The idea of Track2Governance

May 8, 2011

These are interesting times for any student of politics and governance in India. While the politics has always been the much talked about subject in this part of the world, governance as a subject of academic discussion is gradually taking the centre stage now. More importantly, governance had never been under so much of public scrutiny and hence there is a need to track the real governance, its agenda, issues and concerns. The collective consciousness is getting vocal on the issues of governance and it is time to shape the public psyche at large.

The Indian media, by and large, has often failed to differentiate between the politics and governance. No wonder, they are often seen to be a party on various issues. Moreover, the public perception and middle class outburst is more based on perception than ground reality. Hence the reactive tone & tenor of India could not be channelized for a positive change in the country.
 

This vacuum demands a governance think-tank platform, something that doesn’t mind going against the collective consciousness if it is not shaped by ground reality. This is where Track2Governance aims to position itself as a news platform with a clear focus on identifying the governance, its policies, plan and agenda. Our focus will be more on channelizing the public perception for constructive politics.
 

Advocacy and activism will be very much part of Track2Governance, and we may be rubbing the government the wrong way on occasion more than one. But then the team of Track2Media that has been behind conceptualizing the news project believes that the real journalism is not about asking the sweet questions, getting the sweet answers and filing the sweet copies. We are coming in the fray with a serious approach and intent to be whistle blowers as well.
 

We will also provide the much needed media support to the deserving movements on governance reforms. But at the same time we will neither be a party to any vested interests nor support any hypocritical media managed show in the name of fighting pro peoples’ causes. We would rather take a stand against attempt to promote extra constitutional mechanism. We are quite conscious of the fact that it will be very often interesting case studies, particularly in the wake of Track2Governance going against the tide.
 

After all, it is easier to sway the collective consciousness with a populist but irrelevant cause. What is challenging to stand up against the hidden agenda and tell the misguided masses that what they think as a legitimate cause is actually lending credence to the vested interests that have a large game plan in the process. Well, the emotionally charged people may not believe us in the short term, but then earning the credibility is always a long term road map and, of course, a challenge in hand.
 

It is not that efforts to launch news projects on governance have not been made earlier. As a matter of fact, there have been very many. A few of such governance news is doing good as well. However, we have made a proper study on competitive market and aim to position Track2Governance on a different level altogether. The existing news projects on governance are too bureaucracy centric in approach with overtly bureaucratic TG in mind.
 

Track2Governance doesn’t want to have bureaucracy as TG for the right reasons. We would be rather happy to note that we are at the wrong end of bureaucrats as our TG. Our real focus would be the impact of governance & policies on the common man. We don’t intent to be a mouthpiece or extended PR machinery of the government, its policies and programmes.
 

The common man’s issues and concerns with the government is what will matter the most to us. That is one of the reasons that we will regularly come out with the survey on various issues that concerns the performance of the government and the people’s expectations with the government and their local elected representatives. 
 

For the first time in the history of independent India the TINA factor is so profound that despite of the series of scams and scandals, the collective consciousness is not ready to trust those who are trying to destabilize the government by means fair and foul. Isn’t time for a fresh approach on governance? Isn’t it time for Track2Governance?

