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Issue 27
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September 21, 2008
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Greetings!
This Newsletter from the GujaratGlobal brings to you the latest happening in the media particularly in Gujarat, whats hot and whats not , who's in and who's out , you want it and you get it here !This newsletter is about people who craft voice and image of others. It is about the real newsmakers.
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Editor.....Need for Trade Unions
 Gujarati editions of Business standard from Ahmedabad and Mumbai have followed the unceremonious path of the Rajkot edition and have been closed down. Gujarati Edition of the business paper of Dainik Jagaran from Ahmedabad and Mumbai has been closed down before the launch. The infanticide of the Business Standard's Gujarati edition and miscarriage of Jagran have lot of lessons for journalists to learn.
The two reputed chain of newspapers attracted many journalists from other newspapers of Gujarat. They had offered hefty pay packets with brand cover. It was really very difficult for anyone to resist the temptation. But now more than 40 journalists have been rendered jobless. None of these persons had even any inkling of such a fate.
The contract based employment has left these journalists in lurch. This is the sign of the days to come. The systematic way, in which unions have been finished in the media world, the journalists are left to fend for themselves. It is very unfortunate situation as they can't do anything.
Those who are quite young with five to ten years of experience can still find place in the YUM (Youth Upward Mobile) market. But for the middle aged journalists, it is just the end of a career. This is the time we must think about the hire and fire policy adopted by major newspapers and others in media. This is very necessary with the blatant obsession of the managements for the younger lot.
We are in a situation where middle aged and much experienced people are becoming unwanted for all kind of frivolous reasons. At the same time, we do not have strong social security system. The outcome is predictable. Exploitation by management and frustration among journalists.
If we take the example of newspapers in the USA and Europe, attempts of retrenchment by newspapers there have been met by organised opposition. However, with editors becoming agents of managements to run a system of exploitation of the staff down the line and marketing teams deciding the editorial policies, we have demolished the organised platform of unions in India. It's high time to revive trade unions.
Have A Happy Reading.
With love Yogesh Sharma
Gujarat Global | |
Archive...
Did u miss out on any of the action which has taken place or want to sneak a peek again?? Here is our Archive.
Now you can find all our earlier issues here.
Archive Gallery..
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Media Masala
Ten Tips of Virappa Moily on handling media
This week Congress organised a workshop for its spokespersons of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Diu and Daman. Here are the ten tips that AICC Spokesperson Virappa Moily gave to spokesperson and the eleventh one that he probably missed.
1)
Spokesperson should keep ice over his head and sugar on his tongue
2)
He must listen carefully before giving reply 3)
Spokesperson should be defensive. He should be able to justify statement of the leader by giving right perspective 4) Spokesperson should remain in touch with each other and the PCC to make sure that they all speak the same.
5)
While appearing before the electronic media, their bite should be between 30 to 60 second. In short it should be short and sweet.
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They should interact with media persons once in eight to ten days.
7)
They should remember the date of birth of journalists and wish them HAPPY BIRTHDAY
8)
They should read all newspapers daily so that they can face media questions
9)
They should see AICC website and read the press release of the day
10)
Above all they should become net savvy
However, probably Moily overlooked one great fact. There were not many participants in the workshop. Even after reaching Mumbai many had disappeared. So the 11th and most important tip (it is for Moily and other organizers) is that they should ensure that all spokespersons attend the workshop!
Sunil Raghu joins Dow Jones
Sunil Raghu has left Mint and joined Dow Jones in Mumbai. Raghu has worked for quite a long period with different newspapers of Gujarat.
Ankur Relia has quit Mint and is moving to Dow Jones as an equities correspondent based in Mumbai.
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Friends as I told earlier, the newsletter has a subscriber base of 2100 plus. There are many more who are reading it either directly from the website or through forwards. I request you all friends to mobilize more subscriptions to the newsletter by enrolling your friends in media. This is your platform. Help it grow.
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Gujarati Financial Journalism Bubble Bursts
Couple of months back, a senior editorial staff of a leading Gujarati newspaper talked with me about what he described as paradigm shift in journalism from political reporting to business reporting. He told me about the business papers coming to Gujarat and promised me an article on this new phenomenon. Some more journalists of Gujarat also asked me to write about the sudden rush of big newspapers in Gujarati financial journalism.
Though my friend has not yet sent me the promised article on paradigm shift in journalism, the bubble of financial journalism has burst leaving more than 40 journalists jobless. The managements of leading newspapers-Business Standard and Dainik Jagran who sold their new ventures of business papers in Gujarati as dream projects with a relentless campaign offering salaries Gujarati journalism had not seen before ruthlessly wrapped them up as a failed material proposition.
