MxMIndia

Tag: Mid-Day

  • Now that the IPL is over however, it will be interesting to see how our perpetual moaning machines in the media will fill up their time…

    [MJR] IPL symptomatic of the end of civilization

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There’s only one newsmaker this morning and that’s the IPL. As Manoj Tiwary hit a four over Chepauk stadium winning the title for the Kolkata Knight Riders, season five of a very successful Indian Premier League comes to an end.

     

    And what a season it has been – a film star team owner fights with a security guard, another film star team owner castigates a third umpire for being unfair to one of her players, a player assaults a woman at a party, five players are exposed for spot-fixing and the management is exposed for unfair processes in the buying and selling of players… have I left anything out?

     

    And then there’s been the cricket. The drama over Saurav Ganguly now being with the Pune Warriors, the expectation that Sachin Tendulkar would soon reach his 1000th Test century, the thrilling last ball finishes, the sentiment attached to Rahul Dravid and all the news finds.

     

    And of course, the media. For some, like the ultra-bore Boria Majumdar parked in the Times of India stable, the IPL is symptomatic of the end of civilisation. The erudite Ram Guha doesn’t like it either. A player misbehaves at a party and a couple of former players threaten to go on a hunger strike – which I don’t think happened. Or at least, everyone forgot soon after. The TV channels also decided that IPL was the thin end of the wedge before the human race sinks into an irreversible path of iniquity. I would say the same thing about TV news as far as the fate of the media in India is concerned but…

     

    Sharda Ugra in The Indian Express lauds the good things, hopes the BCCI will fix the bad things and then focuses on what was really wrong with the IPL – the terrible pre and post shows on Sony’s SET Max, Extra Innings. I think there may be an extra ‘a’ in there for some inexplicable reason. Having dispensed with the dispensable Mandira Bedi, we have had the unpalatable and hysterical Gaurav Kapoor and those two girls foisted on us. Isa Guha, since she understood cricket and took it seriously, was a rare breath of fresh air. Why those two badly dressed, screeching and oddly accented girls had to interview minor starlets on the grounds was not explained to us. The cheerleaders in the studio were the worst available. I cannot understand a word Navjot Singh Sidhu says so I was spared tearing my hair out. My only concern was that he needed to go on a diet. Ever since Harsha Bhogle had a hair transplant, I cannot but concentrate on his new fringe to the exclusion of his platitudinous and fatuous observations on cricket.

    Ugra, I have to confess, was not this nasty.

     

    Mid-Day’s headline “Ra.Won” is the winner of the day. The Hindustan Times gave us a sort of truncated report, obviously written in a hurry and the reporter clearly did not like Shah Rukh Khan. The Times of India had a better report – a real surprise since its sports coverage has sunk to new lows recently – but its reporter is clearly no fan of MS Dhoni’s and called him out for his “standard tricks”, in this instance, slow over rate towards the end of the match.

     

    Now that the IPL is over however, it will be interesting to see how our perpetual moaning machines in the media will fill up their time…

     

  • In Mediaah!, Pradyuman Maheshwari recounts a story on how some marketers had once wanted to shift the Mother's Day date and comments on Siddharth Varadarajan's outburst in The Hindu, Hoshie Ghaswalla’s advice to his editors and how Taproot ought to have won the Grand Prix at Goafest for Airtel.

    Mediaah! The business of Akshaya Tritiya & the plot to shift Mother’s Day to make money!

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    Many years ago, the CEO and promoter of a well-known consumer product company came to meet me at my office at Mid-Day. He brought with him a large volume and said he wanted to seek my advice.

     

    He said that a group of varied Indian organisations had got together to find a solution to a problem: find an appropriate ‘day’ for mothers. While Diwali and Christmas-New Year were good occasions for gifting,  Valentine’s Day had become a great success thanks to “their collective efforts”. There ws a long gap between Feb 14 and Diwali which falls in October and November. Now, the study conducted by a well-known market research firm said the person whom Indians love the most is the mother. So, what’s the problem, I asked.

