Print Media – its future

Technology has radically altered our news consumption pattern; there a more rumblings of change as tectonic shifts such as bandwidth speed with fiber optics are threatening to bring in more radical changes. Readers who matter, no long connect to traditional media for news or entertainment, which would mean that awareness of what goes around just happens; it may pop up on the phone or on the computer screen or it can be on the google alert list, if not its not relevant at all.

Well what then is the role of the newspaper or rather the print medium? Ephemeral images from Television and the incredulous nature of the internet and the other tech devices makes the consumer find comfort in the solidity of the printed word to form opinions and judgments that are long standing. From this perspective the print medium plays a pivotal role albeit in conjunction with the other medium, this is the reason that in an advertising media mix the role of the print may be a fraction but its used as a thin string to tie all the other media together, similarly the absence of print in an communication plan may not provide the investments with the multiplier effect and the buy button may not get activated without a medium like print that has the potential to provide the credibility.

Somewhere in the intersection of credibility and accessibility lies the future of the print media both to the advertiser and the reader.

The purpose cannot or should not be for gathering eyeballs (circulation increase) it must be only to physically tie up a range of activities. The success of TOI Group was due to its ability to increase and experiment on a large bandwith – right from selling tea (editor’s choice) to Times Jobs portal with a Radio Mirchy and Planet M and India Times jostling with each other and the competition to be part of the consumer life and lifestyle.

If content and production have low entry barriers, this would mean that the market will be flooded with a range of print products. The success lies in developing a boot strap model with the ability to constantly re invent at every stage, be discussed in the cocktail circuits with an eye on valuation so that it can be ready to be gobbled up in future at ………….

Have we all surrendered to the Internet

Andrew Sullivan writes in the Times of India that Internet particular Google has done wonderful things, but are we losing the quietness of our literary, intellectual and spiritual life

Reading one book for a while allows the theme to resonante, today we flit around, multi task and dont allow our mind to reside on one subject. We dont hav etime to think things throught and allow themselves to entertain a thought before commiting it.

He quotes Nicholas Carr who says “Information may be free, but, as Horning explains, it exacts a price in the time required to collect, organize, and consume it. As we binge on the Net, the time available for other intellectual activities – like, say, thinking – shrinks. Eventually, we get bloated, mentally, and a kind of intellectual nausea sets in. But we can’t stop because – hey – it’s free.”

Outsourcing or Abdicating

The other day I saw a program in National Geography, on how families with single child, particularly the rebellious sort are sent to a correction school (???) which is a heady mix of a military school and torture chambers. I could see the children crying and bleeding at times. I beleive that this method is an outcome of a leftist world view and I have no judgement to pass.For a humanistic level this is tragic. That children are being treated this way, be it in Tirupur or Beijing or in every single ambitious home.How does ambition come it? In a free market economy – hard/smart work equals money or riches. This is a clear equation that is finding its way into peoples life. And Riches is only measure with the physical investments. The root of the problem lies some where here.Is important that we do not bite into this western world view and hold on to our own. Our joint family, our social structure, the most prominant place for elders, etc are our riches not the gold under our feet, or the shares in the DP account.Its important for the Indian families to get rooted on our culture and heritage. Speak to children regularly, teach them the stories and the history of our land, root them on the culture, expose them to different world views with out getting them begotted., nurture them with values. PLEASE DO NOT OUTSOURCE EDUCATION WTIH TUTIONS AND DISCILINE BY SENDING THEM TO RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLSThat is the greatest damage you can do to the next generation

NO BARKING

An occassional taxi was the only metallic danger in the rough roads of yester years, so a game of cricket with a makeshift stumps (school bags) in the middle of the road was a natural reaction to boredom, jus’ the way we loiter into Coffee Day to butcher some time. Ambitious cricketing shots often found its target onto a neighbour’s glass window or the lawn, in these circumstances our exit strategy was well in place. But then every human has his nemesis, and that was the ‘BEWARE OF DOGS’ BOARD

The creative landlords paid more to the artist who emphasised the teeth of the dog for additional effects. Those boards hanging on the gate post sent shivers down the spine often time restricting stokeplay. This was probably the reason that India had very few belligerent cricketers in the past, most were good gentlemen who feared dogs and fast bowling.

