06-01-2004, 08:34 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Times of India â Times of Italy (controlled by Bennet & Colmann, a UK based group)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all , Bennett Coleman has long since been taken over by the Jain family.Ashok Kumar jain, died recently in 1999 ? The Jain family has strong connections with the Congress Party Of course it is another matter that they are just as anti India as were the bennett Coleman's, prior to independence, who were of course pro British. The current managing director is Vineet jain.
This is a quote from Outlook
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ASHOK JAIN
"Kesri Is An Old Friend Of The Family"
For a man dogged by controversy and FERA cases (for allegedly diverting $150,000 abroad for the purchase of a company, Turner Morrison, and illegally opening an account for Congress president Sitaram Kesri at Barclays Bank, London), Ashok Jain is remarkably unruffled. Perhaps some of the composure stems from a recent legal coup; last week the Delhi High Court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate the 63-year-old proprietor of Bennett Coleman & Co at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences instead of summoning him to the ED office at Lok Nayak Bhavan. An hour after he moved from the plush Apollo Hospital to a private room at the Institute's cardiology wing, the media magnate spoke at length to Charu Lata Joshi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Magazine | Jul 16, 1997
Second of all Sonia came on the scene only in the mid 80's . The TOI were anti india long before Sonia. There was a period when the late Girilal jain(father of meenakshi jain and Sandhya Jain) was the editor when it was centrist but he was fired for that reason.
Do not look upon the world with a lens that is made today. learn a little history, then it will help you understand the world a little better.
PS - I came across this insider view of TOI, written not too long ago.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->---(snip)
Why do we buy a newspaper - editorial content or
promotional trash? Questions to be answered. I am sure
the journo in the group, Jayanthi, would have
something to say on this.......
---(snip)-----
Hi,
What do I say?
Well, let me tell you a story.
When I was a student in the Times School of Journalism---it was called TERF----we had regular interaction with Samir Jain, Vice Chairman, Bennett Coleman. He was just fresh from his studies abroad, was fired by his ideas and was also far more
forthcoming with his ideas than he is today.
One day he arrived in class and drew two triangles---upright and inverted. Then he went on to explain that journalists thought the upright triangle represented the organisational structure in a journalistic workplace. At the apex of this triangle were the journalist, at the two corners on the base were the circulation and advertising departments.
He pointed out that he believed it was the other way around---journalists at the bottom, circulation and advertising at the top. He also explained the rationale for his thinking. He said if one disaggregated the per newspaper publishing costs, it normally worked out to about Rs 4. Of this, the reader paid Rs 2. The rest had to be generated through advertising. The circulation department was important, because unless the "paid" content was delivered at the reader's doorstep, the advertisements would not come and in, and newspaper owners would not be able to break even or survive in business.
It was a shocking thought in those days. But it is interesting that when Samarji or VC, as he is known, made the statement, Girilal Jain was the editor. He was such an autocrat that he would not permit Saturday Times (the first colour glazed supplement in the country) to be brought out under the ToI banner. When it was explained to Girilalji that the supplement would improve ToI, he dismissed the idea saying ToI couldn't be improved, since he had conceived it!!!
Thus, Saturday Times was started not under the ToI editorial, but under the marketing department. I know all this, because I was among the first four sub-editors to work with that section.
A year or two years down the line, Girilalji was replaced by Dilip Padgaonkar as editor. Today, Padgaokar works with Bennett Coleman, but he sits on the side of the management. Many in ToI joke that this is Samirji's greatest achievement---that he made a manager out of a journalist.
During the years that Samir Jain and then his brother Vineet have been at the helm, the inverted triangle structure has come to exist in Bennett Coleman. The advertising and circulation departments, in that order, get 10 times the salaries, perks, amenities and other benefits as compared to the editorial.
Besides, I have one question to address to those who initiated this discussion. Who is the editor of Times of India---if you can answer that question, I don't think I would be writing my two-bit at this point!!!
In all honesty, the era of the editors has more or less come and gone. I don't think you can name too many editor editors (not page editors and section editors please---I was one too, a financial editor before I became bureau chief) today. perhaps, you have Ninan, Vinod Mehta---after that I am truly at a loss.
This is true of most media publications, but more so of ToI, which has systematically marginalised journalists, in its quest for advertising revenue and
market share. As a journalist, I would like to think they'll pay for this error in strategy one of these days, and the readers (like sharholders) would abandon them for treating them badly.
Only, that does not seem to be happening. The Jains have thrived, their market share has grown, just about everyone wants to be in their pages, so what else do you need? This No 1-No 2 battle goes on, but even here, the current word is No 1 in Delhi or No 1 in India. HT, I think is the former, ToI the latter. (ToI claims it is also the world's second most read English daily, I think next to FT. But No 1 in this sense is certainly not HT).
The point is if market forces do not discipline bad business practices, there's isn't much one can do. I would attribute ToI's present problems to market abberations. Now had the readers abandoned the paper after Rishi Chopra's arrests, do you think the group would blithely go the way it does, justifying rubbish? They claim Rishi was with the management---then how did his writing get into the editorial pages day after day?
And as for corruption, I have another story to tell. Years ago I heard someone recount this tale. There are three kinds of people in the world. Always corrupt. Never corrupt. Corruptible if the opportunity presents itself. 20% each of the population falls in the extreme categories. The rest--60%----fall in the middle. Just because somebody has been caught in paper does not mean corruption exists only there. The 20% are everywhere---the rest are the 60% waiting for the opportunity---in journalism and everywhere!!!