The idea of track2realty

Dec 4, 2010

Isn’t it ironical that a sector worth $140 billion that has weathered the market crash twice in the last around a decade and still emerged as the fastest growing contributor to the GDP has not been granted even industry status in India? Even at the rock bottom in terms of the market sentiments today, the Indian real estate is poised to grow at a remarkable pace in view of the larger number of private investments and IPOs in the pipeline.
After all, the market capitalization of the real estate sector in India is just about 4.2 per cent of the total market capitalization, which is below the global norm of approximately 15 per cent, thus reflecting the scope available for growth of the sector. Sadly, the image makeover and fair trade practices within the sector have been ignored by all the parties’ concerned-government, realtors and media. The media focus seems to be as disorganized and haphazard as the real estate sector.
When a team of journalists with thorough knowledge & background of real estate sector got together to come out with a professional e newspaper, we first asked ourselves-why track2realty? We strongly believe that we can provide an alternative and viable media vehicle to the sector only when we are self-analytical and self-critical. Most of the real estate supplements of the mainline newspapers and realty magazines are actually marketing brochures of the sector and there has been absolutely no attempt to track the real issues and concerns of the sector.
It is here that track2realty is determined to make a difference. We may not act as a consumer rights’ activist group, but this e newspaper will not be an extension of marketing brochure either. We are a professionally managed media outlet for tracking the real concerns of the industry, investors and the end users. We will also come out with the research paper on the sector, and our periodical survey will reflect the true concerns of the sector.
Since real estate and infrastructure has emerged as the second largest economic activity in the country after agriculture, it has also given rise to a new economy including the media economy. The ad spend of the sector has gone up phenomenally in the last decade, surpassing even the FMCG sector in terms of growth rate. No wonder, most of the existing media foray on real estate sector are just a B2B platform with hardly any concerns for either the consumer empowerment or the industry regulation. We have well identified this demand-supply mismatch and our e newspaper will try to fill in this gap.
While we are providing news, views, reports and advisory to the readers, we are also providing a networking platform for the realty professionals. Our research reports will be aimed at providing industry reference, and survey will reflect the true state of the Indian real estate sector. At times, such hard-hitting research reports and reflective survey may not cheer up the industry, but then our focus would always be on what the industry needs and not what the industry wants.
And last, but not the least, our grievance section will be an open forum for everybody including the end users. In our sincere attempt to track the sector and raise voice for a better & organized market, we may at times rub a section or two the wrong way in the short term perspective. But we are very much committed to emerge as the genuine & reliable voice of the real estate sector in the long term perspective.

Grooming and nurturing at Tagore International school

August 01, 2010

After spending more than a decade into audio-visual medium of communication it is hard to impress me with the kind of patchy work that is being taught in various media institutes nowadays. It seems mass communication schools that have mushroomed across the country are only mass production factory of low quality jack-of-all-trade stuff. And thanks to the television revolution in this part of the world, where the journey from one Doordarshan to 400 odd TV channels has not taken more than a decade, creativity and out-of-the-box thinking has been relegated to the dustbin.
Over the last few years of my professional life in various capacity, the first thing that I have always told to these young mass media pass outs is to unlearn on the job what all has been taught to them in their respective institutes. And hence when a friend of mine asked me to be one of the judges on the panel to evaluate the work of school children, I had a mixed feeling. Even though I have a natural love for children, I was not sure as to what sort of animation and television production the young kids could have done. Worst even, I had this apprehension that it will be more of schools competing against each other in the name of their students’ work.
However, the obligation to the friend drove me to the Tagore International School in the early morning of a working day on Thursday, July 29th. The cultured grooming and discipline of the children here is something that reflects in the overall ambience of the school. In an age when many of the schools, especially in the NCR region are in the news for all the wrong reasons, this school stands out in terms of class and quality of its students. The general feeling that I have carried home is that the children here are not taught but nurtured.
It was an inter-school competition with students of around 20 schools from India and abroad being invited to showcase their talent in the respective categories. Though the first impression in the school had already made me all the more curious to see whether their works also has the substance to stand out, I kept my expectation level way below with these kids. But the screening of the inaugural film that was supposed to be “of the children, by the children, for the children” was an eye opener. At least I have not seen any amateur group coming out with such creative work with perfect finesse in the last few years.
This is no mean achievement by a bunch of school going children who have no formal education in film making at any professional level. I wish the young professionals who come out of various media institutes and are desperate to make a career in the profession, show the same kind of creativity, passion and zeal. But then the differentiator here will always be the quest to make a career by every possible short cut routes and innocent passion by the kids.
The Ordinatrix Event has been one of the most fascinating experiences in recent times. The feeling is not just because the event was very neatly organized, but in a much larger context it also reflects the fact that the mass media revolution in this part of the world has not completely gone haywire. At least the animation and television production of school going children suggest the same. Some of the concepts, ideas and interwoven social responsibility in it were indeed an eye opening for me.
Even though these children completely stand out with their class act, their feet has been firmly rooted and they don’t seem to mature and overgrow their age and experience. No wonder, the journalist and sociologist in me was equally eager to figure out whether the overt courtesy and politeness was an inherent part of their grooming or it was all plastic emotions meant for the day.
The post event interaction with the core students’ team that organized the event along with the Principal Tagore International, Madhulika Sen, dispelled even this doubt. The innocent children admitted that many of them may have to leave the creative hobby as parents want them to become successful with Engineering and likewise socially accepted degrees. Probably they don’t value even the fact that along with their routine academic curriculum they have taken the best advantage of the computer lab set up by the school and honed their creative skills. Given more opportunity they can work wonders.
I just wish these children are allowed to do whatever they enjoy doing in their lives. I wish somebody would suggest the parents of these children to watch the movie 3 IDIOTS and take a leaf out of the experience. I wish Principal Madhulika Sen replicates the same role with these children as Aamir Khan did with his other two idiot friends. My wish list is a bit too long, may be, but my expectation level has been exceeded by the experience with Tagore International school.

