MxMIndia

Category: BLOGS

  • In Mediaah! today: RIP, Gautam Rajadhyaksha * Great expectations fm AKB & SD * NYTimes launches India-specific site

    RIP, King of Soft Focus

    Mediaah! is updated three to four times a week. What you read here is a set of posts put up on September 13:

    We still remember his soft focus pictures of Rekha on Filmfare covers. One of the best known film and glamour photographers in the country, Gautam Rajadhyaksha passed away this morning due to heart attack. His photographs have adorned several magazine covers and newspaper supplements.

    Some tweets that we noticed since morning. They kind-of say it all.

    Shobhaa De: My darling Gautam Rajadhyaksha no more.Saddened beynd belief.Farewell confidante-cousin.Thank u 4 your generous love nd soft focus memories.

    Amitabh Bachchan: Gautam Rajadhyaksha the most gentlest of humans, and one of the finest photographers in the Industry, a friend,family favorite ..RIP

    Atul Kasbekar: My Guru n Mentor, Gautam Rajadhyaksha passed away this morning. my principal influence n a truly wonderful, gentle, kind n talented man

    Karan Johar: Gautam rajadhyaksha was one my most favourite people in the fraternity…funny,sensitive and always positive..I love you gautam and I miss u

    Sneha Rajani (Sony/MSM): RIP Ace photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha. Thank you for the memories.

    If you had a great face and reasonable acting skills, a portfolio by Gautam was sure to land you a reasonable role. While he has also written the story and screenplay for a few movies, he would be best remembered for his contribution to film journalism. Mediaah! and the media will miss him.

    If you have an interesting Gautam Rajadhyaksha story, email us at pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com (we’ve a Mediaah! address soon).

     

    Also read:

    NDTV story: Photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, 60, dies of heart attack

     

    Wikipedia infosheet on him

    Twitter feeds on him (may ask for a username and password)

     

     

    Great expectations from AKB and SD

     

    Our messenger hasn’t stopped buzzing. There have been many reactions to the two Business Standard appointments we reported yesterday. Just two reactions to Shailesh Dobhal’s appointment. So let’s get them out of the way.  Hope Shailesh is able to bring in some buzz to BS. Something that he didn’t have to do in ET and couldn’t do in FE. There’s another that said:It is interesting to see Ninan adopting a news features guy to this job.

    There is another reason why Mediaah! is happy to record Dobhal’s appointment. He is the second advertising and marketing journalist in the recent past after Rahul Joshi who covered the beat and who has moved mainstream. Ad and media beatwallahs are generally not considered pinkblooded journos by the economy, markets and corporate guys. In the good old days when business was called commerce in newspapers, even corporate was kind-of pariah, but when the news on Reliance meant more than just the business group’s fight with the Wadias and others or its rise on Dalal Street, the companies or corporate beat took centrestage.

    BS was incidentally one of the few papers which was very strong on corporate stories. It still is, but the big boys almost always grant the exclusives to Eco Times. That’s a challenge that AKB and Shailesh and the captains of other editions will achieve.

    On AKB, well, we must admit that there’s a past (between Mediaah! and him) when we had alerted him about a plagiarism case in the paper.But that’s the past. We spoke to a cross-section of current and former employees to find out, and while there’s some optimism given that he will give, others are a little more cautious. The consensus of course is that while they want the emphasis on hard news to increase, the need for a contemporary feel plus an open and fresh approach to business journalism are needed.Baru ensured that as he was very receptive to new ideas and not living in the past.

    Watch this space for more.

     

     

    New York Times starts an India-specific site

    This has been reported by Medianama before, but needs a quick mention. Thanks, Srinivasa Prasad (Professor, Manorama School of Communication, Kottayam) for sending us the link, it would’ve slipped a mention.

    The New York Times has started a section called India Ink, its first ever, country-specfic site for news, info, culture and general chatter. It’s got a pretty large team of writers and a coordinator, so if you are interested in the NY Timesy-kind of intellectual writing, go there. We will.

    There’s also a Twitter handle: @nytindia. And the site’s at: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/

    PS: Don’t know what you think, but we thought that a bit of J&K was lopped on the India map? True or are we imagining things? Let us know at any of the following coordinates: pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, 23050B5D, Gtalk: pradyumanm[at]gmail.com, @pmahesh.

  • Baru’s bye-bye to BS

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

    It’s a story which MxM should’ve flashed on Friday. But guess our machinery is not so well-oiled yet. We got to know about it only the next morning and coincidentally Mint had also featured it the same day. Since we do not have an edition on weekends, we could get away with it.

    I have interacted with Sanjaya Baru just once. He was keynote speaker at an exchange4media conference on public relations last year. His speech, very anecdotal, was excellent. And I thought it was a brilliant idea to have him, he was indeed the star of the day.

    Earlier, Baru’s entry to Business Standard was received with much fanfare. He had after all held the all-important job of press adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There was much talk also because editor-in-chief T N Ninan was going to be stepping down and also laying the roadmap for the future.

    Baru, as per media blog , has posted the following status message on his Facebook page: OK, now it is final! From 1st November I step down as Editor, BS and take over as Director, Geo-economics and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London (iiss.org). But, based in Delhi.

    A quick look at the IISS site revealed, that Baru had joined the thinktank in September 2008. He is designated Consulting Senior Fellow for Geo-Economics and Strategy with expertise in South Asia and Economics.So we guess he had this consulting assignment even when he held the BS job or it’s just that the IISS site wasn’t updated. Nothing to be alarmed about either.

