Grim Outlook

Outlook magazine’s mega event billed as the “Vinod Mehta Memorial Lecture and Speakout Awards” last week had some awkward moments. For one, chief guest Arun Jaitley, wearing his finance minister’s hat, had some grim tidings for the print media. “The print media should search for a new identity for itself in order to stay relevant,” he said. To add injury to insult, he and the other celebrity speaker, former President Pranab Mukherjee, forgot to say a word about the late Vinod Mehta, the magazine’s founding editor, in whose name the event was held. August 18 was neither his birth nor death anniversary.

Outlook’s decision to host a glitzy cocktail dinner at a Vinod Mehta memorial with heavyweight speakers had very little references to the man or his contribution. Only one award winner of the night—Ashis Nandy—shared a few nuggets about his personal interactions with Mehta. The others ignored him, leaving many to wonder if using his name was a marketing ploy.

Online Openness

The new kid on the block—Khabar-e, an online news portal started by TV’s wunderkind, Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Film fame—is making no effort to hide its political ideology. Its website carries the declaration: “What makes us different is our singular, distinctive voice in a media marketplace mostly defined by condescending, partisan left-liberal elitism. We enter a world where the self-righteousness of the liberal media brooks no dissent and where contempt for majority sentiment reign supreme.” Pretty strong words.

The news stories are obviously pro-BJP, while Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are routinely shamed. There is a lot of Bollywood and television celeb coverage. Ekta is also best remembered for introducing us to the serial Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and its feisty main character, Tulsi Irani, played by Smriti Irani, now the feisty minister for I&B! Ekta’s father Jeetendra, was known for wearing white shoes; his daughter wears her heart on her sleeve.

Upping the Ante

Hindustan Times is in the process of reinventing itself. After shutting down a number of editions and bureaus earlier this year to cut flab and costs, it has announced a slew of promotions at the paper’s Delhi headquarters intended to face the digital challenge and sharpen focus and content.

Accordingly, the promotion of deputy executive editor Kunal Pradhan to Delhi Editor is intended to pay more attention to coverage of Delhi and NCR, where most of its readership comes from. Another Deputy Executive Editor, Krrittivas Mukherjee, has been elevated to Managing Editor, Convergence, where he will be tasked with improving coordination between print and digital journalists. HT Media has been slow off the block compared to its rival, The Times of India, when it comes to innovation, and the new promotions, which also include the entertainment and design/photo sections, is a bid to catch up.

Media Management by Modi sarkar

The media has never been under such covert pressure from the government as it is now. Apart from coopting media owners, the Modi government’s new strategy is for ministers and senior bureaucrats to call journalists to their offices or elsewhere and challenge them on articles they have written.

The favourite common phrase they all use is “interpretation of the facts”, which basically means questioning the basis for the story in question.

Two key ministers who are articulate and savvy and appear frequently on TV debates, have been assigned the task of dealing with journalists who are critical of policies while the bureaucrats are generally from the ministries concerned.

The idea is to intimidate journalists with alternate facts and figures but even if the facts do not support the official argument being put forth, the journalist in question tends to be wary of writing stories that are critical of the government.

That, of course, is the basic idea.