Fashion catastrophe & media ethics

July 6, 2010

After writing a number of articles on the TV news channels’ mindless programming right from ghost chase to heaven chase, nowadays I prefer to keep my lazy Sundays off news channels. Even though some of the programmes on news channels are more of an entertainment beating even Bollywood flicks, my personal choice is Hollywood movies for the weekend. This Sunday, however, could not help getting hooked on NDTV India in the course of the channel surfing. It was Pankaj Pachauri’s show that kept me glued for a very specific reason.
The discussion that centered on the suicide of the model Viveka Babajee was allowed to not only discuss the business of fashion in its entirety, but the panelists and audience were even allowed to be critical of the role played by the “Media”. It is not that such media bashing has not happened in the past during TV shows. It happens off and on when the anchor loses control over the show and some of the smart panelists take charge of the content.
However, on this show anchor in Pankaj Pachauri was in complete control of the programme, often himself satirically introspecting with tongue-in-cheek statements like “when a fashion icon commits suicide it is news, and four suicides a day by the farmers across the country is not newsy”. It was a rare self introspection by the TV channel when the media was allowed to be criticized and one panelist went to the extent of calling the show as a “Pink Shiphon Condolence”.  I wonder how many TV news channels will take a leaf out of such bold and candid shows. 
I have always felt that the media perception of Fashion has been very flawed and superficial. Their understanding of a business worth more than Rs. 12,000 crores is confined to the size zero models, ramp walks and designer clothes. However, facts suggest more than what meets the eyes in the business of fashion. As per a study the business of fashion, or to give it more inclusive parameter “wellness” is not all about cat walk and designer clothes. Even though we don’t take into account a number of skilled and semi-skilled workforce that make such shows a big hit, the business statistics suggest a much bigger market beyond ramp walk. Needless to say, this also suggests that media must do more research before they assume themselves as authority on the subject.
As per the sales figure, the number one driving force behind the business of fashion and wellness is the beauty products for men, yes you read it right it is for men and not women. The much-hyped designer clothes come to the bottom of the fashion pyramid in terms of business. How many times the media has given space on the serious nature of the business of fashion? I blame print media more than their TV counterparts for this flawed vision of business. Fashion industry like any other industry is a serious business and demands a whole lot of hard work.  Beyond hard work the nature of the business suggests that the aspirants need even more stroke of luck to succeed.
Unfortunately, this side of gloomy picture is rarely reported and never given a Page 1 space. The PYT pix and juicy masaala and rumours are the staple diet of Page 3 and city supplements. Added to this, a few Miss India and Miss World fuels the fire and every small town girl aspires to become the “Next Big Thing”. Since many of them are not conditioned to cope up with the failure in life after a heavy dose of glamour, the absence of emotional infrastructure leads to the incidents like the suicide of Viveka.
If the industry of fashion and MNCs making beauty products and advertising an unrealistic aspirational world are to be blamed for this, media is even more to be blamed. This is because it is the media which is not just the vehicle but the catalyst in most of the cases. However, till the time the editors will have the shameless defense of “we show it as it is” or “we sell what market asks for” things will remain the same. The irony of the business of media today is that the very same editor, who sends PYTs with size zero with high heels but no knowledge of fashion to cover Page 3 parties, is also part of the routine “Pink Shiphon Condolences”. No wonder, while a wardrobe malfunction gets Page 1 coverage, fashion catastrophe keeps crying for some media ethics.