One cannot realise the situation of the staff of the ill fated projects. The BS had earlier closed down its Rajkot Edition and last week it wound up its Ahmedabad and Mumbai editions. Dainik Jagaram recruited many with fat salaries, but terminated services of all even before the launch. Both the newspapers had offered salaries four to five times the salaries journalists were getting in their previous publications.
Many had joined the publications from Divya Bhaskar, a newspaper which has really brought great change in Gujarati journalism in terms of content, layout and design of the newspapers and salaries of journalists. In an obvious attempt to check pen drain, the newspaper has set a deadline of three years for not rerecruiting those who leave the publication.
Gujarat Samachar is open for those who had left it. But there is a rider attached to this open offer. Journalists say that staff rejoining the Gujarat Samachar is offered what it was getting at the time of quitting the newspaper. Certainly, it is a great downfall for journalists, both in term of salary and the status.
Sandesh which has been worst affected by the great mobility of journalists in Gujarat is said to be open to take the staff of the two publications. But, it has a condition that the salary is to be fixed later.
Rising cost of the newsprint and global recession are said to be the cause behind the closure of the ventures of these two chain newspapers. Another publication, Commodity World, is said to be struggling hard to avoid closure. This publication is from Gujarat and is facing tough market conditions.
In this situation, only two daily business papers are left in Gujarat, Economic Times and Financial Express. The ET Gujarati is an excellent example of cannibalism. It is growing at the cost of ET English, sources say.
Gujarati Edition of Financial Express is in keeping in with the loss making trend of the Express Group.
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Herbal Gynec Janu Kaka
86 year old Janu Kaka has the agility of a child and simplicity of a tribal. He lives near Ahwa, district headquarters of the Dangs and is the most respected of the Bhagats, the herbal healers of this tribal district.
On the third day of my visit of the Dangs, I started from the hill station Saputara for Ahwa in the morning. The controller at the ST stand had made it clear to me that the bus to the district headquarters will go provided it comes. Such is the state of the road transport in this district of Gujarat.
I was lucky that bus came and I reached Ahwa. Bholenath Joshi, a kind soul committed to the cause of promoting herbal healers was there waiting for me. It was a personal experience that has made Joshi a kind of brand ambassador of herbal healers, illiterate people with great knowledge of medicinal plants and their use. The Dangs has more than 450 species of medicinal plants, almost one third of the plants found in India.
Joshi's wife had ulcer in uterus and doctor had suggested that it should be removed. He brought the case of his wife to Janu Kaka. Within one month, medical reports of his wife showed that she was almost cured. It was around 1983. Since then, Joshi is associated with Janu Kaka and other Bhagats in the district and can talk about their medicines and their way of treatment with the ease and confidence of a bhagat. Since these people are not able to speak even good Gujarati, Joshi has been a kind of interpreter.
Janu Kaka has cases of Cancer and AIDS also. But he is known for his expertise in the fertility cases. The story of bhagats of the Dangs is the story of the success of Janukaka. One of the Collectors of the Dangs was very much worried as his wife was not able to conceive. He had heard about the Bhagats and it was Janukaka who prescribed a herbal medicine to his wife and she conceived.
Here in the district, you can find many who can tell you the stories of fertility expertise of Janukaka. Two years back Wall Street Journal had a special article on the herbal healers of India and Janu Kaka had a special mention in it. Kevin Voigt a Hong Kong based writer had written the article in which he had also interviewed Dr. Deepak Acharya, a botanist, and Dr. S K Nanda, Guardian Secretary of the Dangs. The two have done pioneering work to promote the knowledge of the herbal healers
I learnt a lot about the way of treatment of Janukaka with the help of Joshi. He diagnosed patients in a way different than Mangoobhai about whom I had written two issues before. Rajni Patel, a qualified pharmacist with the Dang Ayurvedic Pharmacy was there to explain the medicinal properties of the herbs Janukak was talking about. Rajni is with the DAP since 1982 when it was started. Still, both Joshi and Patel say that Janukaka was a kind of born healer who made ordinary herbs work wonder. Joshi says that with over 20 years of experience, he can also suggest herbs, but the herbs have some magical effect when Janukaka touches them.
They asked me attend the meeting that Dr. Nanda was going to have with bhagats in the evening. It was a routine administrative meeting where the guardian secretary was interacting with Bhagats to know about the progress of the Bhagat Mandali, the government has floated to promote their knowledge.
But the ambience of the meeting showed the hold Nanda has over these bhagats. Senior herbal healers like Janu Kaka addressed him with the word TU which among tribal is a sign of intimacy with the person they are talking. And Nanda calls them by name as he knows them all with their family background.
(This is the fourth article about the Dangs in the Newsletter. You can read other articles from the previous issues that are in the archive.)
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The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
~ Thomas Jefferson |
With Love, Yogesh Sharma
GujaratGlobal.com |
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