    Meanwhile, more on Shailesh Dobhal and his appointment as BS resident editor for Delhi tomorrow.

    Read:

    The IISS site with the Dr Sanjaya Baru bio

    The Mint Story

    The Sans Serif blogpost

    A BS piece on geo-economics: (if you don’t know what geo-economics means, check the Wikipedia descriptor)

    Super stories

    Bio: National Univ of Singapore’s School of Public Policyand India Habitat Centre award jury bio

    MxM story on Shailesh Dobhal appointment as RE (Delhi)

     

    Weekly v/s Monthly Ratings for News TV

     

    The various media players are lucky that given all of what’s happening in the country, MIB mandarins especially mantri-mahodaya Ambika Soni would rather not be bothered about the age-old problems of TAM ratings. Now, don’t be too surprised if you hear shouts that the only reason why the news channels aired so much of Anna Hazare was because they wanted to up ratings.

    Discerning advertisers and their media agencies will tell you that they aren’t too bothered about weekly spikes. It’s a long-term game and save the ads and claims and oneupmanship in ads in the trade media, the weekly v/s monthly ratings debate is poppycock.

    TAM has been smart in saying that it will want to hear the voice of all stakeholders before taking a decision. If the newswallahs are indeed serious of getting a decision, am sure they can prevail upon the agency and advertiser folks. But even as NBA has been emphatic in its demand and believes all the malaises of the business can be solved with this move, we are not sure if independently some of the stronger members would want it. At least one such member sent us a wicked grin smiley on the instant messenger.

    Perhaps powerful broadcasters like Uday Shankar or Puneet Goenka could help broker some peace.

    Read:

    Our friend and former News Broadcasters Association (NBA) board member Rohit Bansal on the Zee News website

    Report by Anita Sharan with a view from LV Krishnan, Punitha Arumugam, Navin Khemka, Broadcast Editors Association secretary N K Singh and an NBA Statement

     

    Gruesome pictures

    Comments in Sevanti Ninan’s Hoot:

    In The Hindu

    (I wonder why the aside that Even a tabloid like Mail Today was more restrained. Agreed it’s tabloid in size and goes in for smart packaging, but Mail Today has been a fairly sober paper. We don’t think it’s right to rubbish tabloids thus).

    The Hoot on Times Nows horrific pictures

     

    Social media karo!

    This one should specially interest our friends Rajesh Lalwani (Blogworks), Parveez Modak (Hanmer MSL), Raju Raut (Deadline) and Rohini Kapur (Sepia Media). The Times of India reports that the department of info technology (DIT) has advised all government departments to make social part of their day-to-day work to communicate with citizens.

    If the government departments decide to give out work to external agencies, then it could be windfall for the social media agencies. Or at least professionals.

    “The civil society is making effective use of social media. But in the absence of a framework on use of social media, government organisations have restricted its usage. Government officials are unsure whether to use it for official purposes or not. Hence, framing guidelines for usage was important as the medium is highly effective, speedy and reaches a large number of citizens,” additional DIT secy Shankar Aggarwal Timess Swati Shinde Gole last week.

    Link


    Remembering Funnie…

    Just learnt that it was Indrajit ‘Funnie’ Lahiri’s birthday yesterday. Brilliant teacher, great human being and a fun guy to have a drink with.

    My first contact happened thanks to Mediaah. He was a regular reader and would be in active contact until I moved to Pune and became good friends. Wish he was around to see MxMIndia and Mediaah’s third coming.

    I had wanted to institute an award for young media school talent in Funnies memory. I tried suggesting it to two award organisers I was associated with, but it couldn’t happen. I am not very sure if MxMIndia will want to institute awards for news TV, but need to find a way to keep his memory alive with the frat and the generations to come.

    Tailpiece: Wanted robot journalists
    You have to read this. A start-up in the US has developed technology that can mimic human reasoning and write text. We’ll be waiting for this technology to happen in India. Wink, wink. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/in-case-you-wonderedreal-human-wrote-this-column/448814/

     

    Buzz me if you have a story to tell. Confidentiality assured. There are various ways you can reach me: pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, 23050B5D, Gtalk: pradyumanm[at]gmail.com, @pmahesh, 98338 76278

  • Pradyuman Maheshwari on why Mid-Day must get back to carrying timepass, Bambaiyya content

    Wanted: a mast, mast Mid-Day

    Pradyuman MaheshwariBy Pradyuman Maheshwari

    We’ve been promising a review of Mid-Day. It would’ve been unfair to do one by just appraising a single day’s edition, so we thought of doing that over the last 10-odd days since the paper went for a new look.

    First off, a couple of disclosures. Okay, let me use the ‘I’ instead of ‘We’. I worked with the group for seven years (1993-2000), was a shareholder for a bit and I take great pride in the rapid strides that current executive editor Sachin Kalbag has been taking in his career.

     

     

    Yet another disclosure, I was invited to write for the paper’s new-look, but declined the offer because of a Medianet-like scheme that Mid-Day runs for part of the paper.

    But let’s get to the relaunch. I’ve always perceived Mid-Day as a Mumbai institution, with the paper celebrating the city and reporting on what’s happening in here. At first, it lost its constituency of the society circuit to Bombay Times and over the last six-odd years, Mumbai Mirror has been steadily eating into Mid-Day’s dominance on civic and Bollywood news.

