Global press distribution body appoints non-Western president

Dubai: Distripress, an association for the promotion of international press distribution, has appointed a non-Westerner as its president for the time in its 54-year history.

Tony Jashanmal, group director of the Jashanmal National Company, a department store business, is president of the organisation for a three-year term.

Appointing a president from an emerging part of the world reflects the growing importance of press content that is produced here, he told Gulf News.

It is playing a more important role now and the organisation would like better contact with regions like the Middle East and part of Asia, according to Jashanmal.

The changes that will be brought about now, he said include integrating "emerging markets into the field of press movement, as developing countries take up a stronger place in the world's economics and politics.

"With the prevalence of the internet, people thought that newspapers would lose their readership numbers, but that has not happened," he said.

Important

"Newspapers that are bought, and news magazines have dropped a little because people can get news much faster on television and the internet, but not at the rate that was expected," he added.

"In the United States, newspaper purchase has dropped 8.5 per cent in the past five years. In Europe it dropped eight per cent. However, in India, newspaper purchasing has increased 35 per cent in the past five years, and it has gone up 28 per cent in China," he said.

Around the world, newspapers that are bought jumped at an average of 9.5 per cent annually in the same period, according to Jashanmal.

"This is important for people to know what is happening internationally in today's globalised world," he said.

Founded in 1955, the organisation has 470 members from almost 100 countries.

In the UAE, Gulf News is the only publishing company, while Jashanmal is one of only two distributors that are members.

Distripress is the only organisation linking distributors and publishers as well as their suppliers on an international level.

Besides hosting an annual conference bringing together over 1,000 industry participants, the organisation's activities include collecting information and making it available, the administration of member contacts as well as the representation of the interests of the press industry worldwide.