The History of Malayala Manorama News Paper

Malayala Manorama is the No.1 daily in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala,it is India's third largest regional newspaper, first two positions are held by Hindi newspapers. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew; it was first published as a weekly on 22 March 1888, and currently has a readership of over 20 million (with a circulation base of over 2.4 million copies). It is also the second oldest Malayalam newspaper in Kerala in circulation, after Deepika, which is also published from Kottayam. Manorama also publishes an online edition.

According to World Association of Newspapers, as of 2016, it was the fourteenth most circulated newspaper in the world. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) 2013 figures, it is the third largest circulating newspaper in India (behind The Times of India and Dainik Jagran) and the largest circulating newspaper in Kerala.

More Conversions for Sales Campaigns

Prior to Lens, Manorama struggled with real-time analytics, a vital activity for news organizations. Now, the API turnaround latency for most workloads is just 12.6 milliseconds. Video editors can now see in real time how users are engaging with content on the website and make immediate adjustments to an article’s title or publish videos in different sections to attract more traffic. They can also track the number of page views per visit, the average time spent on each page, and the number of quality views, as well as differentiate between unique and repeat visitors.

For its classified services—especially on its matrimonial site for individuals seeking a partner—Manorama’s telemarketing team is able to better segment and target certain communities or religions. “Using the Lens dashboards and recommendation engine, we are able to get a 360-degree view of our customers and their interests and this helps us to improve our operational efficiency, conversion rates, and revenues,” says Renjit Paul, deputy general manager of IT at Malayala Manorama. The company uses Lens to measure the effectiveness of a telemarketing campaign and to get more site visitors to sign up and subscribe for its matrimonial services. They found that conversion rates increased 13 percent with Lens compared to similar previous campaigns.

Digital Marketing Validation

Marketing teams have also used Lens to boost application traffic and continually assess their efforts. Less than two months after launching the pipeline, Manorama saw the daily usage rate of its mobile application for matrimonial classifieds increase by 52 percent. Editors can continually tweak the mobile app and the main Manorama application to bring the features that people are using most to the forefront or landing page. On its websites, the company has seen 16 percent more concurrent users since introducing Lens and is targeting a 50 percent increase in 2019. “We consider this an effective measurement of our digital marketing efforts,” says Paul. “Furthermore, we can validate our marketing data to make sure we are not losing money or resources on unnecessary campaigns.”

Data security was a nagging concern with the previous free analytics tool, because Manorama stores a lot of personal data on its users. With Lens, security concerns have disappeared. In addition, Manorama can integrate unique and confidential data into its dashboards, as well as report functions for complete visibility into individual usage patterns.

Expansion across Kerala (1960s)

The struggle between Malayala Manorama (based in Kottayam) and Mathrubhumi (based in Kozhikode) demonstrated the forces that would drive the expansion of Indian regional newspapers. The contest also illustrated the difficulties if expansion had to rely on Gutenberg-style printing as with the case of Manorama.

In 1962, Mathrubhumi launched its second edition in Kochi. The new edition sent Mathrubumi to a circulation of 170,000 copies by 1964, 19,000 more than its rival, Malayala Manorama. With Mathrubhoomi's circulation rising, it became a compulsion for Manorama to expand its reach, and consequently, introduce new technology. The competition set off a keen struggle for more readers, faster equipment and national advertising from major consumer goods companies [such as Hindustan Lever]. Manorama launched its printing centre at Kozhikode, Malabar in 1966 with a cast-off press from the paper's base at Kottayam and hand-composed type. But in the run-up to that event, it had installed an offset press at Kottayam and established a teleprinter line with New Delhi in 1965.

By 1970, it was the leading daily in Kerala. The circulation of the newspaper rose from around 30,000 to 300,000 by this expansion across the Malabar.

1980s

K. M. Mathew, who took charge as editor in 1973, began a series of renovations, just as the Anandabazar Patrika did in Bengal. He brought in a series of consultants in the management [1979], technical and editorial areas, and accepted their guidance. He conducted frequent training sessions for Manorama journalists and other employees. The company restructured their organisation in 1980. K. M. Mathew said that the decision stemmed from the realisation that the daily had either to become "fully professional" or "risk decline". Mathew sent his best journalists and managers to training schools around theworld, and imported the most effective techniques in international journalism and newspaper production, which brought in a contemporary look and feel to Malayala Manorama. In 1979, a new printing centre was launched at Cochin and in 1987, the Trivandrum edition was also launched. By 1998, the circulation of Malayala Manorama was increased to 1 million. In mid-2000s, the daily started units in the Middle East, focusing on the large Malayali population in the region. Mathew is credited with the introduction of the concept of "editionalising" with larger share for local news and reader-friendly packaging through professional page designing in Manorama, which in turn impacted the entire newspaper industry in Kerala. By 2007, Manorama become the only non-English and non-Hindi daily newspaper in India to cross 1.5 million copies in circulation.