MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • After the high of the World Cup 2011 finals, watching any other limited-overs cricket in a stadium seemed pointless, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Ranking The World Cups: 1983-2011

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    We are a day away from the 11th edition of the Cricket World Cup. The 1983 World Cup was the absolute initiation into cricket for me, at the age of eight. The eight World Cups from 1983-2011 have left lasting memories behind them, driven by two strong factors – India’s performance and the media experience they created.

     

    Here’s my ranking of these eight World Cups, from the worst to the best.

     

    8. The Cup That Ended Before It Started: 2007

    I still thank my stars that I decided against a West Indies vacation for the Super Sixes at the eleventh hour. I suspect if there was a list of the worst World Cups, 2007 will top it even 100 years from now. It had nothing going for it. And as it turned out, late night match timings, no crowds and poor television viewing experience were only the smaller problems. Both India and Pakistan were eliminated in an ill-thought-out qualification format. When a coach’s (Bob Woolmer) mysterious death is the lasting image of a big tournament, you know it didn’t go as planned at so many levels.

     

    7. The Something-Was-Missing Cup: 1999

    England is a good venue for a World Cup, except that rain can spoil the fun far too often. 1999 was the introduction of the Super Sixes format, which died a death after the 2007 fiasco, with ICC going back to the safe 1996 format. After 1983, this was the World Cup I was least engaged with. Our team was not exactly consistent (that loss to Zimbabwe seems bizarre after all these years too) and I was settling into my first job. The classic tied semi-final was followed up by a damp squib finale, which started Australia’s World Cup dominance. The famous story about Tendulkar flying to Mumbai (for his dad’s funeral) and back, and scoring that century, is going to endure. Not much else from 1999 may stand the test of time.

     

    6. The Small-Nations-Can-Win-Big Cup:1996

    The sub-continent hosted this World Cup, which I have to admit, looked rather tacky on television, much in contrast to 2011 which had superlative production. The knock-out format (where only seven games effectively decide who wins the title) was introduced here, and then brought back in 2011. It’s a format so evidently lacking in logic. But commercial interests, especially after 2007, have ensured it stays. 1996 was Sri Lanka’s World Cup in every respect. It changed their cricket forever. The India-Pakistan game at Bangalore was entertainment of the highest order, but it was followed by our semi-final defeat at Eden Gardens was perhaps the most torturous cricket game I have ever seen. If only we had batted first after winning the toss…

     

    5. The How-The-Hell-Did-We-Win Cup: 1983

    To be honest, I have little memories from this World Cup, except listening to the commentary of the finals while on vacation in Srinagar, and then reading the papers the next morning. 1983 was also the last World Cup that had limited media coverage in India, including a broadcaster strike that meant Kapil Dev’s 1983 not out at has no video footage available.

     

    4. The Long-Forgotten Cup: 1987

    Very little has stayed from the 1987 event. It was the last white-clothing World Cup, and the footage looks un-broadcast-able on TV by today’s standards. I’m not even sure if anyone has the rights to it. There were some gems, like that absolutely superlative batting performance by Zimbabwe’s Dave Houghton in an early match. But it was Graham Gooch sweeping India out of the cup that would remain the lasting memory for me. The 1987 edition ranks high on my list because it was my first World Cup as a proper cricket fan. It was also my second experience of the sheer devastation a fan can feel, the first being the Australasia final (the Chetan Sharma match) a year before that.

     

    3. The Cup-That-Got-It-All-Right: 1992

    I have to confess I absolutely loved the 1992 World Cup, and if India had done any better, it could have been right at the top of my list. The format was to kill for. Everyone plays everyone and the top four go through. You can’t beat that on fairness and excitement. It was the first cricketing event I watched on satellite television, with world-class commentary, nothing short of a luxurious experience back then. It was also the Cup that had the best jerseys. Take that laughable rain rule out (really, what did they smoke up while deciding on it?), and you have what a World Cup should be. That Pakistan won it, after being on the verge of elimination, in many ways sums up the spirit for the 1992 event.

     

    2. The So-Near-Yet-So-Far Cup: 2003

    Memories of that excruciating final at Wanderers still haunt many of us. But the 2003 World Cup was a lot more than that for India. After a slow start that included decimation by Australia and a scrape-through vs. Holland, India got into its own and showed a streak of dominance that one had not seen since the 1985 World Series. I remember the loss in the finalleading to a mixed sense of dejection and pride, the latter for having played the way our team did, under Ganguly, over the previous three weeks. This was also the MandiraBedi World Cup, for the record.

     

    1. The Yes-We-Can Cup: 2011

    The 28-year-long wait had to be end at some stage. The three matches – Australia at Ahmedabad, Pakistan at Mohali and Sri Lanka at Mumbai – that led to the title were individual celebrations in themselves. I was there at the finals at Mumbai. After that high, watching any other limited-overs cricket in a stadium seemed pointless. There’s so much to remember from 2011, yet so little needs to be said, because it’s all fresh in everyone’s memory, like it happened last week. Hope the wait doesn’t last another 28 years.

     

    I’m off for a cricket vacation to Australia and this column will take a two-week break, to be back on March 6.

