The print media in India

[hehehewalrus]

Currently there has been a surfeit of news channels on TV - Star News started off in English and went on with Hindi, followed by Aaj Tak. Now almost every channel has a secondary offshoot to cater to news.
This hotted up the competition among the news magazines in a bid to retain viewer interest. With news reaching the audience faster, their hold on the educated was threatened.
Now with almost every newspaper having a web edition and news getting updated every hour, the print media is in grave danger. What are they doing to overcome that? Offlate, Objective journalism has become extinct, with the print media resorting to sensationalism and other desperate measures to stay in the race. Any whiff of scandal is gleefully used up as a lifesaver these days.

Lets discuss the reliable publications of today, their strengths and weaknesses.

[jaiganes]

Hi hhhw!
Nice topic to dwell upon!
TV and other media are invaluable in giving a multimedia coverage of events. Yet they cannot replace the print media as it is the only offline way of reading and analysing news. Still print media is an affordable way of reaching news to the whole country. It is true that the overall quality is coming down. But that applies to all media in general. As far as my take goes,
1. the editorials of no news paper today is balanced.
2. lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.(20 years ago, my father introduced reading "The hindu" to me as that would greatly increase vocabulary and grammar. Today even hindu is not error free.)
3. Atleast english news papers were devoid of titillating photographs and leud jokes. Today every parent in Bangalore and Delhi shudder to think what their children may be reading/seeing in Times Of India(I rate it the most voyeuristic among mainstream news papers).
4. Less said about the vernacular press the better.

Need of the hour is a new paper
1. that has no political affiliation
2. that accepts public opinions and publishes them without rejecting the ones which are against the editorial opinion on any subject matter.
3. that attempts to maintain good grammar and language.
4. good proportion of local, regional, national and international news.(We don't want to see Michael Jackson child sex scandal or britney spears' latest marriage discussed sensationally in the first page when there was a local incident that has more impact on readers.

[blahblah]

Glad to see a serious topic after a long time.With the intrusion of TV news channels and with life becoming faster,the print media is addressing a severe problem.I remember,15 yrs back it was the routine of all middle aged people in our little village to got to the nearest tea shop and read two or three newspapers over a strong tea.Those days, print media was probably the only reliable advertising medium.Now they are at the verge of loosing out the Lion's share of it to the more formidable electronic media.As the revenue decreases,they will probably have to deviate from their traditional business format or compromise on quality :( .Some take the first option supported by clever marketing.

Times of India ventures into different zones such as music and retail business.Malayala Manorama started alot of publications which are not news based-like the Vanitha,Magic pot, balarama, kalikkudukka.They have sister companies which are into teleserials and tyre business.Some like the Asian Age try out Sensationalism and a little spice appeal :wink: .

Still there are some like the Indian Express and Hindu which stick to objective journalism and yet survive.This is because those who are used to reading a paper can't abandon the idea all together just because news reaches you faster on TV :) .
Many of these news papers are there to stay irrespective of what the channels do though it is only a fact they are facing a problem.

And sensationalism is there in channels too.If a cow sheds some dung that too is ''Breaking News'' for them. :roll:

[Cinefan]

A very relevant topic.I think most newspapers/magazines these days take the sides of political parties&their news thus becomes slanted. TOI according to me is the worst paper to subsribe to,it's relies only on Bollywood/Hollywood gossip&women wearing scant clothes as it's USP.The Indian Express looks like the ony paper to report objectively while the Hindu comes next though it loses this objectivity while involving the BJP/RSS.The bias against is too transperant. Less said about the vernacular papers the better.They seem to derive sadistic pleasure in writing filth about important personalities,who can forget the way the Kanchi Mutt was/is degraded in the name of investigative journalism.All those colourful stories was made in the rooms of the editors&in the minds of the police i think.'Ananda Vikatan' is the only magazine which has maintained some standard though they also have adopted themselves to the new trend thro' their sister publication 'Junior Vikatan' .

[blahblah]

Times certainly is a newspaper for the society ladies.Their supplements are hard to understand or digest for the common man.They talk about what Neena Pillai was wearing to a Paris Party ,where in Italy Shobha De had her herbal massage and what clubs Parmeshwar Godrej frequents.It is an example for what a newspaper shouldn't be.Then you think about the many filmy and society mags they have and you know how to rate them.Indian Express offers a minimum guarantee with Shekhar Gupta showing some qualities of their founder.It is one news paper that atleast raise its voice for the common man.

[jaiganes]

I will take up certain comments on Indian Express and Ananda Vikatan.
1. Indian Express in late 70s and eighties was ably led by late Goenka, who encouraged young journalists to get to the bottom of a story risking everything. The result was a lot of expose on corruption in bureacratic circles. Who can forget the bofors expose? In spite of that, family politics played spoil sport and the paper was split in all possible directions, with south india getting a "New Indian Express" whose coverage and style seems to be different from the old indian express. Though I have to admit that the vernacular version of Indian Express in tamil, Dinamani is the best news paper in Tamil by a fairly long distance. Coming back to express, it was the worst to suffer because of investigative journalist (some say selective) portals like Tehelka. Tehelka simply has used the USP of Express and has started mushrooming of similar efforts in all major TVs(Aaj Tak and Zee too have such efforts on). But in the end the loser is Indian Express as it does not have the TV reach, that India Today magazine has with its Aaj Tak and Headlines TV. As far as Hindu goes, it too faced family politics that threatened to pull the firm apart, but good sense prevailed and the issue was settled amicably. Though some were not happy with N.Ram as the editor in chief. Hindu's embracing of IT and modernization and business tactics too was very good and helped it survive the multimedia wave.

