On The Anvil: New Magazines, And IGNOU's Ambitious Plans

Slightly old news, but Femina has gone Hindi. So has Tehelka.

IGNOU – Indira Gandhi National Open University – have set out to deliver their courseware on cell phones, informs Nikhil at Medianama.

IGNOU have given themselves six months to create mobile-compatible content, and another year for starting the mobile exams project; unviable targets - 25 million mobile education students by 2009, and 50 million by 2010.

Well, good luck to them.

Mid Day is going to partner MaXposure Media Group India to publish a culture and lifestyle magazine which they will call Beat. It will roll out in New Delhi in December, followed by editions in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore.

Stuff is coming to India. Afaqs says:

Being a male-centric magazine, Stuff covers peripherals which interest men, including gadgets, cars, apparel, accessories and fashion gear. The content will include first tests, exclusive news, reviews, gadgets-against-gadgets, adventure and gadgets, and the top 10 gadgets.

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News bulletins to be aired on FM stations, and more...

Private FM stations will now be able to air news bulletins and current affairs programs - which will be produced by the state-run All India Radio - but the proposal is yet to make headway since the minister for Information and Broadcast Priyan Ranjan Dasmunhi out of action, hospitalised after a heart attack.

The I&B ministry is also mulling increasing FDIs in the private radio space.

After launching Star Jolsha, a Bengali channel in October, the Star group is coming up with a Marathi channel next month. It will be called Star Pravah.

Zee has launched Zee 24 Ghante Chattisgarh, the first round-the-clock news channel in the state. The group has also ventured into Tamil Nadu.

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Not An Idea, Sir Ji

Idea Cellular's recent television ads show Abhishek Bachchan as a creative problem solver.

He asks people to replace their names with their phone numbers to end caste violence. Then, he spreads the reach of English language education by broadcasting lectures over cellphones in rural India.

The ads end with a self-congratulatory "What an idea, sir ji".

OK. Nice concept, well-produced TVC, but one must ask the uncomfortable question: what message is Idea Cellular trying to send out by dramatising an unfeasible, impractical idea and then patting its own back?

Vijay Nambisan criticises the campaign on The Hoot. He says:

Surely it is a laudable objective to take education – of whatever kind – to the villages. This initiative with the mobile phones might even work. But is it ethical to take credit for an idea, pretending it has been put into practice? That is what this company is doing.

This trend needs to be stopped before more corporates see the beauty and simplicity – and economy – of claiming the kudos for an idea instead of achievement.

What do readers feel about this ad campaign?

Comments to this post are open.

Playboy headed for India?

Business Standard reports:

With the government easing entry norms for international magazines, a slew of foreign magazines in both the news and non-news genre are making a beeline to enter the Indian market next year. These include Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Inc, Technology Review, Playboy, and Business Week, among others.

International magazine groups including BBC Magazines, Technology Review Inc (an independent media company owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Playboy Enterprises Inc, and Hearst Communications were among those evaluating their Indian foray, sources in the magazines industry said.

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Is This A Hair-Brained Scheme Or The End Of Sub Editors?

Eighty sub editors may lose their jobs following the Daily Express and Sunday Express's plans to let reporters key their stories directly on to the pages templates.

The Guardian reports:

In an email to staff, the Express Newspapers group managing editor, Ian Parrott, detailed how reporters would fit stories into an editorial template containing the necessary styles. Rewriters and lawyers would then check the pages.

As expected, the move has made employees insecure. The National Union of Journalists has reacted with anger saying the cuts would lead to the title's "immediate demise as national papers".

This post is open to reader comment.

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Why Journalism Is Not Just Another Profession

Link via Krishna Prasad, who blogs about it on Sans Serif.

These journalists were covering the Russia-Georgia war when bullets started to rain on their car. One of them recorded the incident on his camera.

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Humour: What Is The Difference Between Appraisal And Resignation?

Funtoosh tells us.