     

  • In a jingoistic way, it is heartening to see an Indian TV anchor, watched by 1.2 billion people (Goswami hinted at that on Thursday night though I have yet to see it in a Times Now ad) ask questions of the US president with no hope of ever getting an answer, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: The nation wants to know when Barack Obama will answer Times Now! No, really!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Many people have complained to me that if I was being sarcastic about Arnab Goswami and Times Now being the best anchor and channel to watch on the Delhi election results day this week, it did not come through. My sincere apologies. But I reassert that Times Now was the most entertaining channel to watch!

     

    **

     

    But here’s a story where you have to partially at least agree with Goswami and Times Now: the assault on Suresh Patel by the police in Madison, Alabama, which has left him paralysed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/11/alabama-cops-leave-a-grandfather-partially-paralyzed-after-frisk-goes-awry/

     

    I say partially because while the story is horrific and the actions of the police smack of both brutality and racism, it was ridiculous for Goswami to sit in his Mumbai studio and demand an answer from US president Barack Obama. Certainly, you can castigate the US system, you can take on racism but it is silly to use a hashtag like ObamaStopPreaching to highlight Sureshbhai Patel’s plight.

     

    The fact that Obama spoke of the need for secularism in India did not mean that he said that there is no racism in the US. Quite the contrary. He mentioned racism in America and his own experiences in his speech in India as well. But in a jingoistic way, it is heartening to see an Indian TV anchor, watched by 1.2 billion people (Goswami hinted at that on Thursdaynight though I have yet to see it in a Times Now ad) ask questions of the US president with no hope of ever getting an answer.

     

    Meanwhile, NewsX has been claiming since Friday morning that some part of this story was “first on NewsX”.

     

    Wait till Goswami hears about that, all you paparazzi channels!

     

    **

     

    NewsX however went hammer and tongs at activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday night, after a Gujarat high court denied her anticipatory bail application in a case about possible fraud in money collected for a museum to commemorate victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. The anchor Rahul Shivshankar made it clear to some hapless guests that he did not want to discuss the legal aspects of the case but the hypocrisy of Setalvad.

     

    Just to make life interesting, the Supreme Court has since stayed the arrest warrant. Obviously the apex court is more interested in discussing the legal aspects of the case than Shivshankar?

     

    This comment from The Economic Times puts some of the questions for and against Setalvad in perspective: http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-editorials/stop-harassment-of-human-rights-activist-teesta-setalvad/

     

    **

     

    Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed are hopefully to be released on bail soon from an Egyptian jail. The two Al-Jazeera journalists were arrested on suspicion of being Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers. A retrial has been ordered in their case. Earlier, Australian journalist Peter Grieste also one of the three Al Jazeera journalists, had been allowed to go home as well.

     

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/02/egypt-court-releases-al-jazeera-journalists-bail-freeajstaff-150212114228426.html

     

    **

     

    The US is mourning the deaths of two senior journalists. Bob Simon, celebrated foreign reporter and war correspondent with CBS, died in a car accident in New York on Wednesdaynight. Simon had reported on wars since Vietnam. He was 73. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-correspondent-bob-simon-1941-2015/

     

    The New York Times is mourning the loss of David Carr, 58, who wrote a very popular media column. Carr collapsed in the newspaper’s Manhattan newsroom on Thursday.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/media/david-carr-media-equation-columnist-for-the-times-is-dead-at-58.html?_r=0

     

  • Women in journalism have fought very hard to get where they are. And they do not need advice of this “known your limits” sort from anybody. No need for a shooting champ to shoot his mouth of, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Barkha Dutt leaves NDTV, Rajyavardhan leaves women fuming

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Celebrated TV journalist Barkha Dutt shot to fame during her coverage of the Kargil War-Like Situation. She also gathered an enormous fan following with her studio discussion programme, We the People, which debated various issues in a sort of unstructured format. Many feel she has a way of connecting to people that is rare and appealing. In her 20 years with NDTV, in the various names the channel has been known as, she has been an abiding face.

     

    However rumours of her leaving the channel have not been new in media circle, from when Peter Mukerjea set up the Newsx-9x brand to when Rajdeep Sardesai quit CNNIBN. Now Dutt has quit to set up her own media outfit, although her two shows, We the People and The Buck Stops Here will continue.

     

    Yet, Dutt’s tenure in television has not been without controversy. There were objections to her access to army positions during the Kargil conflict. Her coverage of the Gujarat riots of 2002 angered Hindutva followers and her coverage of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai angered many who felt she gave away vital information putting lives in danger.

     

    But her worst moments were when the Niira Radia tapes were made public by Open and Outlook magazines. To hear a senior journalist agreeing to become a messenger for a corporate lobbyist trying to influence the appointment of a cabinet minister for the telecom ministry was shocking even to hardened journalists. Dutt denied she ever meant to pass the message on. But why Radia ever thought Dutt would help her was not made clear. To some of us oldtimers, at the risk of sounding unbearably self-righteous, there are limits beyond PR reps are not allowed in. Calling you at 4 am to discuss cabinet ministries is one of them.

     

    Even worse, as was brought up by then Open editor Manu Joseph during a questioning of Dutt organised on NDTV itself, was why a journalist as experienced as Dutt did not see a story in Radia’s request. The fact is, the telecom industry was pushing for A Raja of the DMK to become telecom minister in UPA 2. By any standards, that’s a story.