    The Medianet-like practice that the paper started was the final nail on the coffin. When I spoke to former owner Tariq Ansari for an interview with Impact last year, he said he was against the concept but was forced to given commercial considerations. Well, a couple of crores of revenue is good to have, but all of it at the cost of integrity?

    While The Times of India group clearly says that Bombay Times is an ‘advertorial entertainment promotional feature’, while the statement upfront is a step in the right direction, it’s not enough as it ought to make a very clear announcement of what it means on its main Times of India page as well as on Bombay Times. I’m sure not many have noticed that small line under the Bombay, Delhi etc Times mastheads

    Back to Mid-Day, I believe it must reinforce as identity as a Mumbai paper. The Page 1 story must be ‘Bambaiyya’ in content and outlook, the feel ought to be tabloidy and the stories must have punch. I would like to see the Mate and snippety Diary back on Page 3. Or at least Page 2.

    Despite an edit page and some pretty good (and serious) content, Mid-Day was always known as a timepass read. Sachin was around in Mid-Day those days, so he should know.

    Agreed the look-and-feel has got to be more contemporary, but if it wants to create the same magic as it did until a few years back, it’s got to get its masti back.

    Why jail only for political paid content

    Beware, media barons and editors accepting money for publishing editorial content. While the election commission can do precious little about the corrupt practices of media entities carrying content in lieu of money and not clearly tagging it as an advertisement, it’s heartening to note that all those who are doing it for politics will be put behind bars for 2 years.

    Now, what about those doing it for lifestyle products? Shall we count the years?

    Read: an IndianTelevision report

    What’s a piece on the Campaign A-List doing on MxMIndia.com?

    If you’re surprised why the MxM anchor has Everest Brand Solutions president Dhunji Wadia telling us why it’s great to be on the Campaign India A-List, don’t be. It’s not that he put my name on the mail instead of the Campaign editor’s. We asked him to write it. He did that in record time, in between meetings. (Read Dhunji on the A-List)

    Here’s my take on the issue: MxMIndia is media-neutral and would like to write about every media entity. We will write about all the activities of even those who consider MxMIndia it’s rival. For in my books, no one is. I’ll be happy to cover the activities of all business publications and the media trade publications. This includes the Campaign A-List, the afaqs events, the exchange4media group events etc etc. That is, of course, if an MxM reporter is allowed in.

    Buzz me if you have a story to tell. Confidentiality assured. There are various ways you can reach me: pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, 23050B5D, Gtalk: pradyumanm[at]gmail.com, @pmahesh, 98338 76278

  • A chat with 300-odd marketing and media pros indicated there was much gap between demand and supply…

    Why MxM India?

    Offo, ek aur nayi media website! I can’t promise you a Maya Alagh smile when she mouthed a similar line launching Promise toothpaste eons ago, but I can guess at what’s running through your mind even as you read this.

    Agreed MxMIndia isn’t the first off the block. We are in fact Website #15 if you count the outdoor, digital and telecom sites. I have much admiration for the owners, publishers and editors of many of these. They’ve been pioneers, risk-takers and have jointly created a niche that’s unparalleled in the business-to-business media space.

    So if there’s much mush and gush, why MxM? Why fill your inboxes with more content, when there’s enough of it? Because when I spoke to some 300-odd marketing and media professionals over the last few months, I found there was much gap between demand and supply. Yeh dil surely maange more!

    Also, for many of the players, integrity and ethics are fashionable words but not really put into practice. Stories and covers being sold for ads or cash, awards for favours — past, present and future… there is much decay in the system. In fact the decay has set in so much that it may take a few Annas and Kejriwals to cleanse the mess. So while media houses run high-pitched campaigns against corruption, they happily espouse dubious paid content practices.

    I am a huge believer that it’s possible to conduct business ethically. I also believe that if we ask the world to rid itself of corruption, the media must have a squeaky clean rep.

    Hey, I am not here to sermonise. It’s important for you to know how MxMIndia will conduct itself. But we are no prudes. We don’t think innovative advertising is a no-no. We don’t think that there is a way to do away with fake ads. We just believe, as our good friend Arnab Goswami would say, that the nation wants to know more than just what’s on the surface of the world of marketing and media.

    My one-line advisory to my editorial and business team is: we will write about people and companies regardless of whether they advertise.

    After 25 years of working in various jobs (save for a bit when I tried my hand at blogging and assorted consulting), this is an honest attempt at starting an enterprise. MxMIndia has hired some of the best available talent. We believe this is the only way to start if we wish to be counted as the website of choice for mediapersons and marketers. What you see now is the Beta version of the site. There are still many loose ends and the content will only get richer and the sections under each of channels will open up. Please let us have your feedback.

    MxM in our name stands for Media and Marketing and it was suggested by my friend Prashant Basrur. The logo was designed by his art team at Deadline Advertising. Thanks hugely to the entire Deadline team for bearing with me all these months. The site was developed by Mediology Software in Gurgaon (Merci, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra… and Arun Nair and team). Thanks to Raj Pandian for showing me the way with the numbers, and Nandita Saikia and Saikrishna Associates for the legalese. Thanks to Mahalakshmi DM for being around in my early days and Deepak Joshi for help with all the paperwork. My sincere gratitude to the various people whom I bugged for advice and all of you who I turned to for support.