2. As far as Vikatan is concerned, I have serious doubts on whether it is still neutral as it has stakes in SunTV by way of stupid serials. I don't know how far it can go and carry an article that criticises DMK and SUN TV. Added to the embarrassment is the fact that SUN TV's print avatar of "Kungumam" is a direct competitor to Vikatan. Talking of "Kungumam" , it is one horrible mag. Of late even Vikatan is carrying voyeuristic photographs, which is difficult to grasp. Kalki is sticking to its standard USP of communist editorial, some rerun of old Kalki novel and balanced cinema reviews. Its cousin Mangayar malar is a mag that I don't even touch and my mother reads that cover to cover with unfailing interest for the past 15 years. Maybe some women in the forum can comment on that.

[Cinefan]

Jaiganesh,though i have to agree with you on how neutral can 'AV'be in relation to the DMK,at least they seem to maintain some sense of balance&quality.of course there are pictures of models/actresses but they are not so bad in terms of viewing with family.just look at their competitors-Kumudam&Kungumam-baaaaad.Kungumam can hardly be called a magazine,it's a PR machine for the DMK.Now,most of the press in TN take a pro-DMK stance which is not surprising b'cos for every step forward.Jayalalitha takes 10 steps backward&she is a person with an inflated ego,a ruthless streak wherein she will do anything to destroy people who don't get along with her&dictatorial tendencies which is dangerous for democracy.She has guts which unfortunately always works negatively&it's my personal opinion(and a lot of others too) that a person like her is not fit to hold public office let alone be CM.of course ,Karunanidhi is no saint but he seems to maintain some dignity in public life.

[hehehewalrus]

Wow, excellent postings guys, thanks for all the valuable information :)

I am quite out of touch with most of our newsmagazines after buying over 1500 weekly issues of them in the 90s...by the late 90s i stopped taking most mags seriously other than frontline. Anyway, nice to go on a memory trip now, feel free to correct and chip in wherever wrong :)

Some of the magazines like Illustrated Weekly have completely vanished, i have no idea how it happened. We used to get it at home from 1980-82. I think there was a change in editor, and once Khushwant Singh became the editor, one particular issue had extreme voyeurism. My father stopped it and switched to Sportstar in 1983 and several years later I know the reason why :)

During the 80s it was India Today and Frontline at the forefront. Sunday from the Anand Bazar Patrika was decent but hovered in the background. Of course at that time, even now, ABP's newspaper Telegraph was the undisputed market leader in the East. Their bengali newspaper had the biggest sales in india I think among vernaculars.

Late 80s i think, Malayali Manorama took over among vernacular newspapers. Their magazine The Week was ok in the eighties, maybe a good touch of Communist Leanings. However The Week was such a poor competitor to Frontline, India Today or even Sunday. Their Manorama Yearbook was an excellent year-end almanac though, by far the best information store in India.

Among the best issues I remember in the 80s is Frontline's coverage of assassinations of Bhindranwale, Longowal, the Flight 747 hijacking(1986), Reagan-Gaddafi clash, etc. India Today came up with a memorable decade-ending blockbuster in 1989.

to be continued...

[hehehewalrus]

Onto the nineties. India Today had stepped up the heat by then, exploring(and capturing) the vernacular readership too. Malayala Manorama was flying high in the newspaper scene. In the South, among English dailies, it was The Hindu all the way. Indian Express was lagging way behind.

DD started its Morning Transmission in May 1987. It was much refreshing than its evening programs of those days.

Star Television hit Indian air in the summer of 1991. By end of 1991 it had spread to the other cities of TN. But it was restricted to Star Plus, Prime Sports and MTV. Zee was India's first satellite channel, making a start in late 1992 I think.

Tamil New Year's Day 1993 Sun TV made a big splash. Viewership skyrocketed instantly and DD had become a distantly poor cousin in no time.
If I remember right, ATN and Jain TV joined the Hindi air brigade the same year.

1994 was a quiet year but beneath the silence was hidden a major media explosion. 1995-96 saw one of the biggest media explosions in Indian history!

Raj kicked off in modest fashion for Pongal 1995. But very quickly it became a competitor for Sun. Still Sun TV had better infrastructure and its prime time programming was much better. To stave off this new threat, Sun Music and Movies were launched. Other avenues like Gemini were on the anvil. By 1995, Asianet and Eenadu had made quiet forays.

Star Network had enjoyed an unstoppable run atleast on the sports side. This was dashed by the stealthy but spectacular entry of ESPN in October 1995, covering the India-NZ and Pakistan-Australia Test Series! Star could not withstand the onslaught and their hold on the indian sport scene was very shaky. They tried to fight back getting rights to the New Zealand-Pakistan series, but still Indian sport was the major slice of the cake. ESPN did further damage snatching the Australia tour of Srilanka during the Murali controversy.

With some help from DD, Star wrested the 1996 World Cup. By the end of year, the scenario changed hands, with Star covering most of the Indian sport and ESPN international cricket. But then it should not be forgotten that Star had a vice-like grip on the tennis Grand Slam events covering the four major tournaments right from 1992.

Star News in English and Hindi had made an entry by the start of 1997. Star's Hindi programming were excellent quality and by now, it was a really scorching fight between Zee, Star Hindi, Sony and Home. Sony telecasted re-runs of most of the great Hindi serials of the 80s. Needless to say, DD was down in the dumps by now.