     

    And here’s this one:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/02/16/barkha-dutt-ndtv_n_6690808.html

     

    **

    Last week, Information and broadcasting minister and Olympian shooting champ Rajyavardhan Rathore annoyed women and journalists by a speech he made to the Indian Women’s Press Corps. The minister said that women journalists need not go out into the field but might better use their skills for analysis. He also mentioned their safety and their other roles and responsibilities as mothers, sisters, daughters and so on.

     

    There was immediate outrage on social media, where his patriarchy was questioned. Rathore then responded with a number of tweets which first said that he was misinterpreted and then that he was misquoted. India Today took their story off their website as a result of the tweets and blamed the news agency (IANS) for the mix-up. But as the link below from newslaundry.com shows, Rathore did indeed make those remarks and those media outlets which succumbed to his tweets and took down the story, had jumped the gun.

     

    Women in journalism have fought very hard to get where they are. And they do not need advice of this “know your limits” sort from anybody. No need for a shooting champ to shoot his mouth of.

    http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/02/16/the-benign-patriarchy-of-rajyavardhan-rathore/

     

    **

     

    Twitter fascinates me, as regular readers of this column know. The way companies respond to complaints and ideas tells its own story. Makemytrip possibly wins with its sense of humour demonstrated when BJP candidate and now MP Giriraj Singh said that all opponent to Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan. Makemytrip’s twitter account said it was organising charter flights. On a personal note, Makemytrip has always responded and helped when I’ve tweeted to them. So have Indigo and Jet Airways, Tata Docomo, Vodafone, Ten Sports and Neo Sports.

     

    The two failures in this regard remain by old bugbear Star Sports, now without ESPN but still as silent to tweets and Tatasky.
    My humble opinion is that companies which do not respond to customers and people on social media will one day pay the price…

     

    **

     

    For those who missed this, Twinkle Khanna’s brilliant column on the All India Bakchod Roast and the Indian right to be being offended:
    http://m.indiatimes.com/entertainment/this-twinkle-khanna-column-is-breaking-the-internet-today-230279.html

     

     

  • Franchise owners are departments or teams within your organisation. Each with a fixed innovation and experiment budget pre- allocated. What they bid are the ideas, processes and projects up on the auction table

    Sanjeev Kotnala: Let’s Bid In The New IPL: The Idea Premier League

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    February 16 was an iconic day in the short history of IPL and an Idea called Yuvraj. A player discarded by the Indian selectors. A decision with polarised reactions. A decision much debated and challenged among his fans and distractors. Yuvraj is not some unknown entity. He is the temperamental idea that failed to find permanent home. He was the key to India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup campaigns. He is a known gamechanger, a survivor. He still holds a promise of taking charge and coming to rescue when required.

     

    Surprisingly, Yuvraj was released by RCB who last year bought him for just Rs 4 crore, yet they earnestly bid for him way beyond the expected value. Finally, Gary Kirsten had a different understanding, value and faith in this idea and Yuvraj created history with a Rs 16 crore bid by Delhi Daredevils. A team broken bruised and re-established many times over just like the city it represents.

     

    The Idea called Yuvraj now moves to a team that is not looking its best on paper. Dependency and expectations from him will now rise to new levels. And he will have to re-prove his worth. In the same auction were other ideas like Sarfaraz Khan and KC Cariappa finding bidders in KKR and RCB.

     

    So, do you have a set of ideas that are constantly juggling in your mind? Ideas like Yuvraj, they always sound great but you have not been able to bring yourself to bet on them. Ideas like Sarfaraz you could unleash at some later stage and are willing to commit at this early stage. Cariappa, an Idea that you have already recognised as future, and you are willing to experiment.

     

    This led me to define a format at corporate level. I present skeleton of the new IDEA PREMIER LEAGUEâ„¢. I am available to further define and customise the process for a willing corporate connecting with it.

     

    In Idea Premier League you do not have the liberty of keeping a stable of 25-plus ideas incubating. You cannot leash 11 of them at a go. You do not lay a short T20 with competition. There is no policy constraint that may require at least three foreign ideas (not subscribed by you) to be whetted by research. The purse remains a constraint. The future brand value and long term ROI the only things that help you remain in the game. And you have to look at an instant and a long-term perspective at every bid.

     

    So, consider playing an Idea Premier League before the next financial year. Franchise owners are departments or teams within your organisation. Each with a fixed innovation and experiment budget pre- allocated. What they bid are the ideas, processes and projects up on the auction table.

     

    The year-end results in the new possible value placed on the Ideas by an internal expert evaluation team. They pick the winners who get the pre-defined trophy and the prize in cash or kind.

     

    In this process Idea Premier League department (the franchise owners) in the next season (financial year) would at will discard some existing playing Ideas to create the funds to bid for the ideas. Budget penalties are part R&R in IPL. It is no longer a mere game (even IPL is a business) hence the franchise owners will substantiate with reasons their decision to drop any playing IDEA. More so another team (like DD) may see it (YUVRAJ) differently and they may have the belief to go bid and make a game out of it.

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala is Head Catalyst at Intradia and believes the best way forward for an organisation is to enhance its interanal team’s potential and capabilities instead of depending on external resources. He is a management- marketing-media consultant and also conducts specialised workshops in the area of IDEATION (Harvest and Liberate) and Innovation (InNoWait). To contact email sanjeev@intradia.in or tweet at s_kotnala visit www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • The Indian Express was at the forefront in the last week, asking uncomfortable questions with uncomfortable stories and incisive opinion pieces, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Express on the top

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Aah cricket! I can’t believe that I’m writing this but cricket made a difference to the news mix last week. We’ve been so full of politics for so long now and that includes the politics of sport. But the start of the Cricket World Cup and India’s two wins in the first stages meant that we had a break from manufactured outrage.