     

    Well, he said, the issue is that Mother’s Day falls in May in India and that’s when most schools and colleges are shut. And then he dropped the bombshell. So, we were wondering if we can shift the Mother’s Day to sometime when educational institutions are open as kids pick up the maximum of cards and soft toys etc?

     

    I must confess I was struck by the ingenuity of the idea and how some of the most discerning names in Indian industry had got together to consider this.

    The CEO-businessman wanted my views on the issue, and whether the media would pan the move. They had even looked at alternative dates and were considering August 28 since it coincided with Mother Teresa’s birthday.

     

    This meeting happened sometime in June and I wondered how it could be done since we had already had a Mother’s Day that year? No problem, he said. We’ll have two this year, and told me that the group spearheading the move had considered this and didn’t think it would have any problem. We then spoke of how Shivaji Jayanti was observed on two different dates in Maharashtra and it didn’t bother people.

     

    After this meeting, I kept waiting for a fresh date for Mother’s Day that year and in the next, but figured that wider sense had prevailed and the companies didn’t change the date.

     

    A few years later, when I had relocated to Pune, I discovered that Akshaya Tritiya was being celebrated in a big way.  I was told that it was the next auspicious festival after Gudi Padwa for Maharashtrians, and thought it was essentially Pune thingie. Two years later, when I was back in Mumbai, I found that the day had taken roots here too. And now we have most of the country celebrating it. A festival had come out of nowhere.

     

    I have been somewhat radical with some of my religious beliefs, and had faced some heat from colleagues. I think Karva Chauth is regressive and since this occurred to me a decade-and-a-half back, I have ensure that all the publications that I have worked with didn’t carry any pictures of the celebrations. But I was quite pleasantly surprised to read this outburst by Hindu editor Siddharth Varadarajan (courtesy Sans Serif).

     

     Read this carefully:

    “We carried a ‘jacket’ on Monday in our Tamil Nadu editions that featured a message – laid out in the form of an in-house advertisement – to readers on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya on behalf of “The Hindu”.

     

    “Neither I, as Editor of The Hindu, nor anyone from the editorial side, was involved in the drafting of this message. Nor did we know of, let alone approve, its contents.”

     

    Makes sense, you would say. But the clincher is Para 3:

    “For the record, it is not The Hindu’s editorial position that Akshaya Tritiya, an occasion that has risen to prominence only relatively recently, is one of “the most auspicious days in the Hindu religion.” Nor can we possibly endorse this statement – “The belief that buying gold on this day would make you prosperous throughout the year is shared by one and all” – or others contained in that message.”

     

    One doesn’t have to dream much to figure what Siddharth Varadarajan’s sentiments are on Akshaya Tritiya. And I don’t think he’s incorrect. I don’t read Hindu since I don’t get it in Mumbai, but am surprised that this announcement was carried. So while it would be interesting to know what CEO Arun Anant has to say on his editor’s comment on what his marketing team would’ve done, there’s no denying that the festival has become as big as it has today thanks only to the collective zeal of some marketers.

     

    **

     

    I am delighted to inform that not all business-to-business publications are giving in to the demands and diktats of advertisers. Especially when it comes to editorial content.

     

    Hoshie Ghaswalla

    My friend Hoshie Ghaswalla, recently appointed CEO of the Cybermedia group (publishers of Dataquest, PC Quest, CIOl etc) has now issued an advisory to all his editors that they oughtn’t worry about the whims of large corporations who love bullying trade media. Note: these are my words, not his.

     

    Hoshie and his editor noticed some misgivings among employees of a laaaarge software corporation on salary raises even as the company had declared huge dividends to shareholders. CIOL went to town on the issue a fortnight back, and if the corp hasn’t done it already, it will soon announce wage revisions.

