India

Access to funds, shift in ad spends drives growth. Behind the mushrooming of new and parallel Hindi newspaper brands lies the story of a buoyant advertising market in the Hindi-speaking states. Publishers who are launching second titles in the same market see merit, therefore, in segmenting their readers and offering more focused audiences. It is obvious that the understanding of markets and...

Interesting things are happening in the world of Indian media. Unknown to newspaper readers and television viewers, ownership of media houses is stealthily passing into the hands of big corporate houses. Traditionally, newspaper groups had been owned by big companies like the Birlas, Sahu Jains and Dalmias, but the latest trend involves a quiet takeover of some established media companies through...

At the far end of Rafi Marg in New Delhi is located the United News of India (UNI) office. Surrounded by government offices, UNI, inconspicuously works from a colonial style bungalow. To the chagrin of its employees, UNI is known more for its canteen that serves inexpensive south Indian food and snacks, than for what it is – a national news agency. Here, everyone knows, legendary writers...

The last decade of 20th century was a period of epochal upheaval in India. The Congress monolith fragmented under mounting pressure of religious, casteist and regional aspirations; tottering economy found remedy in liberalisation and, as a result, burgeoning politico-economic consciousness in the Hindi heartland ensured proliferation of Hindi newspapers. For the first time, Hindi press posed a...

Media in Kashmir has come to stay as an instrument of shaping public opinion and as a potential influence on people’s precepts and practices. In the backdrop of the conflict that has dogged every aspect of life in Jammu and Kashmir in a muted way for the better part of the past century and significantly over the past one and a half decades, the media has played the role of a catalyst not so much...

Lucknow, June 11: Now, this is a newspaper with a difference. Here, what bleeds doesn’t become a lead. Apna Shehar — this hand-written, free of cost, monthly Hindi newspaper is different, right from its content to the reporting and editing staff. Advertisement Published by an NGO, the content for this newspaper — government policies to uplift the status of the poor and downtrodden — are reported...

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir saw its first women’s magazine hit the news stands this week, but while issues such as dating and working mothers are on the contents page, politics and Islam are not. "She’ reflects changes in the conservative Muslim state, where women are increasingly faced with the kind of choices that more liberal societies have been dealing with for far longer, the magazine said in...

SRINAGAR: Want to know about dating in Kashmir? Refer to She, a magazine patronised by Sheeba Masoodi, the wife of chief cleric of Kashmir and chairman of moderate Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Inaugural issue of She was released by eminent personalities and educationists here on Saturday. Mirwaiz’s wife, though present on the occasion, ducked the flashing cameras and refused to talk...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy (PLA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is in talks to launch a men’s magazine in India, but one that does not include its trademark nudes or even its name, Chief Executive Christie Hefner said on Thursday. The top-selling men’s magazine in the world, which is rolling out an edition in Argentina soon, also wants to return to Italy and Australia, and is discussing joint...

To give Kashmiri language the place it deserves is not the concern of the intelligentsia only but demand comes form almost every section of the society. Of late the majority of those who speak and understand Kashmiri but unfortunately cannot read and write it have given vent to their demand that their mother tongue be given the status it deserves. It is now evident enough that different cultural...