     

    Of course there is no doubt that cricket fatigue will set in at some point and I’ll be grumbling here quite soon as this tournament goes on and on… There will be an endless questioning of Sachin Tendulkar and the endless squeaking of Boria Majumdar both on Headlines Today. There will be some needless (I cannot say gratuitous because no money = no appearance) film star presence because cricket is not glamorous enough in India as we all know. There will be outrage over every small fielding position. There will enormous anger that some other team actually dared to play well.

     

    And not all the deities in the world can save Team India from the media’s wrath if things do not go the media’s way… There you have it. That’s the World Cup in three paragraphs!

     

    **

     

    Actually, it’s been a news-filled week and the Indian Express has been at the top of one of the biggest stories: what the media dubbed the “terror boat” from Pakistan. Since the story of the boat that blew itself up on the night of December 31 2014 broke in the first week of January, questions have been raised, not least by India’s intelligence agencies. The Indian Express was at the forefront, asking uncomfortable questions with uncomfortable stories and incisive opinion pieces.

     

    Last week, they came up with a speech by a DIG of the Coast Guard where he claimed that he was in Gandhinagar when the boat was headed to the Porbandar coast and he had ordered that it be blown up (“We don’t want to serve them biryani”). There was hell to pay after that and denials and counter-accusations flew fast and thick between the Coast Guard, defence ministry, the government and the media, especially (obviously) television.

     

    The Indian Express waited as the denials became stronger and then released a tape of the DIG’s speech. This led to maximum embarrassment.

     

    However, fun as all this was, there are a couple of problems here. The first, amusing as it is for the media, is the “I was misquoted” excuse. The electronic age makes this excuse redundant. You can wiggle around saying you were misunderstood or quoted out of context. But even those have limited traction. If you are going to blab secrets or put your foot in your mouth, find a better explanation for your words before someone makes your words public.

     

    The second problem is more serious. It is the way that every story falls so quickly by the wayside. The coast guard DIG’s statement is serious because, among other things, it points to a frightening lack of communication between our security agencies and implies the defence ministry lied to the nation especially on a subject as fraught with tension as our relationship with Pakistan.

     

    But we have already forgotten about the story as we have jumped on to the next big one: The auction of Narendra Modi’s suit, the Budget session, the disappearance of Rahul Gandhi, Mohan Bhagwat’s comments on Mother Teresa or the information leaks and robberies from the petroleum ministry to petroleum companies. Some of these are not even that big but stories are judged on how they can be milked for attention and not for their intrinsic worth.

     

    Ah well.

     

  • It is time that the newspaper industry gets a fresh media synergy-multiplication study done keeping digital and TV in mind, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: Nine Things Helping Print

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Here is the good news for print that Sam Balsara presented at the recent Pitch Madison media projection.

     

    1. Print is the largest media with some 42% plus overall share.

    2. Difference between TV and Print has widened.

    3. The growth in digital has come at the cost of TV more than print.

    4. FMCG is the largest category in Print.

    5. Hindi press leads the Print segment

     

    Almost like a resurrection. And this cannot be attributed just to rising literacy or increased circulation. In an era when we were writing off print, it continues to hold fort.

     

    ENHANCED RESPONSE: The client is experiencing a revived wave of response from print. It is a result of newspaper brands consciously investing in enhancing reader engagement and interest. They know the business is safe till readers continue to read a lot more detailed, multiple point view, easy-to-refer news that is easily, archived and accessed. In other media like TV, news is transitory and it dies sooner than it is created.  Watching a news channel is like self-punishment and the intellectual debates more like comedy classes.

     

    STRICTER AD-EDIT BALANCE: Most newspapers have realised that in addition to the ad-edit ratio balance, what matters is the size and quality of the ads. It helps in creating an overall feel for the page. The bigger publications have woken up to the idea of insisting on space and number of ads on main pages. It is a definite plus for the business.

     

    HAPPY FRONT PAGES: Newspaper like Dainik Bhaskar have made a policy guideline to ensure that front page will carry positive news that brings a smile to your face. Not something totally under their control but many times even intent would make me happy. They know that it is their small contribution in making the day start with a smile.

     

    STOPPING AT HYPER-LOCAL: In its attempt to be truly localised newspapers had started going micro, in many ways affecting the quality of content. To go deep and micro with every possible news getting featured irrespective of its interest, value or impact. Somewhere sense prevailed and they defined boundaries of what will be hyper-local.

     

    NO PAID NEWS: Newspapers in non-metros have taken a stance against paid news – native news and sponsored news till it is not clearly flashed. The indifferent treatment in mostly digital election has helped strengthening of this stance. They are unwilling to have any ambiguity in interpretation by the readers.

     

    REINFORCING HABITS: Newspaper are making every attempt to keep the habit of reading alive. There is a huge pressure in circulation teams in non-metro markets.  The newspaper hits the door almost as a set alarm. Right on dot, everyday, 362 days a year.  It is very unlike metro, where newspaper brands feel they have done an obligation if they reach you as or even after you have left for work.

