03-14-2005, 10:32 PM
Let me post whole page before it disappear. Enjoy it-
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
// posted by PM @ 1/1/2004 12:01:10 AM
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
<b>The 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year and The 2003 Mediaah! Brand of the Year: N Ram and The Times of India </b>
LOOKBACK 2003: Believe it or not, there's a lot more than gut that went into into the selection of the 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year. Although it's Mediaah's picking, and hence a single person's choice, it's over a round-the-year tracking of mediapersons and entities. We carefully note these, and tabulate scores. This ensures that recent dip in work doesn't affect one's ratings very much. It is necessary to do this since we are dealing with intangibles. Also, what you may perceive to be hot may not appear to be hot to us or to a third person.
We've also tried to factor out extreme personal views, and ensure that these don't skew the overall verdict. So, while it's Mediaah's Person of the Year and Brand of the Year, we believe that it also reflects the view of the fraternity.
The Mediaahperson of the Year for the year 2003 is: N Ram, Editor-in-chief of The Hindu
The Mediaah! Brand of the Year for the year 2003 is: The Times of India
<b>Mr N Ram, The Hindu
Mediaahperson of the Year</b>
The former Ranji cricketer, N Ram took charge of The Hindu this year amidst some views that it could change the outlook of the newspaper. Ram though made it very clear that he was looking at a very principled approach in a rather extended editorial a few months back, to coincide with 125th anniversary of the paper.
There are many reasons why Ram is our Person of the Year:
1. Integrity: There's no disputing the integrity of both Ram and The Hindu group of publications
2. Principled: A stickler for some principles. Some of these are indeed lofty, but if he's able to adhere to them, it's commendable.
3. Commercially Successful: This is the most important. Without being a commercial success, there's no point being principled. The fact that The Hindu readership grew by 53% on a high base speaks volumes for the paper's reach.
4. Industry Leadership: Ram enjoys the respect of the entire industry, as also politicians, bureaucrats and big business. There are very such people in the media today who can match Ram on this count.
5. Aggressive journalist: The newspaper may appear very dull and boring, but that's by design. However, Ram is an extremely aggressive investigative journalist, and those who've been in the business in the '80s would remember his work on Bofors. The missionary zeal with which he took on Jayalalithaa recently is indicative of what he can achieve.
Whilst there have been several mediapersons who've done outstanding work this year, N Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu group is the 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year!
<b>Mediaah! Brand of the Year
The Times of India</b>
You don't have to pinch yourself to check if you're dreaming. You read it right: The Times of India's is the Mediaah! Brand of the Year for the year 2003.
We have issues with the journalism the newspaper practises, and we believe that by doing so, the newspaper is destroying the brand, but we must confess that we fall in a silent minority. For a large number of the people, in Bombay and Delhi and that number will grow even in Calcutta and Chennai, the Times is "hot". The intelligentsia and corporate executives may feel that it's not stimulating, but they donââ¬â¢t constitute the paper's core target audience.
The Times of India has very intelligently dumbed down the newspaper, and attracted a host of new readers to its fold. Readers, for whom Telgi is as important as Shah Rukh Khan. Readers, who don't want to get bored with serious issues of the nation. So, as one senior Times editor whom we interviewed told us: for every two or three readers it loses, there are possibly five or 10 more it gains.
The way Times has tackled the Delhi market should make for a case study in a b-school. Whoever said it's impossible to break newspaper habits?!
Mediaah! however believes that Times mustnââ¬â¢t shun serious journalism. For, they could be issues that concern its readers.. It must also do away with Medianet or any other policy that compromises its brand value. Mediaah! may continue to raise the red flag and lampoon the paper on editorial issues, but we have no hesitation to declare The Times of India as the 2003 Mediaah! Brand of the Year.
// posted by PM @ 12/31/2003 04:33:05 PM
<b>The 2003 Mediaah Dubious Achievement Awards</b>
Attention! Attention! Presenting our dubious achievement awards. We ought not to add this, but please take them in good humour, and indicators for improvement. Enjoy!
<b>The Sachin Pilgaonkar Tu Tu Main Main Award </b>for who's No 1 in the Delhi household
to The Times of India and Hindustan Times for creating the biggest ruckus ever in readership wars. Move over, detergents and colas, the new turf war will be fought in newspapers and by newspapers, but for the advertiser.
<b>The Wedding of the Year</b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
to Indian Express CEO and ed-in-chief Shekhar Gupta and NDTV for promoting each other so prominently in their respective media outlets. Gupta interviews on NDTV so he becomes famous, then he becomes even more famous by printing the same interview on the entire Op-Ed page of the Indian Express. Ever heard of a better win-win contract?
<b>The 'Copy' Editor of the Year award</b>
to a Business Standard reporter, whose story on the state of Bollywood was lifted from rival Economic Times's website. Business Standard then had to apologise in print over the goof, and Mediaah! ran a campaign on the issue
<b>The FTV-Playboy Award </b>for the Most Titillating News Channel of the Year
to Aaj Tak for dramatising an entire rape scene on prime time television, and then standing up for it.