    MxM wouldn’t have happened without my family supporting me. A big thanks to each member of the MxMIndia founding team, associates and our star writers present and who have agreed to write in the immediate future.

    We will make it happen. Hum honge kaamyaab. Not ek din, but soon, and ethically.

     

     

     

    Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Email pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com

    BBM: 23050B5D

    Twitter @pmahesh, @mxmindia


  • It’s simple communication, so why do banks get it wrong so badly?

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: What use IIM degree if you are Mr Crude?

    I recently shut my account with a well-known international bank. After nearly nine years of really poor experiences. And I took this long to pull the plug because, one, I used to think, well, at least this was a known devil… who knows what awaits elsewhere. Two, many of my clients directly remit funds to my account, so it’s painful to reinvent the wheel. And three, because I genuinely believe people should be given many opportunities before you hang them.

     

    Anyway, guess I made a serious error of judgment. Not only was the account ill-serviced right through, the last straw that broke my back was when a few cheques I had issued bounced, leading to loss of face for me. And I knew I had more than sufficient funds in my account so this could not be happening. Panicked, I dumped urgent assignments, and rushed to the nearest branch of the bank. Where I was cheerfully told my account had been blocked. Because I had failed to submit some documents required for a business account, as prescribed by a new RBI guideline.

     

    And I was like, “Whoa! No one told me!”

     

    This is what happened: I was told my so-called “Relationship Manager”, whom I had never heard from in all these years, is based in Delhi, and that I should talk to him. And the reason they’ve allotted me a dude fromDelhiis because that’s where I opened my account in the year 2003. No matter that I left that city in the year 2004, and my Mumbai address has been in the bank’s records for all these years. And this gent very sweetly tells me he called myDelhimobile number (!) and wrote to myDelhiaddress (!), because at his bank they only use contact details that appear in the account opening documents! And that on getting no response, he blocked my account.

     

    Er, chief, why didn’t you check the records carefully to see if my address had changed? The Mumbai address has been there in the bank’s records for years, they have been sending me monthly statements at that address. “Sorry, that’s not in our standard operating process,” he chirped. Half an hour later he magically accessed my e-mail address, and mailed me the notification which I should have received months ago. And despite speaking on the phone for 20 long minutes, the mail addressed me as “Dear Ma’am.” And not even a little word of apology to dear ma’am for all the inconvenience caused.

     

    You might wonder why am I boring you with this sorry tale. Here’s why: There’s a lesson in this for all those senior managers who operate in the service industry. Advertising, banking, telephony, corporate communications, PR, etc.  Where direct customer interface is par for course, is full-on, is integral to the operations, and is critical to the survival of the business. That, when you hire young people, please don’t do so based purely on qualifications and experience. Those are important but secondary. The first quality interviewers must suss is the candidate’s people-handling skills, his response in the face of an upset client, his demeanour when his own organization is in the wrong. And most importantly, how he deals with a situation where the client has faced embarrassment for no fault of the latter.

     

    Because when the employee behaves like a moron in such circumstances, it DIRECTLY hurts the company’s business. There is no point in fancy management degrees if you lack basic communication skills. It’s anathema to hire such people in an industry where communication is at the heart of the business.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Was much intrigued to find Sachin Tendulkar in the children’s “Right to Education” ads. Our hero dropped out of school to pursue his passion, and then went on to make billions out of it. And the rest of the bachchas must sadao inside classrooms and become managers of post offices? Haila, not on, I say! 🙂

  • Terrorists will get a setback if they don’t get the bhav they currently get from the media

    Hard Knocks: Ban terrorism coverage

    Knock, knock. Before you get into the blog, here’s an intro. It was meant to be a one-sentencer, but it’s turned to be a loooongish one. Anil Thakraney is an adman-turned-journalist living mostly in Mumbai, but sometimes in Bengaluru or Nashik. Or for a few days in a year or two: London. Many moons ago, he would edit The Brief:, an ad magazine that the adfrat loved to hate or hated to love. Well, they loved it and hated it. The Brief: was unceremoniously shut, but Thakraney had tasted the thunder. He went on to subject all and sundry to his interviews and stings (and stinging interviews) at Mid-Day and later with Mumbai Mirror. He was even editor of Mid-Day’s Bengaluru edition for a bit.

    When I joined the exchange4media group in 2008, I got Thakraney, a former colleague and friend, to write reviews and interviews. It was only natural that when I thought of launching MxMIndia, I asked him to be our Editor-at-Large. Do a blog, write reviews, interview the biggies. Etc, etc. Publishing Thakraney’s blog was like wearing a near-red shirt in a bull ring. But, heck, he’s one of the bestest writers on medialand. His views, most often contrarian, are interesting. I enjoyed reading his hat ke views today, and I am sure you too will. As for those who are at the receiving end of his commentary, I can only say: dil mein mat lena yaar! – Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Without much ado, Hard Knocks. By The Anil Thakraney:

    I am aware this is a heretical thing to say. And it goes against all tenets of good journalism. But drastic times call for drastic measures, as it’s said. I really think time has come for the owners of the mass media, in particular the TV channels and the newspapers, to come together and shun exhaustive coverage of bomb blasts and other terror attacks.

