Why are so many Pakistani journalists losing their jobs?

Last month, the management of the Express Tribune, an English language newspaper in Pakistan, broke the news that every working journalist dreads. Without any prior notice, more than a dozen reporters and photographers were asked to resign with a check covering three months pay. Many opted out without a fight. 

“At least we got some money and provident fund. Situation is really bad elsewhere. People haven’t been paid for months,” one of the reporters told TRT World. 

Owned by the Lakhanis, a business family that once sold cigarettes, Tribune is one of many news organisations where a financial crunch has resulted in job losses. 

In some companies, employees have been forced to take pay cuts. News channels have discontinued primetime shows. At least one national channel has closed doors and Dawn, the most respected english-language daily, has cut down its daily expenses by reducing the number of pages.

While TRT World couldn't find an exact figure of dismissals in Pakistani media, multiple sources say the number is in hundreds. 

Ahmed Malik, a Karachi based senior journalist, says things are likely to get much worse. “From what we understand, this is just the start and more layoffs are expected in future.” 

What went wrong?

From only one state-run channel two decades ago, the country's media landscape has completely changed with more than 80 channels now offering 24/7 news and entertainment shows.  

Besides established media houses such as Jang Group, which started from a newspaper business  before diversifying into television journalism and becoming a broadcast behemoth, new entrants also jumped into the fast growing media industry. 

“People who were in the business of selling edible oil and running bakeries have opened up news channels. They didn’t think about their business model. They wanted media influence to safeguard other commercial interests,” says an executive of a leading news channel. 

But as news and entertainment channels flourished, new jobs were created for journalists, actors, technicians, graphic designers and video editors. 

That boom was one of the positive outcomes of the country's growing economy, as big corporate houses and multinationals began to spend large sums on newspaper and television advertisements. Now the country is facing hard times. 

“Corporate advertising spend has decreased by 25 percent in the third quarter (July-September) this year. And there is no indication of it getting any better,” top official of another news channel told TRT World. 

Pakistan is negotiating a bailout with the International Monetary Fund to avert a balance of payments crisis. Its foreign currency reserves have plunged too. 

The rupee, its currency, has lost 36 percent of its value against US dollar in the past 12 months. 

Multinationals — the biggest advertisers — earn in rupees and repatriate profits to their head offices in dollars. The disparity in the exchange rate means they are cutting back on the most dispensable expense — advertisements. 

The total advertisement spending in Pakistan that includes newspapers, websites and the channels, stands at approximately $670 million, industry insiders say. 

Raza Rumi, a Pakistani journalist and policy analyst, says there has been a major shift of advertisements from news to entertainment shows.

“It has to do with how media engagement has come to work in Pakistan and that is in shape of talk shows. That affected professionalism and that’s something media houses have to introspect about,” he told TRT World. 

With declining influence of newspapers, popular anchors have come to dominate the airwaves in Pakistan.

The evening talk shows have become a key source of income for media companies. The primetime shows drive high viewer ratings, an essential indicator to determine the price-tags for advertisements. 

The race to land the best host has bloated salaries of anchors to as much as $37,000 a month. That’s manifold compared to $350 a month that many reporters and lensmen make. 

Mian Amer Mahmood, CEO of Dunya news channel, concedes that intense competition between media groups has destabilised the market. 

“All of us have tried to poach people from each other by outbidding the salaries. Now the question has become of viability and I think the industry is going through a correction.”

His company’s employees have been made to take a pay cut of between 10 percent and 35 percent. “Everyone is suffering but at least we have made sure that anchors take the biggest hit.” 

As part of the austerity measures, Dunya has also suspended two of its primetime shows, he says.

Just days after Dunya employees were told their paychecks were being slashed, Mahmood ventured into the aviation business, buying a commercial airline license which requires the acquirer to show paid-up capital of Rs 500 million ($3.7 million). 

Multiple private airlines have gone bankrupt in Pakistan because of the poor economics. 

Blame-game

Owners of the media groups have pointed fingers at the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan for some of their troubles. 

A big share of the advertisement revenue, by some estimates as much as half for few channels, comes from the government and its departments. There has been a substantial decrease in that, a CEO of a Karachi-based marketing agency told TRT World. 

Another factor behind the current problems has to do with Medialogic, a Lahore-based company, which gathers viewer data to compile media ratings. 

Industry people say that the company hasn’t compiled ratings for three months because of a legal case, compounding the financial crunch. 

Without these ratings, the advertisers faced difficulty in allocating budgets for their marketing campaigns. 

Medialogic’s CEO Salman Danish didn’t respond to request for comments. 

Some people say the government is using ad blockade as a tool to silence critical voices in news media. 

Rumi, the policy analyst, says there have been at least four high-profile cases where journalists known for their anti-government stance have been fired. 

“On the other hand the media owners may also be using this as an opportunity to rightsize their organisations.” 

Officials say that past governments have propped up friendly media groups with heavy subsidies for favorable coverage — something that is no longer happening. 

Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s information minister, says on the average government advertisements make up 18 percent of a channels revenue. “But if a channel relies on government for 60 percent of its funding then it’s not viable. We can’t use taxpayers money like that.” 

On the outstanding dues, he says half of the $9.6 million have been released to media houses. “And what you think owners of these channels did? They kept all of the money for themselves instead of paying their journalists.”