Jumping back to print media! In the midst of all the satellite hype, Outlook made a splendid entry in May 1997. By then Indian politics was in a turmoil and the prime ministership had became a game of musical chairs. Coalition politics had come to stay. With Outlook's shrewd political commentators, the initial splash was invigorationg and the impact was felt instantly - India Today became a weekly in June 1997 and slashed its newsstand price from Rs.15 to Rs.10.

[hehehewalrus]

For the educated middle class citizen this was the golden age. Newscasters at the flip of a channel and keen competition among the news magazines.

Sun TV consolidated its stand exploring new frontiers. Gemini and Udaya(the first Kannada satellite channel in India and still without a competitor!) joined in with corresponding music channels.

Back to the magazines. The Week had made rapid strides though and increased its nationwide coverage with new features like Delhi Durbar and Mumbai Masala. Still the quality of reporting still left a lot to be desired. The biggest weakness was the inability to recruit good talent. Probably they were content with their success on the newspaper scene.

Outlook maintained its excellent run in 1998. Editor Vinod Mehta had formerly been with Filmfare in the early eighties, having survived the onslaught of other film mags like Stardust, Cineblitz in the glam capital of Bombay.

India Today suffered heavily. But still their other publications Business Today, Computer Today was going great runs. The Business Today rating of India's top B-schools was excellent. They were undoubtedly the best business mag leaving Business India and Businessworld(of the ABP group) far behind.

Which reminds us of the ABP newsgroup. While Sunday existed quietly, their sports mouthpiece Sportsworld was in the doldrums. Sportsworld had MAK Pataudi as Editor in the eighties. In 1989-90 they had emerged as a serious threat to the Sportstar. They had an excellent reporting team of correspondants like David Brijnath, Andy O Brien, Shevlin Sebastian(Winner of the 1984 Childrens Book Trust award for Best fiction in india), Mudar Patherya, Derek O Brien, Novy Kapadia. However during the time when India did badly overall in sports(1992-94), they couldnt quite keep the quality. Mudar Patherya shifted to Business India, David Brijnath did freelancing, Derek O Brien struck gold with his Zee Bournvita Quiz show. Sportsworld had became a fortnightly from weekly in 1996. At the time, Sportstar lost R.Mohan due to the betting controversy. Sports fans were robbed of both Mohan and Sportsworld at the same time! Sportsworld ultimately became a montly in 1998 and packed up by 2000.

There was a minor tremor in 1998, when Chennai's Daily Thanthi toppled Malayala Manorama in sales. The Telegraph's domination in East was toppled by The Statesman.

[hehehewalrus]

1998 saw the dot com boom and a buzz of news portals like Rediff(started in 1997), 123india and sify. 123india was low on content and was booted out in no time!

Rediff was slowly and steadily moving up and by 2000, had entrenched itself as one of Asia's best news portals.

Outlook's reign at the throne was always looking shaky as they could not keep up their initial exuberance. Their style was become stale and with lack of substance. They resorted to sensationalism to keep up the sales. For instance, in 1999, Tendulkar was featured on the cover no less than 7 times out of their 52 issues :) In January he was the 'World's best batsman', in May the cover title was 'Will back injury finish his career?', in December he was 'Man of the Year'. The strategy helped them though :) But clearly the chinks were showing.

As a sequel to their 1997 alarm on matchfixing(Aniruddha Bahal), the 2000 match fixing scandal and the tehelka expose took them completely along a different path - the world of sensationalism and sleaze reporting.

The Week made some good strides but featured several cover stories featuring on obscenity. Irate viewers cancelled their subscription.

Frontline stood undaunted by all this - they had never competed for sales and their news coverage was voluminous and restrained all through. Of course the leftist sentiments can be seen here and there.

(Feel free to chip in about all other news sources)

[blahblah]

Walrus,That was a good one. :) I don't know how you can remember the years and all that.Even we used to buy the Illustrated weekly and I too was wondering what happened to it.

However I believe The Week never had any left leanings as the Malayala Manorama Group which is supported by the powerful Jacobite Church had ever been the loyalists of the Congress and the UDF in Kerala.
There were certain occasions when they tried to act neutral :wink: and opposed some Congress leaders but those were individual attacks[like their campaign against Karunakaran during the ISRO spy case which ultimately forced him to step down].

I am unable to contribute about the Tamil newspapers as I know very little about them :cry: .

Among the English papers the outstanding one for me is the Indian Express.I have heard during the Emergency and the following censorship,the late Goenka came out with a blank front page in protest against the establishment.Under Shekhar Gupta,they are atleast trying to live up to the expectations :) .

Consider the Petrol Pump expose,the reports on illegal allotments of Delhi Land to Sangh Parivar Allies,the Dubey murder case,the features on Gujarat Riots[Getting away with Murder] and many more they always want to get to the bottom of it.

[hehehewalrus]

However I believe The Week never had any left leanings as the Malayala Manorama Group which is supported by the powerful Jacobite Church had ever been the loyalists of the Congress and the UDF in Kerala.
Really? Jacobites is a strongly prude group and i donno how the Week unabashedly promoted obscenity while it was fighting for survival.

However, what I disliked was the utter lack of professionalism and incompetence among its journalists. I think it will be a close race between The Week and Times of India for producing the most incompetent and illiterate journalists of India :)

In 1998, the Week roped in Sujit Chandra Kumar to cover the Toronto series. Though all magazines used cricket on the cover to sell, the Week's cricket coverage was pathetic. Most of the cricket statistics were pathetic and incorrect, any cricket loving kid would have pointed out the countless factual errors :) Plus they had no Specialists, SC Kumar writes about everything - food, cricket, politics and what not. From covering the Toronto Sahara Cup to Vallikaavu and interviewing Amma :) Then there is this Colonel who writes a column featuring nothing but all kinds of liquor. Reading Week reminds me of my college assignment submissions - last hour crap dump with little research which will be glossed over by the prof anyway :) Then they recruit lot of retired army guys(typical floating population keralite who works for govt establishments all over india and spends his last days in Changanassery-type town), who bore us to death.



