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Print media in India
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This article is about print media in India. For a more general coverage of media in India see Indian media.
Indian print media is one of the largest print media in the world. The history of it started in 1780, with the publication of the Bengal Gazette from Calcutta.
Contents
* 1 History
* 2 Metrics
o 2.1 Circulation
o 2.2 Readership
* 3 See also
* 4 External Links
* 5 References
History
James Augustus Hickey is considered as the “father of Indian press” as he started the first Indian newspaper from Calcutta, the Calcutta General Advertise or the Bengal Gazette in January, 1780. In 1789, the first newspaper from Bombay, the Bombay Herald appeared, followed by the Bombay Courier next year (this newspaper was later amalgamated with the Times of India in 1861).
The first newspaper in an Indian language was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue of this daily was published from the Serampore Mission Press on May 23, 1818. In the same year, Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya started publishing another newspaper in Bengali, the Bengal Gazetti. On July 1, 1822 the first Gujarati newspaper the Bombay Samachar was published from Bombay, which is still extant. The first Hindi newspaper, the Samachar Sudha Varshan began in 1854. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which papers have grown over the years are Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Bengali. [1]
The Indian language papers have taken over the English press as per the latest NRS survey of newspapers. The main reasons being the marketing strategy followed by the regional papers, beginning with Eenadu, a telugu daily started by Ramoji Rao. The second reason being the growing literacy rate. Increase in the literacy rate has direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the regional papers.
The people are first educated in their mother tongue as per their state in which they live for e.g. students in Maharashtra are compulsory taught Marathi language and hence they are educated in their state language and the first thing a literate person does is read papers and gain knowledge and hence higher the literacy rate in a state the sales of the dominating regional paper in that state rises.
The next reason being localisation of news. Indian regional papers have several editions for a particular State for complete localisation of news for the reader to connect with the paper. Malayala Manorama has about 10 editions in Kerala itself and six others outside Kerala. Thus regional papers aim at providing localised news for their readers. Even Advertisers saw the huge potential of the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more due to the efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge market.
Metrics
Newspapers in India are measured on two parameters, circulation and readership.
Circulation
Circulation is certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations which is an industry body. It audits the paid-for circulation of the member newspaper companies.
Readership
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Readership is estimated by two different surveys, The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and the National Readership Survey (NRS).
This is a list of the top 30 newspapers in India by daily circulation. These figures are mainly compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Some newspapers whose circulation figures are under dispute do not appear on this list. Figures in Millions.[2]
↓ Newspaper↓ Language↓ City, State↓ Daily Circulation↓ Owner↓
1 The Times of India English Various cities and states 3.146 Owned by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.
2 Dainik Bhaskar
Hindi Various cities and states 2.547 DB Crop Ltd.
3 Dainik Jagran
Hindi Various cities and states 2.168 Jagaran Prakashan Ltd.
4 Malayala Manorama
Malayalam Various cities in Kerala and a few other cities 1.514 Owned by Malayala Manorama Group
5 The Hindu English Various cities and states 1.360 Founded in 1878, owned by Kasturi & Sons Ltd., exposed the Bofors scandal
6 Eenadu
Telugu Various cities in Andhra Pradesh and few other cities 1.350 Founded in 1974, owned by Ramoji Group.,
7 Deccan Chronicle English Various cities and states 1.349 Owns Deccan Chargers franchise of the Indian Premier League
8 Ananda Bazar Patrika
Bengali Kolkata, West Bengal 1.277 Owned by Ananda Publishers
9 Amar Ujala
Hindi Various cities and states 1.230 Mainly prominent in the Hindi heartland
10 Hindustan Times English Various cities and states 1.143 Owned by HT Media Ltd
11 Hindustan
Hindi Various cities and states 1.142 Hindi extension of the Hindustan Times
12 Sakshi
Telugu Various cities in Andhra Pradesh and major cities in India 1.256 Established in 2008, owned by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Also runs the Sakshi news channel
13 Mathrubhumi
Malayalam Various cities in Kerala and a few other cities 1.077 Owned by The Mathrubhumi Group
14 Gujarat Samachar
Gujarati Ahmedabad, Gujarat 1.051 Owned by Lok Prakashan Ltd.