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100 'Just Right' Things About Photojournalism, According To Chip Litherland

Chip Litherland, a photo-journalist from Florida, comes up with fascinating insights into why he loves his job. We select five from the 100 reasons he has listed:

1. We could be sitting in a cubicle right now processing paperwork....for the rest of our lives.

10. The ladies think it's sexy.

40. Everytime you tell someone what you do, they NEVER say "Oh, man, that must suck."

61. Putting down the camera and listening, because people will tell you the damndest things just for being a stranger that cares.

98. Giving a voice to someone who needs it.

Do read the full article, for most of it is relevant to reporters out in the field as well.

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Reader Debate — Outsourcing Journalism Jobs To India

Journalism jobs in the US are being outsourced to India. HT reports:

When the Miami Herald hired Brayden Simms as a fulltime copy editor back in March, the former freelancer assumed his new position meant new job security. He had it wrong: In mid-June, the Florida native learned that his job had been outsourced to Mindworks Global Media, a Noida-based firm that is among the companies fueling a steady migration of American journalism jobs to India.

Another such editing shop in Gurgaon, Express KCS, puts it down to the low cost of jobs.

... a copy editor at a medium-sized American newspaper makes between $30,000 to $60,000 per year, compared to between $4,800 and $14,480 at Express KCS.

Simms, the copy editor who lost his job, is understandably distressed at this sudden and unexpected loss.

"It's a bit scary, to be out of a job, in an industry particularly lacking of jobs. And it's all so sudden," he wrote on his blog.

Jobs Media throws the floor open to readers. What do they feel about this new trend in journalism? While it is a boon for media professionals in India, would these newspapers based abroad suffer a fall in editorial standards due to geographical and cultural differences?

Does this practice have a future, or will it fall flat very soon?

Comments are open on this post. Please post your views.

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How Not To Send Your Job Application

Many readers send job applications to Jobs Media. The blog editor is sorry to inform them that we do not harbour any more information about openings than what we post. If we know it, we post it.

Each unsolicited CV we receive is a wasted effort on the sender’s part. If you wish to apply to a job, send it to the contact email mentioned in each job post.

Hence we request readers to not send us applications. We only post job information. We do not actually provide jobs. We do not forward CVs on your behalf.

Jobs Media would also like to share a few tips, based on our observations of the applications received.

(1) Please do not apply to jobs without a cover letter. It reduces your chances of landing that job.

(2) If you’re applying to an employer who does not know you, a well-written cover letter lets the employer know you and your career achievements. If you skip this step, you miss the chance of introducing yourself.

(3) Run a spell-check and grammar check on your application and CV. Mistakes on these documents will reflect poorly upon you, especially when you’re applying for a job in the media where spelling and grammar are sacrosanct.

(4) If you’re unsure about a spelling or a grammar usage, consult your seniors, professors, parents or someone who has a stronger understanding of language.

(5) Try to follow up your email application with a phone call to the employer, or if possible, a visit to his office. A face-to-face interaction would help your application stand out among the hundreds or thousands of other applications that might have been sent for that job opening.

(6) It’s good to be enthusiastic but it’s also important to not push your luck. Some months back, a company had posted on Jobs Media about an opening for a sub editor in their web team. The sensible applicants applied for the job only if it matched their career interests. However, some over-enthusiastic applicants shot off their CVs asking for openings for news readers, camerapersons, producers and what not. On one hand, these applicants were searching for jobs which did not exist. On the other hand, the company spent their valuable time deleting mails from such applicants. It was a waste of time for both parties.

(7) If you do not receive a reply from your prospective employer, you may write to them asking about the status of your application. If you still do not receive a reply, it is advisable to not try too hard. If this employer wants to hire you, he will get back to you.

(8) Using SMS and chat slang in your cover letter may also work against you. Applying to a job is considered a formal affair and it is best to use normal, simple, correct and well-punctuated English – which means, pls do nt use wrds such as dese, 4 dey cn b a pain 2 da readr, n ur applctn wd b rejctd.