There were certain occasions when they tried to act neutral :wink: and opposed some Congress leaders but those were individual attacks[like their campaign against Karunakaran during the ISRO spy case which ultimately forced him to step down].

ya..i remember this 1994 scandal - there was this scientist Nambi Narayanan who was much maligned like anything. The Frontline stood by him and defended him though.

Then there was another Gopi Thankappan custodial death case in Kerala - Week highlighted it well though.

Abhaya murder case(Mar 27 1992 - 2 days after world cup final) was well documented by Frontline. Frontline pursued the case for months covering all the political plots well.

Ahh, there is no end of scandals in kerala. Atleast an SFI-DYFI-ABVP clash every month.



I am unable to contribute about the Tamil newspapers as I know very little about them :cry: .


I too dont know much, i ignore the junk ones anyway



Among the English papers the outstanding one for me is the Indian Express.I have heard during the Emergency and the following censorship,the late Goenka came out with a blank front page in protest against the establishment.Under Shekhar Gupta,they are atleast trying to live up to the expectations :) .


IE?? :) Yep, 1975 period they were good. But in 90s they were a rabid pro-RSS group. Their reporting went from bad to worse, especially with such troublesome journos like Gurumurthy who was a pain to the intellect of the readers. Objective journalism is all about presenting the facts and let the reader decide. Their propagandist writing style was nauseating. No wonder, the junk elements were left aside and the New Indian Express took over in TN - excellent coverage from them, just compare the websites www.newindpress.com and www.expressindia.com you will instantly know the difference.

[blahblah]

Walrus,The Kandathil Family which promotes Malayala Manorama works closely with the Jacobite church.However ownership is different from management in a professional company and there is a certain autonomy in the management of the week which may have been misused by the professional[?]s :wink: .I am sure the promoters do not approve of the week being transformed into a tabloid.They have a stricter control over the paper and its contents.

And we shouldn't be intolerant to a little Media Activism.Sometimes they have to lead a campaign which may look like propaganda.I have no problem if they are a little biased when there is real need :) .

[Cinefan]

hehehewalrus,
How in the world have you managed to remember so many things?Even i have read a lot of those magazines right from India Today,Illustrated weekly,Sunday,Frontline,The Week,Sportsstar&Outlook in the 80's&90's but have have stopped it completely as the rise of the BJP to power has divided the media into pro&anti with most of them expect 'Indiatoday' being anti.(After Swapan Das Gupta left India Today,even they have become Sonia Gandhis mouthpiece).In the process,neutrality has lost it's virtue. So in this context journalists like Gurumurthy are required to tell the other side of the coin to the people.You may not agree with his RSS leanings but cannot argue with his content as he always backs his arguments with solid facts unlike the so called secular brigade for whom fanning a fear pschycology is their only USP&they never have an answer to any of the questions posed by the RSS guys.Here in Bangalore,i find the 'New Indian Express'the only paper worth reading.

[blahblah]

Cinefan,so you are from Bangalore.How do you find the Deccan Herald and Vijay Times?

[hehehewalrus]

hehehewalrus,
How in the world have you managed to remember so many things?Even i have read a lot of those magazines right from India Today,Illustrated weekly,Sunday,Frontline,The Week,Sportsstar&Outlook in the 80's&90's but have have stopped it completely as the rise of the BJP to power has divided the media into pro&anti with most of them expect 'Indiatoday' being anti.(After Swapan Das Gupta left India Today,even they have become Sonia Gandhis mouthpiece).In the process,neutrality has lost it's virtue. So in this context journalists like Gurumurthy are required to tell the other side of the coin to the people.You may not agree with his RSS leanings but cannot argue with his content as he always backs his arguments with solid facts unlike the so called secular brigade for whom fanning a fear pschycology is their only USP&they never have an answer to any of the questions posed by the RSS guys.Here in Bangalore,i find the 'New Indian Express'the only paper worth reading.

Cinefan,
I havent really gone through much of Gurumurthy's stuff. It is not his political views but his presentation style - raw, emotional and childish outbursts that put me off. The mark of a good writer is to relax the reader's mind, not excite or agitate them. One day I am sure some guy will die of BP reading today's journalists :D

How is Sportstar doing? Nice to hear Rohit Brijnath moved there from India Today. After Mohan's exit, Raju Bharatan was the only one I enjoyed immensely - for his meticulous memory of dates and especially his crazy puns!! I made a word doc with 101 articles of Raju Bharatan - only his cricket articles, not his unabashed flattery of RD Burman, Asha and Lata when he writes on music.
Bharatan's cricket puns such as "Sachink-in-the-armour", "Believe-it-or-not Ripley Jacob", "Iyengarrulous Srikkanth" are very funny
:rotfl:

BTW, I enjoyed your informative posts on tfmpage :)

[jaiganes]

I subscribed almost 6 months to Vijay Times. I read DH on and off. DH is trying hard to become a TOI clone in Bangalore. I dont know how its contents are in Hyd'bad. Vijay Times , it is the most cost effective among english dailies. It is owned by VRL group (Vijayanand Road Lines). Its leanings are pro BJP, yet the slant is ever so marginal. Because of its low cost (1.50 Rs 55 Rs PM), fortunately all the party stuff of TOI is off. Hence a huge relief for us. it took on Dharam singh's government and carried continuous coverage on Bangalore's pot holes. At one stage an irritated Dharam singh gave Bangalore Corporation 30 day deadline to clear all potholes, VT didn't relent and kept carrying pictures of big potholes in major road, well after CM's deadline was over. That was somekind of constructive journalism, I thought. They didn't cover Britney spears and Christina Aguilera but focussed more on core issues affecting Bangalore citizens. I hear from my kannadiga friends that their kannada paper 'rajaa vaani' is also doing good in a similar vein.