Cut now, 30 years later, obviously the matchboxes called homes have now place for dogs, we get to see them occassionaly in Discovery channel or on Nat Geo. The homes today have electronic surveillance that do not poo or bark or wag tails. The gates are closed and are embellished with ‘NO PARKING” boards often outshouted by the commercial message of the sponsor who paid for it to make sure your parking lot is not blocked (he! he!). May be its part of the CSR programs for large organizations??? but you find them in all gates, some gates have atleast 5 of them.

From Beware of Dogs to No Parking we have come a long way baby

Dark men in a Station Wagon

A longish car, nay wagon, shaped as the front of a serpant, and the snout pointed downwards as a swine. Its dark tinted glasses are as night willingly ushered in to hide the corruption of the soul, bouncing away all the elements of sanity and light.

And in sits an animal clothed as a man, who has climbed the pinnacle of deceit, and meditates to have his heart go harder and his blood go colder. The collective carbon emmission of a buzzing port city hangs its head in shame as they jostle cheek by jowl with the words of his mouth. His words and deeds combine as a fatal mix of acids in a chemistry lab. His attire flawlessly white, are as white washed tombs, and a symbol death adorns his neck and his wrist, in thick gold. To sting as a cobra, to devour as a python, to scavenge as a hyena are deeds that he toggles effortless as a nerd flits across the sites on screen.

A champion of ignorance, the success story of our age, the leaders of our polity and business, lives at ease by churning the morality of the ignorant and fears of the fools.

Lord of the Roads

Jug Suraiya is one of my fav writers, he is good at rubbishing stuff in style.. read it
Inspired by him I tried my hand at writing here goes:

A pesky kid, who hates to equip his cerebellum will be admonished with a prediction of hitting the streets soon, insinutating that the worst and despicable are in the streets. On a cognitive level, streets are meant for the filth of the earth to reside and thats the connotation wayside owns. Culturally we are constrained to maintain this standard to make sure our caste system is alive and kicking without the lines getting blurred. Personal hygiene is part of our culture and ritual intricately woven with our celebrations and worship. Pumpkins completely mutilated and squashed on the roads are a monthly affair for purity of soul, holiness will hit new high when the goey matter of the pumpkin skids a motorist to split his head. Free play of bacteria, leptospirosis, plagues moving our streets are celebrated now and then with blaring sounds of filmi music belted out from conical speakers. Its pay back time, for all those rubbish we contributed to keep the legacy of our culture alive. The solution probabably is to get people to own the streets and legally make them their homes. Ownership in exchange for payment . Urinate for Rs150, spit for Rs100, big job for Rs500. The government must provide legal documents and those who consistently pay should be provided with a ownership deed to legally own a stretch of road. Banks and Financial Institutions must provide loans to this cause. Anyway its unfair to drag names such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhai Patel or Sarojini Devi to the streets.

Parallax Error

Thats the title of a book my son is currently writing. Yesterday he read some passages , it went on and on. Some amount of Mercantilism, Kublai Khan, the behaviour patterns of a lion went on to make the first chapter. He is taking his job real seriously, constanly thinking and planning, shunning unnecessary conversation. He is trying hard to fall into the writers groove.
The book apparently deals with concepts, leaders and events in history that are viewed with dark glasses. The book will endeavour to correct this vision or perspective. Interesting?

Ah! Rats

A strange custom in a small hamlet in Rajastan, India. People beleive that the rats in the temple are actually children in disguise. So the rats are fed at the temple. Once a year they are give milk and whatever is left behind by the rats are consumed by those who beleive that the milk can actually flow as blessings within them.
Strange by do you know that there are real life rats doing the same thing. What is practiced in this particular hamlet is just a mirror of what is practised by many who eulogize religious leaders, and implicitly follow whatever is given without using their cognition.

Audio Visual Brain

Probably the most effortless way of learning or chugging through life is by watching Television. The human brain has this capacity of rewiring itself based on the consistency of inputs. When exposed to TV on a consistent level the brain is reforming itself to learn through the AV stimuli. An AV brain is quite dormant in many areas and it cannot process written langauge. Reading is probably the most challenging activity to the brain. In the beginning was the word.

Knowledge and Thorns

Acquiring knowledge may not be a teddy bears picnic, but you have in great numbers people who effortlessly train themselves in soft skills to handle the knowledgeble.

I was talking to a good friend who had some wonderful insights on this. According to her the knowledgeble have to be ruthless to in pushing their ideas and agendas through. Nothing can be achieved without bloodshed according to her.