The great West Indian writer C.L.R. James famously wrote: “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” In other words, there is a lot more to the game than just the game. The question can be rephrased in journalism: “What do they know of journalism who only English and Hindi journalism know?” ***…
Tag Archives: Kannada Prabha
TV news channels are a gone case. But why are India’s vast and influential language newspapers burying India’s staggering economic collapse?
On the last day of August 2020, India and China were once again locked in horns at the border. As India’s COVID graph spiralled upwards, India’s economy plunged, contracting 23.9% year-on-year. Jobs, lives, livelihood, families, businesses have been ruined after months of a poorly thought-through lockdown, even as crony capitalism of the Ambani and Adani…
“Selfless samaritan. Voice of the poor. Striding for the masses. Voice of the voiceless”: How Kannada newspapers have torn apart the wall between editorial and advertising to generate revenue in COVID season
*** Desperate situations call for desperate solutions, and Kannada newspapers are leaving no stone unturned to find their way out of the severe financial squeeze prompted by the COVID pandemic and the continuing lockdown. With corporate and retail advertising all but dead, with government ads few and far between, with distribution still not completely back…
Kannada University postpones silver jubilee event after students and teachers object to the ‘consistent misogyny’ of an invitee: a right-wing newspaper Editor
The valedictory function of the silver jubilee of Kannada University—a University set up in Hampi in Karnataka 25 years ago to celebrate the state’s language—has been abruptly postponed following protests over the participation of a newspaper Editor. The event, scheduled for January 31 and February 1, was put off after students and professors objected…
A Kannada paper breaks RG’s code of silence
Even before he sat down last month with Kalpesh Yagnik of Dainik Bhaskar and Arnab Goswami of Times Now for one-on-one interviews, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had met Editors in Delhi off and on, more off than on. These meetings were long, relaxed, informal but strictly off the record. Smart phones and cameras had to…
A front-page with two mastheads for two jewels
How should a Bangalore newspaper deal with the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, being bestowed on two individuals on the same day, one of them a much-loved cricket icon, the other a homegrown Bangalore scientist? Kannada Prabha, the Kannada daily edited by Vishweshwar Bhat, deals with the dilemma by producing a front-page with…
9 lessons a ‘terror-suspect’ journo learnt in jail
Deccan Herald journalist Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui has walked out of the central jail in Bangalore a free man, six months after being named by the city’s police in an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to target two Kannada journalists and the publisher of the newspaper they were earlier employed in. Siddiqui had been accused of being the “mastermind”…
Asianet journos, editors must declare assets
On the day the Indian Express in New Delhi has exposed how the “paid news” rot runs deep in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, Rajeev Chandrasekhar‘s Asianet News Network (ANN) has announced steps “to restore confidence in media” and urged all other media companies to follow suit: *** PRESS RELEASE: In the current backdrop of some cases and…
South media baron among top political donors
Mobile phone turned media baron and member of Parliament, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, continues to be a prominent donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, according to a list compiled by the asociation for democratic reforms (ADR). Chandrasekhar, an independent member of the Rajya Sabha elected with BJP support, who owns the Malayalam news channel…
Anti-minority bias behind foiled bid on journos?
For the second day running, most newspapers in Bangalore refrain from naming the editor, columnist and newspaper publisher who were allegedly the target of a failed assassination attempt, “masterminded”, according to the police, by a reporter working with the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald. (The first information report (FIR) filed on the arrests names the three targets:…
How to launch a TV channel at half the cost
On the New York Times site India Ink, Raksha Kumar writes on how the Kannada news channel Public TV got launched: “I got these lights for just 40 rupees each (76 U.S. cents) when Wipro closed one of its branches in Bangalore,” said H.R. Ranganath, chairman and managing director, pointing at the ceiling. “These cubicles,…
Journalists vs journalist in Bangalore free-for-all
PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: A veritable dogfight has broken out in Bangalore between a 24×7 Kannada news channel owned by the MP, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and the owner-editor of a weekly Kannada newspaper. On the surface, the dispute is over credits for a recently released Kannada film. But, deep down, the spat has served…
Editor declares assets, liabilities on live TV
Even as a question mark hangs over the heads of many editors and journalists, H.R. Ranganath, the chairman and managing director of the newly launched Kannada news channel, Public TV, has declared his assets and liabilities on live television, with his tax consultant sitting alongside him and reading out the list. Ranganath—former editor of the…
This is the chief minister, and here’s the news
Karnataka chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda inaugurates the Kannada news channel, Public TV, in Bangalore on Sunday by reading a news item from a laptop computer. The channel is headed by H.R. Ranganath, the son of a southern railway employee in Mysore, who rose to be editor of Kannada Prabha and Suvarna News. Photograph: Karnataka Photo News Also read: Is there space for another…
Rajeev Chandrasekhar picking up Eenadu TV?
For a paper which turns its nose at news about the rest of the media, The Times of India has a strange item on its business page, news of the mobile phone entrepreneur turned member of Parliament, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, evincing some interest in Ramoji Rao‘s Eenadu television chain in Andhra Pradesh. The ToI report comes…
Nothing romantic about a candle-light newscast
Loadshedding, power cuts, outages, 2-phase supply etc are near-permanent words in the lexicons of news organisations in a country where electricity shortage is an everyday occurence. So how can the media bring some life to such a routine news story? In Karnataka, where scheduled loadshedding will be in force from today, Suvarna News, the 24×7…
‘Kannada Prabha’ is now Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s
Kannada Prabha, the Kannada daily established by Ramnath Goenka, has a new owner from today, 1 July 2011: mobile phone baron turned businessman and member of Parliament, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Media & Entertainment Ventures began the creeping acquisition of Kannada Prabha, valued at Rs 250 crore, through a “strategic business alliance” with Kannada Prabha Publications…
In Bangalore, 14 parties for media in 36 months
PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: Although the size of the Karnataka market is smaller than Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Bangalore probably has the largest news media presence than the other three southern capitals and perhaps most other cities, barring Bombay and Delhi. At last count, there were 14 major morning brands (eight…
Kannada Prabha uses reader-generated headlines
“Interactivity” has been the buzzword in the English media for over a decade now. Readers have always written letters to the editor in the past, but now they also do film reviews, shoot and caption pictures, draw cartoons, ask and answer questions from other readers, take part in citizen journalist shows, post realtime comments by…
Guess what I bought my girlfriend on Feb 14?
Ordinary mortals buy roses for their beau on Valentine’s Day. Sons of the soil buy TV news channels. Well, that’s what Bangalore Mirror, the tabloid from The Times of India stable is reporting. Former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, son of the former prime minister and “humble farmer” H.D. Deve Gowda, already runs a general…
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