Recession & Impact on Media

Taken from: http://www.pluggd.in/economy-downturn-startup-survival/recession-and-media-business-3340/

The media business is solely dependent on advertising dollars - and is precisely the most hit in the times of recession. Here is a recap of what's happening with media businesses:


Outlook group, as reported in Businessworld is up for sale.


The INX network has huge distressed assets while NDTV is planning to raise more funds from the market.


Intense competition may also swallow UTV's news venture.General entertainment channels could end up with an average annual loss of more Rs 300 crore. [source]


India Today has closed Bengali edition - will restart when market conditions improve. [source]


Business Standard has shut down its Gujarati edition.


Mail Today from the India Today group is no longer eyeing a 20-city roll out at least for now.


Impact - Price Hike:


The newsprint prices have shot up by at least 50 per cent in the last six months and are eating into the profits of newspaper companies.


Both The Economic Times and The Times of India from the Bennett, Coleman stable have increased their cover prices in different markets.


The Times of India now costs Rs 4.50 in Mumbai opposed to Rs 4 earlier. Even DNA has hiked its cover price from Rs 2 to Rs 2.50.


Lesser options: Most of the players are going slow with their expansion plans.


Many regional players are feeling the heat and consumers will be left with limited options.


Layoffs: Times group is evaluating rationalizing its manpower by about a 1,000 people from its internet and print media divisions [source]

All Muslims are not terrorists. But all terrorists are Muslims - reactions

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai, Chief of Bureau, Hubli, Times of India, in the days before he disappeared to Hubli and acquired this designation was one of the more entertaining members at Column 9 meetings in Bangalore.

Within days of taking charge of Hubli, Rishi met with the now oft quoted statement involving Muslims, terrorists, comparisons and counter comparisons...The post below is his reaction to that statement. We have warned him that there is likely to be a deluge of responses to this! smiles.

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A media group owner has said something interesting. ``All Muslims are not terrorists. But all terrorists are Muslims. I don't see why we should be afraid of accepting such facts''.

The high profile entrepreneur and journalist made the statement at a music performance in Hubli on November 29. What is even more interesting is that there were some Muslims among the guests and performers!

I thought I would add some more facts that such people may not be afraid to accept

Intelligence agencies of India, USA, UK, and other countries have identified nearly 125 global terror outfits.

1. Half of these have Christian cadres. The motto of some such organizations is to convert the world into ``The Promised Land''.
2. A third of these have Muslim cadres. Some say they are fighting a Holy War. Some media organizations call them Islamic terror outfits.
3. At least 10 % of those listed are fighting for rights of tribes.
4. There are at least 10 agencies on the list that have non –tribal Hindus as cadres.
5. The list also includes groups formed by people of other religions like Buddhism and Judaism.

Now I want to put you through a small quiz.

1. Who killed M K Gandhi?
2. Who killed Solomon Bandaranaike, former PM of Sri Lanka?
3. Who killed Premadasa, former president of the same country?
4. Who killed millions of innocents in Ireland for over seven centuries?
5. Who killed thousands in a blood war over four decades in the Kingdom of Nepal?
6. When Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, nearly two million people were killed. What was the religion followed by senior Khmer Roughe leaders?
7. Who killed Indira Gandhi?
8. Who killed Rajiv Gandhi?
9. Who gas bombed trains in Japan in 1995?
10. What is Lehi?

Here are the answers.

1. India's most famous assassin ever, was Nathuram Ghodse, a Hindu Brahmin.
2. Bandaranaike was assassinated by Talduwe Somarama, a Buddhist monk, in 1959. Solomon's wife Sirimavo Bandaranaike would later take over as the world's first woman PM.
3. LTTE, which mostly consists of Tamil speaking Hindus.
4. Irish Republican Army is a Christian organisation.
5. The Nepal Maoists are Hindus.
6. Some prominent Khmer Rouge leaders were devout Buddhists.
7. Khalistan activists who were Sikhs.
8. LTTE again.
9. Members of the Aum Shinrikyo, a new religion influenced by Buddhism and Christianity.
10. Lehi OR ``Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", was a terrorist organization that was given general amnesty and merged into the Israel army. Yitzhak Rabin, former Israel PM was a legendary member of the outfit.
    

Recent links

We had an interesting and heated meeting last week about the reportage that followed the Mumbai attacks (and no, we don't call it "26/11"), and Seena will post on that discussion soon. In the meantime, here's some media on the media; some media reports understanding and analysing the issue and some media defending itself:

On the Mumbai attacks:
Biju Mathew's piece in Samar Magazine here
Amitav Ghosh in the NYT here

On the media reportage:
Kalpana Sharma in Tehelka here
Suparna Sharma in the Asian Age here
Delhi Union of Journalists' members here
And, finally, Barkha Dutt responds to criticism here

These links will later move to our side bar and in the meantime, The Hoot is always a great place for media analysis.

Narcoanalysis

When it was time for us to discuss the next issue, the media was abuzz with the murder of Arushi Talwar, in NOIDA - police investigations had proceeded in a slip-shod manner, accusations were being hurled around citing first the family as the main culprits and then the home's domestic staff. Finally the prime suspect was whisked off to Bangalore for a spot of narco-analysis.

Bhanu talked to Column 9 about an investigative story that he was working on for The Week magazine on the issue of narco-analysis, examining it from many angles. Column 9 discussed whether narco-analysis was, in a sense, becoming a new form of police torture - suspects being subjected to tests (that are not scientifically rigorous) under severe pressure without their consent. Even if the evidence so obtained was unusable in a court of law, the results are often used to influence public and/or judicial pressure upon the suspects which could then cause them to incriminate themselves.

The Karnataka Budget

After the meetings on the "Media on Terror" report which resulted in the work of the fact-finding team being published and distributed (you can view it as a pdf on the right-hand side panel), Column 9 moved on to discuss the Karnataka budget.

Shivasunder had extensive research on the Medium Term Fiscal Policy Act, by which the Karnataka government was bound to act in certain pre-ordained ways by the World Bank and the IMF. New Chief Minister Yeddyurappa may have made several promises to farmers and commited to reforms and sops... but how could he deliver when his Government was actually tied down by the loans it took from international institutions several years ago? The conditions under which these loans were taken allowed the big banks enormous control over how Karnataka would develop - in effect it is they who decide what kind of 'progress' the State will charter.

Column 9 had a series of meetings on this issue which analysed the current Karnataka budget and then wrote out an academic article which is awaiting publishing. If you would like a copy, write us! - column9@gmail.com

Media on Terror report

Here is the Media on Terror report, published by Column 9 - a deeper look at the media reporting on terror in Karnataka. The report was written in the context of a series of arrests that took place in Karnataka between January and March 2008.

The concerns that set the pace for the report were the media reports that emerged at the time rather than the arrests themselves.

Would appreciate comments, suggestions and questions!

The first step

To say it again - Column9 is a group of journalists based in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Why do we call ourselves Column9?

Column 9 is the unwritten column. The column that is always missing. The name stemmed from our realization that there were several issues and perspectives that had either gone missing from our media or had been dropped for various reasons. Within the standard 8 columns of a newspaper, there would be no space for a ninth column filled with these crucial stories. Hence, a group - Column 9, whose endeavor it is to write the missing stories and missing analyses and perspectives into stories that do emerge within the standard 8 columns. As people engaged with media, Column 9 is our effort to not only sensitize ourselves but to re-define our roles as ones beyond mere information gatherers.

This is going to be our space for articles, news reports, stories that we are reading, writing and thinking about.