The National Development Front (NDF) newspaper, proposed to be launched in the beginning of 2006, will impact adversely the business of certain existing dailies promoted by Muslim groups, say media experts and Islamic leaders.
"The NDF project will affect at least one Muslim Malayalam newspaper. But, it will depend on how well the NDF newspaper is positioned and produced," said a Muslim scholar based in Kozhikode.
The first newspaper to feel the heat will be Madhyamam, the Malayalam daily owned by a trust under Jamaat-e-Islami, say media-watchers.
"The paper in its 18 years of existence has earned a very good reputation among the readers. The rise in its circulation is proof of its professionalism and popularity. But, the proposed NDF paper may make a dent in it," said the scholar.
Madhyamam's former associate editor O Abdullah said the Jamaat-e-Islami paper will face competition from the Islamic resistance movement's proposed daily. "There are a considerable number of Madhyamam readers who are NDF workers and sympathisers and they may switch to subscribing their own paper," Mr Abdullah said.
"As far as I know they (the NDF) have very consistent plans for the newspaper, its content and marketing. If they can execute the plan the way they should, there is a possibility that it has an impact on the business of Madhyamam," Mr Abdullah added.
But Mr Abdullah's brother and Madhyamam editor-in-chief O Abdurahman does not see the proposed newspaper as a serious threat to his publication. "Even otherwise, NDF is not the best friend of Madhyamam daily. I can tell you we have already suffered erosion in circulation of our paper due to the NDF factor, especially in southern Kerala. Not much is going to happen to us, I think," he said.
But the Madhyamam editor did not rule out altogether the possibility of an impact of the proposed paper on his daily. He agreed with Mr Abdullah in the theory that the NDF paper, if it comes out in real qualitative grandeur, can affect Madhyamam business at least in a small way.
"They should have a consistent editorial policy for that. Madhyamam is a grown paper now. We have made a niche for ourselves in Malayalam journalism.
And in today's Kerala, a single-edition paper does not mean much. To make it big or reasonable, they (the NDF) should have at least three editions in Kerala - in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode - and at least one Gulf edition," Mr Abdurahman said. NDF functionaries have already stated their plan to start other editions than the one proposed from Kozhikode.
"We have plans to start the second edition from Thiruvananthapuram within three months of launch. We also plan to start an edition from the Gulf," a functionary had said.
Columnist and Kozhikode-based intellectual AP Kunjamu, who is close to various Muslim groups including the NDF, said the NDF has the resources and will power to make the paper qualitatively stately. "But they must have a thrust in their editorial policy. They should not think that mere anti-Sangh Parivar propaganda will keep the paper going," he said.