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
<b>The Blind Spot of the Year award</b>
to every newspaper and every TV channel in India for not acknowledging the good work done by reporters of other media organisations. So it always: "It was reported by a particular news channel", "It was reported in a certain Bombay daily", "It was said in a lifestyle magazine" etc etc.
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
<b>The Ajit Singh award for switching loyalties</b>
to Deepak Chaurasia, Dibang and all other news anchors who've moved from one news channel to the other. Sanjay Pugalia has worked in most of the old ones!
<b>The R K Dhawan award for sycophancy</b>
to Bachi Karkaria for writing nice and not fully correct things about the editorial of her newspaper
<b>The Oxford Dictionary award for Language Precision</b>
to exchange4media and Pitch. Although very popular, they insult the reader's senses with their typos and editing errors.
<b>The Business India lifetime achievement award for most boring journalism</b>
to India Today. Well-circulated but a magazine that everyone buys but no one reads
<b>The Lakme India Fashion Week award for the best looking news anchors</b>
to the faces of Headlines Today. They don't have to worry if you-know-what happens
<b>The Gandhi-Nehru 'Family and Self First' award </b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
to Piyush Pandey for always putting his interests first at his agency and when it comes to representing the industry
The Prabhu Chawla award for the <b>least impressive political party spokesperson on telly</b>
to Jaipal Reddy. If the Congress wants to get anywhere near power, it must get a new person on board
The Jaipal Reddy award for 'I know it better than the best'
to Prabhu Chawla because he seriously thinks he knows the state of the country better than Vajpayee and Sonia.
<b>The Harshad Mehta award for influencing the Stockmarket</b>
to the unknown business journalist who worked hand-in-glove with operators and operators to influence stockprices
<b>The Outlook Traveller award for the best travelled journalists</b>
to the editorial staff for Femina for maximum junketeering (given size of the team) in the last year
These were sent to us by a few readers. We had carried them in our preview last week, and we've let them be in this final award listing:
<b>The Raj Kapoor-Nargis Dutt award for obsession</b>
to Mediaah! for never having a single day pass without a mention of the Times of India group
<b>The Laugh all the way to Bank award for the best Unpaid Ad Agency </b>
to Mediaah! for popularising Medianet without even The Times of India asking for it. Now, no ad agency needs an introduction powerpoint on Medianet
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
// posted by PM @ 12/31/2003 01:35:12 PM<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
// posted by PM @ 1/1/2004 12:01:10 AM
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
<b>The 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year and The 2003 Mediaah! Brand of the Year: N Ram and The Times of India </b>
LOOKBACK 2003: Believe it or not, there's a lot more than gut that went into into the selection of the 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year. Although it's Mediaah's picking, and hence a single person's choice, it's over a round-the-year tracking of mediapersons and entities. We carefully note these, and tabulate scores. This ensures that recent dip in work doesn't affect one's ratings very much. It is necessary to do this since we are dealing with intangibles. Also, what you may perceive to be hot may not appear to be hot to us or to a third person.
We've also tried to factor out extreme personal views, and ensure that these don't skew the overall verdict. So, while it's Mediaah's Person of the Year and Brand of the Year, we believe that it also reflects the view of the fraternity.
The Mediaahperson of the Year for the year 2003 is: N Ram, Editor-in-chief of The Hindu
The Mediaah! Brand of the Year for the year 2003 is: The Times of India
<b>Mr N Ram, The Hindu
Mediaahperson of the Year</b>
The former Ranji cricketer, N Ram took charge of The Hindu this year amidst some views that it could change the outlook of the newspaper. Ram though made it very clear that he was looking at a very principled approach in a rather extended editorial a few months back, to coincide with 125th anniversary of the paper.
There are many reasons why Ram is our Person of the Year:
1. Integrity: There's no disputing the integrity of both Ram and The Hindu group of publications
2. Principled: A stickler for some principles. Some of these are indeed lofty, but if he's able to adhere to them, it's commendable.
3. Commercially Successful: This is the most important. Without being a commercial success, there's no point being principled. The fact that The Hindu readership grew by 53% on a high base speaks volumes for the paper's reach.
4. Industry Leadership: Ram enjoys the respect of the entire industry, as also politicians, bureaucrats and big business. There are very such people in the media today who can match Ram on this count.
5. Aggressive journalist: The newspaper may appear very dull and boring, but that's by design. However, Ram is an extremely aggressive investigative journalist, and those who've been in the business in the '80s would remember his work on Bofors. The missionary zeal with which he took on Jayalalithaa recently is indicative of what he can achieve.
Whilst there have been several mediapersons who've done outstanding work this year, N Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu group is the 2003 Mediaahperson of the Year!
<b>Mediaah! Brand of the Year
The Times of India</b>
You don't have to pinch yourself to check if you're dreaming. You read it right: The Times of India's is the Mediaah! Brand of the Year for the year 2003.
