2005-2014

The newspaper editorial, in its traditional form, is strictly an insider's game: The elite group of writers on the editorial board hash out their opinions, draw their own conclusions and assert their stance in the morning paper. In June, the Los Angeles Times took a bold, though temporary, departure from that model when it used a new technology to open up one of its editorials to what amounted to...

An international meeting of environmental journalists will take place this November in India. Several of the scheduled sessions are relevant to environmental coverage anywhere, while others will focus on issues facing the host country – in particular the disappearance of tigers. The International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) has scheduled its annual congress for November 21 to 24...

This article may only add hype to the exaggerated newspaper war in Mumbai. For hyped it has been by all means. There is a dash of the ironical here for it is, more often than not, the media which is accused, not always wrongly, of blowing up an event or a developing story out of proportion – be it for the sake of TAM ratings (in case of television channels) or NRS/IRS figures (in case of print...

The most hyped launch in the Mumbai print market, the Daily News & Analysis (DNA), finally happened on Saturday, and industry experts have given their first impressions. Entering the market with an inaugural Rs 2 cover price, the 54-page daily stands out for its high number of supplements. Many industry experts point that the noise created so far may have proved to be a drawback as expectations...

NEW DELHI, August 1: A bare handful of magazines around the world can survive on cover price sales alone; it's the advertisements that make a magazine a viable proposition. Given this backdrop, the perspective of media users had to be taken seriously. The unanimous view that surfaced was that magazines present the most fragmented media option. Chinamani Rao, president, Universal McCann, dwelt at...

NEW DELHI, August 1: With the single largest selling magazine in the country being in a "vernacular" language, the contention that regional language publications are a step-child does not cut ice anymore. But perils are there, and this threat is posed not by linguistic biases, but by the burgeoning newspaper industry. The point was raised during the session "The changing business model as seen by...

NEW DELHI, August 1: It was a session that was going the archetypal corporate way. Attractive powerpoint presentations. An overabundance of graphs and charts. Natters about metrics and market segmentation, and what have you. Till, of course, the floor was thrown open. That was when two eminent journalists took centrestage and made the panelists react to something they were visibly uncomfortable...

NEW DELHI, August 1: Magazines in India are just too cheap for comfort when it comes to comparing prices internationally. This is one of the malaises plaguing the magazine industry in India, according to Aroon Purie, chief executive officer (CEO) and editor-in-chief, India Today Group. The ridiculous pricing strategies of magazines was actually harming the industry, Purie held. It is high time...

NEW DELHI, August 1: The Union minister for information and broadcasting, S Jaipal Reddy, will take a fresh look at the recently issued guidelines for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media. This would be done keeping in mind the prospects of India-centric advertising in facsimile editions so as to bring about a harmony in the advertising scenario. Reddy said this during the course of...

The figures revealed by the National Readership Survey may have a gloomy picture to paint about the magazine scenario in the country. But that did not detract leading editors and publishers of magazines to believe that the future of magazines is brighter than ever before. The mood, to put in it simple words, said leading journalist and editor-in-chief of the Indian Today Group, Aroon Purie, is...