[Cinefan]

blahblah,
Deccan Herald once upon a time was the King of Karnataka&was a so-so paper.The arrival of ToI left them stunned&it has taken a long time to recover.I go thro it very rarely,but i am surprised Jaiganesh compared it to ToI,were you referring to Deccan Chronicle? That one beats ToI hands down in sleaze&gossip.Vijay Times is more like The Hindu without the strong biases(lot of info,low cost,neutral&people oriented)But somehow,i am hooked to IE.

hehehewalrus,
Gurumurthy doesn't meet your standards as a journalist but i like the way he takes an issue&disproves the opponents with pure logic&hard facts.It really irritates the opposite side(Remember the police went to the extent of issuing summons&thereatning him in the Kanchi Seer case).Also he was the only one to give out the judgement of the Hyderabad High court in a PIL against Sri Jayendra Saraswati.When the whole media is agog with this case,i fail to understand why such an important judgement didn't find mention in any media. :?

[aravindhan]

their kannada paper 'rajaa vaani' is also doing good in a similar vein.

Do you mean ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ (Prajaavaani)? I've not heard of a newspaper called ರ್*ಆಜವಾಣಿ (Raajavaani), but it's been a long while since my footsteps turned away from kannadanaadu so it could well be my ignorance revealing itself. I remember it as being a very good newspaper, comparable to our very own தினமணி. It's sad to hear that the Deccan Herald has slipped in quality. It used to be a lovely little paper.

[Cinefan]

Aravindhan,do you use tamil fonts while posting messages.This forum doesn't have software to support it i think&so we get to see barcodes :D .It would be nice if you can type the tamil words in English so that we don't miss any words in your postings. :wink:

[blahblah]

Hi guys,I didn't know there were so many Bangaloreans around.I agree with your views that DH has gone down to aggressive marketing by TOI.It really used to be a very good paper a few years back.I get Vijay Times free of cost from their Tumkur press when we travel to Bangalore from Pune by VRL.From the very beginning I thought it to be a reasonably good news paper.And yes,it comes at Rs.1.50. :D

[jaiganes]

Thanks aravindhan for the correction. I meant to type "praja vaani".
Cinefan, I did mean Deccan Herald. It has slipped in quality and is trying hard to mimic TOI in anyway possible. The bosses of these papers think that only way to up sales is by putting stories aimed at niche populace(there is no dearth for that in Bangalore!!). Vijay Times and most of the bangalore based papers have got their facts horribly wrong when it comes to reporting details on Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Either these guys do not have credible news sources form there or they just copy news from NDTV and DD news as the news are being read out. In fact, if you have a computer and internet , then u dont need to even bother reading TOI. It is a ditto copy of news reports from rediff, word to word. Papers like the hindu and IE atleast collect all background info and present it as a chain, so even if the news is the same, the flavour is atleast distinct. TOI's only distinguishing features are the 'ascent' section (opportunities) and its extensive bollywood drooling sections.

[aravindhan]

Aravindhan,do you use tamil fonts while posting messages.This forum doesn't have software to support it i think&so we get to see barcodes :D .It would be nice if you can type the tamil words in English so that we don't miss any words in your postings. :wink:

Hello Cinefan,

The forum actually does support Tamil posting - you may need to install an additional font on your computer, though. Take a look at these instructions:

http://forumhub.lunarpages.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=57

But I'll also make it a point to include a romanised version of any Tamil words I use.

[hehehewalrus]

JG, Cinefan, blahblah, arvind,

One of the things I found about the mediocre papers like TOI, Vijay Times is that they have hardly any specialist. Most of their writing team is just young talent in early twenties, out of college and needing to write something catchy to survive. Not much thought process is required.
In fact, among the journos, paper-hopping is as rampant as company-hopping in the software field. Some of my family friends are in this field and their livestyles show that.
Also, the more niche your skill is, you can move over to the magazines. A friend of mine who was genuinely good with nice expertise in hardware/electronics, left a paper for some plum assignments with a computer magazine.

This is precisely why papers suck in India today - lack of expertise.

One of the reasons why I enjoy the Hindu(31 years in our home) is the quality of professionalism. While TOI is barely readable on weekdays, leave alone weekends, Hindu has excellent and mature fare on weekends.
Ambujam Anantharaman has covered over 200 temples of south india. Her excellent and precise coverage takes readers on a vicarious journey every week.

Dr. Gowri Ramnarayan is a genuine music aficionado who writes fantastic reviews of concerts. Her flashy language and her fabulous grasp of technicalities makes her articles a joy to read.

Dr.Gowri's husband Ramnarayan was a regular contributor to the hindu Saturday sports special. He was on the threshold of making it to the Indian team in the late 60s but only one person stood in the way - our own versatile Venkatraghavan :) His articles in chennaionline titled "Curdrice Cricket" are fantastic.

I have over 75 articles of each of these people in word format :)

But one good thing about the net is that many young talent can be unearthed through the blogs. So I wish all you bright young writers a shining writing career, though it may be part time :)

[Cinefan]

I just have a small question:Is Dr.Gowri Ramnarayan the daughter of Sadasivam's(Husband of MS)sister/brother?

