MxMIndia

Tag: Times of India

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Freaking News: Tendulkar upstages the budget extravaganza

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Pranab Mukherjee owes a big debt to Sachin Tendulkar. By the time Saturday morning dawned, the newspapers it seemed were far more excited about the century of centuries than they were about fisccons, indirect taxation and how do you solve a problem like Mamata.

     

    The Times of India, Uttarakhand, had “Sachin, Thanks a Ton” as its lead headline and story. The budget was tucked below the fold. The Hindu went with convention and the budget, “Dr Pranab’s bitter medicine” but there was Sachin’s “century of centuries just below the fold. The Hindustan Times (Delhi) put Sachin as a banner on top of the budget – “God of All Things” and then said, “Reforms on Rewind”.

     

    The Times of India’s Mumbai edition put Sachin at the top and the bottom. There was the banner “Tondulkar goes where no one ever has or ever will”, then a graphicked-up finance minister with the headline, “Face it. Life’s got a lot more taxing” and then “Thanks a ton, Sachin” at the bottom. DNA, Mumbai went with “Budget bores, Sachin scores” which about put the matter in perspective.

     

    As far as headlines go, I would say Hindustan Times has won, DNA has come second, Times has tried too hard and Hindu not at all.

     

    Interestingly, Hindustan Times, Mumbai’s Sachin banner read “Man of the Century” which perhaps proves that HT thinks that either no one in Mumbai will get the Arundhati Roy reference in the “God of All Things” or that people in Mumbai can’t do maths (man of 100 centuries, surely?) or that the Mumbai edition just felt it had to be different from Delhi. Now that’s a legitimate desire, surely?

     

    Even The Economic Times could not ignore Sachin and tied the two together into one headline, “On Budget Day, Sachin scores”. The Vodafone tax case also got a cricket reference “Vodafone may have to face Pranab’s Doosra”.

     

    Thus the nation’s fascination with cricket and Tendulkar managed to upstage the annual extravaganza that newspapers go through every year.

     

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    In fact, Saturday must have been a news editor’s nightmare, trying to decide which story was bigger. After all, we’ve spent almost a year going on and on about Tendulkar’s 100th century and couldn’t give it second place even if it arrived on budget day.

     

    As for what the newspapers said about the budget, it was more of the same – some people liked it and some didn’t. More than likely: all will be forgotten as Mamata Banerjee plays out some new drama and Akhilesh Yadav loses some of his sheen. Pranab Mukherjee will probably have the last laugh.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Freaking News: It’s business as usual after the election euphoria

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Of course the media was to blame for the Bahujan Samaj Party’s loss in UP’s assembly elections. Sure, the Samajwadi Party, Congress and BJP were also involved but the media certainly played a role in the rout of Mayawati. Thankfully – perhaps – the former chief minister of UP did not blame the people, as Prakash Karat, chief dictator of the CPM did, after the Left managed to lose West Bengal to Mamata Banerjee.

     

    After the results were declared, TV land went into a sort of decline. Having expended this enormous amount of energy on getting the results out to the people in the usual frenzied fashion, the day after was a probably inevitable anti-climax. The arrival of Holi did not help either, because everyone went into holiday mood which for most TV channels means showing a stream of Hindi film songs (no point asking) and other fillers.

     

    Life was not different for newspapers as Holi meant holidays on different days across India. Was this a conspiracy by the Election Commission? If I were Mayawati or Salman Khurshid, I would certainly think so.

     

    The Times of India’s early edition for Dehra Dun on March 7 (more on the perils of being stuck with a mofussil edition coming soon) headlined the results as ‘UP has spoken, no Rahul Maya’, with the ‘sp’ of spoken in red. Other puns were also in evidence (Sonrise for Akhilesh and Bad Heir Day for Rahul Gandhi). The Hindustan Times went for ‘Akhilesh Pradesh’, DNA Mumbai had a bit of fun with ‘Rahul knocked down by cycle’.

     

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    Newspaper editorials summed up the results quite cogently. The Hindu argued that just depending on anti-incumbency isn’t enough; parties have to make more effort that expecting the other person to lose. The Times of India emphasised the fact that the Indian voter knows when someone is trying to take them for a ride and rather than traditional promises, deliverance and governance are the keys. Several commentators also pointed out that corruption at the Centre had an impact on local polls, which is bad news for the UPA and Anna Hazare, his team and Baba Ramdev had a little chuckle here. No one missed the fact that the regional parties had trumped the big two in UP either. The forthcoming perils for the UPA and the BJP have both been underlined.

     

    As expected, it takes print to make sense of anything and TV would do well to develop some expertise and analytical skills of its own.

     

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    By the time the euphoria died down, it was business as usual and the Samajwadi Party was up to its usual tricks which TV jumped on with alacrity – a young boy killed, journalists under siege, houses burnt. An IPS officer was killed in Madhya Pradesh, apparently by the mining mafia, several people in Mumbai were hospitalised by poisonous Holi colours and BS Yeddurappa wants his job back!

