Mumbai's disappearing newspaper vendors point a finger at newspaper editors and publishers

The business of distributing newspapers was hit even before the pandemic. But post-pandemic, it has shrunk and changed like never before. Vendors have disappeared from the streets. Stalls selling newspapers are now rare.

Mukesh Dubey, who delivers newspapers in the Fort area of South Mumbai, served 2000 people before the pandemic. Now the number is not worth mentioning, he says with a shrug. He belongs to the third generation in the family to get into the business 20 years ago and looks back with nostalgia.

“We would squeeze in passages between buildings, awnings of shops and hotels to segregate the newspapers. From circulation executives to the Editor-in-chief, from publishers to managing directors, we would often get surprise visitors. They were often appreciative of the work, delivering newspapers to readers before they woke up,” he recalls.

Now everything has changed, Dubey says with a sigh. Vijay Bahadur Singh explains that even before the pandemic, digital media had taken away readers from newspapers. The pandemic came as the last nail on the coffin.

The lockdown shut down all businesses and newspaper supply too stopped. This had never happened before as vendors worked through rain and shine, through natural calamities and wars. Vendors left the city and even after almost two-years, sales have not picked up.

The BrihanMumbai Vruttapatra Vikreta Sangh (BVVS), the newspaper vendors’ association, says the pandemic terrified the common man. The fear of infection, non-availability of beds in hospitals, medicines and oxygen and no clarity on infections through newspapers, drove them to the digital media.

Housing societies are still not allowing newspaper vendors out of fear of infection. Offices and corporations which bought thousands of newspapers in bulk have also stopped purchasing them. Companies like Tata, Indian Railways, Reliance, Bombay Stock Exchange, L&T, Birla groups, multinational bank sectors, government offices have reduced staff in their offices drastically and Work from Home has also struck a blow.

The state run JJ Hospital was buying 700/800 copies of all the popular English, Marathi and Hindi newspapers daily. Now it barely buys 150 copies, says Hari Pawar Secretary of BVVS. “Earlier there was huge demand for language newspapers in Railways but that too has drastically come down,” concurs Singh.

Pawar (82) has been in the business for 60 years. If hospital doctors, medical staff and government officials are so scared to touch newspapers, he quips, why wouldn’t the common man be as scared and not reduce his daily expenses?

Footfalls at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Churchgate have been sparse for months, says Dubey. “People are happy reading news on their mobile in all languages;younger generations too are engrossed with mobiles; so, who will read newspapers and why,” he asks adding the authenticity of news is no longer valued.

Vendors have drifted to odd jobs as delivery boys, security guards, helpers in stationary and medical businesses.“I too have taken up a life insurance agency,” he informs.

Pawar also points a finger at the quality and content of newspapers. If there is a fire in the afternoon, the next morning’s newspapers are reporting it without any additional information. Nobody is making any effort to change the newspapers. The industry veteran shakes his head. “Without newspapers at home, children are losing the chance to develop habit of reading serious newspapers while fake news has flooded the digital space. It will be sad to see the newspapers die,” he reflects.

Dr Wiqar Shaikh, Professor of Medicine, Grant Medical College and Sir J J Group of Hospitals said, “Newspapers don’t spread the virus; there is no such scientific evidence from anywhere in the world.”

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)