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.
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