     

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

    Freaking News: It’s a dull year for TV

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The wonder that is TV news inIndiabecomes a total damp squib if there is nothing exciting happening. And this year has been particularly lacking news-wise. Or that is, news that suits TV land. Especially after the excitement of last year – not the least created by the anti-corruption movement – 2012 seems dull. The UP elections have not provided enough fodder and the best we have managed is the hullabaloo over Salman Rushdie and the Jaipur Literary Fest. The Supreme Court came down firmly on the age crisis faced by the army chief and that is now the end of that potential drama.

     

    It’s another matter that we have had sufficient news to keep us occupied. But when you run on a permanent cycle of “breaking news” which can be turned into hysterical studio debates, ordinary news does not suffice. Right now, the crisis within Kingfisher Airlines has the most potential.

     

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    Now that so many states have objected to the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, because it hurts our “federal structure”, it is perhaps time for newspapers to find commentators who can explain our “federal structure” in Constitutional terms. Are we really federal? Or is this just one more political ploy? In terms of law and order, the odd thing is that whenever something goes wrong in any state, people within and without the state clamour for a “CBI” probe. This, in spite of the fact that the CBI goes against our “federal structure” and at other times, is seen as a handmaiden of the ruling party at the Centre. It’s an odd but fascinating dichotomy of thought.

     

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    Yesterday’s newspapers told us that Anna Hazare is fit and raring to go. Today’s newspapers tell us that he and his team are due to meet. It would be interesting to see if television is still as accommodating to Hazare and his merry followers or whether they have fallen out of the news cycle. Newspapers, it must be admitted, have dismissed Hazare news to little single columns.

     

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    Having declared their “Aman Ki Asha” campaign for peace with Pakistan, the Times of India now looks east and introduces a “Bonding with Bangladesh” exercise. Since many Indians are even unaware that Bengal was partitioned (the general feeling appears to be that the only people affected were in north India), it will be interesting to see what kind of response they get. For now, it is sharing stories with the Bangladeshi paper Pratham Alo, to “deepen people-to-people” ties.

     

  • Bollywood and media pay tribute to film reviewer Nikhat Kazmi who succumbed to cancer on January 20, the day her last review appeared in print.

    Filmwallahs, scribes mourn film critic Nikhat Kazmi’s death

    By A Correspondent

     

    “After people die, they become stars. Nikhat Kazmi just became four and a half”, a tweet by @NumbYaar as a tribute to Nikhat Kazmi aptly summed up feelings at her untimely death at the age of 53 on January 20, 2011. She was suffering from cancer.

     

    “Was truly shocked to hear about the untimely death of nikhatkazmi…the TOI critic of several years…prayers and thoughts with her family,” tweeted Karan Johar  (@kjohar25).

     

    “Tragic news. Extremely sad to know about the demise of Nikhat Kazmi, one of the most persistent film critics. Am sure wherever you are, it’ll be a 5 star rating, RIP. May God give strength to your loved ones,” tweeted Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar).

     

    Ms Kazmi was the film critic at Times of India where she had been working for almost 25 years. According to media reports, she continued working till the very end. The last films she reviewed were Sadda Adda, Chaalis Chaurasi, Ghost and Blitz  (a Hollywood film). Ms Kazmi was always generous with her ratings, making no distinction between mainstream Bollywood and smaller independent cinema. And her generosity and grace were greatly appreciated by Bollywood.

     

    “Nikhat Kazmi was generous! Having come to terms with mortality she looked for something good in every film she viewed,” tweeted director Mahesh Bhatt  (@MaheshNBhatt).

     

    “Nikhat Kazmi was a great support for alternate cinema. Her reviews of Red Alert and Mee Sindhutai Sapkal, reaffirmed my faith in going global,” tweeted director Ananth Mahadevan (@ananthmahadevan19h).

     

    Many youngsters also gave her credit for always encouraging them in her reviews.

     

    “RIP Nikhat Kazmi. You enjoyed cinema and therefore encouraged us more than criticized us. We will miss you,” tweeted writer and director Milap Zaveri (@zmilap).

     

    “The 1st ever review I read of Refugee, my 1st film, was by NikhatKazmi. She always pointed out the road to improvement to me. RIP ma’am,” tweeted Abhishek Bachchan, (@juniorbachchan), mere hours after her demise.

     

    “Nikhat Kazmi ji the one person who has always encouraged me. Wrote so beautifully and one film critic I respected a lot! May her soul RIP 🙁 ,” tweeted Neil Nitin Mukesh  (@neilnmukesh).

     

    Not only Bollywood, Ms Kazmi’s death shocked many of her colleagues in the media fraternity too.

     

    Khalid Mohammed, film critic and filmmaker, said he wished he had known her better. “She was based in Delhi, while I worked in Mumbai. We would meet mostly at film festivals which required a group to cover the functions. I can’t say I knew her well, but I wished I had. I admire her perseverance, for she would review Indian as well as foreign language films,” he told MxM.