[aravindhan]

One of the things I found about the mediocre papers like TOI, Vijay Times is that they have hardly any specialist. Most of their writing team is just young talent in early twenties, out of college and needing to write something catchy to survive. Not much thought process is required.

I agree, but I think this is also related to the new breed of young, rich, professionals who haunt our bigger cities. Many of them actually enjoy reading about the sort of things the ToI supplement publishes, and I guess the ToI is just playing to that market.


One of the reasons why I enjoy the Hindu(31 years in our home) is the quality of professionalism. While TOI is barely readable on weekdays, leave alone weekends, Hindu has excellent and mature fare on weekends.

Once again, I agree. The Hindu's supplements are always a pleasure to read. When I lived in Mumbai I actually got in touch with their local office and got them to supply me with a copy of their Madras edition every day. Their news coverage, on the other hand, is not exactly neutral, which is a shame.

[viggop]

I just have a small question:Is Dr.Gowri Ramnarayan the daughter of Sadasivam's(Husband of MS)sister/brother?

I think so.MS is her aunt,i know that for sure.But do not know whether she is brother's or sister's daughter.
Ramnarayanan also wrote an excellent article on sangeetham.com
about cricket and carnatic music.

[hehehewalrus]

Viggop, do you have the link for that article? Is it
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/12/02/stories/0902070d.htm

Unnikrishnan/Sanjay Sub especially were into league cricket in a big way. Unni himself mentioned it was cricket or music career for him(IIT last year).

Interestingly, on cricinfo, Ramnarayan has written about the cricketers' passion for music :)

[hehehewalrus]

I agree, but I think this is also related to the new breed of young, rich, professionals who haunt our bigger cities. Many of them actually enjoy reading about the sort of things the ToI supplement publishes, and I guess the ToI is just playing to that market.


Precisely! And I think this has mainly got to do with the loss of the reading habit among today's youth. Which is why very few can distinguish between good reading fare and the mediocre as they have no exposure to quality fare. It is sad that netsurfing is fast replacing reading as the most preferred hobby among todays youth.

[jaiganes]

I have to concede that among supplements, hindu is unbeatable in style, content and language. Ramachandra Guha's cricket rants , Randor guy's movie rants are very informative. One peculiar and ironic thing about hindu is the regular article on a gandhian or some aspect of gandhism in sunday supplement, contrast that with communist ideals that the editors pursue is simply striking. Hindu idolizes Nehru and Indira Gandhi, so not surprising to read surfeit of articles on them every sunday. Interestingly very little coverage given to other stalwarts like Bal Gangadhar Thilak, VOC , Rajaji or Kamaraj. I literally grew up reading hindu. In fact myself and my brother would be waiting for my father to finish his hidu reading with morning coffee. The moment he finishes it a fight will ensue among us as to who will grab it next. Coming back to the coverage to other leaders, if it were not for my history teacher Mrs. Ramamani, I wouldn't have even known about great leaders like Rajaji ,Acharya Krupalani and Veer Savarkar. Though I am grateful to the hindu for whatever reading interests I currently have, this grudge would remain for a long time to come. I was reading this week's Anandha Vikatan, there is a beautiful article in the 'velicham' section on a woman activist who strived for land distribution to the poor. She says that the inspiration came from a massacre of Dalits in a place called "venmani" near Nagapattinam. I have never heard of that incident. I realized how this incident of 40 Dalits burnt alive for asking increased wages could be forgotten by the media. Contrasting that with current alacrity of media in TN atleast, I should say we are on the right track , although little more discipline and balanced approach is required.

[Cinefan]

Jaiganesh,
You are right in saying that the media is now more aware&it's dificult to get away with anything let alone murder. But the coverage is extremely biased&slander,character assasination is happening in the name of investigative journalism.If in olden days there was a certain kind of prejudice,now it's of a different kind thats all.

[viggop]

Viggop, do you have the link for that article? Is it
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/12/02/stories/0902070d.htm

Unnikrishnan/Sanjay Sub especially were into league cricket in a big way. Unni himself mentioned it was cricket or music career for him(IIT last year).

Interestingly, on cricinfo, Ramnarayan has written about the cricketers' passion for music :)

Hehewalrus
This is the article.
http://www.sangeetham.com/others/archive.php3?combo_title=The+music+of+cricket&combo_date=&butt_archive=Ok&%24combo_title=&%24combo_date=&idval=&fea=tukkada

sangeetham.com is Sanjay Subramaniam's site.

This year too a carnatic musician cricket match was held and that article too will be present in Sanjay's site.

[hehehewalrus]

I have to concede that among supplements, hindu is unbeatable in style, content and language. Ramachandra Guha's cricket rants , Randor guy's movie rants are very informative.


Does Guha write on a regular basis to the Sunday supplement? Incidentally, he is a Tamilian settled in Bangalore and not a Bengali as the surname suggests. His Dad's name is Guhan. A terrific follower of cricket since the 70s and a wonderful scholar. He had a huge library of cricket books in his home and after doing deep research in communism left cricket for 3 years. A masterly century by the little master Visvanath brought him to cricket in 1982. His books are terrific reading. "Spin and Other Turns" is a wonderful book not only for the incidents but his style of story telling. Every book lover would read this book cover to cover in a single sitting. There are several other terrific incidents in his book : How his lifetime ambition of seeing a Gavaskar century was unrealised - he had one day to spend in Chepauk in 1979 Pongal Test v Pakistan. It was Day 1 and India batted. Gavaskar remained 80 not out and next day he took the morning Coromandel Express from Chennai-Howrah. By the time he got off at Vijayawada Station and borrowed a radio, Gavaskar had reached 166! Some tremendous stories of Bedi too - how as a kid, he beat every other kid in playing marbles and won more than 10000 marbles from others - which is how he got the spinning power into his fingers! Terrific reading!