15 Punjab Kesari
Hindi States of Punjab, Harayana .902 Founder Jagat Narain was assassinated by Sikh militants on September 9, 1981
16 Dinakaran
Tamil Various cities in Tamil Nadu and a few other cities .901 Bought out by SUN TV group in 2005
17 Sakaal
Marathi Various cities in Maharashtra .879 Launched English version Sakaal Times in 2008
18 Dina Thanthi
Tamil Various cities in Tamil Nadu and a few other cities .854 Founded by S. P. Adithanar
19 Divya Bhaskar
Gujarati Ahmedabad, Gujarat .840 Gujarati version of the Dainik Bhaskar
20 Aaj
आज
Hindi Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh .748
21 The Economic Times English Various cities and states .651 Owned by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.
22 The Telegraph English Various cities and states .465 Owned by Ananda Publishers
23 DNA English Various cities and states .400 Owned by Diligent Media Corporation
24 Prajavani
Kannada Karnataka .364 Owned by The Printers (Mysore) Private Limited
25 The New Indian Express English Various cities and states .309 Owned by Express Publications Ltd.
26 Deccan Herald English Various cities and states .214 Owned by The Printers (Mysore) Private Limited
27 Udayavani
Kannada Karnataka .185 Owned by Udayavani
28 The Statesman English Various cities and states .172 Owned by The Statesman Ltd.
29 The Hindu Business Line English Various cities and states .163 Owned by Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
30 Business Standard English Various cities and states .144 Owned by Business Standard Ltd. (BSL)
list of newspapers in india
Assamese Language
* Adinor Sambad
* Aji
* Agradoot
* Aajir Dainik Batori
* Ajir Asom
* Aamar Asom
* Asom Bani
* Bhoomiputra
* Dainik Agradoot
* Dainik Janambhumi
* Janasadharan
* Danik Asom
* Natun Dainik
* Saadin
Bengali Language
* Aajkaal
* Ananda Bazar Patrika
* Bartaman
* Dainik Jugasankha
* Dainik Samayik Prasanga
* Dainik Sonar Cachar
* Dainik Statesman
* Century Sangbad
* Ganashakti
* Sangbad Pratidin
* Sambad
* Ekdin
* Uttar Banga Sambad
English Language
Regular newspapers
Name↓ Publishing frequency↓ Publishing locations↓
Afternoon Despatch & Courier Daily Mumbai
Ahmedabad mirror Daily Ahmedabad
Asian Age Daily Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and London
Assam Tribune Daily Guwahati
The Hindu Business Line Daily Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Tiruchirapalli, Mangalore, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai
Business Standard Daily Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Kochi
Early Times, Jammu Daily Jammu
Daily Excelsior Daily Jammu
Daily News & Analysis Daily Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Jaipur and Bangalore
Dainik Sonar Cachar Daily Silchar
Deccan Chronicle Daily Hyderabad
Deccan Herald Daily Bangalore
Fort Times Weekly Vellore
Financial Express Daily Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune
Free Press Journal
Gomantak Times Daily Goa
Greater Kashmir Daily Srinagar
OHeraldo Daily Goa
Imphal Free Press Daily Imphal
Kashmir Post
Kashmir Observer
Kashmir Times
Lokmat Times
Manipur Today
MiD-DAY Daily Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune
Mint Daily Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune
Mumbai Mirror Daily Mumbai
Nagaland Post Dimapur
National Herald
Newstime
Pal Vanshikam
Pot Pouri
Pioneer Daily Delhi, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Bhopal, Chandigarh and Dehradun
Ranchi Express
Star of Mysore
The Assam Tribune
The Assam Express
The Economic Times Daily
The Energy Era
The Frontier Sun
The Hindu Daily Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Madurai, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam
The Hindustan Times Daily New Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Kolkata
The Indian Express Daily Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata
The Morning Quick
The Morung Express Daily Dimapur
Nhatky India The Navhind Times Daily Goa
