Economic change profoundly impacts our values and personalities. We now live in a world where success is celebrated and failures branded as losers. This is steadily leading to a grand compromise of moral values where success at any cost is paramount. Values like intolerance, temper, jealousy, lies, deceit and revenge are acceptable. The current economic system is bringing out the worst in us.

In this race to nowhere, how does one find one’s way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? What criteria should guide your thinking about ethics and your stands on issues of the day?

In a world where value erosion is a casualty at the altar of progress, we attempt to bring in a little sunshine. ALL THAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS A LITTLE GOODNESS - this was the creative idea

The word Sanskarshala means “School of Values”

We created a Sanskarshala page in Dainik Jagran that spoke about moral value education for contemporary times. We wrote on topics like Gender equality, Respecting diversity, Selflessness, right use of language, etc. There were stories written for children with a moral message. Experts, School principals, and Children were invited to write for the page. This page broke the shackles of negativity and had stories of hope, positivity and optimism with a message for the younger generation and their guardians. We partnered with schools and children and asked them to follow the Sanskarshala pages everyday. At the end of the campaign we conducted an examination based on the content carried in the newspaper. Through this, Dainik Jagran played the role of a teacher of moral values, and our initiative became a platform for preparing a future full of aware and responsible young citizens.

a) 1.2 mn students registered for Sanskarshala

b) 300 pages of Value -based Editorial content were created

c) 350 Principals, 1000+ academicians and 1000+ students wrote articles for Sanskarshala

d) This content was read out in 575 SCHOOL MORNING ASSEMBLIES attended by over 5,00,000 children

e) IMPACT ON THE BRAND

• Readership: Dainik Jagran was ranked India’s No.1 newspaper with a Total Readership of 70 mn.

• Young Readers: With 19.4 mn readers in the age group 12-19, Dainik Jagran was the No.1 newspaper amongst the younger generation.

• Brand Parameters : Amongst newspapers, Dainik Jagran had the highest

o Top of Mind Awareness

o Brand Health Score

o Brand Likeability Score

• Brand Imagery Improvement: Over comparable period last year:

o “Has something for everyone in the family” : + 8%

o “This newspaper makes me a better citizen” : +5%

Source: Brand Track, Dec 2017, IRS 2017

In a world where moral values are often compromised in the race to succeed, it was important to create a pause.

This campaign is a conversation with young readers through content that would help them navigate the moral puzzles of the modern world.

It takes more than just institutions and procedures to guarantee the continued health of democracy. Invariably, the quality of a country’s citizens will define the quality of its governance. In times where the boundaries of ethics and morals are expanded and contracted at will, we cut through all barriers, and spoke to our future citiznes directly.

With newspapers facing competition from dynamic news mediums like TV and Internet, just revamping the news as a “PRODUCT” wasn’t enough. The real problem was with newspaper as an ‘INSTITUTION’.

THE ISSUE: OUR FUTURE WAS AT STAKE

Meetings with our readers revealed gruesome realities. Newspapers had the maximum equity erosion amongst the NEW GENERATION READERS (12-19 year old). They had quickly adapted to the digital mediums and were comfortable with them. But a startling truth was that their parents (the current generation readers) were not encouraging them to read the newspaper.

The stark tension for newspapers: We were observing a shift from “Reading a newspaper daily is a good habit” to “There’s nothing that children will learn from the newspaper!”

We DECIDED TO LEAD THE CHANGE from being the Carrier to Corrector, and from reporting “value erosion” to resurrecting “value system”. Thus we launched our initiative – JAGRAN SANSKARSHALA.

NEWSPAPERS EQUITY AT STAKE

Murder, Rape, Scam, Crime, Robbery, Suicide, Bribery, Scandal – scream newspaper headlines every morning. The result : Newspapers were seen as carriers of negativity. As a natural consequence, parents kept the newspaper away from their kids – our future readers. The messenger was bearing the brunt of carrying bad news, while value erosion threatened to undermine society.

At the same time, the newspaper world was getting hyper-competitive where garnering readership and circulation at any cost was the prime motive. As a result, we were witnessing a gruesome shift in the axis of journalism – from Shaping Views to Delivering News. The role of newspapers as “conscience keepers of society” was being questioned.

The challenge was to reignite our role as the conscience keeper, and create content that would attract young readers to the newspaper.