It's TV Stupid

18th May, 2010

Ever since James Murdoch’s recent India visit the speculation is rife that Fox News is all set to enter the country. Murdoch has already met three key players in the Indian media market, including Shobhana Bharatiya of Hindustan Times and Vineet Jain of the Times of India for a possible tie-up. It is believed that the global media moghul is unhappy with the Anand Bazaar Patrika run Star News in India and the FDI cap of 26 per cent leaves him with no choice but to look for other partner in the region. Industry grapevine is that Fox News will start a news channel in English, followed by a Hindi news channel.

This sounds like an impeccable business strategy where the Star-Fox combine can control the business of news channels in the country with their own channels competing against each other in the top slot of the TRP and the ad pie. However, a cursory look at the Indian television news market gives confused and baffled signals. India TV has also announced to launch its English news and business channels. News X has only recently been relaunched and a couple of other players have big plans in the Indian television news business.

Media analysts are apprehensive that whether there is any room for more news channels in a cluttered and over crowded market where every other channel looks like the replica of another channel. The resource pool in terms of technicians and trained quality journalists also seem to be on short supply. So, where is the need and space for all these new channels to accommodate?

However, I personally feel there is not only room but urgent need for serious News Channels in India, since all the channels in the name of news are into business of triviality. The country is perhaps yet to see what a serious news channel should be. It seems mediocrity flows from top to bottom in the business and it went to dogs when a news reporter of a leading television channel asked the then Home Minister of the country, Indrajit Gupta as to what was his name.

This debate just reminds me of the outburst of a friend on the quality of newsmen in business. A journalist-turned-corporate affairs professional he recently remarked that in the world of intellectuals, journalists are at the bottom of the pyramid. He was reacting over a news anchor asking in the live news to the reporter on the spot of a fighter jet crash as to how many passengers were there on board. But this …OOPS Syndrome is a repetitive reality of today’s TV news rather than an exception. A news channel popularly known to lower the standards of journalism and scaling up the TRP ladder ran a story where voice over said the army chief will take the oath of office. It seems the television news channels in the country have grown horizontally than vertically.

In the rat race of TRP (the biggest racket in the business of TV news) the grammar, sensibility and ethics of TV news goes for a toss and an English news channel in its sting operation on changing face of prostitution goes to the extent of asking a sex worker as to what is her rate, per night and per stroke, and then airs it unedited. May be the promoters of the group of channels were calculating their bottom lines on those scales only where hundreds of employees were sacked on the basis of productivity report of an outside agency.

This marketing research consultancy agency had no media or news background and the productivity report was hence quantitative. More the number of bulletins you produce with lesser salary, the more productive producer you are. Poor journalists who focussed on the quality stories, and for a change knew the difference between breaking news, news flash and news update were declared non-productive. If a bulletin producer is so good with producing volumes of programmes, who cares for his linguistic skills. He can even translate an english copy suggesting two chief ministerial claimants to hindi as two chief ministers being installed in the state for the first time.

No wonder, if an anchor is available for overtime and presenting more bulletins, she is a better asset for the channel. One such anchor recently asked the CPI leader D Raja as to what is the take of CPM on the issue. The decency in the left leader made him say that his party CPI believes that……But every body is not found to be that decent. The President of International Tennis Federation was taken aback when an Indian television reporter asked him as to what should India do to make this rich man’s game to common man’s game. He bluntly put a counter question as to who is he to suggest what falls in the domain of Indian authorities.

It seems being dubbed as the Idiot Box, television news channels are determined to turn the tables and make the audience feel like idiots. Does anybody still have any questions as to whether there is any room for more news channels in India?

