Cost of a front page story
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I was on the phone the other day with a seemingly bright young guy. A recent IIM graduate who is now with a reputed (so far) financial services company. “Our current media mechanism isn’t structured well so I want to set it right,” he told me with enthusiasm that is usually inversely proportional to age. “Our company is launching a new product and we want to ensure it gets good coverage,” he began, as I steeled myself to listen to the spiel we journos hear only a few hundred times a week. Little did I know how unusual the call would turn out. After droning on for a few lines, he suddenly said something I would remember for a long time. “So how much do we have to pay to get the news published on the front page of your newspaper?” he demanded, his tone-very much business-like, no doubt tutored well by one of the best business schools in the country. I cringed the moment I heard it. Rewinding and playing it a few times again in my head only made it worse. “What pay?” I blurted out feeling the sense of an impending disaster of a conversation. “Payment Ma’am,” he replied in the same tone. “Cost to get our news item on the front page headline.” “There is no such cost” I muttered under my breath and cut the call. I took a moment to compose myself before slumping into my seat with disbelief. Is that what people think about newspapers???!! That we are some kind of a non-glossy 20 page advertising pullout where the highest advertiser gets the front page story! Had all those hours of forgetting to have lunch and running from pillar to post for quotes come down to this? That we are now viewed by a section of people as selling our main editorial space for cash! I had a sinking feeling that maybe in all those countless press conferences we attend each week, sifting through endless heaps of “urgent” press releases in our inbox promoting companies and their products, perhaps we have forgotten to promote what we stand for over the years. Perhaps in the race to break stories and gossip about our competitors (yep, everyone does it) we forgot to reiterate what we stand for, why we exist and how we function( pls, a crash course in this for the IIMs). If the “elite” educated Indian could view newspapers like this, I am sure we are looking at a pool of thousands of people who think the same. This does not spell good news to the industry, which is already struggling with high input costs and a sluggish readership. Maybe its time to re-introduce ourselves, or even re-invent ourselves in the way we present our industry to the audience. It does not need to be an outlandish outburst of promotion or anything. It could be as simple as climbing down a few floors from our ivory towers and listening (actual ‘listen’ listening, not just press conference listening!) to what people say about us without expecting to file a story out of it! Like the IIM guy I am also tempted to make a statement like “I want to set things right” but at the moment as all of my colleagues are, I am occupied with far more pressing issues. You see, all of us journalists want to make difference, which is why we came to the profession in the first place. However, such is our lives that on a Sunday evening, all I can think about is – What story am I going to file for the Monday page!! disclaimer :Waat to do, we journos are like this wonly! |
(14 votes, average: 4.64 out of 5)
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October 30th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Golly! How did you know the guy on the line was from IIM? I am flumoxed
October 30th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Totally……the readership shouldn’t brand the whole media corrupt just on the basis of few nefarious journalists. I agree with Mohan, with constructive criticism, the media can be evolved into a better channel…and a more genuine one. It would be sheer injustice indeed to for all those dedicated journalists if the readership viewed everyone as corrupt. Good one. The media industry needs just posts to get things cleared. Hope to see more such posts coming in near future. Keep it up.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Dear all
Thanks for all your comments
Thanks for your concern about the functioning of the media in India.
Some comments talk about frontline newspapers selling their main editorial space for cash which i can assure you are baseless. Yes, like any other industry, the newspaper industry gets its revenues from advertising but the space marked out for news is never compromised with. If it was, we wouldn’t have broken the Reliance saga, the Harshad Mehta-Ketan Parekh scam, Bofors etc. There are dedicated journalists whose lives are committed to representing the voice of the people. These are the people who are on the field 24/7 and work quietly behind the scenes. To say that each journalist is corrupt would be a gross injustice to the efforts of such individuals.
The media burst into the scene a few years back and has grown so quickly that most people weren’t prepared to deal with the growth. Like any other industry in its early stages, there will be shortcomings. However as time goes on and the the industry matures, we will definitely see corrections. The media is lucky to have a readership that is honest (mostly scathing) in its observation and this will surely ensure a difference in the years to come. Till then, you can give constructive criticism that might actually help us reach that goal or hide behind fake names and email ids (like on this page) to comment from the outside!
