Editorial

Now, it’s the ‘D’ Company in India

A key lesson hammered into us during graduate studies was that distribution is the key to marketing success. We were asked to pore over copious case studies where companies with strong distribution networks lorded it over the market place.

Cover Story

‘We create stars, we don’t need them’

Punit Goenka’s father once said, “Son, by the time you realise your father was right, you will have a son who thinks his father is wrong”. Words of a successful father who knows his onions. Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL (ZEE Entertainment Enterprise Ltd), believes that this statement made by his father Subhash Chandra (Chairman, Essel Group) is by far the biggest learning curve of his life.

‘I always wanted to be number one’

Humble beginnings are not clichés, really. They are and will always be lessons of excellence. One such paradigm of excellence is a man who started off with his family business of converting whole grain into pulses. When faced with an acute cash crunch in that business, the man left his hometown Hisar in Haryana with barely Rs 17 in his pockets.

Why the first mover still leads

I run a business and I am answerable to shareholders, the chairman and the board for the profitability of my business as my primary KRA. I cannot be happy about just being No. 1 in viewership for some channel. And therefore we don’t run TAM rat race to be No. 1 with trivialised news content.

Paid News

‘I feel everything today is paid news’

"Prasar Bharati in its present form is useless. It should be scrapped. We should never have an IAS officer as CEO of Prasar Bharati. He should be a regular jopurnalist."

Newsroom War

The Hindu in a change vortex

As a bitter battle for the control of one of the India’s premier newspapers, The Hindu, continues to rage, chances are slightly high for Editor-in-Chief N. Ram to have his way and name a professional as the daily’s editor

International Media Watch

...Of Euphoria and Euphemism

there are very few opportunities for the media world over when they get a sort of moral carte blanche to show or print anything and get away with anything. In India, there are no such moral hang-ups any ways. It is not for nothing that our media is the most hilarious piece of self-appreciating Gorgon in any country that either claims to be democratic or at least aspires to be one.

Media Trend Graph

Analysis of the coverage

As the graphs produced by the study group Pew suggest, details of the raid topped the space with a staggering 25 per cent of the entire print and visual gamut. The second position was bagged by the reactions from all over the world. In fact, it has come close second. The repercussions and fallouts were way behind. Obama, on his part, managed to score a clear brownie point over George Bush. Clearly, this will offer him a head-start over his Republican rival in the re-run.

Regional Media Watch

Regional Media

Since Independence, Assam has faced problem of illegal infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh. According to official records, the state has more than 40 lakh illegal migrants.

Guest Column

Hindi Journalism, the Unprintable Malaise Within

If the latest available Indian Readership Survey is to be trusted, of the first ten most eyeball-grabbing dailies, the first three places are claimed by Hindi newspapers (Jagaran, Bhaskar and Hindustan), followed by a fifth (Amar Ujala) and an eighth (Rajasthan Patrika).

There is need for a media commission

Generally speaking, many of the media schools run on borrowed faculty, and part time staff just don’t measure up to the demands of the media industry. The editor-in-chief and part owner of a Hindi news TV channel, told this writer that they have decided to launch a media school themselves to meet their requirements

Media in Kashmir

Valley with a view

After Srinagar was rocked by a series of bomb explosions, firefights and select killings towards the end of 1989, Kashmir grabbed the attention of the global media.

Election Forecasts

The numbers don’t quite add up

The recent Assembly elections were a disaster for the Left Front in West Bengal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. The defeated formations, as political parties usually do, got their comeuppance for taking the voter for granted.

Poll Tracker

Shooting in the dark is a dangerous proposition

"Bingo…” said my co-anchor on a national TV network, as soon as we started getting the election trends on 13th of last month. He was referring to the CVoter Exit Poll predictions, which oddly enough were the only one to suggest a Jaya sweep.

Profile

A sports journo, a bit by design, a bit by default

How many Test hundreds does Sachin have? The question, live on NDTV, came from none other than Dr Prannoy Roy. The answer, alas, was off the mark. The sports editor and Star Sports anchor had got it wrong!

Media Coverage

Media is the message

While discussing the media coverage of the recent state elections, the most atypical example comes from the South. Our Chennai correspondent informs us that the coverage on the result day, May 13, began with the regular practice of hosting live discussions wherein the news channels owing allegiance to different political camps unabashedly prophesied the expected victory of their favourites.