The New Indian Express Daily Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Thiruvananthapuram
The News Today Daily Chennai
The North East Observer
The North East Times The Northlines Daily Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir
The Oil Field Times
The Sangai Express
The Satyam Times
The Sentinel
The Shillong Times
The Statesman Daily Kolkata, Delhi, Siliguri, Bhubaneshwar
The Sunday Observer
The Telegraph (Kolkata) Daily Kolkata
The Times of India Daily Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Surat, Guwahati
Food & Beverage News Mumbai
The Tribune Daily Chandigarh, New Delhi, Jalandhar, Dehradun and Bathinda
Bangalore Mirror Bangalore
People’s Mail
Financial Mail
Himalayan Mirror
The Rehmat
Niche newspapers
Name↓ Primary focus↓ Publishing frequency↓ Publishing locations↓
Accommodation Times Real estate Weekly
Afternoon Tabloid Daily Mumbai
Gujarati Language
* Akila Daily
* Bombay Samachar
* City Watch Gujarat
* Divya Bhaskar
* Gujarat Samachar
* Jai Hind
* Sambhaav Newspaper
* Sandesh
* Desh Pradesh Ni Aajkaal
* Nobat
* Phulchhab
* Janmabhoomi
* Naya Padkar
Hindi Language
* Dainik Navajyoti
* Amar Ujala
* Dainik Bhaskar
* Dakshin Bharat Rashtramat
* Hindustan
* Dainik Jagran
* Dainik Purvoday
* Rashtriya Sahara
* Do Baje Dopahar
* Hari Bhoomi
* Hindi Milap
* Jansatta
* Mumbai Dainik Sandhya
* Nai Dunia
* Navbharat Times
* Purbanchal Prahari
* Punjab Kesari
* Prabhat Khabar
* Punjab Focus
* Pratah Kal
* Press Ki Taquat
* Rajasthan Patrika
* Ranchi Express
* Rastriya Sahara
* Hindustan Express
* Veer Arjun
* Vyapaar
* NCR Times
* United Bharat
* Chambal Surkhi
* Sandhya Pahal
* Anugamini
* Patrika
* Gandiva
* Ujala
* Sanmarg
* Janmukh
* Kashi Warta
* Navabharat
* Janwarta
* Aj
* Rashtriya Aawaz
* Sansani Chobis Ghante
* Dadhich Darpan
Kannada language
* Vijaya Karnataka
* Prajavani
* Kannada Prabha
* Udayavani
* Samyukta Karnataka
* Hosa_digantha
* Vaartha Bhaarathi
* Sanjevani
* Ee Sanje
* Janathavani
* Janatha Madhyama
* Hassanvani
* Kranti Kannada Daily
* Taranga
* Sudha
* karmaveera
* Mayura
* Tushara_(_magazine_)
* Kasthuri
* Lankesh Patrike
* Hai Benagalooru
* Mangala
* Bala Mangala
* Andolana
* roopatara
insidestory
Kashmiri Language
* Koshur Akhbar
* Soan Meeraas
Malayalam Language
* Aswamedham
* Chandrika
* Deepika
* Deshabhimani
* Janayugam
* Janmabhumi
* Kerala Kaumudi
* Kerala Kaumudi Flash
* Kalakaumudi
* Madhyamam
* Malayala Manorama
* Mangalam
* Mathrubhumi
* Punyabhumi
* Thejas
* Siraj
* Varthamanam
* Veekshanam
* Metro Vaartha
* Kaumudiplus Internet newspaper
Manipuri Language
* Ching Tam
* Huiyen Lanpao
* Imphal Free Press
* Kanglapao
* Kangleipakki Meira
* Lanbung
* Mannaba
* Matamgi Yakairol
* Meeyam
* Naharolgi Thoudang
* Ningtam Lanpao
* Paonilkhol
* Poknapham
* Prajatantra
* Punshi
* Sanaleibak
* Sangai Express
* Toknga
* Thoudok Wathok
* Eastern Post, Jiribam
Marathi Language
* Daily Aikya
* Daily Kesari
* Deshdoot
* Deshonnati
* Gavkari
* Goa Times
* Gomantak
* Govadoot
* Lokmat
* Loksatta
* Konkan Darshan
* Konkan Vaarta
* Mahanagar
* [[Maharashtra Times]Ma TA]
* Mumbai Chaufair
* Mumbai Sandhya
* Nava Kaal
* Navprabha
* Pudhari
* Ratnagiri Times
* Saamna
* Sakal
* Sanatan Prabhat
* Sanchar
* Sandhyakaal
* Sandhyanand
* Mahanayak
* www.dailymahanayak.com
* SAMRAT
* Tarun Bharat
* Zunjar Neta
* Mahavidarbha
* Punyanagari
* Arthniti
Mizo language
* Vanglaini
Nepali Language
* Himgiri
* Sunchari
* Himali Darpan
Oriya Language
* SAMBAD
* Dharitri
* The Samaja
* The Prajatantra
* The Samaya
* Pragatibadi
* Ama Rajdhani
* anupambharat
* Odisa Bhaskara
* The Eswar
* Sambada Kalika
* The Suryaprabha
Punjabi Language
* Desh Videsh Times
* Ajit
* Punjab Express
* Punjab Focus
* Sanjh Savera
* Jag Bani
* Khuli Soch
* Sher-e-punjab
* Desh Sewak
* Nawan Zamana
* Punjabi Tribune
* Ajj di Aawaz
* Chardi Kala
* Akali Patrika
* Press Ki Taquat
* Rozana Spokesman
Tamil Language
* Ananda Vikatan Not a newspaper
* Dina Thandi
* Dina Sudar
* Dinakaran
* Dina Malar