     

    And I propose this seemingly preposterous idea because the biggest source of motivation for terrorists is to sit back and watch (with beer and popcorn for company… the 76 virgins will have to wait) the hectic media blast of their actions. This 24×7 coverage not only provides oxygen to their deeds, it also encourages other terrorists to join the party. And their message of hatred quickly gets spread all over the world, free of cost. And sometimes, as it happened on 26/11, the TV coverage aids them directly in their planning and execution. In short, the media unwittingly ends up providing a huge bang for their buck.

     

    I wonder if their enthusiasm levels will remain the same if the oxygen supply is cut off. If they are ignored like petty pickpocketers. If they don’t get the bhav they currently get. I suspect it will be a setback for these buggers.

     

    So then what about the role of journalism, you ask? Isn’t it the duty of the media to inform the janata on what’s happening? How can the media ignore such a huge story? These are valid questions. But maybe for the greater good, these need to be compromised. I think a bomb blast should get a tiny slot in the coverage, as would a road rage incident. So people DO know it happened, but there’s no accompanying drama around it. The terrorists will deem this to be an insult to their work. And that’s a good thing, no?

     

    Yup, I know traditional journos and media barons will immediately scoff at this idea. Because it sounds crazy. But once the laughter dies down, they would do well to chew on it. Because often for difficult problems we need to search for lateral solutions. Especially when the horizontal and the vertical ones have failed. And especially when you are operating inside a soft state called India.

    PS: There’s this ad which the Pak government recently released in theUSpress. It would have won an award at Cannes for sure. But they screwed up a bit with a small typo. The headline should have read: ‘WHICH COUNTRY CAN DO MORE FOR YOUR PIECES?’

     

     

  • DNA ed-in-chief Aditya Sinha's column is a win-win. He will turn into a martyr if he's sacked and a hero if he gets away with it

    Mediaah!: Of a toothless Press Council and spineless Editors’ Guild

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Apologies for not being regular. A colleague has been indisposed. We’ve been getting our share of exclusives and firsts. So a good part of the day is spent in ensuring that MxMIndia turns into a broadbased media website. So all of you who’ve been missing your daily dose of Mediaah!, chill! I don’t think the blog will be a daily, but an update at least three to four times a week?!

     

    Mint editor R Sukumar’s ‘Edspace’ is a delight to read. Pity it doesn’t appear every Saturday. Delight for me because it deals essentially with the media, and often on ethics. For instance, last weekend, he wrote about journalists being responsible for the state in which the profession is in the India – the corruption levels given the direct and indirect favours journos take (see link). Like awards, being part of a government committee. Sukumar hopes the Editors’ Guild of India will debate these issues.

    Being a Delhi-based editor and “an unacknowledged member” of the Guild, I guess he hopes the apex association of editors will do something. My own belief is that it will not. It could do precious little when the paid political news controversy first surfaced a couple of years back and Medianet did a decade ago.

    If the Press Council of India is toothless, the Guild is spineless. And this is despite having editors like T N Ninan, M J Akbar and Rajdeep Sardesai at the helm. Guess it’s one thing writing about the government or demining, say, a Narendra Modi, but another to take on biggies in their own biradiri.

     

    Paid news and Mid-Day

    Mid-Day exec editor Sachin Kalbag makes a brave defence for the paid news practice that his paper indulges in. Quoted in The Big Story on MxMIndia.com earlier this week, he defends the ‘Centre Stage’ feature in his paper that contains advertorials. Just 15 percent of the content is paid for. He also calls the tagline under the Bombay Times masthead as a disclaimer.

    I don’t think people see it as a disclaimer. If The Times of India and Mid-Day are serious about informing their readers that some of the stuff in their papers is published not on the merit of its editorial content but the amount someone’s paid for it, they must clearly state that they are doing it. They must tell the reader that the content in question must not be construed as that done by the paper’s journalists. Just as Mint has been doing about its advertorials. So in every sense of the term, the 15% of the paper’s Centre Stage section is paid content.

    So, lemme repeat what Sachin says:

    My opinion on paid news is very simple: It’s an abhorrent practice. It demeans journalism. I don’t really know when this crept in, but it has plagued the media for decades. Unscrupulous journalists have been on the take for several years, and this is not a new phenomenon. The widely cited example of institutional selling of content space is Bombay Times which introduced a rate card for coverage in the supplement. Recently, the supplement began putting a disclaimer under its masthead. The phenomenon of institutional selling of content space crept into the media for various reasons – but the root cause was always to increase revenue.

    Our editorial policy is very clear: any “Advertorial” is placed in a two-page section called Centre Stage, which is part of the Classifieds section of the newspaper. Centre Stage in Mid-Day is differentiated in various ways from the editorial part of the newspaper. Here’s how: 1) The Centre Stage carries a prominent disclaimer in a large point size under the masthead “People, Parties, Promotions”. This has been happening since the day Mid-Day started Centre Stage, which was more than two years ago. In Centre Stage, we carry items on movie releases and profiles of actors, fashion designers, parties, etc, that happened in Mumbai that week, apart from product launches.

    Close to 85 percent of the Centre Stage advertorial section is non-paid, that is to say the Centre Stage team of writers (this team is not part of the Mid-Day editorial team) interviews people or writes about their parties or products. Around 15 per cent of the items are placed where the content space is sold by the sales team. Once again, these items are only about Bollywood, fashion, parties or product launches. There is a separate, specialized sales team that sells this space, and at no point in time do they dictate terms to

    Editorial, mainly because Centre Stage is not editorial space, but marketing real estate. In fact, there have been several instances when the Editorial staff in Mid-Day has trashed Centre Stage advertisers in the review section of the newspaper, and the sales team has gotten into trouble due to that negative coverage. Yet, we are very clear at Mid-Day that the Sales and Editorial wires do not cross, and that the Chinese wall between them stays even though we may be good friends outside the office.

