On exchange4media, group editor Pradyuman Maheshwari lists the 10 April Fool’s Day headlines he wishes would turn out to be true: #09: Newspapers up cover price. Times/HT/Hindu/DNA now priced at Rs 10; ET/BS/Mint at Rs 15: The Indian Newspaper Society steps in to convince the leading newspapers of the country—including regional biggies like The Telegraph,…
Monthly Archives: March 2009
In the end, all we have that is ours is memories
sans serif mourns the sudden departure of the happiest, most peaceful, face in the family, but celebrates a life well lived—and well loved—and one that will be remembered every moment, every day. Tony: 9 February 1999-29 March 2009
‘India’s freedoms as fragile as its neighbours”
The Hindu’s Islamabad correspondent, Nirupama Subramanian (in picture), has shared the Chameli Devi Jain award for excellence in journalism with Vinita Deshmukh, the editor of The Weekly Intelligent, Poona. In her acceptance speech, read out in her absence by her sister Vasudha Sondhi, Subramanian said: “In Pakistan, where I am based, a number of journalists…
How a pioneering journalist became a horologist
Today is Ugadi, the dawn of the new year for people in the South Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. While eating a pinch of bevu-bella (neem and jaggery) is a symbolic way of kicking off the new year, to signify that bitterness and sweetness should be accepted with equanimity, an equally important tradition…
Hopefully, there was an announcement on AIR
sans serif records the demise of P. Mahadevaiah, a former news reader for All India Radio and Radio Moscow, in Mysore on 12 March 2009. A long-time resident of Gokulam, “Moscow Mahadevaiah”, as he was fondly known, was a figure of awe for young boys playing cricket in the triangular park opposite his home in…
Which paper or TV station will do this story first?
After the hype of the launch of the Tata Nano yesterday, the reality check today. *** SHOBHA SARADA VISWANATHAN, in New Delhi, forwards a copy of an advertisement (above) taken out by Greenpeace in the Financial Times, London, and the International Herald Tribune, Paris, to draw the attention of the chairman of Ratan Tata, to…
Just a couple of things you might like to know
“Full Disclosure” is an alien concept in Indian media where edit masquerading as ads, ads masquerading as edit, editors masquerading as party spokesmen, conflict of interest, etc, all cohabit in a blissful orgy. Rarely is the reader or viewer told if there is a slippery wheel within a wheel, as if news consumers have an…
Funny joke from a balding journo-blogger*
David Finkelstein in The Times, London: An economist-friend has just told me a wonderful story about a professional colleague of his. The colleague was waiting at the airport for his flight to be called when a man ran into his section of the lounge, slightly out of breath. “Is there an economist in here?” he…
Ditto and likewise in India and elsewhere
Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post: “The biggest challenge facing America’s struggling newspaper industry may not be the high cost of newsprint or lost ad revenue, but ignorance stoked by drive-by punditry. “Drive-by pundits are non-journalists who have been demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so and who blame the current news…
An Indian address for ‘The Capitalist Tool’
After more than a few start-up hiccups, the Indian edition for Forbes finally seems poised to roll off from Raghav Bahl‘s Network 18 stable. A dummy edition with a February 14 dateline is doing the rounds with this cover.
‘On line. On time. Full time.’
O Globo, the Brazilian newspaper, has launched a multimedia news strategy with these smartly done TV commercials. Link via Innovation Consulting
9 tips from a (super-successful) small paper editor
As the Indian media gets larger and more corporatised, the voice of the small newspaper editor (and owner) is slowly but surely getting snuffed out. It’s almost as if the trials and tribulations of the editors (and owners) of big papers, magazines and TV stations are the only ones that matter. Star of Mysore, published…
A newspaper that updates itself as you read?
Is a newspaper with up-to-the-minute news and score cards, photographs that “move”, and a built-in Googler, the only escape route to prevent the inevitable that seems to be staring the industry in the face? The fluid interfaces group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s media lab has unveiled “Sixth Sense—a wearable gestural interface that augments the…
MUST WATCH: Business interview of the year
Question: How did the mighty American media miss the financial meltdown? Answer: The same way the mighty American media missed George W. Bush‘s lies on Saddam Hussein‘s weapons of mass destruction. That’s not a Q&A from Jon Stewart‘s grilling of Jim Cramer, host of CNBC ‘s revealingly titled show, Mad Money, but it could well…
Seminar on managing newsrooms in crisis times
How to manage a news organisation in a recession? How to make the best use of depleted resources and revenues? How to find new revenue streams in online and mobile digital platforms? How to design and integrate newsrooms for the multimedia era? Those are some of the big questions facing global media today, and Innovation…
“These bloody journalists, obsessed with stars!”
Whoever said journalism is the last resort of those who couldn’t get into any other humanity-enhancing profession? Surely, not Vishnu Vardhan Reddy of the University of North Dakota. Mail Today reports that the 31-year-old who worked as a sub-editor at a New Delhi newspaper in 1999, has made a career in the United States scouring…
The finest example of campaign journalism?
On the day after India’s Election Commission (EC) announced the dates for the general elections last week, every single newspaper in India predictably led with the news on page 1. All except The Times of India. “The world’s largest selling English newspaper“, on the other hand, had a four-page wraparound announcing the second edition of…
‘The only award I want to win is from my readers’
It is routine to hear super-achievers claim that the ultimate stamp of approval of their achievement comes when they are recognised and rewarded by their peers and compatriots. Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman, in a discussion with the editorial staff of the New Delhi-based Indian Express, strikes a…
Finally, a redesign not done by Mario Garcia
With competition in the air, Deccan Herald, Bangalore’s oldest English newspaper and one of India’s few single-city newspapers, has undergone a complete design overhaul. On the left is DH of Friday, 6 March 2009; on the right is Saturday’s redesigned paper. The man behind the redesign is Palmer Watson, the head of an international design…
26% of India’s most powerful are media barons
The latest issue of India Today magazine carries the annual ranking of the 50 most powerful people in the country, and 13 media worthies find a mention. All but two of them have shown an improvement over last year’s ranking. Remarkably, only one major English newspaper group is on the list. The brothers Samir and…
IJR 