Mizanur Rahman
Despite massive growth of online job portals and COVID-19 fall out that shrank economic activities, the demand for job weeklies did not diminish completely, market insiders said.
At least 10 job weeklies are being published now regularly from capital Dhaka, showing still some demand for such newspapers, mostly popular among young, unemployed people.
Mohammad Manik, executive editor of Daily Bartaman Kotha told The Business Post that they run at least three job weeklies- Saptahik Chakrir Barta, Saptahik Chakrir Khabarpatra and Saptahik Chakrir Biggapon – from their group alone.
Manik said they took the declaration for another job weekly called Chakri Barta in March last year before they were forced to abandon the plan for its publication due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It cost us Tk 25,000 for one week to publish one weekly. We need to subsidise it as circulation came down during pandemic,” Manik said.
Manik says despite a downturn in their business, it is still good because people need a job and they look for such news desperately.
“It’s true that online job sites are growing. But they are yet to become an alternative to printed job weeklies,” said Manik, who claimed to be in the business for 25 years.
“Job seekers can avail all information here by sending only Tk 5. If they want to get similar information from online sites, they need to buy digital device and internet facility, which is costlier,” he said.
Manik said his three newspapers have a collective circulation of two lakh.
Kurshid Alam, a regular subscriber of the Shaptahik Chakrir Khabar, who was seen buying a copy at a newspaper stand in Farmgate, said, “I am not used to searching for job from online news portal.”
According to Khurshid, Shaptahik Chakrir Khabar is among the most popular job weeklies in Bangladesh. Chakrir Khabar editor Fatema Akter told the Business Post that they had a circulation of 1,75,00 before the pandemic hit the country.
“Our circulation fell during the pandemic. Yet, we printed 60,000 copies this week,” she said.
Kamal Hossain, an assistant advertisement manager of Saptahik Chakrir Dhak, said they had 89,000 circulations before the pandemic.
The newspaper lost more than half of its circulation in pandemic yet published 46,500 copies last week, when the country was officially under a lockdown.
Hafizur Rahman, editor and publisher of Saptahik Chakrir Bazar, said they published 15,000 copies last week.
“Our circulation was good before the pandemic as we regularly printed 40,000 copies. Now, we print 15,000 copies. I guess people rely on digital sites more now than printed papers,” he said.
Md Sumon, a newspaper seller in Farmgate newspaper stand said before the pandemic they sold about 5,00 copies but now sell 200 copies a week.
“Usually, the distribution agency takes back the unsold weeklies,” he said.
