Media stimulus package on way: Anand Sharma

The government will soon come out with a stimulus package for the media industry in order to help it out of the difficulties arising from the global financial downturn.

The government will take note of the difficulties faced by the media industry and announce a stimulus package for the sector shortly, minister of state for information and broadcasting Anand Sharma said.

"Representatives of the media industry had written to the government and met with me today about the adverse impact of the financial crisis on the media industry. We are going to give some stimulus package to the media industry and we do hope to mitigate the situation," Sharma said.

A high-level media industry team, including chairperson and editorial director of Hindustan Times group Shobhna Bhartia, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta and publisher and editor of Business Standard T N Ninan, met the minster to discuss their problems.

Representatives of the print media had earlier sought an upward revision in rates of government advertisements.

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) under the I&B ministry, which is responsible for releasing government advertisements in newspapers, is one of the most important advertisement clients for newspapers.

''The I&B ministry has already sent certain recommendations about the package to the finance ministry and the government will announce it soon," Sharma said without elaborating.

The media industry is smarting under the impact of the global financial crisis that has affected advertisement revenues and raised cost of inputs.