     

    Hoshie tells me that he has advised his editor on a similar story with a large international computer hardware company. “The problem,” he confesses is “that journalists have for far too long been not wanting to upset large companies who are also big advertisers”.

     

    I jumped to defend his editors and said this must be because of his editors who’ve worked in the past would’ve on their own or were told by his predecessors on not damning the big advertisers. Puff pieces only.

     

    Hoshie didn’t agree. I didn’t complain at all. It’s good to see a sales-driven CEO ask his editors to screw erring companies (who may be existing or potential advertisers). This especially in the trade media where there are many who are known to compromise on editorial integrity and ethics.

     

    ***

     

    Agnello Dias

    It’s been over a week since Goafest happened. While I am happy that the Abby went through peacefully, I was surprised that Taproot didn’t win the Grand Prix for the Airtel ad. It deserved every bit of it, and although the Agnello Dias and Santosh Padhi were pretty cool about it when my colleague spoke to him soon after the awards (see link), he has shared his disappointment in an interview with Anil Thakraney (see link). Though not in so many words.

     

    I sincerely hope that Taproot continues to bring us great advertising, attracts some $$$s (okay, let’s make it $$$$$$$$$$$$$s!) from the Big networks and is always rooted to the real world.

     

     

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

     

    Disclaimer: Although he is CEO and Editor-in-Chief of this site, Pradyuman Maheshwari’s views in Mediaah! are not necessarily those of the rest of the team and MxMIndia.com. And decidedly not those of the sales team 🙂

     

  • Every Thursday, Ranjona Banerji will write about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    [MJR] 40 is new 60 in media

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Every day when I look in the mirror I know that 50 is getting closer. I do not grudge or regret my advancing years – I’ve enjoyed most of those that have gone by. It’s only when I open a newspaper that I get really sad about my age. Given that no one above the age of 40 can get a job in the media any more, the 13-year-olds who work in newspapers have decided that anyone above the age of 40 is doddering and on the brink of senile dementia.

     

    Cross 40 and you can be called a senior citizen, elderly, aged and any other such ageist term that you can think of. To actually avail of senior citizen benefits in India, you have to be between the ages of 60 and 65, so that particular descriptive has some technical connotations. But try explaining those to a 13-year-old who heads a news desk.

     

    Thanks to newspapers, the general public also get influenced. Mid-Day did a very good story earlier this week on how children were arrested for playing cricket in Vashi. The police said that a “senior citizen” had complained and that is why they took action. The senior citizen was 40. That is, at least 20 years before she can get a discount on a railway ticket. Good to know, I suppose, that age still commands respect.

     

    Wednesday’s Times of India tells us that two senior citizens and another person killed themselves. The first person was 71, the second was 34 and the third was 66. You feel for the 34-year-old – had he waited six years, he would have been a senior citizen too. When senior citizens kill themselves, by the way, they are usually depressed. I am guessing from reading newspapers.

     

    Oddly, these same newspapers will run stories about how 60 is the new 30 and 40 is the new 11. Clearly, the nine-year-olds who edit these feature sections are too young to read the rest of the newspaper, so have no clue what their classmates, sorry colleagues, are up to.

     

    Ah well, another day another grey hair.

     

  • It's now official. Jagran Prakashan Limited has announced its acquisition of NaiDunia, the leading daily of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

    Jagran announces NaiDunia acquisition

    It’s now official. Kanpur-based Jagran Prakashan Limited has announced that it has acquired Suvi Info Management (Indore) Private Limited. Naidunia Media Limited is a subsidiary of Suvi and is engaged in publishing the leading daily NaiDunia in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

    Launched in 1947, NaiDunia has over the years become a major player in the Central Indian states. It has multiple editions — from Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Bhopal in MP and Raipur and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

    Said Mr Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Jagran, “This was a logical market expansion for us and enables  us to strengthen our presence in Central India. Nai Dunia is a newspaper with a very strong team and has demonstrated editorial excellence over the last decade.”