Warm regards
Jayanthi
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all , Bennett Coleman has long since been taken over by the Jain family.Ashok Kumar jain, died recently in 1999 ? The Jain family has strong connections with the Congress Party Of course it is another matter that they are just as anti India as were the bennett Coleman's, prior to independence, who were of course pro British. The current managing director is Vineet jain.
This is a quote from Outlook
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ASHOK JAIN
"Kesri Is An Old Friend Of The Family"
For a man dogged by controversy and FERA cases (for allegedly diverting $150,000 abroad for the purchase of a company, Turner Morrison, and illegally opening an account for Congress president Sitaram Kesri at Barclays Bank, London), Ashok Jain is remarkably unruffled. Perhaps some of the composure stems from a recent legal coup; last week the Delhi High Court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate the 63-year-old proprietor of Bennett Coleman & Co at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences instead of summoning him to the ED office at Lok Nayak Bhavan. An hour after he moved from the plush Apollo Hospital to a private room at the Institute's cardiology wing, the media magnate spoke at length to Charu Lata Joshi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Magazine | Jul 16, 1997
Second of all Sonia came on the scene only in the mid 80's . The TOI were anti india long before Sonia. There was a period when the late Girilal jain(father of meenakshi jain and Sandhya Jain) was the editor when it was centrist but he was fired for that reason.
Do not look upon the world with a lens that is made today. learn a little history, then it will help you understand the world a little better.
PS - I came across this insider view of TOI, written not too long ago.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->---(snip)
Why do we buy a newspaper - editorial content or
promotional trash? Questions to be answered. I am sure
the journo in the group, Jayanthi, would have
something to say on this.......
---(snip)-----
Hi,
What do I say?
Well, let me tell you a story.
When I was a student in the Times School of Journalism---it was called TERF----we had regular interaction with Samir Jain, Vice Chairman, Bennett Coleman. He was just fresh from his studies abroad, was fired by his ideas and was also far more
forthcoming with his ideas than he is today.
One day he arrived in class and drew two triangles---upright and inverted. Then he went on to explain that journalists thought the upright triangle represented the organisational structure in a journalistic workplace. At the apex of this triangle were the journalist, at the two corners on the base were the circulation and advertising departments.
He pointed out that he believed it was the other way around---journalists at the bottom, circulation and advertising at the top. He also explained the rationale for his thinking. He said if one disaggregated the per newspaper publishing costs, it normally worked out to about Rs 4. Of this, the reader paid Rs 2. The rest had to be generated through advertising. The circulation department was important, because unless the "paid" content was delivered at the reader's doorstep, the advertisements would not come and in, and newspaper owners would not be able to break even or survive in business.
It was a shocking thought in those days. But it is interesting that when Samarji or VC, as he is known, made the statement, Girilal Jain was the editor. He was such an autocrat that he would not permit Saturday Times (the first colour glazed supplement in the country) to be brought out under the ToI banner. When it was explained to Girilalji that the supplement would improve ToI, he dismissed the idea saying ToI couldn't be improved, since he had conceived it!!!
Thus, Saturday Times was started not under the ToI editorial, but under the marketing department. I know all this, because I was among the first four sub-editors to work with that section.
A year or two years down the line, Girilalji was replaced by Dilip Padgaonkar as editor. Today, Padgaokar works with Bennett Coleman, but he sits on the side of the management. Many in ToI joke that this is Samirji's greatest achievement---that he made a manager out of a journalist.
During the years that Samir Jain and then his brother Vineet have been at the helm, the inverted triangle structure has come to exist in Bennett Coleman. The advertising and circulation departments, in that order, get 10 times the salaries, perks, amenities and other benefits as compared to the editorial.
Besides, I have one question to address to those who initiated this discussion. Who is the editor of Times of India---if you can answer that question, I don't think I would be writing my two-bit at this point!!!
In all honesty, the era of the editors has more or less come and gone. I don't think you can name too many editor editors (not page editors and section editors please---I was one too, a financial editor before I became bureau chief) today. perhaps, you have Ninan, Vinod Mehta---after that I am truly at a loss.
This is true of most media publications, but more so of ToI, which has systematically marginalised journalists, in its quest for advertising revenue and
market share. As a journalist, I would like to think they'll pay for this error in strategy one of these days, and the readers (like sharholders) would abandon them for treating them badly.
Only, that does not seem to be happening. The Jains have thrived, their market share has grown, just about everyone wants to be in their pages, so what else do you need? This No 1-No 2 battle goes on, but even here, the current word is No 1 in Delhi or No 1 in India. HT, I think is the former, ToI the latter. (ToI claims it is also the world's second most read English daily, I think next to FT. But No 1 in this sense is certainly not HT).
The point is if market forces do not discipline bad business practices, there's isn't much one can do. I would attribute ToI's present problems to market abberations. Now had the readers abandoned the paper after Rishi Chopra's arrests, do you think the group would blithely go the way it does, justifying rubbish? They claim Rishi was with the management---then how did his writing get into the editorial pages day after day?
And as for corruption, I have another story to tell. Years ago I heard someone recount this tale. There are three kinds of people in the world. Always corrupt. Never corrupt. Corruptible if the opportunity presents itself. 20% each of the population falls in the extreme categories. The rest--60%----fall in the middle. Just because somebody has been caught in paper does not mean corruption exists only there. The 20% are everywhere---the rest are the 60% waiting for the opportunity---in journalism and everywhere!!!
Warm regards
Jayanthi
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->