    We are also very clear that Centre Stage will not carry any “news”, but only information on these three or four categories listed above. There is neither any opinion nor any recommendation made in the section that is endorsed by the editor. In the strictest sense of the term, it is an advertorial. Mid-Day, therefore, has stayed away from “paid news” and will continue to do so.

    Thus, Centre Stage in Mid-Day is institutional selling of content space which I guess has a rate card. I am told revenues are healthy and though they don’t run over a 100-odd crore as Medianet is said to be generating, but even if it’s 1/100th that, it’s too much to sacrifice for stupid things like editorial integrity.

    Guess for some publications, editorial ethics is also an abhorrent practice. It demeans ad sales!

     

    Dabbang Sinha!

    As a strategy, it’s a win-win. He took on the information broadcasting minister in public saying that ever since DNA went ballistic with the anti-corruption drive of Anna Hazare, the government stopped advertising in his paper. (Link to column)

    Now, from whatever I’ve known of Ambika Soni, she’s a pretty reasonable minister. Given all the complaints that every I&B mantri receives, she could’ve made life miserable for media players. Especially broadcasters. Like her predecessors did.

    A senior journalist in the Capital told me that Aditya Sinha’s column last Sunday is sure to see his scalp. Subhash Chandraji could find it too hot to handle, and the Zee supremo needs the government for his plans a helluva lot.

    But this is why I said it’s a win-win for Sinha. If he gets the sack, he will turn a martyr (that doesn’t help much, I can tell you from experience). And if he continues, he’ll turn into a hero because after all, few have had the balls to say the government is kinda blackmailing the press.

    Sample some gems from his column:

    > Soni’s statement led us to infer that our Anna Hazare coverage was being punished by a suspension of government ads, and that Soni met our ad executives just to ensure the point was driven home.

    >This was not surprising because DNA recently has faced suspicion and hostility from the government which has apparently adopted an attitude of “you’re either with us or against us”. The prime minister’s media advisor has privately accused DNA of an agenda against the government, and its Editor-in-Chief of being close to a political party in the opposition.

    >The day after the meeting with Soni, DNA started getting DAVP ads again. Presumably, from the government side, mission was accomplished

    >Loss of business can be measured, but the loss of credibility cannot. Above all, that someone in government tried to be petty and vindictive is, to us, validation that we were doing our job right

    The views expressed here are my own and are not necessarily those of MxMIndia and its editorial team. In fact often it’s in variance with their views. Meanwhile, buzz me if you have a story to tell. Confidentiality assured. There are various ways you can reach me: pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, 23050B5D, pradyumanm@gmail.com, @pmahesh, 98338 76278.

     

    Tomorrow:  Is The Times of India taking on Times Now?

  • Anil Thakraney loved the Tata Docomo ‘No Getting Away’ as it’s tongue-in-cheek, wicked communication

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: No country for funny men

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    There are many reasons I quit the ad world a long time ago. One of them being there’s no place for irreverence in desi advertising. Not even fun irreverence. And that’s because Indians lack the ability to laugh at themselves, and take offence at the slightest mischief. We people take ourselves too damn seriously. Which is why most advertisers panic when wicked storyboards are presented to them. And this issue, for me at least, is just too depressing.

    It is in this context that I have been keeping a hawk’s eye on the new Tata Docomo campaign. I sort of knew this wickedly humorous stuff would sooner or later get into trouble. ThatIndiais not ready for it. This is the ‘No Getting Away’ campaign. There are many ads on air, but the one I found cutest is where a maid, while cleaning the living room, lucks upon a carelessly left cell phone instrument. Because no one’s watching, she grabs it and hides it inside her blouse. But the memsaab manages to nab her. Because the phone starts buzzing inside the blouse. Yup, no getting away! I loved it, because it’s tongue-in-cheek, wicked communication. Meant for a few good laughs.

    [youtube width=”300″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWsGT63dAUU[/youtube]And yes, the commercial is in trouble. Not only is the maids’ union up in arms, Raj Thackeray saab has got into the act. Saying this ad denigrates the Marathi manoos, since the maid looks like a typical Mumbai bai. And once Raj bhau raises his voice, the ad is as good as dead. There’s no getting away from him either!

    Now here’s the deal: I would have laughed equally hard if the maid was Bengali, Punjabi, Muslim, Tamil, Christian or Sindhi. And I would have laughed even harder if they had featured a corporate CEO stealing a phone at an airport (and some do!). Because the dirt, the bias, is in our minds. We want to laugh at others but not at ourselves. I don’t know who wrote the Docomo script, but am absolutely certain that dude or dudette was not out to trash any community. They were having fun, and will now have to face the music.

    And the pity is this: After this incident, the rest of the already worried advertisers will kiss irreverent advertising goodbye for many more years. And I suspect the alarmed Docomo guys will swiftly revert to their stupid Ranbir Kapoor talks shows. Sad.

    Anyway, I am glad I no longer play the game. I don’t do safe.

     

    [youtube width=”300″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbqBjnBy-1s[/youtube]PS: Watched the Listerine ad. And strangely, funny man Cyrus Sahukar acts so serious, it’s like Raj bhau sent him a hot memo too. What’s the point of casting the mad-cap Cyrus and running a clinical ad? It’s as corny as casting Narendra Modi in an ad where he talks of peace and brotherhood! (Peace, Motabhai, peace!)