Media and Twitter

16th May, 2010

Ever since my last post about Twitter and its overuse/misuse as a defacto public address system http://track2media.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-twitter.html, dated 22nd April, I have been flooded with extreme reactions. While some of the followers and friends from the online community agree that its use as a public address system by people in public life, like Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor will undermine the sanctity of democratic institutions, there is another set of people who have vehemently condemned the view point. “Don’t blame the medium for human follies,” is the argument in general. Actually one of the friends from the online community wrote a blog post on the issue with the same title and started a discussion thread on the Linkedin.
The series of arguments and counter-arguments had gone unnoticed had I not sensed a profile fixation in the thought process on the subject. While those who supported the theory of twitter role being confined to sharing and expressing professional info belonged to various professions, most of the die-hard tweet community was from media and communications. It seems to be a revolution of sorts in a country where the advent of computers in the mid ‘90s led to a number of journalists getting axed out of the system since they could not adapt to the new technology.
Coming back to the core issue of Twitter being overused/misused, do media and communication professionals give the devil more than its due? I have already analysed on this blog last year, July 17, as to how over reliance on social media only reflects strategic communication dilemma http://track2media.blogspot.com/2009/07/over-reliance-on-social-media-reflects.html. It seems the uncensored nature of the medium is something that is driving the new breed of media and communication professionals crazy for the medium.
The industry facts and ground realities are actually hilarious, to say the least. Last year the PR head of an Agency was replaced by a less experienced, and arguably less competent, person on the merit of his tweet knowledge. The management may have been awed by his tall claims of changing the way they used to function through the use of new age technologies, like Twitter. The tech savvy professional who tweets more often than even some of the celebrities promised to work on the expectation management of the clients as well and shift focus from the traditional media coverage. That appeared too fancy and tempting to an Agency that had been at the receiving end of clients for poor media coverage and lack of quality exposure. However, the clients were not amused by the tweet head of the Agency and his shelf life could not be more than a year.
Another practitioner of Brand Strategy and Management was recently caught off guard in a presentation where he emphasised the need for the use of new age communicational tools like the Twitter. What this smart operator had failed to realise was that the corporate house had their own internal team for the purpose of online reputation management. When they did a google check on his credentials, before inviting him for the formal presentation, they found out that he had a healthy follower list of five.
Some of the PR professionals are regularly into the habit of tweeting before every press conference. However, I have often noticed that none of their followers are actually the beat reporters for whom it has been tweeted. That points to the core issue as to whether Twitter is to express or to impress. For the new breed of media and communication professionals it seems to be a tool to impress. They are probably compensating for the failure of their previous generation to adapt to the new age technology with computer. And that is something I find quite funny. Isn’t?

We the Twitter

22nd April, 2010

It entered into the public space as a humble notice board, made inroads into our private space with the hook of fan followers, gradually made its presence felt with occasional scoops posted by the celebrities, started spreading its tentacles into the neo-techy masses and before we realised it had driven the otherwise largely technophobic nation into its tweet zone. From politicians to cricketers, film stars to media professionals; it seems everybody wants to tweet and be followed. Many have become addicted to the social media site and can’t seem to stay away from it. So, what is Twitter?

Is it the new face of expression in a society groping for recognition beyond mere identity of “We the Nation”? Has India readily accepted twitter as the new face of tangible recognition? More the followers the better standing you have in the society, so it seems. Facts suggest more than what twitter is supposed to stay for. In a developing society like India one may have to run from pillar to post to get a ration card or any other identity card, something that is not worthy of flaunting. But for the twitter exposed lot a twitter id is much easier to get and more fancy to flaunt.

When you first look at Twitter, it seems as though it is just a large bunch of random thoughts. It is actually much more than that. It is over hyped, over exposed and over estimated channel of communication. Twitter is being used and abused like no other media vehicle. It is true that one of the biggest scams of the era involving Cricket, Politics, Money and Sex has been exposed on twitter only. But twitter can’t take the credit of any worthy contribution to this. Had the mainstream media not followed it up, this twitter post would have gone as unnoticed as thousands of others in the day.

After all, everybody is tweeting. It seems twitter is the new public address system in the country and every one is busy twitting good, bad and ugly without any censorship-legal, ethical or whatever. However, this is India and definitely the soci0-political spectrum is not as tweety as France where the President asks for public opinion on political and personal agenda through his tweets.