     

    FORMATS AND NAVIGATION: Newspapers have re-engineered formats and news navigation. It has enhanced the content layout and ease of flow. You are absolutely sure where you will get the specific news or feature.  The bigger newspapers like Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Lokmat, Eenadu have maintained the number and quality of pages irrespective of the newsprint prices.

     

    NO IRRELEVANT INNOVATIONS: I am happy to see no more of illogical unmanageable innovation in print. I am not against innovation. But I hate innovation for the sake of it. While innovations are award-winning creative marvel, they can be an irritant for the reader. Newspapers must guard against it. I know I will be laughed at. The counter-argument will tell me that the reader has adjusted to front jacket and not seeing the real front page. My advice is tread with caution and I will not take it for granted.

     

    ENHANCED CONFIDENCE: It is good to see Newspapers strengthening their posture in term of rate and yield. They are finally willing to sacrifice business for the right rate. It is a long battle that maybe too late in the day. I appreciate it and watch the situation with caution.  Currently it seems fine, the return/ response being generated by the print ads in non-metros is on an upward swing. It is helping newspaper brands to deliver ‘more for less’ and everyone is happy.

     

    It is time that the newspaper industry gets a fresh media synergy-multiplication study done keeping digital and TV in mind. Additionally it should seek fresh insights into changing news consumption pattern and keep the good work. Newspapers have been agile in the past in their response to changing trends. I just hope they continue to keep pace.

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala is Head Catalyst at Intradia and believes the best way forward for an organisation is to enhance its interanal team’s potential and capabilities instead of depending on external resources. He is a management- marketing-media consultant and also conducts specialised workshops in the area of IDEATION (Harvest and Liberate) and Innovation (InNoWait). To contact email sanjeev@intradia.in  or tweet at s_kotnala visit www.intradia.in  www.sanjeevkotnala.com.

     

  • All too often, people with minimum or no experience are made heads of departments and what they teach is open to speculation, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Faulty faculty at journalism schools

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Discussions about the future of journalism and journalism trends in India tend to get terribly depressing, especially if the discussion is amongst journalists over the age of 40. A friend who has started guest lectures at a well-known journalism school is appalled at the quality of both students and faculty. One uses the word faculty cautiously here. All too often, people with minimum or no experience are made heads of departments and what they teach is open to speculation. As for the students, they are caught up with the glamour of TV and dream every night of their families watching them interview Ranbir Kapoor and Narendra Modi every single day.

     

    But one cannot blame the students. It is not their fault that teaching in schools is pathetic – at least judging from the entrance tests that I have conducted over the years where both general knowledge and language skills have been dismal. It is not their fault that the way they understand journalism is from TV. The young do not read newspapers and when and if they do, it’s usually that glamour stuff. And in today’s India, the glamour stuff is not journalism but paid content cooked up by PR and marketing people.

     

    Is it surprising that a growing number of young journalists who cut their eyeteeth in the “glamour” beats switch to PR? They know that that is where the real power is when it comes to film stars and movies.

     

    But there’s another conundrum at work here, brought up by a conversation with another old friend: older journalists who turn to general PR and then become experts on how journalists should behave. Unlike the young people, this lot is excessively annoying. In many cases, you know just how good or bad they were in their former profession and how badly placed they are to be “experts” in anything at all. And yet they hold forth on how journalists should behave.

     

    Unfortunately, as with any profession, the more you stay away the less connected you become. But journalism being what it is, the pull remains and this causes a sort of bitterness and resentment at what you have given up. And, let’s be honest, the power you’ve lost. It is this bitterness and regret that tints their diatribes against journalists.

     

    I am willing to concede that journalists can behave very badly with PR people, ask for all kinds of favours and not do their homework. And those are genuine complaints from PR people, whether they were former journalists or not. But if journalists-turned PR professionals do not want to lose all respect of their former colleagues, they need to hold back on the gratuitous and frankly often idiotic advice.

     

    **

     

    The Railway Budget, as is our wont in India, led to interminable discussions on matters that most people are not really interested in. I wish TV anchors would ask their “experts” just one question before they invite them to share their views: “How often do you travel by train in India?”

     

    That might give us some real opinions instead of what we are saddled with. No doubt, The Budget on Saturday will give us more of the same…

     

    **

     

    The world of Twitter on Thursday/Friday was consumed by a question of whether a particular dress was black and blue or white and gold. Yeah, right. Priorities.

     

    As ever, mashable.com had the answer: http://mashable.com/2015/02/26/dress-white-gold-blue-black/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

     

     

  • At the risk of being dramatic, there is no part of a journal or a broadcast which is not for sale, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Journalism touches new low with Essar leaks expose

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    As the Indian media was trying to cover the Union Budget in as dramatic and in some cases as unbiased a way as possible, it was being hit by an internal crisis. The Indian Express has published internal correspondence between employees of the industrial giant Essar which reveals that favours were done not just to politicians but also to senior journalists across media houses. The result is that at least two have lost their jobs and others will follow.

     

    So far, Sandeep Bamzai has resigned as editor of Mail Today and Anupama Airy as energy editor of Hindustan Times. The other people named in the leaks from Essar include Meetu Jain of Times Now, Mayur Shekhar Jha of News24, Dev Sharan Tiwari and Shereen Bhan of CNBC.