How about Slice of Life by V.Gangadhar? Mumbai brought up guy whose wife is from Ahmedabad. Slice of Life was a delightful read just like Ramesh Mahadevan's articles, but less coarse. Gangs worked for Readers Digest previously and spent few years in the US office and thats where he got the nickname. Has written for Filmfare and other Mumbai based publications.



One peculiar and ironic thing about hindu is the regular article on a gandhian or some aspect of gandhism in sunday supplement, contrast that with communist ideals that the editors pursue is simply striking. Hindu idolizes Nehru and Indira Gandhi, so not surprising to read surfeit of articles on them every sunday.

For Independence Day 1997, there was a memorable issue of Folio, over 100 pages with stunning black and white pictures of freedom struggle - there were over 100 vintages pictures, several rare photos of Gandhi, and had recaptured all the vintage Hindu articles since 1900 - such as Aug 16 1947, Jan 26 1950, etc. I took two copies and gifted one to my friend's father, he was delighted beyond words to see those historic pictures and articles.

Though Sportstar started only in 1978, the Hindu had a supplement called Sport and Pastime right from 1940s. In the 40s itself, Hindu's journalists like Mr. SK Gurunathan were highly appreciated throughout the country. In the 70s, whenever a visiting team came to India, The hindu would release a souvenir book of 50-100 pages with cricket stats about the players. At that time, N Ram was the Chief Sports Editor. I have with me a vintage 1974 souvenir where N. Ram praises debutants Greenidge and Richards and predicted they would achieve world fame. How true it was!

They do honour the unsung heroes in their own way. They were probably the only paper to release a special supplement commemorating the life and service of TT Krishnamachari on his birth centenary in late 1999.

[hehehewalrus]

viggop,
thanks a lot :)
Would love to see you writing more.

[geno]

Walrus! :D

Wonderful wonderful thread! :)

Havent read it completely as of now but wud do so soon!

I do remember that 1997 special folio in black and white released by "The Hindu"!

It's so sad that i lost it somewhere :(

"The Hindu" had some of the most progressive looking columnists like Kancha Ilaiah, Ashgar Ali Engineer et al writing columns in the center page.

I remember relishing the Hindu supplements every sunday!

Inspite of "Hindu" N. Ram's (what an oxymoron?!! :) ) left leanings - the newspaper had always had some queer and at times contradiciting qualities about it - embellishing and representing the cultural and political mosaic that india is! :)

I presume that it is just a couple of years - since N. Ram assumed "editiorial" control of the newspaper.

The present policy of the paper of allocating and carrying more space to "self- contained pictures" has been a hit i suppose!
( Maria Sharapova has been presented in some of the most "breath-taking" postures in the past few months in the Hindu's pics! :D )

The Indo-srilankan accord, the bofors scandal, ascent of V.P.Singh and the Mandal-related issues, the "Kamandal" politics of the right-wing sangh parivar to counter Mandalisation, and the subsequent rapid rise of the sangh parivar to the throne have all been - reported, critcised and analysed in the Hindu's columns extensively and with an unique political character, but not without inconsistencies.

But if there is one characteristic of "The Hindu" which stands out - it is its persistent stand on the right-wing politics of the sangh parivar, critical of which it has registered its clear voice, even when the rest of Indian media - were vacillating in the issue.

I remember one Kashmiri Hurriyat activist's comment - which was reported in the hindu itself during the centennial celebs, that "The Hindu" has been far more righteous and unbiased and "nationalistic" in character than any other newspaper in india! :)

[geno]

* 125th year celebrations of "The Hindu"

[blahblah]

I have heard that many years back,when there was a great flood in TN,Hindu allowed other newspapers whose presses were flooded to be printed in their press.Is it true?When did this happen?

[hehehewalrus]

blahblah,
Sorry i have no information on that. But during the British rule, they went underground as they were banned by the Queen for more than 2 years.

Geno,
will get you a copy of that 1997 folio if i get one. Why dont u go to the Hindu office in Chennai and ask? They will surely have an extra copy.

While Hindu was fond of Gandhi/Nehru, they had less sympathy for their successors. Folio 1997 issue itself deplored the Congress become a political party after starting out as a plank for gaining independence.

N.Ram is a big fan of Chandrika and personally interviewed her in Frontline for 4-5 pages in 1999. They have rarely been sympathetic to the LTTE and rightly so.

[jaiganes]

My father had subscribed to sportstar ever since India won the world cup in 1983. Sportstar had a plethora of interesting stats and coverages of test series between countries. Their curtain raisers on important sports events were wonderfully written and well analysed and read by sports crazy chennai fans. The pinups of Tennis stars and cricket stars was also very good. I thought that it was the most comprehensive sports magazine with tips on how to play tennis (which came in handy when I played a little tennis in USA) and golf too!! Coming to a small controversy, during late 1990s R.Mohan was covering much of Indian cricket team's adventures and misadventures. R.Mohan had a flowing language and great sense of putting the thoughts that we ourselves would have observed while following the game (which experts like shastri would have missed). Everything went fine and suddenly after the match fixing scandal, he stopped writing for hindu and is now writing for a portal. After he stopped, S.Dinakar was given the responsibility even though Dinakar was covering only hockey for hindu. I have heard rumours about R.mohan's closeness to majority of Indian cricketers (particularly Sachin) and how this caused some concern in the editorial board of the hindu's sports section. The rumours do not stop just there , I have stopped myself to this considering the fact that R.Mohan is not a hubber and therefore would be unethical of me posting anything more.