* Dina Mani
* Kadiravan
* Kumudam Not a newspaper
* Kumari Murasu
* Kaalai Kathir
* Maalai Murasu
* Maalai Malar
* Mani Chudar
* Namadhu MGR
* Tamil Murasu
* Tamil Sudar
* Thinaboomi
* Thinathoodhu
* Thinaseidhi
* Viduthalai
* Janasakthi
* Theekkadir
* Maduraimani
Telugu Language
* Andhra Bhoomi
* Andhra Jyothi
* Andhra Prabha
* Andhra Pradesh
* Annadata
* Eenadu
* Praja Shakti
* Vaartha
* Hyderabad Mirror
* Rakshana
* Udayam it was there long back
* Suryaa
* Saaksham
* Saakshi (newspaper)
* Aksharam
* Zaminryot Longest living telugu news paper (80th year)
Tibetan Language
* Tibet Sun
Urdu Language
* Avadhnama
* Eitamad
* Rehnumah-e-Deccan
* The Inquilab
* Munsif Daily
* Siasat
* Hindustan Express
* Pindar
* Ek Qaum
* The Musalman
* ZAMANAT
* Rozanama Rashtriya Sahara
* Sahafat
* Urdu Times
* Awaz E Mulk
* Pratap
* Hind Samachar
* Milap
articles penned by me in The Times Of India
Crawling down the memory lane, I eventually googled my name only to be flooded with links out of which the previous one is one of the many articles I penned while being in the times of india, kolkata edition.
Parichay of a best-seller
Robin Roy and Mukut Kanti Saha, TNN, Feb 2, 2002, 11.55pm IST
BOOK EVENT: “The Death and Life of American Journalism” — 2/3 7 pm
Everyone agrees that a free society requires a free press. But a free press without the resources to compensate those who gather and analyze information, and to distribute that information widely and in an easily accessible form, is like a seed without water or sunlight. So how do we save journalism?
In their celebrated new book, The Death and Life of American Journalism (Nation Books), Nation writer John Nichols and Robert McChesney make the case for government action to save the media. In a special forum, Nichols and McChesney will debate the most hopeful remedies for the malaise of the media with David Carr of the New York Times and Pamela Newkirk of the New York University Journalism School in a conversation moderated by GRIT-TV’s Laura Flanders. Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel will perform the introduction. The panel will be followed by a book-signing by Nichols and McChesney.
This free event takes place on Wednesday, February 3, at 7:00 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan. We hope you can make it. Please helped us spread the word. For those who can’t be there, we’ll be making the audio and video highlights available at TheNation.com and GRIT-TV will be broadcasting the proceedings as well.
The evening is co-sponsored by GRIT-TV, Free Press, Haymarket Press, the New York Society for Ethical Culture and The Nation magazine. —
for daily world affairs updates, i go to: http://ww4report.com/dailyreport
for fun: www.twitter.com/arunaguiar
for Super-Facial Friendship: www.facebook.com/arunaguiar
for 24/7 radio: www.WBAI.org 99.5 FM — check out my inaugural (amateurish, raw, unfinished, unedited) video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5yeyy-6uLQ
How Anil Dash Applies the Lessons of Web 2.0 to Government
BY: INTERVIEW BY JEFF CHU
Big idea: To apply the lessons of Web 2.0 to government, through his new D.C.-based incubator, Expert Labs. “The great Web 2.0 businesses are really data engines built on info generated by purchasing, searching, posting, tweeting.” Dash’s goal is to exploit the massive amount of data that the government has and creates. Government “can be as great a platform as the iPhone.” But policy makers aren’t tapping citizens’ brainpower right now, so Expert Labs will help: “In our private lives, we’d call this crowdsourcing.” The incubator, launched with input from White House staff, is officially part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and funded by a MacArthur Foundation grant. Dash aims to send policy proposals to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy this spring. “We’re moving as fast as we can, but D.C. is not used to working at startup speed.”