Twitter, as a matter of fact, has been snowballing into the political spectrum of the nation ever since a Union Minister with a fair degree of international exposure during his stint with the United Nations started tweeting his not-so-politically-correct views on various issues. Nobody had then imagined that twitter posts are going to be his nemesis in the days ahead. The accusation against Union Minister Shashi Tharoor by the IPL Commissioner and Mastermind of Gambling Racket called IPL Cricket is just the precursor of the emerging trends of Indian politics. The victim of tweets, Indian politics has added a new vocabulary in its lexicon and vendetta politics will be henceforth referred as Twitter Politics.

The first high-profile casualty of twitter posts is not just the resignation of a Union Minister, or the surfacing of what seems to be the biggest betting racket of India thus far, called the IPL Cricket. The inherent dangers are deep rooted. If tweets are the way to go, I am afraid life in the public space will be less respectful, lesser trustworthy, and even lesser accountable to the democratic institutions. Imagine a minister making policy announcements on twitter rather than in the Parliament. Can a twitter mandate replace the trouble of conducting an exhaustive election procedure?

Probably those who conceptualised the idea of twitter first had no idea as to how BIG IDEA they had been working on. The cost of running a country like India can be brought to almost negligible if twitter has its way. The law makers would not have the trouble of travelling all their way to Parliament from respective constituencies in the remote areas. The easiest possible public address system called twitter is there to take care of the causes and grievances of the nation. Union Budgets will also be tweeted and law makers along with the common man on the streets can retweet their opinion on it.

Twitter was actually meant for interaction limited to commercial and personal reasons. It is now also being used for political and other vested interest purposes. Now that Twitter is in the mainstream, with all of its tentacles reaching as far into society as it does, it is not going anywhere anytime soon. The advocates of tweet politics will soon suggest taking the advantages of twitter and seeing how it can contribute to transform the democratic and institutional fabric of a developing nation like India. Of course, there is a price tag to this universal public address system that demands a thorough cost-benefit analysis. The question is whether the Indian society in its collective consciousness is ready to pay the price of “We the Twitter”?

