DAWN News

What started of as a natural progression to the legacy of Quaid-e-Azam was soon to turn into an embarrassment of massive proportions.

DawnNews came into the limelight in 2007 as Pakistan’s very own first English language 24 hours news channel. It was positioned as the harbinger of all things good and all things different – positively different. It came amidst a time when the media scene in Pakistan was taking a more solid shape than ever before. The media machinery in Pakistan was thriving on the ever changing political scenario, giving way to an enhanced freedom of the press. Journos had more to talk about and report than ever before.

The world was watching Pakistan, quickly becoming one of the most important and much talked about countries in the world. The association was both positive and negative – more negative at most times.

The reflection of the world’s perception of Pakistan was evident in the common man’s thinking. Having a thought, an opinion was now everybody’s domain and also the most favored thing to do.

This struck DawnNews in a big way. The promise of bringing about a change and a difference quickly came under scrutiny. What was the difference all about?

The promise was to stir up the conscience of an average thinking Pakistani and opening up the world to what Pakistan was really about.

And as they say different is good, but for a reason, not just for the heck of being different. Dawn however, only dwelled on the different part, without giving the viewer much of a thought. In a country with a literacy level of 28%, comprising of those who can read and write their names, it was too much to expect that they would understand the highly anglicized accents of the anchors, the holier-than-thou approach of the reporters and the alien looking programming. How many people in Pakistan actually understand English? And that too with the accents that made you wonder if you were tuned into a bad version of BBC. The entire makeup of the channel was clearly missing the target.

Here was a population who was used to all the yellow journalism of Geo and the others who were running in the rat race. They were attuned to and hooked on to the dramatized news reporting and sensationalism that was doing the rounds. Pakistani news viewer regardless of social class or education is largely hooked onto speedy news coverage. They are willing to forgive small errors in the greater interest of being the first to know about breaking news. Hype and sensationalism sadly works in Pakistan, and that is what Pakistani viewers have been conditioned to.

Moreover, the style of presentation and infotainment content was heavily skewed to appeal to a very niche segment of society. It failed to connect with many people who could understand English, but for whom English was not the first language. They found it difficult to understand the accents and found much of the infotainment content irrelevant.

Adding on to the problems was the decision to exclusively promote the brand on the TV channel, Dawn newspaper and FM 89 restricted the reach. Outdoor could have significantly reach out to a broader audience and hence garner more viewership. These factors severely limited the viewership and hence the commercial viability of the channel.

Although it was a good effort on DawnNews’ part to not partake in the rat race, but the way it was done is something questionable. The programs were scattered and all over the place, ranging from news to reviews to debates, food related shows, documentaries et al. The only thing that stood out in people’s minds was the programs on documentaries. And this was alarming. The news, being the core content of the channel was not being accepted. People would still tune into Geo News and others whenever there would be a blast in the country or something as big as that. This was true for the hard core Dawn reader or in other words an avid English reader and speaker.

During all this, another very prominent media giant entered DawnNews’ territory. Express came out with their own version of an English news channel, called Express 24/7. They had done their home work well and learnt from the mistakes committed by DawnNews. Their content was more in line with what the viewer wanted to see, something they could connect with. Their news content was more prompt, speedy and at par with the others. This can be attributed to a large scale and well integrated infrastructure of Express. They had better penetration into various regions of Pakistan than DawnNews had, having over a fleet of 30 odd vans to do the coverage. Their anchors spoke English, but they weren’t blatantly trying to ape the western dialects, they had a better line-up of trained anchors and journalists. In short, they weren’t confused about their identity.

Slowly, Express 24/7 starting eating into the little pie that DawnNews had managed to accumulate, stripping the latter of its first mover advantage and dethroning it from the high horse it was riding on.

DawnNews’ only chance of survival was to rethink their strategy. Did they want to ride on the glory of the newspaper (Dawn) or did they want to establish the channel as a unique identity? Did they want to hang on to a handful of hard core English knowing audience or did they want to make the channel simple enough for everybody to get roped in? The channel went for the latter.

The changes that were brought about were quite holistic, ranging from the logo identity to the anchors to the programs and the tone and vernacular of the channel. The two languages, English and Urdu, are fused to make it more approachable and understandable.

The channel has some established infotainment programs that enjoy a decent level of viewership such as Equinox, A Taste of Fusion and The First Blast along with new Urdu programming such as Bolna Zarori Hai and Siyasi Kaliyaan.

Express 24/7 enjoys a similar viewership to DawnNews. The channel is considered to be more accessible and relevant and continues its transmission in English.

In 2009 DawnNewslayed off 800 employees and continued to function, such was the level of overstaffing. A harsh reality of news channels is that they need significant revenue streams allied with a feasible cost structure in order to survive. When the business becomes unviable, the channel has no choice but to resort to unpleasant and drastic measures that hurt the channel.

In the end, the current state of DawnNews saddens me. The channel has lost its identity and has become a case study of what not to do as an English News channel in Pakistan. In comparison, Express 24/7 offers a much more accessible product allied to a more feasible business model. They garner synergies between their Urdu and English service, and their Urdu service generates more than enough revenues to keep the English channel up on its feet.

In retrospect, it would have been better if DawnNews launched in Urdu first and then English rather than completely losing its identity and hurting the overall Dawn equity built up over the years.

Sara Kayani.