     

    Trade analyst and fellow film critic Taran Adarsh too expressed his condolences via Twitter: “Deeply saddened by the news of Times of India movie critic NikhatKazmi’s demise. RIP.”

     

    Parsa Venkateshwara Rao Jr, a senior journalist with DNA, had met Ms Kazmi once but she left quite an impression on him. Though he did not agree with her, he said liked her because: “Her heart was in the right place. She understood the importance of Hindi cinema and how it mirrored changing political and social winds of change. She was an anguished liberal,” he told MxM.

     

    Apart from being a film critic, Ms Kazmi was also an author who had written three books, Ire in the Soul: Bollywood’s Angry Years, The Dream Merchants of Bollywood and Times Guide to Hollywood Blockbusters. She had also written two plays.

     

    Whether people agreed with her critiques or not, there is no denying that her reviews in TOI will be missed. “RIP Nikhat Kazmi. A beautiful large theatre, with the coziest seat n all your favourite movies await you:) #respect” – Dia Mirza (@deespeak).

     

  • Times Group's Hindi daily Navbharat Times is launching its special NCR edition in order to further strengthen its position in Delhi-NCR. The pricing remains unchanged at Rs 2.50

    NBT launches NCR edition with hyper-local pullouts

    By Akash Raha

     

    Navbharat Times (NBT), the Hindi daily from Times Group, is launching its special NCR edition in order to further strengthen its position in Delhi-NCR. There will be no change in the pricing and it will remain Rs2.50 per day. Understanding the latent need and growing popularity of regional content amongst its readers, Navbharat Times decided to tailor its offering accordingly.

     

    Ranjeet Kate, Director Languages- Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd said, “Of late, media buying behaviour has seen a lot of change. Advertisers see language dailies as a medium providing valuable and sizable reach in key markets like NCR. While on the other hand, ‘readers’ of such fast-paced cosmopolitan cities see newspapers as a trustworthy guide. We can deliver value in such a scenario with a customized NCR edition for both our readers as well as the advertisers.”

     

    For most of the advertisers, NCR is an important territory. Advertisers who are advertising inDelhican takeDelhi+NCR package at a nominal add-on cost.

     

    The NCR edition will not only retain its special Delhi and national content but will also offer a complete coverage of the state-level news in UP and Haryana. This special NBT-NCR edition will be available in all the five suburbs (Ghaziabad,Faridabad, Gurgaon, Greater Noida and Noida).

     

    Readers in these areas will also get the hyper local city pullouts in their respective regions, along with the main issue. Regionalizing the main issue will make the product offering appear more promising and customized for its NCR readers.

     

    Aman Nayar, Brand Manager- Navbharat Times said, “Most advertisers who advertise in Delhi would also want NCR and giving the minimal add-on rate, NBT intends to add most of its NBT Delhi advertisers to the NCR edition. The sizable local advertising, of course, will be done separately.”

     

    NCR has always been a booming vibrant market. It has been witnessing huge growth in job opportunities, increased urban migration, increased housing projects and huge investments in the transport infrastructure.

     

    From the advertising point of view, tapping the NCR market has always been an area of interest for all advertisers, as they always look out for mediums which have deeper engagement levels with their audiences. NBT, which aims to be seen as a value provider for its readers as well as advertisers, intends to keep experimenting and expanding in newer and relevant territories.

     

  • A celebration of fine food, appropriate for the magazine’s content mix, has been planned for the November 19 event in New Delhi.

    Yummy launch event for BBC Good Food

    By Akash Raha

     

    BBC Good Food magazine from the Worldwide Media stable is all set to kick off its inauguration event on November 19 in Mumbai. The magazine was earlier launched on October 21, which was also the Good Food Day. MxM India got in touch with Mr Tarun Rai, CEO, Worldwide Media Group to know more about the launch event and how the magazine has being doing in the market thus far.

     

    Speaking about the response towards the magazine Mr Rai said, “The response has been quite overwhelming both from advertisers and readers. Our mailboxes are flooded with compliments from readers, many of who have actually tried out the recipes. Some others have gone and checked out restaurants that are recommended.”

     

    The launch event on Saturday is set to be a grand celebration of fine food with fine entertainment. The menu is a five-course meal specially put together for the occasion by chefs from India and abroad, and it is a sit-down dinner for a select group of people. It will be a room full of celebrated chefs, restaurant owners, food critics and writers, food retailers, senior corporate and the high-profile set of Mumbai including stars from Bollywood.

     

    Mr Rai went on to say, “We are the first international food magazine in the country and we expect to have the first mover advantage in the fast-evolving Indian food sector. I believe we spotted the opportunity well before the others and will reap the benefit. Besides just the business objectives we do expect BBC Good Food to contribute to the exciting new developments that are taking place with food in India. We want to help people experiment more in their kitchens and when they eat out. We want to showcase the young and dynamic Indian chefs who are making food so exciting. We want to introduce our readers to world cuisines… We believe India is ready for a specialist food magazine.”