[hehehewalrus]

Coming to a small controversy, during late 1990s R.Mohan was covering much of Indian cricket team's adventures and misadventures. R.Mohan had a flowing language and great sense of putting the thoughts that we ourselves would have observed while following the game (which experts like shastri would have missed). Everything went fine and suddenly after the match fixing scandal, he stopped writing for hindu and is now writing for a portal. After he stopped, S.Dinakar was given the responsibility even though Dinakar was covering only hockey for hindu. I have heard rumours about R.mohan's closeness to majority of Indian cricketers (particularly Sachin) and how this caused some concern in the editorial board of the hindu's sports section. The rumours do not stop just there , I have stopped myself to this considering the fact that R.Mohan is not a hubber and therefore would be unethical of me posting anything more.

JG, I disagree with your views on RM. While he had the vocabulary to use words like "obdurate", "gregarious" even during the pre-GRE days of indian fans, his technical knowhow was quite limited. His articles were just bombastic and had a lot of cynicism on it. He has absolutely little grasp of strategy. I am surprised you put down Shastri for I personally found Shastri among the sharpest. Definitely better than RM. As far as technicalities go, Rajan Bala was brilliant though a Gavasker chamcha.

By the mid 90s, RM was becoming less and less likeable, you could notice the trace of arrogance in his posts. While decade long writers from Hindu's stable like Thyagarajan, Nirmal Shekar desisted from using the first person, by 1996 Mohan started boasting "I have listened to over 800 stories from Ian Chappell over 800 pints of beer". I dont miss him much.

S.Dinakar is a kid for all general stuff - mostly cricket. You could easily tell by his style that he writes from watching TV - :lol2: :lol2: and hasnt travelled abroad. Vijay Lokapally and G.Viswanath were substandard. There was a superb writer KN Anand who used to write rarely in the 80s, he was as good as Nirmal. Local sports was covered by Sanjay Rajan, Suryanarayanan, Vinod.

The Sportstar's multiple page posters started from Feb 18 1989 starting with Steffi(Robin Singh on cover).

[jaiganes]

Walrus wrote


He has absolutely little grasp of strategy. I am surprised you put down Shastri for I personally found Shastri among the sharpest. Definitely better than RM.

Earlier I wrote



R.Mohan had a flowing language and great sense of putting the thoughts that we ourselves would have observed while following the game (which experts like shastri would have missed).

I was just pointing out the fact that R.mohan wrote things that we as common cricket fans would remark on seeing something that happened during the game. Something trivial, like the number on Azhar's blazer and stuff like that.

We can ask this question in any quiz competition and even hindu's avid readers will have difficulty responding to this question. How many times has Hindu changed its font face and how many different types of cricket score cards does it employ? Personally I feel Hindu's score cards for major matches to be better than Times Of India, Deccan Herald and IE.

[hehehewalrus]

We can ask this question in any quiz competition and even hindu's avid readers will have difficulty responding to this question. How many times has Hindu changed its font face and how many different types of cricket score cards does it employ?

I think it is in 1991 that the Hindu changed its font from something like Lucida/Courier to Times New Roman. I remember Sportstar changing the Font starting with July 2nd week(Michael Stich on cover).

The cricket scorecard started having Balls, Fours and Sixes from October 1996 Titan Cup I think.

Is it right?



Personally I feel Hindu's score cards for major matches to be better than Times Of India, Deccan Herald and IE.
Its a great thing that TOI gives a scorecard :)

[Cinefan]

Since Cricket writers are being discussed,i am very impressed with Ayaz Memon who writes for The ToI.He has a very simple style of writing&is effective in bringing out images for both the people who saw the match&for those who didn't.He is measured in both criticism&praise,is technically sound&has got good cricketing knowledge.He doen't show off by using words which the majority cannot understand.

Jaiganesh,what's your take on him?

[jaiganes]

Ayaz off late has dipped into television comentary as well. He was a part of SOny MAX (i guess) challenger trophy coverage. He gave after match comments on day's events. Currently he is with ESPN doing their cricket round up programs. His views are balanced and he puts them forward in an unhurried way. Though I find a streak of a Ganguly supporter in there, his views on strategy are very good. For a cricket writer he has amazing brevity. To fill in your views in the least amount of space TOI gives someone, it is an essential quality and he has it. I need to see him write more on non India matches to really see how he analyses the game in depth. Definitely a good writer overall. Pity is that I have switched to Hindu, so I have to read his articles on the web!

[hehehewalrus]

Gorgeous photos!!!

http://www.thehinduimages.com

[jaiganes]

AMAZINGGG!!!!
Thanks walrus!!!

[Sandeep]

Indian News papers are becomming more and more tabloids. They dont conduct any kind of investigative journalism. All they do is this person said so, that person said so etc.

News papers have become nothing but history logs that records incidents of the day.

One british person came to bangalore and was staying in a hotel. He requested for a news paper and he was given "Times of India". His responce was "I asked for a News Paper not a Tabloid". He gennuinly thought that it was a Tabloid.

Hindu stands as the only exception, though these also investigative journalism is missing.

[mandangi]

Nowadays values in print media are reducing. In Andhra Pradesh there are many news papers which support some politicians or political parties if they belong to the caste of that politician or political party head.