Credentials: Dash was the first employee at software company SixApart, whose Movable Type and TypePad are the premier blogging platforms, used by everyone from Kenneth Cole to Britney Spears to the Obama campaign — and Dash himself. He blogs at dashes.com.
BlackBerry or iPhone? Android. Dash has “become a little militant about openness. I like the hackability of the Android.”
Tech idol: Dan Bricklin, cocreator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for PCs. “He’s been tremendously innovative. He helped us lay the groundwork for blogging, and he has always made himself available.”
First job: As a kid in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Dash helped build a computerized grading system for a neighbor who was a community-college professor.
Favorite blog: Kottke.org. Jason Kottke “is probably the best at the art of blogging. He’s a craftsman — and I think the craft is undervalued.”
Iconic company: Microsoft. “Underrated for their innovation, especially for how they structured their business.” They’ve become a favored punching bag, “but people forget how much good they’ve done. Google now is where Microsoft was when they released Windows ’95 — they think they’re untouchable. But Microsoft has been humbled.”
Inspiration: New York, for its surprising stimuli. Example: “I went to the Met, to the music hall, where they have one of the first pianos. You look at it and realize, Somebody had to come up with this idea. Some guy probably spent his whole life convincing someone else that it wasn’t crazy. That’s inspiring.” (For the record, that guy was Bartolomeo Cristofori, an instrument curator for the Medicis.)
Own or rent? Rent. “Proudly! I totally question the conventional wisdom of the American dream. Why would I want to own?”
If I weren’t doing this, I’d be … “in the music industry. I love music. I just don’t like the record business. I was just listening to the new Alicia Keys, which I love.”
Offline hobby: “Is playing Mario video games offline?”
Bookshelf: Dash just read chef David Chang’s Momofuku cookbook. He plans to reread Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, about New York urban planner Robert Moses. “It shows how one person can get a lot done if you know how to hack the system. We also see the danger of not knowing how government works — or not caring. Some of our brightest tech minds behave as if government doesn’t exist. It’s myopia and arrogance. But it’s not only important — it’s a huge opportunity.”
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Cut This Story!
Newspaper articles are too long.
by Michael Kinsley
IMAGE CREDIT: GEORGE BATES
ONE REASON SEEKERS of news are abandoning print newspapers for the Internet has nothing directly to do with technology. It’s that newspaper articles are too long. On the Internet, news articles get to the point. Newspaper writing, by contrast, is encrusted with conventions that don’t add to your understanding of the news. Newspaper writers are not to blame. These conventions are traditional, even mandatory.
Take, for example, the lead story in The New York Times on Sunday, November 8, 2009, headlined “Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House.” There is nothing special about this article. November 8 is just the day I happened to need an example for this column. And there it was. The 1,456-word report begins:
Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night, advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy achievement.
Fewer than half the words in this opening sentence are devoted to saying what happened. If someone saw you reading the paper and asked, “So what’s going on?,” you would not likely begin by saying that President Obama had won a hard-fought victory. You would say, “The House passed health-care reform last night.” And maybe, “It was a close vote.” And just possibly, “There was a kerfuffle about abortion.” You would not likely refer to “a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system,” as if your friend was unaware that health-care reform was going on. Nor would you feel the need to inform your friend first thing that unnamed Democrats were bragging about what a big deal this is—an unsurprising development if ever there was one.
Once upon a time, this unnecessary stuff was considered an advance over dry news reporting: don’t just tell the story; tell the reader what it means. But providing “context,” as it was known, has become an invitation to hype. In this case, it’s the lowest form of hype—it’s horse-race hype—which actually diminishes a story rather than enhancing it. Surely if this event is such a big, big deal—“sweeping” and “defining” its way into our awareness—then its effect on the next election is one of the less important things about it. There’s an old joke about the provincial newspaper that reports a nuclear attack on the nation’s largest city under the headline “Local Man Dies in NY Nuclear Holocaust.” Something similar happens at the national level, where everything is filtered through politics. (“In what was widely seen as a setback for Democrats just a year before the midterm elections, nuclear bombs yesterday obliterated seven states, five of which voted for President Obama in the last election …”)
It could be worse. Here is The Washington Post’s lead on the same health-care story:
Hours after President Obama exhorted Democratic lawmakers to “answer the call of history,” the House hit an unprecedented milestone on the path to health-care reform, approving a trillion-dollar package late Saturday that seeks to overhaul private insurance practices and guarantee comprehensive and affordable coverage to almost every American.
