Toyota, just 30 years old as a company in the United States, is set to overtake General Motors as the world’s largest car maker. Newspaper Next has an interesting piece on what Toyota did to achieve this, and what newspapers can learn from the experience: 1) Toyota started by focusing on overshot consumers, and its…
Monthly Archives: February 2007
DH board had nixed move to replace editor
The Karnataka High Court has admitted a writ petition filed by dislodged Deccan Herald and Praja Vani editor K.N. Shanth Kumar. But, surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) neither the news of the admittance nor the contents of the petition have been published by Bangalore’s newspapers, although the case comes up for hearing on Thursday,…
CNBC picking up stake in Business Standard?
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: The board of TV18 is to meet on March 5, with “any new business” marked on the agenda. And already rumours are abuzz in the capital that Raghav Bahl‘s ambitious company which has two business (CNBC, Awaaz) and two news (CNN-IBN, IBN7) channels plus a clutch of websites in…
Sudha, Mayura editorship in legal tangle
PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: The last word in the battle for editorial power between the “Kumars at No. 75″ has not been heard. Yet. K.N. Shanth Kumar may have been dislodged overnight as editor of Deccan Herald, Praja Vani, Sudha and Mayura by his elder brothers K.N. Hari Kumar and K.N. Tilak Kumar…
Media outsourcing is cheap. But is it good?
The Press Association of Britain runs a media outsourcing outfit in collaboration with BFL-mPhasis in Mangalore, where fresh journalism graduates and designers churn out television pages and race cards, among other things, for papers back home. Now, the San Francisco Chronicle has had an advertising supplement outsourced from New Delhi. Mindworks Global Media—MGM if you…
‘Mother, do you think they’ll break my balls?’
NISHANT RATNAKAR forwards the diary of Business Standard journalist Rajesh Kurup who is called to a cop station in Bombay to divulge his sources on a couple of queries he had raised in a story on a telecom company. Although written in half-jest, the diary shows how little things the perception of journalists has changed,…
MUST READ: First person is best person
Writing in the first-person is frowned upon in most Indian newsrooms built on exaggerated textbook notions of objectivity. But Timothy Noah‘s piece on wikipedia on Slate shows why it is probably the most engaging way to put a point across, especially in stories which have been done to death. “Unless I get notable in a…
Whatever goes up must keep going up
Net profits are up 82 per cent. Journalists are being offered mid-year hikes. Salaries are rising. New publications are opening. It’s boom time in the Indian media market. Read the full story here: The boom times are just beginning…
Is the end nigh for black and white photography?
T.S. NAGARAJAN writes: Is it twilight time for black and white photography? Yes. It appears that the days of traditional photography are numbered. Modern technology is driving this art form from flash bulbs to digital imaging, bringing in major changes in its practice and appreciation. After all, it’s simpler to make digital photos with increasingly…
The 51 best (American) magazines ever
Bigshot Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter explains the magic of magazines: “A magazine—even in this age of electronic everything everywhere, is a marvelous invention… Newspapers tell you about the world; magazines tell you about their world—and by association, your world. “Writers, photographers, editors, and designers bundle the slice of the world they have chosen to…
Just short of a good length
Any fool can write a story over 800 pages—and most do. But what if the canvas is infinitely smaller? Esquire magazine sent 250 napkins to writers across America to try their hand at telling a tale. One hundred of the napkins came back with stories on them; the result ranges from the “lush to spare, hilarious…
Why all journalists must blog
Cyber Journalist has an interesting comment attributed to Chris Cobbler, publisher of greelytrib.com: “Blogging helps you better understand your audience. The hallmark of any blog is the ability for readers to post comments to what you write. By having this regular conversation with readers, you learn what hits and what misses. “For newspapers that are…
Wider and wider, expanding always expanding
A graybeard once told Tunku Varadarajan that a cultured man should have very few friends, and very many books. As the Wall Street Journal‘s new assistant managing editor prepares to move into a new but smaller office, a new question stares him in the face. What books to take home, what books to leave behind? And…
SHAM LAL: Rest In Peace
sans serif records with deep regret the passing away of Sham Lal, a 22-carat man of letters, on Friday, 23 February 2007. He was 95 years old. Born in 1912, Sham Lal took a master’s degree in English literature in 1933, joined the Hindustan Times in 1934 and worked there for 12 years. After a…
Is freedom of the press a cover for anything?
GIRISH NIKAM writes from New Delhi: “Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of any democracy,” is a well-worn cliché though it has stood the test of time as a universal truth. No one in a functional democracy like ours can deny the importance of the freedom of the press. It is also a fact…
SUBRATA CHAKRAVARTY on business journalism
For long, the highest-ranked Indian journalist outside India, former Forbes managing editor Subrata N. Chakravarty offers compelling tips to sans serif readers on business journalism. Objectivity, he says, is overrated. Objectivity, he says, is overstated. Don’t be afraid of taking a contrarian stand. And don’t be afraid of taking a risk. “If you’ve never been…
EXCLUSIVE: Sun TV eyeing stake in The Hindu
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: Is The Hindu‘s uneasy relationship with the government of the day in Tamil Nadu rearing its head once again? First, Jayalalithaa‘s decision to clamp down on the paper created a national furore. Now, comes hot speculation that a section of the ruling Karunanidhi family may be trying to pick up…
If this is the state of The Economist…
The Economist, London, has a story on India’s newspaper boom. And the small story—which is but a thinly disguised PR piece for the Hindustan Times‘ business paper Mint—offers a big reality-check on the fact-checking that is allegedly the weekly magazine’s forte. 1) It calls Metro Now Delhi’s first tabloid; Mid-Day has been around for decades.…
So many channels, and so little to watch
Robert Alder, the man who invented the television remote control, has died at age 93. Toby Harnden has a neat post on the man who gave us something else to hold while watching television. But, strangely, Alder was no couch potato; hiking and skiing were his passion. “I hardly ever turn the TV on,” he…
EXCLUSIVE: Inside story of Deccan Herald coup
Newspapers are vital public institutions. They are the soul of a State, the conscience of the people, in a manner in which no other medium is—or can ever hope to be. Yet, the key decisions in our newspapers are opaque operations that would put a Machiavelli to shame. The removal of K.N. Shanth Kumar as…
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