Insight into Media 2 - Strength of print media

The WAN-IFRA 2011, began on September 6, 2011 at the Chennai Trade Centre with a welcome address by Mr. K. Balaji, Managing Director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., & Chairman, WAN-IFRA South Asia Committee.

President of WAN-IFRA, India, Jacob Mathew, in his address, said the print advertising revenue was likely to touch $136 billion by 2013. Seventy-five per cent of India’s population is literate and the print media has a 20 per cent of the adult population as audience. The print media is trusted more in India and access to online news is costlier.

The newspaper industry felt that there is scope for increasing the price of products as there is increasing demand for them. Distribution, however, posed a major problem.
“It will be ages before other new media could challenge the print media,” he said. Credibility for media is very important, he said citing the crisis spawned by a scandal in the an ageold newspaper in the United Kingdom.

Insight Into Media - 1 Washington Post

Hi everyone

I am starting a series of writeups -- kicking off with this one -- on how newspapers and media houses in different parts of the world are facing the challenges posed by new technologies and using them to their advantage

These points and projections emerged at the WAN-IFRA 2011 conference held in Chennai from September 6 to 8.

Of special interest is the way in which the new media are tapped to give the new generation of readers added values that supplement newspaper efforts – and fetch the media revenues.

Your valuable comments and suggestions are welcome so that these could be taken up by the media owners and journalists at meetings or conferences in future.


Kirubanidhi
Senior Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai

Email: journo1958@gmail.com
Cellphone: 0(if calling from outside Chennai) 9281342829

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Insight into media 1

How The Washington Post meets challenges


Washington Post Managing Editor Raju Narisetti, in his September 7 speech at the WAN-IFRA 2011 conference, gave a brief overview of how the newspaper’s 24-hour integrated newsroom is meeting the challenges daily.

The key challenge for him, when he took over the top post, was tackling mismatched skillsets. He revamped editorial systems and streamlined workflows. Some job cuts were inevitable. There was a need to popularise the editorial team with search, social media and web traffic experts.

Information relating to news stories were made available to all journalists on hourly, mid-day and real time alert basis. These included page views of visitors to the news sites and time spent on stories by them. This helped more engagement of audience.

Training and re-training of the journalists happen on a continual basis.

Blogs are used to build off stories. The blog about an Obama impersonator at a party meeting was a huge hit and about 10 million people read them.

The Post realised that it is not enough to publish news but you have to make it more engaging by good packaging. They were happy to note that there was more feedback with one story garnering 3,000 comments.

Personalisation of news is important to engage the audience. The Post embraced Facebook and Twitter and now had 800 million fans on FB. Newsletter emails are sent to 1.5 million readers.

The revamping helped the Post to get back their readers and occupy the number two slot in terms of readership. The time spent on the news site improved and it occupied the number slot now.

The good news for India, Narisetti said, is that time is in its favour to catch up and they need to do this by “measuring things up, setting goals, and rewarding the right people.”


Kirubanidhi
Senior Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai

Email: journo1958@gmail.com
Cellphone: 0(if calling from outside Chennai) 9281342829

Anna Hazare's relevance

He’s not a Gandhi (by his own admission); he’s not a politician in the usual sense of the term (he has given enough indications of it); he’s not a VVIP with wide connections; he’s not a rich man either. Yet he counts. He has not only reinforced that it’s people’s power is the ultimate in Indian democracy, but the democracy which may be ripe for a revolution.
Mr. Hazare has emerged as a leader in his own right, trying to achieve the dreams of the ordinary Indian --- the foremost being the removal of corruption from top to bottom and across institutions.
His relevance to modern India --- despite his adoption of the traditional satyagraha --- and its people cannot be doubted. His peaceful agitation has ignited the minds young Indians whose conscience had already been tweaked by the former President Abdul Kalam. Dr. Kalam too had tried to band together the youth of the country for developmental purposes. His action plans and vision continue to guide the youth but on a different plane.
What the country needed was a spark for national-level action programmes and that came in the form of Mr. Hazare’s steadfast agitation against corruption – an issue that struck the right chord with all.
The people now realise that they need not feel helpless in challenging the monster of corruption. With able support from similar socially conscious people, Mr. Hazare took the centrestage and was the cynosure of all during the campaign that has reached greater heights.
He has sown the seeds of fearlessness, cooperation, and social dynamism among the people – the participation of lakhs of people in the movement vouches for that.
With the present government caught in a vortex of scandals and seen to be a face of corruption , the political course of the country is set to change drastically. Mr. Hazare and his team have revived the nationalistic fervour of the pre-Independence days.
If political intrigues succeed in stifling the people’s movement, it will be the saddest chapter in modern Indian history. If, on the other hand, people continue to support Anna and help achieve success in the fight against corruption and other ills of society, it will be the golden era for India.

THE MARATHON MAN

A man of measured words and action
Albert showed us what discipline and courage mean
In his own inimitable style
He struck a middle path
Knowing the glowing and burning ends of sides
His spirited defence of what’s right
Always earned him praise
His track record has been excellent
Both in work and on field
He sprinted, leapt and crossed
Hurdles a many, set records a many
He’s changing tracks and gears now
We’re sure he’ll ever be steady
And light up the path ahead
Alby, the Marathon Man
How can we not clap and pray
For you and your family


K. Kirubanidhi
30 June 2011

Roshini

I will have named you S. Roshni
Because you are
Sensitive and sensible in work
Soft-spoken in dealing with others
Straightforward in approach and attitude
Smiling even in stressful times
Service-minded in nature
Selflessness being part of it
Supersub in the making
In all
Simply Superb
Lack of your hospitality
Will make us sick!
You have given a peep into your art
For a journalist-artist in the making
I wish you all the best

Call from mother

As the 18th death anniversary of my mother, K. Gnaneswari, drew closer, I had enough indications that mother is still with us, guiding us and showering her affection in many different ways. A few days before, one of her close friends and colleagues, Mrs. Achamma Jacob, called me, through my sister, and asked me to come for a prayer- cum-meditation at a place of worship and talk to a group of senior citizens about my work.

I was pleased and took it as a call from mother and promptly accepted the offer and went there. I made it a point to mention this at the short talk that I gave. The family friend also gave me a small memento, which I took it as that given by mother.

Then during my work I came across, in the past two days, words and phrases that made me remember her and the job she did – Central Statistics Office, for example. She retired as an Addl. Director of Statistics, Tamil Nadu government. Then on March 27, a day before, she came in my dream as a slightly younger person and I was telling someone, after briefly seeing her in close quarters and following her, that she remains very much with us. And, even as I finished writing this small piece, a colleague of mine gave me and others at work some sweet and chips saying her mother brought it for her. Mothers have a hold on us as long as we live.

Straussed Out

Come on, I have my own headings or comments for the 2011 World Cup
Cricket matches; it may or may not reflect the ones you find in the
Paper or aired on TV. But believe me its my own.

Here goes the first one: when India and England drew the match on Feb 27
I had in mind this heading which I haven’t seen in popular English
Dailies the next day. “Straussed out India manages a draw.”