Why Prabhash Joshi could not be my ideal

On the sad demise of veteran journalist Prabhash Joshi, I find it quite strange, ironic and unfortunate that a whole new breed of journalists have declared him as an ideal and inspirational figure. It seems the new bunch of journalists have all jumped into the profession in the name of following the ideals of Mr Joshi. Had that been the reality, I wonder how come the new face of Indian journalism is so different from what he preached and practiced throughout his life.
When a journalist friend approached me to write an article for an obituary souvenir on Prabhash Joshi, it was much easier for me to take a moral high ground and declare him “My Ideal” too and follow the trend. However, being two generation post Mr Joshi in the business of communication, my conscience does not allow me to drag the name of one of the father figures of the profession as my ideal and continue practicing otherwise, if not altogether the contrary. To me Prabhash Joshi and his brand of journalism have been and will always continue to be an inspiration, yet he could not be my ideal.
Prabhash Joshi belongs to the old school of journalism where respect to the hierarchy and seniority was looked up to. It is not that the lobby and coterie kind of world did not exist in the media during those days. But the stature of Prabhash Joshi was much above that and in him there was always an inspirational figure whom everybody loved. He shaped the careers of many of the journalists but none of them ever became, or were allowed to become, sycophants.
It was always respect for the father figure of the industry who was there to guide the young lot. Such was the leadership qualities of this man that the young lot loved to be scolded, if found with lack of news sense or writing a poor copy. But along with this occasional pulling up to the reporters was an idealist editor who stood firm with his staff even when the Prime Minister himself wanted the journalist to be sacked.
By the time the next generation evolved in the media, the whole world had changed and liberalization had started spreading its wings in the media market as well. No wonder, many of the journalists who at one point of time sweared by the ideals of Mr Joshi started operating in a different manner. Respect for the hierarchy gradually turned into a flow of “yes boss’ from top to bottom. More money into the profession changed the face of journalism for all the wrong reasons and corruption in the industry became an accepted norm.
I remember my first chance encounter with Prabhash Joshi during a seminar at India Habitat Centre. Those were my initial days in journalism and I had heard a lot about him. This was added to the fact that by that time I had also came across very many intimidating editors for whom arrogance was the only yardstick of being a true leader. It was here that the mere body language of Mr Joshi was different; suggesting as to how true leadership is about earning the respect of your peer group and the juniors at the same time.
A soft spoken but full of satirical verses, this doyen of Indian journalism had a friendly chat with me. No intimidating body language and no editors’ attitude; yet there was an aura around that commanded respect which most of the editors under whom I have worked could not have managed to evoke. During the course of seminar on Media Ethics and Practices while his one-liner verses was all satirical, I felt that deep beneath a critical journalist’s tongue lies a dejected man who was not comfortable with the emerging realities of the profession. And he never minced words too as far as his detaste for the new brand of journalism is concerned.
At a time when the media world was looking for greener pastures and newspapers were “Made in Delhi and not Published”, Private Treaty was signed with the corporate sector and news space was being sold openly, Prabhash Joshi was among the first to openly condemn this overt commercialization. Sadly many of the Managing Editors who otherwise swear by his ideals and brand of journalism were too busy with their respective management in suggesting as to how more revenue could be generated.
That is the reason I have no remorse in accepting the fact that Prabhash Joshi could not be my ideal. Two generations post his era, the profession and its practitioners had changed. Neither could I get the professional upbringing that had been the forte of Prabhash Joshi and his ilk, nor did I fit into this next generation of journalism where the system demanded that being “yes man” was the first step to stardom. With a background of student politics, trade unionism in blood and a radical approach in politics, all I knew was to be a rebel for a cause. I have doubts whether I could ever have been an asset to a disciplinarian editor in Prabhash Joshi.
Yes, Prabhash Joshi has not been my ideal, nor do I pretend that to be. I just wish that the journalistic world would have followed his ideals, my professional upbringing would have been under this legend, he would not have been that involved in cricket that caused his heart attack or India would have played better on that day…….My wish list is a bit too long. But then had wishes been horses.