     

    There are also allegations that Tehelka attempted to spin stories in favour of Essar since Essar was a sponsor of the magazine’s “Think” festivals. Other journalists in Jharkhand seen as “sympathetic” to Essar also got various favours.

     

    Interestingly, most of these favours as seen from press reports seem to consist of offering cars and cab services, hosting parties for journalists and allowing them to use Essar facilities like guesthouses. By any of today’s standards when it comes to freebies, these are small cheese. But judging from the way top journalists have resigned, one suspects that the actual transgressions are much bigger.

     

    Indeed, as anyone in journalism knows, ethical standards when it comes to accepting favours and junkets have practically vanished. It more or less depends on the personal value system of every journalist. For the past 15 years at least, managements have even encouraged journalists to accept particular favours, if it cuts down on their newsgathering costs. In the worst case, the hand-over-fist bartering of editorial space in newspapers by journalists led to Bennett Coleman introducing Medianet, so that the company could take over the sale of news space.

     

    As the fight between Airy of Hindustan Times and her bosses shows, the lines have become very blurred in media houses, over what is acceptable and what is not. At the risk of sounding unbearably self-righteous, when I started working in journalism in the 1980s, nothing was allowed. Colleagues who were caught accepting favours lost their jobs. Within 10 years, all that had changed. Managements encouraged journalists to go on junkets. Business press conferences were all about gifts which were flaunted around offices. Senior editors openly wrote puff pieces about politicians and were rewarded with flats.

     

    Just about every media house which raised its eyebrows when the Times of India started Medianet has since succumbed in one way or another. One very senior journalist who wrote very strong pieces against Medianet was exposed by the Radia tapes. If Medianet is restricted to glamour news, the phenomenon of “paid news” refers to the pages once seen as sacrosanct. Business sold out long ago. At the risk of being dramatic, there is no part of a journal or a broadcast which is not for sale.

     

    The Radia tapes dented the credibility of all of us. The Essar leaks have pushed us to a new depth. Or rather, Indian Express has exposed to the public what we within the profession already knew. Contrarily, I can only hope that this is just the opening of the can of worms. For a profession that is so sanctimonious about corruption in other fields, if we cannot clean our own stables then we deserve all the opprobrium placed on our heads. I can be even more self-righteous and say that if we do not take heed then we are doing not just ourselves but democracy a disservice.

     

    The Indian Express expose: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/essar-leaks-2-journalists-resign-third-put-on-notice/

    http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/wooing-politicians-with-high-end-phones-journalists-with-cabs/99/

    The Tehelka angle: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-essar-links-take-its-toll-on-media-2064909

    The Airy-Hindustan Times fight: http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/02/28/allegations-and-counter-allegations-at-hindustan-times-after-essar-leaks/

    **

     

    After this, are you really interested in the Budget? You haven’t had enough of it? I have!

     

  • It is doubly tough to rebrand in the digital age. To wipe out earlier impressions. don't allow default branding, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: Branding by Default (+ on Amazing Thainess in Pattaya)

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Let us play a small game. When I say ‘Bungee Jump, Skydive, Scuba Diving, Flying fox, Beaches, Wind Surfing, Water skiing, Snorkel, Parasailing, Go-karting, Golf and Long Boat Racing’, which city comes to your mind? Let me add few more cues, ‘Coral Island, Elephant Village and Underwater Walk’. And the confusion would be resolved if I shared the last cue: ‘Happy Ending massage and The Famed Walking Street’. The city that immediately shouts for attention is Pattaya, the popular nightlife-based beach resort town in the Gulf of Thailand, just 150 km from Bangkok. Also branded ‘Sin City’.  The most misunderstood and unarguably overexploited city.

     

    Pattaya is one of the favourite first-time destinations for Indian male tourist. This is the place that introduces him to the things he never thought possible. Indeed a beautiful beach city with good-natured citizens and possibly a great family destination remains associated with walking street and trick shows.

     

    Every tourist destination has a war cry promoting the experience. It is associated with images, activities by which the destination gets branded. A tourist destination is nothing but the memories and experience visitors have or are sold. Pattaya, the sleepy fishing village, is a case in point. It was an R&R  (Rest and Recreation) centre for American soldiers. Much before the digital age, in a hurry to transform into a decent-sized town, Pattaya took-on more sins and pleasure points than it could wash or enjoy later. Now, the web is full of references to Pattaya with massage and walking street.

     

    Thailand tourist department and the local Pattaya administration have been investing in reinventing and rebranding Pattaya as a family tourist destination. They have obviously not been successful and have nothing much to show. Frankly, it is a huge task and may not be possible. It is unlike that like some of the European cities, Pattaya can easily weed out city employment and workforce focused around massage and nightlife. It is a tough to act against an illegal sex trade that is so openly operates.

     

    While Thailand moves from ‘Amazing Thailand’ and serves the 2015 theme  ’Discover Thainess’, tourist memories and expectations remain unchanged.  ‘Thainess’ sounds even raunchier to an Indian tourist.

     

    In the digital world, wiping out image impressions is a daunting task. More so to attempt rebrand a heavily visited, listed and reviewed place. An attempt to clean it and rewrite is a waste of time.  But, attempt to amplify currently undiscovered parts; events, and opportunities available in Pattaya in social media could be a good start. Make people feel those vibrations. Make the goodness appear higher in searches and the old dirt grime pushed deeper in the search pages.