    According to a Jagran communique, NaiDunia’s current circulation base is around half a million copies per day with the readership growing 2.6 times over the last five years.

    For the cash-rich Jagran group, the NaiDunia acquisition follows that of Mid-Day two years back. The inorganic growth process will continue, a source close to the development had told MxMIndia last week. “We are well on our way towards implementing our strategy for inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions as on the one hand it allows to begin with a sizeable scale with much lesser investment and on the other hand, it saves long gestation period typical of print industry. The acquisition will enable us to leverage our existing network and will have significant operating synergies.”

  • The OOH veteran has huge plans for Laqshya's growth

    Satish Singh back @ Laqshya as President, plans rapid growth for OOH major

    By A Correspondent

     

    Veteran out-of-home industry captain, Satish Kailash Singh is back at Laqshya. He took charge as President of the company earlier this month.

     

    Mr Singh, an alumnus of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, was until recently Managing Director at Realm Media, a company which he and a former colleague, Mr Yuvraj Agarwal had set up.

     

    Mr Singh has been with the outdoor sector since 1998 after 11-year stint in print – at Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day and Sterling Newspapers. He spent a decade at Outdoor Media Integrated (OMI) where he was CEO and later moved to Laqshya as President.

     

    “The out-of-home industry is at a very interesting juncture and at Laqshya we are equipped to attain greater heights,” said Mr Singh, highlighting that his company has some seasoned professionals holding key roles and portfolios.

     

  • A piece of news that's going to generate much sound and angst. Hemant Morparia, one of India's foremost editorial cartoonists, has moved from Mid-Day to Mumbai Mirror.

    Mediaah! Morparia moves from Mid-Day to Mirror, Weekend tweets, The Monday Psssst!

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    Big Switch! Morparia takes his toon from Mid-Day to Mumbai Mirror

    In Mumbai’s media circles, this is a piece of news that’s going to generate much sound and angst. Hemant Morparia, one of India’s foremost editorial cartoonists, has moved from Mid-Day to Mumbai Mirror. There was a time when he could have been called a part-time cartoonist, but since around a decade, he appears to be doing two full-time jobs. The first as a radiologist and sonologist at the Breach Candy Hospital and the second as an editorial cartoonist. Now with Mumbai Mirror, Time Out and a few other publications.

     

    Sound and angst because Mumbai Mirror isn’t an afternoon paper like Mid-Day, but they are kind-of in the same space. So the switch will hurt Mid-Day much. And angst, because it’s sad to see Mid-Day lose Morparia just around the time when it was getting its act together.

     

    In a sense, the Mirror switch is a kind-of homecoming. He started out in the Times building in the late 1980s with The Evening News of India and then the Illustrated Weekly before doing daily toons for Bombay Times for nine years. And then in 2003, he shifted to Mid-Day. Another nine years later, he’s moved to Mumbai Mirror.

     

    I posed a few questions to Morparia on the move.

     

    1. So, why the switch from Mid-Day to Mumbai Mirror?

    > Some change of scene is always good, specially after nine years. It gives you a new audience and new space and new feedback. It helps to re-evaulate your own style and content. I was perfectly happy with Mid-Day, very pleasant people to work with and no problems with them at all. Happy memories with them. Sachin Kalbag is a friend and am saddened to leave.

     

    2. One of my peeves with Mid-Day was that your toon was all over the paper. How much is a fixed slot necessary for a pocket cartoon? Like Laxman had in ToI for years?

    > Ya, a fixed slot is a great attraction for a daily cartoonist, I would say a must. See, a daily cartoon is, or could become, a habit. If all over the place, it does not easily do so.

     

    3. Will we continue to see your toons in Time-Out and elsewhere?

    > Yes, I have only given the daily cartoon slot to the Mirror.