Media Forecast 2010

With our primary role in TRACK2MEDIA being media consultancy, a lot of people keep asking as to which way the Indian media is heading to in the year 2010. Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the gloomy picture in the media world will continue in the year ahead. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media.
Speaking from the perspective of TRACK2MEDIA as a media consulting agency and from a personal standpoint, what media means to us is something which is our forte, our core competency, and certainly our bread and butter. This is also one of the sunrise industries in the Indian market today. I know this statement will raise quite a few eyebrows in today’s context when the television channels are increasingly attempting to get top thin in their hierarchy and overall management practice.
One of the leading group of television channels has only recently hired a global audit firm to measure the employees’ productivity. With the mandate to roll the heads from the top (read all highly paid), restructuring resulted in many of the professionals being shown the doors. If industry grapevine is to be believed, another leading media house is ready with its own liability list. Country’s leading national daily with a financial daily, a news channel and a business television channel has also went through massive restructuring this year.
However, I am still optimistic and this euphoric state of mind has got nothing to do with the measured advertising expenditure in the year 2009. If I go by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s clearance to a number of television channels in the recent past, television as a medium of news certainly seems to be poised for another expansion spree. It may not grow vertically and qualitatively, but a horizontal growth and quantitative growth is certainly on the cards.
Even from the advertising and marketing sustenance point of view, on a macro level hardly anyone will argue against the fact that India has become the global hot spot for any global brand. From FMCG to luxury & super luxury, all roads are leading into Indian market today. India along with China has emerged as the market that is critical in any global brand’s strategy for expansion. However, I must admit here that the idea of advertising is vague. And statistics are just that – statistics.
A more critical look into 2010 for the two media platforms leading the way (television and online) will unveil a better idea of where the media is heading to. The rationale of evaluating only the television and online media is that print has apparently reached its saturation point in this part of the world and there is no major expansion on the cards. Even some of the global newspapers tying up with an Indian partner for the local edition over here have put their plans on shelves for the time being. Television and Internet, however, is heading northwards with more players joining the fray.
Journalist friends in the print media may crib that their intellectual superiority and low pay is shameful as against the triple S and one P (Sex, Sensationalism, Silly & Politics) driven television where PYT (Pretty Young Thing) is all you need to succeed. But television will continue to go some distance as against some other forms of advertising, including that of Internet and Outdoor. Television in India may be ridiculed by the serious but minority audience and academicians but it will never go away, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Actually the footprint of television in India is a case study as to how media is consumed and preferred in this part of the world. In terms of marketing strategy, 2010 may see the Indian television shifting from the traditional Ad-Breaks to that of Media Value. The fine blending of advertising and editorial content seems to be on the cards. In the US, this transformation has started long ago starting with the advent of online videos and digital video recorders. These technologies allowed viewers to skirt traditional advertising and put more pressure on media value and brand integration in the content themselves.
With more advertisers ready but cautious with their advertising dollars, the idea of branded integration will emerge as the new buzz word amongst agencies and content providers. Theoretically good content may be the king but advertisers still need to balance the idea of brand image with that of media value. To be precise, branded content may be more readily available, but media value is not about availability but if its right for the brand.
Internet opened up in India nearly over a decade ago and the new kid on the block immediately got a setback. The dot com bubble burst n late ‘90s was inevitable for two specific reasons- with very low internet penetration the whole idea was ahead of its time; and then everybody thought of making a million or two through the cheapest media vehicle possible with no quality content in the kitty. However, over the past decade the increasing internet penetration has ensured that Indian netizens grow phenomenally and online media is a formidable alternative platform to that of television, and believe it or not, even print. If the largest media baron of the world Rupert Murdoch believes the time has come for the paid content online, he has reasons to believe so.
While Internet advertising revenue growth in the US and some other parts of Europe has reached a saturation point of under 5%, Indian forecast of around 20% growth in 2010 sounds too lucrative. This has also led to digital advertising agencies appearing out of nowhere for the first time in the last couple of years. After all, this is where the key elusive demographic that the majority of global advertisers are salivating to get a chance to market is consuming their media.
For 2010, the big question about online advertising is not about why, but where. Google Analytics has suddenly emerged as much in demand as TRPs are there for television. Unlike television where advertising has more of a defined role of where trends are shaping the industry, online is fast emerging as the happy hunting ground for advertisers looking for low cost and high value medium with a global audience.
However, it seems that the lessons learnt from the first round of dot com bubble burst have been easily forgotten here. What is happening once again is that everyone is a content provider whether legitimate or not. In the absence of any defined regulation and the low cost operation, websites have suddenly mushroomed on anything and everything. This makes the job of serious website companies even tougher to produce more quality content and create the right marketing and promotion campaigns to make online advertising a legitimate success. As a practitioner of brand management I feel the online media will see some serious Off-line branding in order to create a market differentiator.
No wonder, when TRACK2MEDIA did a market feasibility survey for its forthcoming online news venture www.indianewsstreet.com, most of the marketers in this part of the world opined that online is a dynamic but fluid media platform. We do understand that advertisers understand the language of ROI (return on investment) and with constantly evolving platforms without rules and metrics, providing a sustainable business model will constantly be a major challenge. For 2010, it will be a year of proving out the validity of online as content providers, updated & instant platforms, and advertisers converge to figure out the right business model in the Indian market.
Television has an edge over here due to platform convergence because this not just ensures having the content available on both online and television, but utilizing both platforms to cross-promote the content and ultimately enhance the viewer experience. For television, online provides a whole new dimension of watching programs from audience interactivity and behind-the-scenes footage to an e-commerce component and social-networking aspect. The marketing strategy of TV 18 is a case study in this context.
If the serious engagement of both the print and television media with their Live Online Site is any indication in 2009, there will be some really serious competition in the segment. Thus, for the media groups with “Only Online” platform to offer, rich content, distinct market positioning and cutting edge exclusivity is the only answer. In the words of legendary Mark Twain, take the roads less travelled by and 2010 is the year for all of you seriously involved with the Online Media. Despite the ups and mostly downs of the media sector in the year, 2010 only promises a better and optimistic media market in India.