News Today, the precursor in print to the Talk weeklies, will complete 27 years of continuous, daily publication on Dec 7. The patriarch paper’s B-day is of course an occasion for happiness and hope: we are happy to have lasted this long in a treacherous ocean inhabited by political sharks and bloated whales; and we hope this luck will last. But the day also affords an opportunity to indulge in nostalgia as well as play Nostradamus about us and the media industry to which we belong.
Industry? Really, many of us in print media have not got used to that description, but it has been ‘business’ as usual for two decades now. Not that, print, prior to that milepost, was a paragon of principles. Still, information and knowledge were deemed paramout and every other consideration, theoretically, was deemed subservient. This position changed rather dramatically. First, there were the circulation price-wars in the late eighties that converted the show into a numbers game. The commercial dynamics were altered overnight and newspaper viability became a hostage to the advertiser. And as the sluice gates of corporate advertising opened up post liberalisation the number game was played out for huge monetary stakes. And as the tech revolution took over, not only did the play field widen but the players too swelled. From being king, content, well, had to be content playing second fiddle, ceding space, literally, to a slew of invaders. The outcome has been mixed: There is cause for celebration as well as reasons to rue. The ‘industry’, as it stands today is a mighty confluence of knowledge, capital, labour and technology but also sadly sees a nasty convergence of raucous politics, rampant commerce and ravenous ambitions.
A normal observer is unlikely to see anything amiss in this, rather, natural progression of any business. But every insider ought to remind oneself that this field was not intended to be the kind of business it is today. For one, the much touted fourth estate has its much touted ‘press freedom’ constitutionally guaranted under the Right to Expression, a camouflage that no other industry enjoys. The duty to inform and the responsibility to educate was what also entitled this sector to many financial concessions from the government. But the moment print media became like any other business there was a reasonable ground for review of those concessions along with some of the exclusive regulations. But entrenched interests ensured this did not happen. So while a handful of these big fish who built their ‘media business empires’ during the Raj and license raj continue to rule the roost post-lib too, thousands of small players who are in the arena just for passion and passion alone and most of whom value their chastity despite persistent ‘advances’ by all and sundry, are always low and dry. At the first whiff of a recession, for instance, last year, the elite club was prompt in extracting additional revenues from the government in the form of increased advertisements. Now, why should the tax-payer bail out newspapers or fund their business plans? Adding a pervert twist is the fact that hardly any of the small, medium english/language papers, benefitted from this ‘election year’ largesse! The anguish of running a small paper like News Today in such a loaded media milieu is indeed profound.
My father and NT’s Founder-Editor TRR, was a prolific champion of a free press and never shied away from challenging the high and mighty, within and without. He had his ideological moorings as well as strong political opinions, but he saw these vested interests as the greatest threat to press freedom. His argument was that most of these newspapers were actually fronts or surrogates for big business and he revelled in describing them as ‘Jute Press’, ‘Cotton Press’ etc, depending on the industry they did duty for. Barons who built their other businesses on the sly were his bugbears. Of course, that traditional ally-adversary arithmetic has completely changed today. I for one, would not deem big business as a threat to media for the simple reason that media itself is now big business in its own right. No-compete arrangements, private treaties, cartelisation, monopolistic joint ventures, cross-media interests etc are all rampant. The raging debate over the passing off of blatant political campaigns as news for hefty fees by some newspapers is proof of the near-complete eclipse of press by paisa, though those who complain too have four fingers pointing inwards on the same count. Times might have changed for worse but that does not exonerate the battered Rams from their share of guilt in an exclusive race for spoils.
On the contrary, bigger threats loom. Primary among them is the political shadow over all media, including print, particularly in a state like TN. Look at the ‘media’ players here. The list would run parallel to the roster of registered political parties! The bloody power struggles of the Kalaignars, Marans, Jayas, Ramadosses et al are played out in the media arena even as journos and other staff, wittingly and unwittingly, end up pawns and even corpses, if Madurai, May ‘07 is proof. All other existential issues pale in comparison to this hijacking of the playfield itself. A global media conclave in Hyderabad this week took stock of the concerns that presently agitate the industry. A key topic was the emergence of the internet as the grim reaper for print. Many predicted a day soon when paper will be passe as content is delivered exclusively on gadgets to a generation that knows no paper other than toilet paper. Perhaps those who read their newspapers in the toilet were being prophetic after all!
As an entrepreneur-journo I am unfazed. The bravado is because we have nothing to lose, in any case. For the likes of us, surviving by the day and for whom meeting deadlines is far easier than making ends meet, journalism is a passion that literally consumes. But no worry, because we got committed to this daily hara kiri by volition. Still, this insider’s view from that precarious vantage, albeit sans advantage, offers some revealing vignettes. Auto-suggestion and reinvention are the keys to keep oneself going. This ‘honourable’ profession does command some residue respect and respectable reach. So, preach and teach, we must for it goes with the profession, even if the journo’s personality does not justify it. Not from the pulpit, however, but the pavement. The pressmen are as pedestrian as the public and the only thing that tells them apart is the pen they possess. Otherwise, most readers are smarter than most writers. This realisation is a professional necessity. The elementary human instinct of adaptation is most valid here too. For one, ‘free press’ is here to stay; no one is going to pay for news anymore. The ‘Talk’ is our way of acknowledging this trend as also the fact that even in a global village, ‘local’ is still many people’s world. After all, the climate summit in Copenhagen has been in some part spurred by the pollution in Koyambedu.
All said, some core values can still come through all the glossy cosmetics and commercial considerations. Forget lofty crusades to save the world; there are any number of small causes and many miseries around that beg articulation. Lending a voice for them will ensure that the last word can still be ours.
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