Thanks again
Cheers
Archana
October 29th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I’m not surprised! In fact its reality. Many organization opt for paid news (remember, not ad).
Ok, let’s put it differently, how much you people charge to print an ad on front-page, will still make it distinct so that common man can recognize that it is an ad, not news.
How much do you charge to remove those surrounding boxes, and make it merge with real news.
My real surprise is, being a journalist for some good news paper, does it really surprised you? Don’t you really know that this happens every where. If you really don’t know that, this happens in reality, I really suspect your journalism skills.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I agree with DeepBlue. Also placing ads and promotions is not yellow journalism. Assuming Archana is not too new to journalism, she would know why newspapers sell for just INR 2.00, ad revenues. And IIMs have nothing to do with all this.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Dear Archana,
Yes, we all feel we can easily buy a column in news paper or media. Media needs masala and if you have you can easily sell them or pay a good amount to let it get published. Have also heard of Journalists create stories themselves and print or show in TVs etc for money and popularity.
This should be stopped but question is who when people from whom we expect goodies serve us just poison.
In fact many news papers do what a politician tell them to do. Media reports other houses as corrupt but who will expose corruption in media itself nobody knows.
Regards
Amit.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
If advertising is not concern about newspapers I wonder why I could find front page articles for non-listed companies with no motives of promotion or their products or rand. If the newspapers means business, real business starts from street what about them?
Yes you are right when you feel wrong when u hear it … but its fact of papers
October 29th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I am surprised by your post frankly. Its like readers are shocked!! Though I am shocked that you and your readers are shocked or trying to be shocked. I think its long established that all major newspapers print on demand that is you see a feel good coverage as and when an IPO is around the corner. We have been reading good stories about real estate / banking / placements for ages when everybody knows its a big lie. The way a paper works these days is this : You are doing a story on Real estate, you go and google stuff, call 5 builders and 5 real estate brokers and put a quote here and put a quote there and story is ready. Why dont you tell that a guy heading a real estate advisory firm is an interested party and the comments being dished out are plain marketing spiel with no relationship with truth. and this goes on and on and on. No real ground research. and as you rightly said that all your time is attending one press conf to another press conf in one hotel to another hotel, so …
Come to think of it, tell me a single scam which a financial daily has broken apart from publishing those feel good stories. Again using real estate sector, we all know its a builder - politcal - psu banks- babu nexus which is keeping real estate prices healthy but any indepth coverage on that. In fact every paper was crying hoarse that real estate is dead while none of the company in eal estate has EBITDA margin of more than 50%, were making profits and not a single company closed down.
Its high time you wake up to a reality or you can continue to pretend and anyway in India we all pretend after all 3 monkeys are guiding principal ( dont see bad, dont listen bad and dont talk bad”) but then what to say a civilization which follows monkeys!
October 29th, 2009 at 11:23 am
hiiiii Archana
u wrote very true things…. this dam money minded journalism hurts the genuine reporting… i also feel and experience the same here in my center…. specially in press conference….. khao piyo gift collect karo aur chalte bano…. so many media persons doing this kind of things……. they dont understand the value of the persons or company or events ultimately they are the loosers
have a nice day
October 29th, 2009 at 1:00 am
You see Archana, this is not an anomalous phenomenon. I lift the newspaper every morning from the door step with my half closed eyes just to get fully perked up by seeing whats happening around me. And would you believe, the front page of the newspaper is occupied by a complete full page ad of the bollywood movie’s premier show’s. Anyway, you should have had word with this gentleman and patiently made him understand about your newspaper’s policy/principle. IMAs and other business schools dont take life long guarantee of its products. They are not a Socrat’s schools of thought, where pupils would stay years just to learn how to define the business vis a vis its implications on society.
Gautam Jha
October 28th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Bang on Mohan. I agree 100% with u.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:22 am
So, how much you finally negotiated for!?
October 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
What ‘cheap journals’ are we talking of ? Even the revered Business Standard has carried PR doled out by companies, at a cost or free is not known. Pls check the last twenty posts in BS on Tata Motors. Every single, insignificant positive from pumped up false profits to product launches of faceless vehicles was blown up on front page, while real, negative news of its mess in JLR, product problems of Nano, huge financial losses et al were buried in inside pages, if reported at all.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Thanks Archana for putting this in print (or in bits and bytes). Appreciate your candour and honesty. Such disgusting ethical standards leaves the honest behind and puts the unethical on a fast pedestal - in the short run at least.
