When he was health minister in the UPA’s first term, Anbumani Ramadoss made it mandatory for movies and TV channels to show the statutory warning against smoking and drinking each time someone on screen lit a cigarette or sipped a drink. The Telegraph reports that the NDA’s information and broadcasting ministry under Prakash Javadekar has…
Monthly Archives: June 2014
Newspaper delivery boy reads papers, enters IIT
Last year, N. Shiva Kumar, a newspaper vendor in Bangalore—the son of an illiterate mother and a truck driver—cracked CAT 2012 and went to the Indian institute of management, Calcutta, as a student. This year, C. Prashanth, a construction labourer’s son in Mysore, who delivered The Times of India (surely, among other papers) has obtained…
The hottest reporters covering the World Cup*
The Times of India fills a vital blank in the public discourse: the hottest reporters covering the football World Cup in Brazil— Ines Sainz and Vanessa Huppenkothen. * Search engine optimisation techniques shamelessly at work *** Raveen Tandon as Shobha De: Glamourous, sexy, brainy, seductive Look, who wants to play Christiane Amanpour: Kareena Kapoor Will…
When a brand provides the quotes, it is news
Perhaps a new first in Indian journalism. An exclusive interview in The Economic Times with Argentinian football captain Lionel Messi… with “quotes provided by Adidas”.
The scoop interview that didn’t see light of day
Reporters look as if they have been stabbed in the back, as if the world as they knew it has come to an end, when their favourite stories and hobby horses are stopped in their tracks by those godawful editors who have “never been in the field” unlike the only Indian living editor who has…
A half-century in the service of the Paper Tigers
The evening newspaper Star of Mysore profiles M.R. Subramanya, popularly called by his admirers as “Paper Subbanna“, who has just completed 50 years as a newspaper distributor in Mysore. Subbanna entered newspaper distribution in 1963 after unsuccessfully launching Chitralaya, a tabloid devoted to the Kannada film industry in Bangalore. “I am happy with my profession and…
How to pass IAS: read newspapers & magazines
Munish Sharma, a Delhi biochemist turned MBA, has stood second in the Union public service commission (UPSC) exams. He doffs his hat for his success not to textbooks, but to newspapers: “I did not study too much, just read The Hindu newspaper word to word. I loved it. “I read the newspaper, I wrote the…
RIL, Network18 & the loss of media heterogeneity
Even as the takeover of Network18 by India’s biggest corporate house, Reliance Industries Limited, receives scant scrutiny in the mainstream media on what it portends in the long term, the journalist and educator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta weighs in, in the Economic & Political Weekly: “The consequence of RIL strengthening its association with Network18 is a…
Mid-cap stock picks for journalists and editors
Although integrity is not exactly rocketing skywards in the Indian media, declaration of assets is anathema to most journalists. The Editors Guild of India (EGI) has periodically tried to bring up the issue but in vain. So, honesty and accountability is a largely voluntary affair. How heartwarming, therefore, that the maverick business journalist Swaminathan S.…
Can ‘Modi Sarkar’ create an Indian CNN or BBC?
The point has been made before but bears repetition. If Britain can have a BBC, if America can have CNN, if Qatar can have Al Jazeera, if China can have CCTV, if Russia can have Russia Today, why cannot India? Why do Indian broadcasters, public, private or autonomous, not have the vision or the resources…
The house that Raj Rewal built for a TOI editor
The national gallery of modern art (NGMA) in the capital is playing host to an exhibition by the architect Raj Rewal. And among the many works on display is Rewal’s design for the residence of the former editor of The Times of India, Sham Lal in New Delhi’s Gulmohar Park area. A true man of…
‘Has media blacked out RIL takeover of TV18?’
As India’s biggest business house Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) goes through the motions of formally taking complete control of one of India’s biggest TV networks, Network 18, the veteran journalist and commentator Kuldip Nayar writes in Deccan Herald: “I was not surprised when television channels did not cover the taking over of a large TV…
‘Media freedom bleaker with Ambani domination’
The takeover of Network 18 group with its myriad news, business and entertainment channels has received scant review in the Indian media, but the author Pankaj Mishra bells the cat in Bloomberg View: “There is no denying that the future of media freedom in India looks even bleaker than ever after Mukesh Ambani’s Silvio Berlusconi-style…
Indian Express, India Today teach NYT a lesson
To say that the Indian media is in a tizzy of seismic proportions would qualify as the understatement of the year. So far. Editors are quitting, being sacked, or finding ever new ways of being quietly eased out. Promoters are exiting their dream projects after acquiescing to giant business houses. Reporters are making discreet enquiries.…
Coming soon, from the author of ‘Lucknow Boy’
The cover of former Outlook* editor Vinod Mehta‘s upcoming book, Editor Unplugged. Published by Penguin, the 500-page book, priced at Rs 599, will be out in December 2014, three years after his memoir Lucknow Boy. The photograph on the book jacket is by Briana Blasko. *Disclosures apply Also read: Vinod Mehta on Arun Shurie, Dileep…
Shekhar Gupta’s farewell letter to Express staff
The following is the full text of the letter sent by Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, to his colleagues, announcing his exit from the paper he helmed for 19 years. Gupta’s resignation as editor comes 10 months after he relinquished his corporate duties as CEO at the paper—and a week after the Narendra…
IJR 