Mail Today, the tabloid daily owned by the India Today group, reports that an astonishing 2,450 journalists (including non-editorial staff) may have lost their jobs after the meltdown of Bengal’s chitfund driven, politically backed newspapers and TV stations. Employees of Saradha group owned 24-hour TV news station, Channel 10, are reported to have filed a…
Monthly Archives: April 2013
How Bengal’s chit fund crooks exposed the media
The 16th week of the year of the lord 2013 has been a gruesome one for Indian journalism in general and Bengali journalism in particular. In the space of just a few hours every conceivable cliche and charge about modern media folk—that we are corrupt; that we can be bought over; that we have become…
Congratulations. We have the worst job on Earth.
Worse than a lumberjack, if you know what it means. Worse than a dishwasher. Worse than a garbage collector. Worse than a dairy farmer. That’s the job of a news reporter. The worst job on earth. That’s the finding, if you believe that kind of thing, of Career Cast, an American human resource consultancy firm.…
POLL: The biggest news story of last 175 years?
The Times of India, formerly known as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, has kickstarted its 175th anniversary—its dodransbicentennial—celebrations. Under the rubric “Leading change for 175 years”, R.K. Laxman‘s iconic dhoti-clad Man from Matunga under goes a partial makeover, with one half wearing jeans and goggles. *** On its website, ToI has launched a…
ET Now anchor to wed ex-cricketer’s son
From the gossip columns of Pune Mirror, glad tidings on former CNBC TV18 and current ET Now anchor, Ayesha Faridi: “Marriage bells are ringing for Dilip and Manali Vengsarkar’s son Nakul. Your diarist has learnt that the 31-year-old architect and interior designer will be tying the knot with TV anchor Ayesha Faridi on April 27.…
When a politician’s wife goes to college, it’s news
The BJP leader Arun Jaitley is widely speculated to contest the next general elections from Amritsar, causing much grief to the three-time sitting BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. And as naturally as night follows day, newspapers and news agencies show that the schmoozing has begun in right earnest.
Learning photography 10,000 feet above sea
What can two photojournalists with enviable CVs do when the bug to do something away from the straight and narrow of daily and weekly deadlines, bites them? T. Narayan and Sanjay Sharma provide some inspiration to their kinsmen with a photography workshop 10,122 feet above sea level. The first batch will be held from April…
When an owner passes, nothing else is news
The front page of the Tamil newspaper, Dina Thanthi (The Daily Telegraph), once India’s largest-read newspaper, the day after its proprietor, B. Sivanthi Adithyan, passed away in Madras at the age of 76. On the bottom-half of the page is a picture of Adithyan being decorated by the then President of India, Pratibha Patil. with…
Shekhar Gupta storms into India Today powerlist
Thirteen out of India Today magazine’s 2013 ranking of the 50 most powerful people in India have interests in the media, but only two of them (former Indian Express editor Arun Shourie, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta) are pure-play journalists. The chairman of the press council of India, Justice Markandey…
Will Indian readers pay to keep their money safe?
For all the talk about the future being digital, the truth is no Indian newspaper or magazine (or website) is making money at the speed and in the quantum that publishers and promoters feel they are entitled to. Worse, no Indian newspaper or magazine (or website) has been able to generate the kind of content…
A new life for a newspaper title—and its editor
The front page of the launch issue of Qaumi Salamati (National Security), the Urdu newspaper re-launched by S.M.A. Kazmi, the journalist who was arrested and jailed last year for his alleged involvement in a plot to blow up an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi. He is currently out on bail after eight months of…
Will TV channels lose out to newspapers by 2050?
Before the reforms of 1991 prised open the doors of Indian journalism (and the minds and wallets of publishers and promoters), “Gulf” was the El Dorado journalists and editors chased. In Bombay and Bangalore and Delhi, dozens of journalists and editors attended road shows and group-interviews in the banquet halls of five-star hotels. Khaleej Times,…
It’s all happening at Doordarshan, All India Radio
So, who says government-owned radio and TV stations are boring places, where nothing happens? Read the full article: DD Urdu in soup over pork recipe AIR officials sacked for sexully harassing RJs
India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is…
India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is, pinch yourself, DD News! Hindustan Times reports in its gossip columns that News Night: “the primetime news show [on DD News] between 9 pm and 10 pm topped the TAM ratings last week with 66% market share, four times the channel which comes next.” Interesting, if…
‘Network 18’s multimedia Modi feast, a promo’
As news channels bend backwards to give flight to Narendra Modi‘s prime ministerial ambitions, the Indian Express‘ television critic, Pratik Kanjilal, writes on the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Network 18‘s unquestioning schmoozefest with the Gujarat chief minister: “Modi also addressed a business forum in Kolkata, but the big one was the multimedia love-feast organised by Network 18.…
‘TV news full of non-issues. So, we don’t think’
S.M.A. Kazmi, the Urdu and Persian journalist arrested in February 2012 for his alleged involvement in the attack on an Israeli embassy vehicle, and released on bail eight months later, is set to launch an Urdu daily titled Quami Salamati (national security). In an interview in the latest issue of Tehelka magazine, Kazmi answers what…
‘For cash-stuck TV, Modi is cost-effective TRP’
Shailaja Bajpai in the Indian Express: “If it’s Saturday, it must be Narendra Modi. If it’s Sunday, it must be Modi. If it’s Monday, it must be Modi and even if it’s Tuesday, it must be Modi. You get the general drift? “Every day is Modi-day on television news. One morning, they telecast his speech…
When Roger Ebert wrote to an Indian critic
On his blog, the bibliophile Jai Arjun Singh writes of his online encounters with Roger Ebert, the iconic Chicago Sun-Times movie critic, who passed away in the middle of the week. “In a somewhat surreal turn of events, I found myself in correspondence with him around six years ago, after he mailed to say he…
The journalist who suddenly forgot everything
In the fourth anniversary issue of Open, Forbes India managing editor Charles Assisi recounts what every journalist dreads—losing the one thing that counts most in our profession: “To cut a long story short, a little over two years ago, some neurons misfired in my head. I was in my office when this happened. I won’t…
‘Modi’s backers, media owners have converged’
Harish Khare, former media advisor to prime minister Manmohan Singh, in The Hindu: “During a recent three-week stay in the United States, I was often asked to explain the Indian media’s current obsession with Narendra Modi. The only reasonably cogent answer to give was the convergence between the corporate ownership of the electronic media and…
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