An open letter to the Times of India
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Dear Times of India,
We have been getting the news of the entry of your
publication for many moons now. There has been talk of your
paper opening an edition in Goa for the past decade or so.
Finally it's happening. The journalists' world is agog --
with the thrill of getting access to new jobs and higher
salaries. But, for the most part, the average reader back in
Goa doesn't have a clue about the big news on the horizon.
Media often doesn't discuss media issues. As one colleague
would put it, "dog doesn't eat dog".
So, the times are changing, at least as far as the news in
our small State goes.
Welcome to Goa. The Times of India has long had some link
with Goa. Quite a few journalists of Goan origin have worked
for your publication. Quite a number of Mumbai-based Goans
read your paper as their first choice. In fact, during my
high-school days, The Times of India and India Today were the
only two outstation papers that reached my village, and gave
me an insight into the outside world. Some of my
most-respected colleagues have worked with the Times of India.
But it would be hypocritical not to state that we do have
mixed feelings about your decision to finally set up base in
our small place.
We feel flattered by your decision to finally
consider Goa worthy enough as a media-market worthy
of your attention. But, we have reason to feel
unsure about the impact your arrival here will have
on both the profession of journalism as also the
media industry as a whole.
Some of my colleagues argue that your entry here would "mean
a great deal of relief to under-paid, overworked journalists
in Goa". Others see your arrival here as a reason for
increasing media penetration and readership, reaching out to
youth and neo-settlers in Goa, creating a bigger market,
improve the salaries of journalists and the operations of ad
agencies or improved national and international coverage
(together with more sensational news, and more "Page 3
splashes"). Optimists see the arrival of the ToI into Goa as
possibly contributing to better proof-reading, more
application of the RTI Act, better advertising, better
sponsorships (the equivalent of Ganesh in Goa), synergies
with other members of your media empire (on the web with
Indiatimes, and on radio with Radio Mirchi, and in the world
of music with Times Music). But is the job of a newspaper one
of staging "great year-end parties"? Hardly so....
We are already seeing the impact of the Times
impact being felt here. To begin, the most obvious
impact is the fact that journalist salaries are
going up in Goa. Phenomenally.
In a way, the salaries on the media front in Goa have long
needed an upgrade. Things have stagnated for long. There has
been little media expansion since 1987 in the
English-language print media here (since the birth of
Gomantak Times). But should the hike in salaries come the ToI
way?
Yes, low and stagnant salaries have been a problems here. It
has forced many journos into changing their profession or
even going into a kind of exile. Journalists have become a
major export 'commodity' from Goa today. Whether they settle
in Mumbai or the Gulf, or even places as unexpected as
Bangkok, Sydney and Papua New Guinea, they have had to
migrate far and wide to get access to better jobs.
This is not a healthy situation.
Now, the situation has drastically changed. We are hearing of
Rs 30,000+ and Rs 40,000+ salaries for mid-career
professionals. Not too long back, Rs 12,000 was considered
quite significant by Goan standards. In other sectors, the
depressed Goan market pays people with our educational
background around Rs 5,000 to 12,000. It is only a few of the
entertainment-oriented, tech-focussed or black-money flush
sectors that can pay higher salaries.
So what effect will the hiked salaries have on the
media industry as a whole? Will they create 'gilded
cages' which people can't afford to leave? Will it
heighten the servility that media-persons have to
toe? Will it lead to the collapse of one or more
newspaper in the State?
As one editor-friend put it, those changing jobs primarily
due to the high-salaries bait might just be pricing
themselves out of the market. While media houses obviously
don't want to lose their staff, I suspect he just might be
right.
Trading high salaries for a lack of freedom -- as has been
the case -- is counterproductive to both the journalist's
self-esteem and the wider newspaper business as a whole.
On this score, the Times has still to prove its bonafides. It
needs to reassure the journalist community as well as the
English-language newspaper reader in Goa that its high-salary
gambit is not just meant to destroy the competition. Big
business from Boribunder should desist from playing the role
of corporate raiders on the existing media in Goa.