     

    4. So what’s more fun at this stage of your career: doing sonos and xrays, or tooning?

    > Well as I respond to you, I’m at the hospital, having just made a rare diagnosis on an emergency basis at 9pm on a Sunday. I did a sonography on a lady in pain, who just lost her father, two days ago. The diagnosis will be the key to whether she needs surgery or not. With this diagnosis, a surgery has been averted. That does give one satisfaction, undoubtedly. But it’s of a different type from the creative satisfaction that a making a cartoon gives. Creative satisfaction satisfies me first. And that is fun. Medicine and radiology are not fun, but are skills that can be learnt and honed. Being in two professions as different as these give one a sense of balance, proportion and some real-life perspective.

     

    5. Do you find the role of the cartoonist diminishing in the newspaper? There are more illustrations than cartoons offering commentary?

    > I think the reverse is true. Since we famously have a young population and young people enjoy humour, laughs, irreverence, visual stimulation and rebellion, then how can cartoons have a poor future? See how standup comedy has taken off in the country.

     

    6. How would you see cartooning shaping itself in the time of tablets and smartphones?

    > I don’t know. Probably an avenue for many cartoonists who don’t have the space provided by big publishers to access audiences directly and worldwide.

     

    Hmmm. Good to see Morparia welcoming newbies (and possible competition) to the business. Given the nine-year itch, guess the next change will be in 2021. 🙂

     

    Tweets of the weekend

    Until we find a permanent home for this and given that tweets from people across our business are perhaps the best way to keep tabs on what’s happening, here’s a sample of some gems that I picked over the weekend:

     

    Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy): The most amazing discovery at @TimesNow #Foodie Awards? Arnab standing silently on the sidelines 🙂

     

    Satbir Singh (@thesatbir): In Goa, time passes so slowly you can almost hear it go hic hoc, hic hoc.

     

    Shishir Joshi (@joshishishir): What do you do whn a boss asks young reporter to pose as visiting actors fan since the office is falling short of crazy lovers of the star?

     

    Prabhu Chawla (@PrabhuChawla): Norway, gujrat porn gate, Coalgate makes it clear: Media just hypes a story and forgets a story behind such stories?

     

    Lynn de Souza (@lynndesouza): If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman. From Lokmat Women Summit at Pune this morning.

     

    Anant Rangaswami (@AnantRangaswami): Just to make you feel better on a Saturday morning. Petrol now costs 1.40 GB Pounds/litre in London….

     

    The Monday Psssst!

    Is there more freedom to journalists in newspapers or on news television? Well, the likelihood of stories getting killed before they are carried is huger in the papers given the lead time.

     

    Recently, a commentator in a much-read daily found that his/her column was not carried because it was negative on a key political leader. It may have been for the first time in many years, but the fact that a column was dropped from the commentator who is a reasonably sound name in the media was shocking. And by a newspaper which prides on its ethical way of doing things.

     

    So why am I not taking names? Well, I’m sworn to secrecy. The column in question has appeared elsewhere, and all will soon be forgotten.

     

  • Janhavi Samant will head MiD DAY Hitlist along with Center Stage, Hot Property and Big Break. Ms Samant will take charge from outgoing editor Shubha Shetty Saha.

    MiD-DAY has a new entertainment editor

    By A Correspondent

     

    MiD DAY has appointed Janhavi Samant as the new entertainment editor for Hitlist. Ms Samant will take charge from outgoing editor Shubha Shetty Saha. Ms Samant has been working with MiD DAY for more than six years now and heads the editorial for Center Stage, Hot Property and Big Break.

     

    Speaking on the new assignment, Ms Samant said: “It’s a privilege and pleasure to be working with Hitlist. It’s one of MiD DAY’s most popular sections and will continue to be so. The Hitlist masala will work its magic.”

     

    “Hitlist is the most successful section in the entertainment sphere and Janhavi takes over Hitlist with a lot of experience. And I am confident that under her leadership, Hitlist will become an even bigger success in the city ofMumbai,” saidManajit Ghoshal,MDand CEO of MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd.