     

    Beware of the perils of default branding in the digital age. ‘You brand yourself or the competition would’ was the old saying. ‘Proactively brand yourself or the consumer will’ is the new one. Once you allow it to happen, it becomes increasingly difficult, to be what you want to be.

     

    To the advertising and marketing community making their way to the Pattaya Adfest, I have few requests to make in this direction. Do attend the fest that’s what I presume that you are going for.  Go out and try Thailand’s fresh seafood being served across wide selection of restaurants. Explore and enjoy authentic French, Italian, German, Hungarian, Arabic and Japanese cuisine. Make a most of it.  Try out a trip to ‘Sanctuary of truth’, ‘Sukawadee house’ and ‘Mini Siam’ – names you may be hearing for the first time. Try some of the great adventure and tourist offering like Para Jump or Bungee Jump. In case you need any directions do connect with me. I am most likely to go for Scuba.  And most of all keep social media feed oriented toward the nicer part of Pattaya and Pattaya Adfest.

     

    Kotnala is Head Catalyst at Intradia and believes the best way forward for an organisation is to enhance its interanal team’s potential and capabilities instead of depending on external resources. He is a Management, Marketing and Braand consultant and conducts specialised workshops in the area of IDEATION (Harvest and Liberate) and Innovation (InNoWait). To contact email sanjeev@intradia.in  or tweet at s_kotnala visit www.intradia.in  www.sanjeevkotnala.com.

     

  • He did away with the pompous gloom associated with an editor's office and imbued his publications both style and substance, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Vinod Mehta (1942-2015). Editor of Editors

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    To the reader, Vinod Mehta was a witty, self-deprecating columnist while to the TV news watcher, the man who appeared on TV with a drink in his hand and a joke to share. But to the journalist he was an editor of editors. An editor who stood by his staff, who stuck his neck out for a good story and who did not bend to his own advantage as political winds shifted. If he did not win everyone’s love, he certainly gained almost everyone’s admiration.

     

    It is almost impossible to explain just how Mehta had that editor’s touch. It is not that he did not make mistakes and paid dearly for it when it came to both the Indian Post and The Independent. But more than that, Mehta had that ineffable instinct for the fresh and the refreshing. He did away with the pompous gloom associated with an editor’s office and instead imbued his publications with that terrible cliché: both style and substance.

     

    This was evident in every publication he touched, from Debonair to Sunday Observer to Indian Post to Independent to Pioneer to Outlook. He also had those other qualities which sets a great editor apart from a self-important bore: he was irreverent and able to laugh at himself. This saw him in good stead through his career in journalism and possibly his life.

     

    His last great story for which Indian journalism should be permanently grateful is the publishing of the transcripts of the Radia tapes. Between his Outlook and Open magazine, then edited by one of his protégés Manu Joseph, the world discovered the invidious links of power and payment between corporates, politicians and senior journalists. Eventually, the story cost him his job at Outlook, largely thanks to the ire of Ratan Tata, and he was removed from the newsroom which he ruled for 17 years to a more ceremonial post. It seems fitting in a way for an editor who was one of the last to be willing to risk management wrath for a good story.

     

    His last two books, Lucknow Boy and Editor Unplugged, told his story in his own words and no one can do it better. He has written about his successes and his failures, both professional and personal. His style is intact in both although Editor Unplugged is somehow darker. Both should be required reading for all journalists, old and young.

     

    The media is full of stories of personal tributes for Mehta. Many have wished that they could have worked with him and that is, undoubtedly, the best tribute any editor could wish for. It is ironic that in this age of journalists taking selfies with politicians and behaving like fangirls and fanboys, Mehta who did neither, managed to attract India’s top politicians to his funeral. Perhaps there is a lesson there for young journalists – you can earn respect even of people you disagreed with if you have professional integrity. Given the state of Indian journalism today, yes, I am laughing as I write these words.

     

    Mehta has been lambasted for being unabashedly secular and was often accused of being a Congress stooge. He discusses this in his books as well. The letters page in Outlook was full of such accusations and Mehta was courageous enough to carry all the opinions against him while sticking to his own stand.

     

    Of the several tributes, one of the most ungracious comes from veteran columnist Swapan Dasgupta on Twitter who appears to have dismissed Mehta as a gossip with facile political understanding. This might seem a bit rich coming from someone who propagates through his columns the point of view of the BJP but that is Dasgupta’s prerogative and he has his right to his own opinion. It is a cheap fallacy that once a person is dead he or she must be universally praised. However, as every journalist worth his or her salt knows, gossip is the cornerstone of our existence.

     

    I never worked with Mehta and I do not build my life around regret. But I did meet him a few times, the last when he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012 by the Mumbai Press Club. Having a drink after the event, he looked around him and asked me, “Are these people really journalists?”

     

    It was a good question then and remains one now. How many of us really are any more?

     

  • The media, advertising and entertainment industries play a big role in driving home the message to women that why instead of having a week, a month or even a year of equality, why they can only have just one day, on March 8, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: 8 ways Indian Media & Entertainment undermines women

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    It was Women’s Day on Sunday and there were celebrations across our world for women. Every one of the events organised to commemorate the day screamed: “You are a lesser being, but this is the one day we will allow you to be you.” But only as per our ideas and standards.

