have migrated to screens and devices like Tablets in recent years. We also believe that millennials and youngsters who consume a steady diet of social media generated news which is not validated mostly resulting from speculation and hearsay are also bound to find reliability and comfort in this platform. We are planning a slew of digital media campaigns and social media strategies to drive early adoption in the first few quarters.
- Team Estrade: Is the ecosystem in India ripe for companies like Paperboy?
India is a diverse country with a lot of untapped potential in tier 2 and 3 cities. Newspapers have been the primary source of news in every household for generations. Not only has it been an important daily ritual for us, but each one of us have also had our own personal favourite source of information. With the hectic lifestyle these days, multiple re-locations and extensive travel schedule, we tend to miss out on our daily dose of information from our personal favourite and trusted source. Even with the information available online, people still crave their daily newspaper ritual. This has created a need for solution that makes accessing the newspapers easy, at one’s convenience.
Historically companies were hesitant to make the online leap, but in the recent years things have changed. Now, there is a whole revolution with India taking to digitalization. Millennials who are constantly relying on their gadgets and gizmos for their everyday operation, provide a huge scope of growth for digital platforms like Paperboy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s concept of digital India, connecting rural areas with high-speed internet networks and improving digital literacy throughout the county, is a definite complement to Paperboy’s vision and growth. This has enabled Paperboy to reach people from even remote parts of the country and provide them with an easy, convenient and reliable source of their information from their preferred publications. Also, with our primary focus being on regional Newspapers and primary target audience being from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities; we see a lot of opportunity in this space, with e-Governance coming into power.
- Team Estrade: Tell us about the latest buyer/client sentiment in this space, in terms of the latest data with you.
Since this is a very fragmented sector which is in its infancy, getting data points will be difficult. We have however conducted several qualitative audits to understand the pulse of our target consumer. And we have received an unequivocal response endorsing the need for this solution today. With growing adoption of technology and multi screens, we believe that the print newspaper experience on your screen is an opportunity waiting to be uncovered.
- Team Estrade: Which segment is the revenue earner for your company?
While we are not looking at generating revenues in the first few months, instead our focus will be one on one-boarding as many leading print newspapers as possible onto our platform. Over time we will explore non-intrusive strategic advertisement placements that do not deter the reader in any way along with the buy-in of newspaper publishers and their advertisers.
In our second phase of development, we will be introducing customized ads for digital newspapers only. While every newspaper publication has ads on the physical print paper, the same ads will be customized in the digital version. This will not only increase revenues for both publishers and Paperboy, but give publishers an opportunity to go head-to-head with online news sources to secure advertisers.
- Team Estrade: How many subscribers have you gathered since inception? At what rate is this growing per quarter, per annum (Y-on-Y)?
We are currently preparing for the launch and the response from the publications and the current users has been extremely encouraging. With the current response, we are expecting to board about a million active daily users in the first year of operation.
- Team Estrade: What is the biggest challenge faced currently by Paperboy and your industry of operation?
During the seed stage, a lot of newspaper publications were hesitant to embrace this unique idea. But considering we are a new and niche segment, challenges were bound to arise as we continued trundling along. And now Paperboy has 200+ newspapers and some major magazines on board. We are currently focusing all our energies on empaneling leading newspapers in India that will in turn draw audiences to our platform.
- Team Estrade: Who are your investors? Are you a profitable company? Are you looking to raise funds in the near future?
We are currently bootstrapped and are not looking for funding anytime soon. Since Paperboy has recently been launched, we are yet to map any substantial profitability. However, we have in place long term plans that can deliver a profit margin for the company.
- Team Estrade: What is your vision for Paperboy, for – Near term future – over the rest of 2017
Uniting newspapers into one application, Paperboy aims to broaden the global readership base of newspapers. By providing the widest range of newspapers and magazines accessible on any platform, we look at being the ultimate way to browse, buy, and read news on the go. Regional and national editions of newspapers can also be accessible from anywhere in the world through Paperboy’s platform. No matter which part of the world you are in, one can get a flavour of your country and be updated about regional happenings.
Our mission is to:
- Bring the world in a single scroll
- Create value and make a difference
- Making Paperboy the ultimate way to read newspapers
Long term, over the next 4 years
In its second phase of development, Paperboy will expand its tie-ups to global newspapers outside of India. Paperboy will aggregate global newspapers from the United States, UAE, UK and Singapore, before expanding to markets in other countries.
“Our primary focus is on Tier 2 & Tier 3 city readers” – PaperBoy.com