     

    Ms Samant started her career as a trainee in MiD DAY in 2000 and worked there for three and a half years. Then she moved on to Bombay Times and then to Hindustan Times, before returning to MiD DAY.

    Ms Samant will be reporting to Sachin Kalbag.

    MiD DAY is a part of Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL), India’s leading media and communications group with its interests spanning across Print, OOH, Activations, Mobile and Online that covers all of India as its footprint.

    MiD DAY has become the quintessential physical connect for the uber-social generation to consume their local city news today. Over the last couple of years, the newspaper has been on a mission to up its engagement quotient with these social netizens.

    To add to the dynamic product delivery through content, MiD DAY has also been creating a unique experience for its readers and clients through globally awarded marketing initiatives. The print innovations like 3D Impact Jacket, Format innovations and promotional activities like the MiD DAY Bollywood Lunch Contest, MiD DAY Happy Hours @ Work & @ Home, MiD DAY Media Nights, MiD DAY Corporate Cricket League & many others have won top honours across International Award functions such as INMA, IFRA Cross Media Awards & Asia Multimedia Publishing Awards.

    The company also has an established presence in the multimedia space, with its web version, www.mid-day.com with presently over 23 million page views per month as well as MiD DAY news feeds on cell phones which have over 2 lakh subscribers across the country. MiD DAY is available in Mumbai and Pune.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Journos should learn a lesson from Mumbai’s voter turnout

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    So, as cynical journalists had assumed, a quarter of the way into Anna Hazare’s movement last year, this great upsurge of feeling for the country by young India was something of a hoax. When it came down to it – exercising your franchise, the biggest right and responsibility in a democracy – Mumbai has been found wanting. Hindustan Times’ headline puts it most succinctly: “Typical. Apathetic. Mumbai”.

     

    Newspapers also concentrated on rich and young Mumbai, both of which failed to show up. The Indian Express didn’t hold back taking about Mumbai sticking to its normal habit, “with voter disinterest in a handful of plush areas dragging down overall voter percentages”.

     

    As The Times of India points out, “The tony neighbourhoods of Colaba, Churchgate and Cuffe Parade repeated their past record with a measly turnout of 34 per cent, the lowest in the city.”

     

    The various reasons given for this voter apathy have been the chance for a long vacation, confusion over voter lists and general disorganisation. One woman is quoted about complaining that it took hour half an hour to vote – obviously too big a price to pay.

     

    As Mid-Day says in its editorial, “It is all very well to tweet about how this city is going to the dogs, create a Facebook page on how the roads are pathetic or organise candlelight marches to protest against terror attacks. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating. On that count, Mumbai is starving itself.”

     

    The Hindustan Times also went straight for the jugular – young people who are all aware and concerned in cyberspace but cannot translate that fervour into real life. (Aside to Election Commission: how about online voting for our youth who can’t be bothered to walk to a polling booth?)

     

    * * *

     

    On TV on Friday morning, the focus, for me, had to be on the Hindi and Marathi channels since the English channels were not unnaturally concerned with other news – Amitabh Bachchan’s operation, a fleeting glimpse of Aishwariya Rai carrying a baby bundle, the killing of two Indian fishermen by an Italian ship and something to do with Salma Hayek, which I didn’t bother to find out about.

     

    Sahara Mumbai, Sahara Samay and Star News suspended their precious stones and astrological forecast sections to provide trends, results and analysis of the elections in Maharashtra.

     

    * * *

     

    Perhaps in Mumbai’s voting pattern there is a lesson for journalists not to be too taken up with marketing hype about young India and to get carried away with what is said on social media. You have to keep track of everything but need not believe everything you hear and see on the Internet.

     

    Also, it is important to consider that India is not a society or a nation under threat or on the verge of civil war (whatever TV may tell you every night). We have no need for a social revolution like the Middle East for instance. Therefore, passion in cyberspace will not necessarily translate into anything at all in real life.