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How To Interview Like Tim Russert

Russert with his trademark dry-erase board during the 2000 presidential election. Wikipedia Photo

Tim Russert, who passed away on June 13, is known as the finest interviewer of his time. Some say he is the best ever.

He was the senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC News, and is mostly remembered for being the longest serving moderator of Meet The Press, which has been on air since 1947 and is the oldest show in TV history.

Russert was declared the best and most influential journalist in Washington, and Meet The Press the most interesting and important hour on television. Time magazine had named Russert among the 100 most influential people in the world, in 2008.

Via Poynter, here are some excerpts from an article titled "How To Interview Like Tim Russert".

Great journalists ask short questions. They are open-ended questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no. They provoke thoughts, opinions, feelings, explanations and emotions from the interviewee.

Too many pundits ask long, complex, multi-pronged questions to show how smart and connected they are. Not Russert. His questions were short and direct.

And here's are excerpts from Russert's recent interview of Barak Obama.

It was a vitally important interview for Obama, who was staring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright mess in the face. The first question Russert asked was short, to-the-point and open-ended:

MR. RUSSERT: On Friday you said, "It's been a rough couple of weeks." An understatement. What has the controversy over Reverend Jeremiah Wright done to your campaign?

The follow-up question was direct -- a yes or no closed-ended question followed by a second open-ended question. The purpose was to establish a fact and then use that fact to get a more in-depth answer.

MR. RUSSERT:You're still a member of the church?

SEN. OBAMA: I am.

MR. RUSSERT: Why do you think he re-emerged?

The full article

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India's Best Mass Communication Schools, By Mint

Business berliner Mint had recently come up with a study to rate the best communication schools in India. The top ten are thus:



View full table | Download PDF (Via Mint, 1.2 MB)

The study puts Ahmedabad’s MICA on top of the pile and Chennai’s ACJ follows on a close second.

MICA, primarily a communications management school, is conspicuous by its presence since it heads a table full of journalism schools. Mint’s report says:

The MICA director, international relations, too feels that MICA is more of a communication management institute, linking them to Indian Institute of Management (IIMs). “We basically teach management with communications management at the heart. The only difference is that our subjects are different than other management schools and media is only one part of our curriculum,” he adds.

So why was MICA included in the study at all?

Also, as one of the respondents says, it is unfair to compare ACJ — a pure journalism school — with an institute like IIMC, which offers non-journalism courses in advertising and public relations.

IIMC (Mint meant New Delhi but what happened to Dhenkanal?) has slipped to fourth after being rated ahead of ACJ for many years.

The rest of the table is highly predictable. None of the new players in the media education market have climbed up the ladder.

Meanwhile, the minister for Information and Broadcasting, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has announced that IIMC would hereon become “an International Media University.” He was quoted as saying at the convocation for the class of 2007-08 that:

I am very happy to announce that we have decided to upgrade the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) as an International Media University. The Planning Commission has already approved the proposal and my Ministry is working to make this Institute into a world class media education, training and research University, by an Act of Parliament. This will fulfill [sic] the growing demand of the media industry to provide more trained and qualified professionals. [Via PIB]

Readers of this blog who have studied at the colleges mentioned in the study, may disagree with Mint's rankings. Please feel free to discuss the topic. Comments are open to this post.

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On The State of TV Journalism in India

To quote from a previous career-development article on Jobs Media:

If getting into journalism means changing the world, trust me, you would be disappointed. If you check out the newspapers or television channels carefully, you would notice, we are not doing BBC style journalism. A lot of it is plain entertainment.

Photos via an email forward.

Comments are open on this article.

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Twenty Ways To Kill A Newspaper

Via Sans Serif:

At the World Association of Newspaper summit, Juan Antonio Giner, vice-president of Innovation, has unveiled a surefire recipe to kill a newspaper.