We have issues with the journalism the newspaper practises, and we believe that by doing so, the newspaper is destroying the brand, but we must confess that we fall in a silent minority. For a large number of the people, in Bombay and Delhi and that number will grow even in Calcutta and Chennai, the Times is "hot". The intelligentsia and corporate executives may feel that it's not stimulating, but they donââ¬â¢t constitute the paper's core target audience.
The Times of India has very intelligently dumbed down the newspaper, and attracted a host of new readers to its fold. Readers, for whom Telgi is as important as Shah Rukh Khan. Readers, who don't want to get bored with serious issues of the nation. So, as one senior Times editor whom we interviewed told us: for every two or three readers it loses, there are possibly five or 10 more it gains.
The way Times has tackled the Delhi market should make for a case study in a b-school. Whoever said it's impossible to break newspaper habits?!
Mediaah! however believes that Times mustnââ¬â¢t shun serious journalism. For, they could be issues that concern its readers.. It must also do away with Medianet or any other policy that compromises its brand value. Mediaah! may continue to raise the red flag and lampoon the paper on editorial issues, but we have no hesitation to declare The Times of India as the 2003 Mediaah! Brand of the Year.
// posted by PM @ 12/31/2003 04:33:05 PM
<b>The 2003 Mediaah Dubious Achievement Awards</b>
Attention! Attention! Presenting our dubious achievement awards. We ought not to add this, but please take them in good humour, and indicators for improvement. Enjoy!
<b>The Sachin Pilgaonkar Tu Tu Main Main Award </b>for who's No 1 in the Delhi household
to The Times of India and Hindustan Times for creating the biggest ruckus ever in readership wars. Move over, detergents and colas, the new turf war will be fought in newspapers and by newspapers, but for the advertiser.
<b>The Wedding of the Year</b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> to Indian Express CEO and ed-in-chief Shekhar Gupta and NDTV for promoting each other so prominently in their respective media outlets. Gupta interviews on NDTV so he becomes famous, then he becomes even more famous by printing the same interview on the entire Op-Ed page of the Indian Express. Ever heard of a better win-win contract?
<b>The 'Copy' Editor of the Year award</b>
to a Business Standard reporter, whose story on the state of Bollywood was lifted from rival Economic Times's website. Business Standard then had to apologise in print over the goof, and Mediaah! ran a campaign on the issue
<b>The FTV-Playboy Award </b>for the Most Titillating News Channel of the Year
to Aaj Tak for dramatising an entire rape scene on prime time television, and then standing up for it.
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
<b>The Blind Spot of the Year award</b>
to every newspaper and every TV channel in India for not acknowledging the good work done by reporters of other media organisations. So it always: "It was reported by a particular news channel", "It was reported in a certain Bombay daily", "It was said in a lifestyle magazine" etc etc.
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
<b>The Ajit Singh award for switching loyalties</b>
to Deepak Chaurasia, Dibang and all other news anchors who've moved from one news channel to the other. Sanjay Pugalia has worked in most of the old ones!
<b>The R K Dhawan award for sycophancy</b>
to Bachi Karkaria for writing nice and not fully correct things about the editorial of her newspaper
<b>The Oxford Dictionary award for Language Precision</b>
to exchange4media and Pitch. Although very popular, they insult the reader's senses with their typos and editing errors.
<b>The Business India lifetime achievement award for most boring journalism</b>
to India Today. Well-circulated but a magazine that everyone buys but no one reads
<b>The Lakme India Fashion Week award for the best looking news anchors</b>
to the faces of Headlines Today. They don't have to worry if you-know-what happens
<b>The Gandhi-Nehru 'Family and Self First' award </b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> to Piyush Pandey for always putting his interests first at his agency and when it comes to representing the industry
The Prabhu Chawla award for the <b>least impressive political party spokesperson on telly</b>
to Jaipal Reddy. If the Congress wants to get anywhere near power, it must get a new person on board
The Jaipal Reddy award for 'I know it better than the best'
to Prabhu Chawla because he seriously thinks he knows the state of the country better than Vajpayee and Sonia.
<b>The Harshad Mehta award for influencing the Stockmarket</b>
to the unknown business journalist who worked hand-in-glove with operators and operators to influence stockprices
<b>The Outlook Traveller award for the best travelled journalists</b>
to the editorial staff for Femina for maximum junketeering (given size of the team) in the last year
These were sent to us by a few readers. We had carried them in our preview last week, and we've let them be in this final award listing:
<b>The Raj Kapoor-Nargis Dutt award for obsession</b>
to Mediaah! for never having a single day pass without a mention of the Times of India group
<b>The Laugh all the way to Bank award for the best Unpaid Ad Agency </b>
to Mediaah! for popularising Medianet without even The Times of India asking for it. Now, no ad agency needs an introduction powerpoint on Medianet
(contributed by Sachin Kalbag)
// posted by PM @ 12/31/2003 01:35:12 PM<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->