     

  • The popular tabloid changed its size for the January 25 edition for the launch of heavyweight wrestling show Ring ka King in India.

    Mid Day is a broadsheet – for a day

    By Akash Raha

     

    Mid Day appeared in a strange avatar on January 25 – as a broadsheet. The innovation was aimed at enhancing the impact of the launch of heavyweight wrestling show ‘Ring ka King’ in India.

     

    Manajit Ghoshal, MD & CEO Mid Day Infomedia Limited said, “This broadsheet innovation employed by us is a stimulating and stylised way of advertising. It introduces a surprise element, which helps in better impact and recall of the communication. It has been our continuous endeavour to create path-breaking strategic solutions for each of our clients to reach their target audience. This innovation has been one more step in that direction, as it strengthens our repute to innovate and be a solutions provider and a brand partner to our esteemed advertisers.”

     

    Colors had been looking for a strategic partner to assist in the launch of the show called ‘Ring ka King’, which will be launched on January 28, 2012 on Colors.  The brief shared with the Mid Day team was to communicate the debut of this show in India in a clutter-free manner. Further ideation on the brief led to the concept of creating a larger-than-life canvas where the launch can be communicated in an impactful manner.  The wrestlers are of enormous hulk and it was felt transforming into a broadsheet format would be a compelling way to communicate their arrival. The insights revealed from a study conducted on the kind of target audience led us to the following copy “Itna bada hai inka akaar, ki bada karna pada yeh akhbar.Teen din pehle de rahein hai khabar, Taaki aap rahein tayyar.””, which communicates the launch in a dazzling and eye-catching manner 3 days in advance. We wanted to highlight the fact that a special affair calls for a broader and bigger canvass.

     

    Commenting about this innovation, Rajesh Iyer, Head – Marketing, Colors, said, “The Ring Ka King thriller campaign is the physical representation of the excitement that the show embodies. We wanted to bring the action of the ring alive throughout our communication. To bring out the adrenaline pumped exuberance of the show into our promotional activities we collaborated with our creative partners to come up with a campaign which could do full justice to the thought. All our promotions for Ring Ka King, be it the print innovation with Mid Day or disruptive campaign across outdoor, radio and TV, are high on volume and scale.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    TV journos, please develop some sense

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    If you have ever felt that you wanted to get bored to the point of death, as a sort of scientific experiment, you would do worse than to try and make sense of daytime TV news. Having just listened to a 5 minute conversation between an anchor and reporter about the latest on the controversy about the army chief’s age, all I could fathom was that the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition. Meanwhile, the anchor and reporter repeated the same thing about five times, over and over again. Plenty of ‘of courses’ and ‘in facts’, in fact, of course, studded this conversation.

     

    * * *

     

    West Bengal’s hospitals have always had plenty of horror stories in and around them but now that TV has tasted blood there, one can see that there is unlikely to be an escape from the scanner right now. Mamata Banerjee had better watch out.

     

    * * *

     

    Mid-Day was first off the block to tell us about extraordinary behaviour of the captain of the capsized ship, Costa Concordia, as he apparently ran away from his ship – later he said he tripped and fell into a lifeboat. The transcript of the conversation between the Italian Coastguard and the captain was an eye-opener. The captain has been accused of trying some kind of stunt which led to the cruise liner running aground. Indian TV and newspapers have as usual only concentrated on the Indians affected by this accident which makes looking for the complete picture a tedious task. Is there no life – or death – outside our geographical borders?

     

    * * *

     

    Suresh Kalmadi gets bail and as usual, our TV channels behave as if he has been acquitted of corruption charges. There are few simple things for journalists to remember here: you are innocent until proven guilty in India, bail is a permissible legal option and I throw this in for good measure: it is okay to criticise the armed forces.
    This hysterical self-righteousness demonstrated by most of our TV reporters is not just annoying, it is potentially dangerous.