  • Freaking News | Making sense of gobbedygook

    A week is a long time in politics said one British prime minister or another and as far as news cycles are concerned, a week could be an eternity. Last week’s newsmakers have vanished as the 2G scam took control of television once more. However, most of what was happening was official gobbledygook as everyone, from anchors to honoured guests tried to make sense of it. Even Arnab Goswami, as he demanded answers for things which India wanted to know, got caught up in dates, memos and LOIs, possibly leaving viewers searching for the remote as the evening’s melodrama had been denied them.

    Early on Wednesday, there was plenty of television excitement over the news that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the puppet-master of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had informed LK Advani that he was not a potential prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections. By the evening it became clear that no one really cared and no one doubted that the RSS controlled the BJP.

    In any case, it all became about a letter which the finance ministry under Pranab Mukherjee had written which raised questions about the position on 2G taken by the finance ministry under P Chidambaram. But much as TV channels tried to put to the Union home minister in the dock, the government did not bite. And then it all became about dates, LOIs (which it turned out means letters of intent) and memos.

    Internationally, the focus was on the plea to stop the execution of a man convicted in 1991 for killing a police officer in 1989, in the American state of Georgia. Questions had since been raised about the investigation, witnesses had retracted their statements and there appeared to be no physical evidence linking him to the crime. However the US Supreme Court did not stay Troy Davies’s execution. This led to debates about justice and capital punishment. However Indian channels did not find Davies to be newsworthy – although social networking sites were buzzing with it.

    The changes made to Facebook also got international airtime and certainly, both Twitter and Facebook were filled with angry comments from users. You get the feeling that Indian channels keep a close watch on various popularity measuring mechanisms which also tell them how much drama can be milked from a news event and how much jingoism can be added to it. If it fails on these two counts, the event is now news. Therefore one can conclude that possibly erroneous death penalties in other countries and social networking sites do not make Indian blood boil.

    Is it then surprising that The Times of India issued an ad that said that TV was all hot air and only newspapers can shed light on events?

    **

    Newspapers of course tried to explain what the latest 2G revelations mean but even they struggled between dates and memos. With the prime and finance ministers out of the country, further political explanations became difficult. The Supreme Court stepped in to make it clear that its silence on 2G should not be misinterpreted to mean that it is asleep.

    The Sikkim earthquake and the problems of rescue operations got adequate representation (although TV did not forget, it must be acknowledged).

    Also the Planning Commission’s bizarre figures to determine poverty in India got newspaper space and flak. Advani’s little problem was a single column here and there – this is not a new story after all.

    Salman Rushdie’s introduction to Twitter was found to be newsworthy, two days after he took the literati of the twitterati by surprise by showing up there.

     

    **

    Every time a new film is due, the India media behaves as if a new inhabitable planet has been found. This week, it seems, a new film will be released. One does not know yet whether space suits will be required or it will be one more black hole.

  • Anil Thakraney on why and how it's not just money alone that's taking away talent from advertising agencies

    Hard Knocks: Why does the ad world lose talent?

    During my interview with O&M’s chief Piyush Pandey for MxMIndia, he mentioned that the biggest challenge the industry faces today is one of hiring and retaining talented people. That some of the most interesting people don’t want in. His theory is that it has mainly to do with remuneration, and the problem of agencies not being able to pay people properly. Surely he’s right, he must know being an industry leader. But I think there’s more to it than money. Here are two other reasons why I believe the ad world does not attract as much talent as it should, and why many of its stars defect to other industries.

     

    One, there is killer competition amongst ad agencies, and the pressure and anxiety to win and retain accounts is intense. Now while business rivalry is healthy, when it borders on desperation, something’s gotta give. So not only do clients suck the agencies dry, some also tend to treat agency personnel with disdain and disrespect. This leads to loss of morale within an ad agency office, and the inevitable happens. One is always looking around for better career options. We must remember not all ad agencies are led by heavyweights like Piyush and Balki. Who can stand up to an unreasonable client. For most agencies, putting up with all sorts of demands from clients becomes a way of life. There’s the sword of losing a client perpetually hanging on the head. And frankly, I really can’t see a way out of this mess. It was like this decades ago, and it’s pretty much the same now.

     

    The other thing ad agencies have done is to give up the strategic planning function to the clients. Sure, large agencies have the so-called planning department, but these guys often do a cosmetic job for the brands. And are more like an extension of the market research agency. There was a time when client servicing people would offer major strategic insights. Now no one expects any from them. Either the creative directors figure out their own strategies, or the brand managers inflict one on the agency. It’s no longer cool being a suit in the agency business, it’s become more of a maintenance job. How can we then blame the officers for leaping over to brand management?

     

    And that’s also the case with media specialists, post the disbanding. I wonder if there are any media planners left. I only hear of media buyers being in demand purely for their abilities to cut sweet deals with media owners.

     

    It can’t be only about money. It never is.

     

     

    ***

     

    PS: With Twitter on a roll, every Seeta, Geeta and Reeta thinks she can be a journalist. Guys and gals, while I appreciate your enthu, do give us journos some credit, we must be in possession of at least a few skills, if not many! Ghazal master Jagjit Singh (who’s very much alive at the time of writing this, and all the best to him) was declared dead by some over-excited tweeters. Clearly, the khujli to “break news” is not restricted to the media.