1. be dull and boring
2. change slowly
3. print yesterday's news
4. don't take risks
5. expect different results by doing things the same way
6. insult your readers
7. lie to advertisers
8. please politicians
9. cover buildings not people
10. don't interact with audience
11. print badly
12. print poor colour
13. write long
14. don't care about design
15. don't care about talent
16. don't sack bad managers
17. pay badly
18. don't innovate
19. milk the cash cow
20. expect miracles

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For those preparing for IIMC entrance tests...

The IIMC Alumni Association is running a blog with an excellent set of articles, that will help you prepare better for the written test and the GD/PI that follows.

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Seven Rules For Young Journalists

Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook magazine, delivered a speech at the convocation of the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media.

He laid out rules for young journalists passing out from the 2008 batch:

1) Be a professional journalist: Have a sense of mission and be proud to say your a journo.

2) Don’t be an intellectual eunuch: don’t be biased but don’t be afraid of holding a point of view.

3) Learn to exercise control over your writing whether you are a print journalist or a television journalist.

4) Be a sceptic, not a cynic: Do not be afraid to question, but do not try to doubt everything.

5) Stay away from corruption: Refuse blandishments for money, for access, for sources.

6) Avoid politicians: Know them but don’t be friendly. Don’t become buddies with them.

7) Avoid PR and ad men: Meet them, intereact with them but don’t be at their beck and call.

Via Sans Serif.

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Vinod Mehta on the changing face of the Indian media

Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook, offers his take on the growing concerns over trivialisation of news and the advent of marketing in journalism.

[B]rand managers, with honourable exceptions, are congenitally incapable of understanding the nature and purpose of journalism in a free society. They simply cannot understand it because of their background: which is sales in order to maximise profits. They can never understand that content is more, much more, than what readers want. It also has a social dimension. Thus, content is a calculated mix of what the reader wants and what he does not want. The trick is to marry the two to make great journalism and big profits.

[...]

In my nearly 25 years as editor, I have heard a lot of nonsense talked about journalism, but this piece of nonsense is outrageously and self-evidently absurd and dangerous. To demolish it is urgent. To let it become the benchmark of our profession is to put in peril everything we have worked for in 60 years. I ask you this: If some readers wish to read about paedophilia, should we oblige? If some readers wish to read about kinky fetishes, should we oblige? The whole idea is preposterous and I dare say most editors would end up in jail if they followed the new marketing wisdom.

Mehta also disbands popular myths about readership research in his essay. A must read for all — especially those beginning their careers in the media.

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Prevent Boss From Snooping On Your Google Search Queries

Are you worried that your bosses are keeping a tab on your internet search history to find out if you've been searching for jobs?

Worry not.

On Digital Inspiration, Amit Agarwal has an excellent post on how you can prevent your bosses and those snoopy guys in the IT department from finding out what you are searching on Google.

He provides links to website such as www.abnamrobankgroup.net which actually mirror sites of Google.

Read the full post.

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Driver crashes into studio during newscast

Ravi Baichwal, the news anchor was taken aback by a car that crashed into his studio while he was anchoring the 10 pm newscast.

See the video.

Free newspaper draws new audience in Italy

Handing out the Corriere della Sera Anteprima in Milan. The free paper and its rival, 24 minuti, left, reach a new audience. (Sandro Rizzi/AP)

Via the International Herald Tribune:

Corriere della Sera Anteprima, is a polished four-page tabloid-size image of its namesake Milan daily, with a condensed version of the day's top news and a front-page editorial by one of its top op-ed columnists.

In an era when newspaper readership is declining - and with it, advertising revenue - it would seem there would be little appetite for a new entry, even a free one, especially if much of its content had made the rounds that morning.

But Fabrizio Perretti, who teaches media and entertainment economics at Bocconi University in Milan, said the free papers aim at people who are more likely to watch television and do not normally read newspapers, creating "a very tempting market for advertisers."

Paradoxically, he added, instead of diluting the market for the parent papers, the freesheets are contributing to the stability of the newspaper industry "because they reach an audience that wasn't reached before."

The full article.