Govt chalking out new ads policy for media: PIO

Rate of govt ads to be increased

ISLAMABAD: Principal Information Officer (PIO) of Press Information Department (PID) Rao Tehsin Khan has stated that government will soon announce a new advertising policy for media under which 40 percent quota would be issued to print, 50 percent to electronic and 10 percent to digital media.

He stated this here on Tuesday in All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) advertising roundtable conference. He said new policy would be announced within two to three months. Moreover, he said that since 2011 rate of government advertisement not increased and added that government would take positive step regarding the advertisements rates in few days. He said that PID was introducing automation system to check the circulation of newspapers.

He said that presently print media was considering reliable form of news due to changing of technology and it also put great impact on advertisements. However, while addressing the participants Sarmad Ali, President APNS, said that the purpose of this conference was to discuss the issue related to advertisement among the stockholders including APNS PID and advertising agencies.

Shafqat Jalil, Director General External Publicity Wing, said that currently size of public advertisement was around Rs64 billion. He said that in future government advertisement would shrink.  Inam Akbar, Chief Executive Midas Advertisement Agency, said that currently social media was increasing its landscape and it was around 22 to 23 percent which would further increase up to 46 percent in 2020. He demanded rating system for newspapers.

APNS senior representatives Rameeza Majid Nizami, Senior Vice President Umer Mujid Shami, Secretary General SM Munir Jilani, Joint Secretary and others took part in consultation.