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…
Tag Archives: Forbes
Eight reasons journalism is the best profession
A recent survey ranking journalism as the fifth worst job to have—alongside dishwashers and oil rig workers—has got journalists all worked up. Jeff Bercovici lists eight reasons why that’s not true, despite the low salaries,the long and irregular working hours, etc. # You’re always learning # You get paid to read a ton # You…
Since flattery is best expressed thro’ imitation—II
The Superman metaphor makes it to the cover of two Indian magazines in the space of three months. Left: The October 2010 cover of Pragati. Designers: Aditya Dipankar and Anuj Agarwal. Right: The December 2010 cover of Forbes India. Designers: Arindam Duttgupta and Benu Joshi Routh. Also read: Since flattery is best expressed through imitation…
Second editor of Indian origin for ‘Newsweek’
Tunku Varadarajan, the Indian-born, US-based writer-educator, has been named the new editor of Newsweek international, becoming the second journalist of Indian origin after Fareed Zakaria to hold the reins at the American magazine. Tunku broke the news through a tweet on Wednesday: “My news: Looks like I’ll be editing Newsweek International”. Born Patanjali Varadarajan, 48-year-old…
Fortune India and Forbes India in numbers
Much anticipated and much delayed, Fortune, the business magazine from the Time Inc stable, has finally made its India debut, in collaboration with Aveek Sarkar‘s Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP) group, 16 months after the launch of the Indian edition of Forbes in collaboration with Raghav Bahl‘s Network 18 group. # Forbes India periodicity: fortnightly Fortune…
Is it all over for DNA in the battle for Bombay?
SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: The October 8 issue of Forbes magazine, from the CNBC-TV18 group, carries a four-page story that reads more like an advance obituary for DNA, the English broadsheet daily newspaper that was launched by the Dainik Bhaskar and Zee television groups to humble The Times of India in urbs prima in…
Does a free newspaper stand a chance in India?
Per Mikael Jensen, president and CEO of Metro International, the Swedish company behind the world’s largest free newspaper Metro, on his India plans, in the latest issue of Forbes India: # We’ve been looking at India for the last five years. It would have to be a joint venture or a franchise. FDI allows us…
What Raghav Bahl could learn from Samir Jain
SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Some time in the mid-20th century, the legendary New Yorker writer (and foodie) A.J. Liebling famously said, “freedom of the press belongs to those who own one“. For proof in the early 21st, he might like to take a look at Raghav Bahl. The founder, editor, controlling shareholder and managing…
In the dosa joint where ‘our beloved father’ ate
New Delhi’s most famous media canteen—the one at the news agency United News of India (UNI)—finally steps out of the margins into the gossip columns. Facsimile: courtesy Mail Today Also read: Why the Indian media doesn’t take on Ambanis Sorry brother, we got a few million dollars wrong How media hyped up the Reliance Power…
A house for Mr & Mrs Roy for Rs 270,000,000
From The Insider column in the Indian edition of Forbes: “We hear that that grand old titan [of Indian steel], Russi Mody, is selling his two-storied bungalow on Calcutta’s tony Belvedere Road. Apparently he has a lifetime interest in the property, and it will change hands only after he passes on. “One of our avian…
Six questions for Stephen Farrell and NY Times
Tunku Varadarajan, the former foreign correspondent of The Times, London, currently a professor at NYU’s Stern Business School, asks some excellent questions on the abduction and rescue of Stephen Farrell, the “seemingly reckless” New York Times journalist, by the Taliban in Afghanistan, at Forbes.com. 1) Did not Farrell assume the risk of some harm befalling…
Sorry, brother, we got a few million $$$ wrong
The battle between Dhirubhai Ambani‘s children—Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, and children they truly are—also has a small but remarkable media subtext. Both “camps” scour through news reports with a fine toothcomb, and both “camps” are not unknown to plant a few saplings in fertile newspapers and magazines to score points. This clarification appears in…
Good journalists, poor journalism, zero standards
Raju Narisetti, the former editor of Mint, the business daily launched by the Hindustan Times group, who is now one of the managing editors at the Washington Post, has given an interview to the latest issue of the Indian edition of Forbes. Question: How do you rate the quality of journalism practised here in India?…
2 new biz publications in 4 days of Cong win
New business publications are raining in India after the unexpected scale of triumph of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in the general elections on May 16. On Monday, May 18, the Indian facsimile edition of The Wall Street Journal was launched in association with the Indian Express group with long-time WSJ man Suman Dubey at…
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.
How the Sakaal Times dream became a nightmare
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Nothing is bringing home the seriousness of the global economic downturn to Indian media practitioners better than the breakneck speed with which media plans are being revised or revoked. Just a few months ago, it all seemed hunky-dory—a 20 per cent growth for the media and entertainment industry in…
All the business news that’s fit to be printed
Existing business papers are launching Hindi editions (Economic Times, Business Standard). Existing English dailies are launching business papers (Finance Chronicle from Deccan Chronicle). Hindi dailies are launching English papers (DNA from Dainik Bhaskar). New papers are selling their business sections as separate papers (DNA Money). Hindi dailies are planning Hindi business dailies (Dainik Jagran with…
Network 18 rejects no-poaching pact with Times
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: In what is being interpreted as a sharpening of knives before the next round of The Great Indian Print Media Battle, Raghav Bahl‘s Network 18 is said to have summarily rejected a proposal for an informal “no-poaching agreement” floated by the country’s biggest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co…
IJR 