In any case one of your competitors, I am told, enters into such agreements - and their fall in standards is dramatic from my school days where reading their general paper was mandatory. So I am on guard when I read their “views” that is not written by someone who is independent.
So you see such falling standards has its own unseen impact.
Warm regards,
Krishnaraj
October 27th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Maybe he asked the wrong person.
Read this about how media made money in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections: http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article38482.ece. FYI, the media’s approach was well structured, widespread and not limited to the small, local newspapers.
Corruption (I consider buying editorial space/airtime to promote your message a form of corruption since it blocks out genuine critical analysis and corrupts the message) has not spared the Fourth Estate…
October 26th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
everyone knows that editorial space is for sale in mainstream media operating from New Delhi, either through communication companies formed by the newspaper management, or through individual journalists who are either “committed” or have accepted directorships in public relations firms just to make a nice packet every month.
If one journalist will not sell the editorial space, his or her colleague will and the PR agency will get its story on whichever page it desires. Printing stories about companies and getting promoter quota shares for free has been the practice for a long time. In company press conferences, journalists actually line up to take gifts and gift cheques.
What does an honest journalist do in such a situation? If your management will print falsehood for money, give the real, truthful story to your friend in the rival newspaper.
Yes, it is the sheer size of the media that is allowing true facts to reach the reading public, and of course real journalists like Aditi.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
hi archana,
I appreciate your thoughts but not all from your profession think so.A prominent media house has started the concept of media net wherein u pay and get your article featured.It is indeed an irony but people like you can show the world your mettle. I WELCOME YOUR THOUGHTS.
Ramakrishna
October 26th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Wow if that’s what IIM grads to i wonder what others might be up to??
October 26th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I’ve been on both sides of this divide–in the media and in media relations in companies–and I can state from personal experience that the majority of journalists in reputed publications are honest.
However, there are enough bent journalists in the less reputed publications and a few in big brand publications to give the profession a bad name. Among the cognoscenti, these folks are called ‘gifted journalists’. Unless editors root out these black sheep with a vengence, you will have legions of managers like the joker in Archana’s story assuming that cover stories - and journalists - can be bought.
What really makes this hard for straight journalists is that editors are now seen to encourage this corruption of news. How else can you explain the cloying full length features on every new film release on TV these days? Or the less than objective review of products like cars in both print and TV news? As long as media houses continue to blur the lines between journalism and advertising, corporate managers will continue to believe that new coverage, just like film reviews, can be bought.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I find it difficult to believe that you were not aware of this very common practice in the print media. I know from very reliable sources that most major Indian newspapers do sell news space. Did you consider the possibility that the reason most Indian educated people think this way is because the media actually does these things. What needs to change is not how the print media projects itself but what it actually does.
Another issue is the accuracy of reporting. Almost every time I read a report on a topic I have first hand information on, I am able to find many inaccurate facts and figures. The going wisdom in journalism seems to be: if you can’t find the figures, make them up.
Also, ALL the journalists came to this profession to make a difference? Do you seriously believe that?
October 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
And also there are many people who think that mainstream newspapers, news channels are biased towards a particular political party and biased against everyone who stand for a certain ideology.
I guess the point of money being a motivating factor isn’t that wrong after all!
October 26th, 2009 at 10:10 am
nicely written..
many journalists nowadays are only interested in the money and do not realise the purpose for which they become journalists..
India needs journalists like you who know their responsibilities towards the society..!
jaihind..!
egards,
Anuradha..
October 25th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
although i totally understand the practicality of ur statements……..i see one certain thing very clearly……… Ur ambition-”make a difference” is slowly getting diluted…………and offcourse there are these valid excuses to back them..and rule them out as total normalcy! as u age in your industry i hope you wont eventually forget the main reason u joined the industry! good luck!
October 25th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Dear Journalist:
I can feel your pain…..
Some cheap journals have started this kind of money-for-print trend.
My request to you young journos: show them that pen is mightier than purse !!!
M Subramaniam