     

    * * *

     

    It might also help if our TV reporters and anchors develop a sense of humour instead of trying to save India’s sensitivities from the BBC programme Top Gear. Surely, we can work on the principle that we are a mature society and can take a few jokes? Or, perhaps Indian news channels should have special telecasts for Indians living abroad who get quite upset quite easily? Then those of us left behind in India can live our lives in peace.

     

    * * *

     

    Meanwhile, we still don’t know if writer Salman Rushdie is coming to the Jaipur Lit Fest or not. So much for investigative journalism or a well-constructed publicity stunt?

     

    * * *

     

    Veteran and respected journalist Harish Khare has quit as media adviser to the Prime Minister, says The Times of India because he is upset at the appointment of TV journalist Pankaj Pachauri as communications adviser. Is this something to watch out for?

     

    * * *

     

    The death of TOI’s film critic Nikhat Kazmi on Friday morning was a sad way to start the day.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji finds there's confusion everywhere… in the papers and the news channels

    Mid-Day Delhi & Bengaluru closure a shame

     Ranjona Banerji

     

    The day started with the sad news that Mid-Day was closing down its Delhi and Bangalore editions with immediate effect. Undoubtedly the owners have their reasons but it is still a shame.

     

    Having worked with Mid-Day many years ago and also having been part of a publication which shut down years before that, I can feel the pain. Commiserations to all involved.

     

    **

     

    Part of Tuesday on television and twitter was about Kapil Sibal wanting websites like Google and Facebook to screen “offensive” content on the internet. Outrage broke out on all levels. So far, except for China, no government has had much success with patrolling or reining in the internet, so good luck to Sibal and the government. Initial reactions have been largely over the top with twitterers and TV commentators rushing to protect India’s democracy, Article 19 A and so on. Without irony (actually irony is conspicuous by its absence on Indian television), Times Now rushed to Varun Gandhi to get his opinion on free speech, he of course, is known for an infamous hate speech.

     

    **

     

    Kudos to Mumbai Mirror on its story that “fans” were paid Rs 300 each to cheer for Hollywood star Tom Cruise, who was on a Mission Impossible promo visit to India. Since almost nothing in the media appears to be real, when it comes to entertainment, why not pay for a few people to cheer? The whole celebrity-entertainment culture appears to be a carefully constructed falsehood – and the media is an integral part of this.

     

    Sadly for the PR genius who came up with this scheme, the death of cinema stalwart Dev Anand pushed Cruise off the main Indian news pages and segments. Also, isn’t Rs 300 a bit cheap for a star as big as Tom Cruise?

     

    **

     

    Congratulations to film star Aamir Khan and his director wife Kiran Rao on their new baby. Good for them that they told the world it was through an In Vitro Fertilisation-surrogate process, thus giving untold free publicity to the expensive IVF process and its doctors. But is this headline in Hindustan Times’ HT Café appropriate: “Baby Boy! Produced by Aamir Khan, Directed by Kiran Rao’?

     

    Cleverness gone too far, I think.

  • Mid-Day is shutting its Bengaluru and Delhi editions with effect from December 6

    Citing profitability, Mid-Day bids ‘ta ta’ to Delhi & Bengaluru editions; to concentrate on Mumbai

    By Rishi Vora

     

    Mid-Day, Mumbai’s leading English daily, has announced the shutting of its Delhi and Bengaluru editions. The reason: profitability. Mr Manajit Ghoshal, MD and CEO of the company, confirmed this to MxMIndia. “Both Delhi and Bengaluru editions will shut down with immediate effect. Tomorrow is the last time the papers will be circulated in the respective markets,” he said.

     

    Elaborating on the reason behind the decision, Mr Ghoshal  said, “We have decided to shut down both editions in the strategy to be more profitable. Advertising revenues in the two markets was on the decline, and so we decided to focus on our Mumbai edition.”