Which brings us to a related point....
The number of staff that you'll have lured away from the
existing papers -- with the deal of higher salaries -- is
surprisingly high. Is the ToI goal simply to bring out a new
product; or is it just to debilitate and crush the
competition? What's the impact of a policy that believes in
using its deep pockets to lure away 30-40 of local
journalists, and still recruiting? See
[http://groups.google.com/group/goajourno/browse_thread/thread/e1d2dd2ef61df544]
The Times of India comes here with a mixed reputation. For
the past some years, the Times has become an
advertiser-driven paper. It comes across as a well-packaged
free-sheeter of sorts, and sometimes I do buy it primarily
because the advertising is interesting!
We knew different Times, and your paper was very readable for
stints in the 'eighties. It has changed in other ways too.
Particularly in the manner in which it treats its staff.
Money and plush offices are no replacement for high-quality
journalism or job-satisfaction.
We've known other Times, when the ToI covered a large number
of social issues and concerns of relevance to a wide segment.
Today, ads dominate the paper, glamour is in, and there have
been lengthy debates about the policy about selling editorial
space at a price. Unfortunately, even before ToI's arrival in
Goa, your way of doing things has inspired others here, and
sections of our local papers have been implementing parallel
policies of glamour, the ad-focus, conflict-free journalism
and selling editorial space for a price.
We hear from our friends in the colleges that your
'product' will be sold for under Rs 300 a year
(with a free gift thrown in)! That's less than a
rupee a day! Does this not amount to dumping, and
is it not an anti-competition practice? Already,
India's newspaper's prices are among the lowest in
the world. What's the point in using your deep
pockets to depress newspaper prices further,
leading to the ruin of smaller papers and the
reality that the advertiser -- rather than the
reader or public interest -- would become even more
influential?
As mentioned above, sadly, many smaller newspapers, including
ones in Goa, have bought into the ToIsation of the media.
More glamour, more gossip. Less critical issues. Bigger
salary packets. Less scope for journalists to express
themselves. More corporate control over the media. Editorial
space for sale.
It's hardly likely that anyone could beat the Times of India
at its own game. One only hopes that this arrival of the
paper to Goa could be an opportunity for the local media to
wake up to the possibilities of reader-driven, truth-driven
journalism. But then, the experiences of other cities where
the ToI has set up shop (Bangalore, Pune, Chandigarh) hasn't
been a very happy one.
We hope that your arrival here will not further psyche local
newspapers into trying to beat the Old Lady of Boribunder at
her new game! The reader will only be the loser.
We hope your stay in Goa will be marked with a policy that
treats your staff well (not just monetarily). We urge you to
desist from trivialising the media, and to respect the media
diversity that exists in Goa.
It's time for all concerned media-persons, and every reader,
to urge influential papers like yours to avoid the
'raddi-isation' of the media -- in a way that produces thick
newspapers at throwaway prices, worth more for their resale
value as scrap-paper rather than readability.
Finally, welcome to Goa again ToI. Come in like a good guest,
and not like a corporate raider. Treat the existing
newspapers with the respect due. They have been unfair to us
journalists in the past (by not giving promotions when due,
or keeping salaries depressed, and treating staff poorly),
but we who believe in media diversity will stand by it, if
only to allow many voices to speak out.
Also, do look at your staff as intelligent persons, not just
purchasable brains. Goa needs a media that is relevant to its
needs, not one which is just going to kill the competition,
take the maximum amount of advertising revenue, and run!
Yes, there are many things wrong with the media in Goa. But
the approach you take hardly suggests that things are going
to improve with the way you approach it. Please reassure us
we are wrong in thinking this way. One of our colleagues
argued recently that newspapers in Goa need a "dose of
professionalism". But is this going to come from the ToI?
Frederick Noronha
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