    The lesson: Dear tweeters, leave news to us. And stick to sharing your lunch menu.

  • We seem to be so wrung out and tired by recent events that even some T20 cricket tournament has not filled us with our normal passionate exuberance.

    Freaking News by Ranjona Banerji: Where’s the fizz gone?

    Life is dull, I have to admit, when television is not having hysterics about some issue or the other. And this week has been particularly short on made-for-television news events. I know I’ve grumbled about the neglect of subjects like the civil war in Libya or the collapse of the world economy but even I know that we cannot whip ourselves into a jingoistic frenzy with such sparse material to work on. No anchors foaming at the mouth, no calls for answers and no heartfelt pleas for justice, mercy or anything at all, nothing in fact that makes television news compete with the top general entertainment channels.

    So yes, the collapse of the world’s economy did make it to Indian television at last but that’s only after the Sensex fell at the end of last week and investors lost a notional amount that ran into lakhs of crores. By now we are so used to inflation and rising interest rates that no one can drum up even one fleck of hysterical foam at the mouth.

    In fact, we seem to be so wrung out and tired by recent events that even some T20 cricket tournament has not filled us with our normal passionate exuberance. We did try to drum up some enthusiasm for that mysterious note that one finance minister wrote to another former finance minister, something to do with the 2G scam, but no one knows enough about it and the people who know aren’t telling.

    Then Headlines Today, which is trying to steal the top patriotic channel slot from Times Now, did get quite excited about the current fight between the US and Pakistan but even that didn’t go far. Shoaib Akhtar, the Pakistani cricketer, said something about Sachin Tendulkar in his new book (yes, apparently he can write). But for all the patriotic fervour which we could have shown, the only people who managed to make something of it were some political parties in Maharashtra.

    CNN IBN remained steadfast in its coverage of the earthquake in Sikkim and its aftermath while by Monday morning, the floods in Orissa and Bihar were all over television.

    Talking about Pakistan, the BBC has a fascinating Hard Talk with Imran Khan, asking some very tough questions as usual and allowing the guest to answer them.

    **

    The newspapers, obviously, were in the same boat. They also realised that the world economy was in trouble. They managed to explain something of it, throwing the collapse of Greece into the mix as well. The unfortunate plane crash in Nepal got the front pages. Patriotism is everywhere so the Hindustan Times headlined the number of Indians who had died. Lesser mortals of other nations not so fortunate to be Indian also died.

    The weekend saw some newspapers telling us that Paris Hilton, general celeb and heiress of the eponymous hotel chain, was in town. The opinion pages were still obsessed with Narendra Modi and his prime ministerial ambitions and whatever else. Am not sure that anyone else still cares, especially since we are currently in this non-news cycle.

    This morning The Times of India came to me bright yellow as if it had been dipped in haldi and this made reading it very difficult.

     

    **

    I can only hope that things pick up as the week moves on.

  • The blunders of incompetent telemarketers have led to a potentially useful tool becoming an unwanted nuisance

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: Why did telemarketers lose the game?

    Today morning, I sent a text message to 1909, and in a matter of seconds, forever banished telemarketers from my life. Or at least I hope I did. (This is India, where there are many laws, but many more people ready to flout them.) But at the same time it did make me feel a wee bit sad as a communication professional. Here is a powerful medium destroyed by the foibles of some very incompetent telemarketers.

     

    I am not a direct marketing guru, but here are three key reasons I think why the tele guys lost the plot. You can add your own.

     

    1.  Badly trained, poorly paid staffers who lack even basic communication skills. ‘Hello sir, main XYZ se bol rahi hoon, aapko ek free SIM card ka offer hai, kya aap interested hain?’ Imagine I could be doing 100 important things when this call arrives. Even hanging precariously by a cliff. Is it too difficult for callers to politely ask for a ‘good time’ to call?  We often do that with friends, leave alone strangers. Who knows, some courtesy may encourage people to at least have a conversation. And in telemarketing, that’s half the battle won. I really think some amount of smart training would help.

     

    1. Poor sense of timing: I would get calls at 10.30 AM Monday, the peak work hour, from someone selling me a holiday package to Macau. Or, on a lazy Sunday noon, from a chap asking if I want a computer printer. Worse, someone texts me at night offering Yoga classes. Is anyone even trying to think out there on when to sell what?

     

    1.  I know this is a cold calling business, but does have it to be like blind shooting in the dark? Is market segmentation so difficult in telemarketing? Can’t the proprietors invest some funds in market research before hitting the phone? I’ll give you an example. Once, an expensive time share resorts seller called my driver. Overhearing their conversation, I encouraged him to talk, so we could have some masti. Not only did the excited tele girl ‘sell’ him a Rs 2-lakh-worth worth life membership, she even agreed to drop by his chawl for a cup of tea. I told him to have fun!

     

     

    All said, it’s a pity, really. Because telemarketing is a very useful tool for one-on-one communication. And it’s failed in India because it’s run by people who just don’t get it.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Must say I am more than surprised with the overreaction and anger in India at Shoaib Akhtar’s book. The mud he’s flung at fellow cricketers in his book, as per reports, is totally consistent with his own brand personality. He’s lived an entirely controversial life, so why must his book be any different? What were people expecting? A collection of sweet lullabies? Hello? Branding, anyone?