     

    I write this when, in Mahrashtra, ‘beef’ is a worse four-letter word than rape. When the government stops you from viewing documentary films like India’s Daughter. Nowadays, we see many topical and tactical campaigns around women’s empowerment, safety and protection. But most of these are driven by commercial or brand advantage, than real intent.

     

    At every step, we tell women about their place in society. We remind them why instead of having a week, a month or even a year of equality, why they can only have just one day, on March 8.

     

    The media, advertising and entertainment industries play a big role in creating and perpetuating this sorry state of affairs. It is good that they are trying to make amends for this, but for now it appears that it’s all still lip-service. Here are eight ways in which these sectors have contributed to this situation

     

    1. Creating women stereotypes: In process, cleverly establishing stereotypes within various relationships

    2. Exploiting women’s bodies as the biggest-known sales and advertising prop in the business.

    3. Showing women as scheming and crooked on Indian television, in the roles of the mother-in-law, sisters-in law, the wife etc

    4. Creating the perpetual ‘paranormal’ bait. In case you haven’t noticed, it is always a woman who appears possessed. Oh, and this has nothing to do with the increased opportunities for skin show

    5. Promoting and glamourising unwarranted ‘item girl’ songs in films. Besides, the ‘item number’ is no longer the preserve of the vamp, but is now part of the territory of the mannequin-like heroines.

    6. Creating that ‘penny-wise pound-foolish’ Discount Queen image of homemakers who get drawn to ‘50% off’ sales tags.

    7. Creating media hype and sensationalising women-centric stories only to discard them when they hit the decreasing marginal commercial curve. The media industry has often been guilty of not seeing these through to their logical end.

    8. Awards felicitating women achievers are often created as a separate category. This is a reflection of the reality that as men, we remind women that we are superior and you have no chance of competing with us. Have you ever heard of a women-only jury selecting male achievers?

     

    If all of us decide that instead of talking global we will act local on this issue, taking it right into our micro-social environment. We will celebrate, respect, support and promote women throughout the year in their own right, and not as defined by some relationship to us. If we can do this, we will have won the right to celebrate women’s day as it should be done.

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala is a leading management, marketing and brand consultant is Head Catalyst at Intradia. He can be reached via Twitter at @s_kotnala. A version of this view first appeared in ‘dna of brands’ dated March 9.

     

  • In many ways TV in India has gone beyond journalism. There is almost no space for the boring, anodyne, journalistic stuff any longer. It’s now all hysterics, outrage, anger, reaction and provocation, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: News or Entertainment?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    This is a story which I heard the other day. A friend who lives abroad went to a restaurant in Mumbai one evening to get some food packed. He found that the TV screens were all on Arnab Goswami and Times Now. He asked the owner how he could bear it. The owner laughed and said, “But sir, this is more entertaining than any soap or serial.”

     

    I write this as several media commentators have made some very succinct, incisive and well-argued comments on the damage done to journalism by Goswami in his crusader mode, especially when he fought for India’s image with his #NirbhayaInsulted hashtags, railing against the India’s Daughter documentary.

     

    However, I might want to argue that in many ways TV in India has gone beyond journalism. There is almost no space for the boring, anodyne, journalistic stuff any longer. It’s now all hysterics, outrage, anger, reaction and provocation. And finally, you just have to laugh. I would argue that Goswami is a pioneer in India who has redefined TV news. There was a time when I compared him to Howard Beale in Sidney Lumet’s 1976 classic Network. But Goswami has gone beyond Beale and created a distinct and enviable persona of his own. The mood at dinner time or in drawing rooms rises and falls to the cadences of his voice as he builds up his case for the night.

     

    And whether they admit it or not, half the news anchors in India either emulate, copy or want to be like him. There are a few who are hanging on to their shreds of sanity. And there are some star TV anchors who bemoan what TV has done to journalism. But those are just the last remnants of a lost civilisation.

     

    News is now entertainment in India and it will take a revolution to change that.

     

    **

     

    The most intriguing love-hate relationship in India is between TV journalists and the Aam Aadmi Party. When it was the India Against Corruption movement, TV loved it. TV cameras exaggerated crowd figures as did reporters. TV anchors made us believe the whole country had come to a standstill. Even I believed it and dragged a friend interested in politics to Azad Maidan with me to watch this phenomenon. It was sorely disappointing to watch a straggling crowd of a few hundred when I had been led to believe it was thousands. Luckily, the Mumbai Press Club and cheap Old Monk is close enough to drown all sorrows and outrage at TV, er, lies.

     

    That was 2011. Since then it was been a very rocky relationship between TV and Kejriwal and clan. No other political party in India, and this is in spite of all the efforts of Sanghi trolls and Congi agents, has been under such close scrutiny as the AAP. Every move it makes or doesn’t make is analysed in high decibel theatrics.

     

    The AAP has been peculiarly obliging to the media too, letting itself and its supporters down with clockwork regularity. All its shenanigans seem to be made for TV too, with sting operations and press conferences and public dissent and revolution. AAP and TV media are now involved in one of those symbiotic or parasitic relationships you read about in nature, where one organism cannot survive against the other.

     

    All the established parties can spend millions and try as much as they like to win PR battles. AAP has figured out the publicity game perfectly even if it is often to its own detriment.