post redesign (which i quite like by the way, particularly
the typographic choice of Interstate) it is really sad to witness Hindu's sad
attempts to mimic TOI, at least in the daily magazine supplement sections.
perhaps they are trying to do some hybird 'times-ey' hep but 'hindu-ey' serious
thing but in most cases it becomes a sad joke.
I mean when you see Govid Nihalini and Rakesh Sharma (dir: Final Solutions)
together for an interaction you want to read more. Instead some miniscule print
space is given to the conversation and one humongous photograph of the two
bearded men fills up the blank space. what's the logic? big photographs=invites
more readers?
i am a inveterate Hindu+Frontline reader myself (where else will Sumathi
Ramaswamy's Lemuria get reviewed even in if a little late), that's why you feel
all the more disappointed.
cheers,
abhishek
PS> in the Zest Poetry list, Vivek Narayanan did a post yesterday that
referred to a friend reviewing Ramanujan in urgent need of the Kannada names of
some poems. I suspect the review in question was your piece in today's Literary
Review?
having said that, here is a more considered response. the fastest
growing section, in terms of internal dynamics, investments in writers,
resources etc., is precisely the section within the hindu that tries to
be like the TOI. and it is bringing in the cash (ads). the supplement
which i myself edit, supposedly a more serious part of the hindu, used
to come out twice a month. now it comes out once. it doesn't bring in
any ads. no serious planning or thought about where it is headed or
even what it is; everything done on an ad hoc basis.
right now i would say that the hindu has a good mix of the serious and
trivial. but no doubt at all about where it is headed. if 'serious
journalism' sticks as a brand equity it will be retained. otherwise,
naturally, it will be thrown out. it *is* a product too.
regards, subash
On Sun, 4 Dec 2005 07:54:32 +0530,
Subash <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> sometime back (months? i don't have the link now) jace had put up a
> similar analysis of the indian print media by an indian which
> went along very similar lines. and my reactions to that piece, as to
> this one, were very similar to yours udhay.
>
> when these guys talk so blithely and in general terms about the
> "indian media" i really wonder whether they've sampled enough
> data. :) but, given their data, which, like you say, seems to be
> restricted to the TOI and HT, the problems they talk about are real
> and urgent enough.
>
> regards, subash
>
> p.s.: apropos to the pakistani/indian thingy, while living in saudi
^^^^
ouch!
> On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 17:52:37 +0530,
> Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > At 08:45 AM 12/3/2005, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote:
> >
> > >A Pakistani journalist laments Bollywoodisation of Indian print
> > >media.
> > I wonder what Subash Jeyan, among others, thinks of this piece.
> > Subash?