Give The Post points for at least attempting to say what the bill does, but take them away again for the bungled milestone metaphor (you don’t “hit” a milestone if you hope to reach the next one), and for allowing Obama to fill the first 13 words of the piece with tired rhetoric. The Times piece, by contrast, waits until the third paragraph to quote Representative George Miller, who said, “This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country.” That is undeniably true. If there was ever a moment to revolutionize health care, it would be the moment when legislation revolutionizing health care has just passed. But is this news? Did anybody say to anybody else, “Wait’ll you hear what George Miller just said”? The quote is 11 words, while identifying Miller takes 16. And there’s more:
“Now is the chance to fix our health care system and improve the lives of millions of Americans,” Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the Rules Committee, said as she opened the daylong proceedings.
(Quote: 18 words; identification: 21 words.)
Meanwhile, Republicans oppose the bill. Yes, they do. And if you haven’t surmised this from the duly reported fact that all but one of them voted against it, perhaps you will find another quote informative.
“More taxes, more spending and more government is not the plan for reform the people support,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina and one of the conservatives who relentlessly criticized the Democrats’ plan.
(Quote: 16 words; identification, 19 words.)
Quotes from outside experts or observers are also a rich source of unnecessary verbiage in newspaper articles. Another New York Times story from the November 8 front page provides a good example here. It’s about how the crackdown on some Wall Street bonuses may have backfired. Executives were forced to take stock instead of cash, but then the stock went up, damn it. This is an “enterprise” story—one the reporter or an editor came up with, not one dictated by events. And the reporter clearly views the information it contains as falling somewhere between ironic and appalling, which seems about right. But it’s not her job to have a view. In fact, it’s her job to not have a view. Even though it’s her story and her judgment, she must find someone else—an expert or an observer—to repeat and endorse her conclusion. These quotes then magically turn an opinionated story into an objective one. And so:
“People have to look at the sizable gains that have been made since stock and options were granted last year, and the fact is this was, in many ways, a windfall,” said Jesse M. Brill, the chairman of CompensationStandards.com, a trade publication. “This had nothing to do with people’s performance. These were granted at market lows.”
Those are 56 words spent allowing Jesse M. Brill to restate the author’s point. Yet I, for one, have never heard of Jesse M. Brill before. He may be a fine fellow. But I have no particular reason to trust him, and he has no particular reason to need my trust. The New York Times, on the other hand, does need my trust, or it is out of business. So it has a strong incentive to earn my trust every day (which it does, with rare and historic exceptions). But instead of asking me to trust it and its reporter about the thesis of this piece, The New York Times asks me to trust this person I have never heard of, Jesse M. Brill.
Of course this attempt to pass the hot potato to a total stranger doesn’t work, because before I can trust Jesse M. Brill about the thesis of the piece, I have to trust The New York Times that this Jesse M. Brill person is trustworthy, and the article under examination devotes many words to telling me who he is so that I will trust him. (By contrast, it tells me nothing about the reporter.) Why not cut out the middleman? The reason to trust this story, if you choose to do so, is that it is in The New York Times. What Jesse M. Brill may think adds nothing. Yet he is only one of several experts quoted throughout, basically telling the story all over again.
In the current financial crisis, The New York Times and other papers seem to have given reporters more leeway than ever before to express their opinions directly. Editors may have realized that these issues are hard enough to explain without running into roadblocks at every turn labeled WARNING: OPINION TERRITORY AHEAD. But the old wordy conventions survive. Quotes from strangers restating the reporter’s opinion are one. Another is adding protective qualifiers to statements about which there is no real doubt (as when I wrote above that the bonus restrictions “may have” backfired). A third—illustrated by the headline on that story, “Windfall Seen as Bonuses Are Paid in Stock”—is to attribute the article’s conclusion to unnamed others. Somebody sees a windfall. We’re just telling you about it.
The software industry has a concept known as “legacy code,” meaning old stuff that is left in software programs, even after they are revised and updated, so that they will still work with older operating systems. The equivalent exists in newspaper stories, which are written to accommodate readers who have just emerged from a coma or a coal mine. Who needs to be told that reforming health care (three words) involves “a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system” (nine words)? Who needs to be reminded that Hillary Clinton tried this in her husband’s administration without success? Anybody who doesn’t know these things already is unlikely to care. (Is, in fact, unlikely to be reading the article.)
Then there is “inverted-pyramid style”—an image I have never quite understood—which stands for the principle of putting the most-crucial information at the top of a story and leaving the details for below. Pyramid style is regarded as a bit old-fashioned these days, hence all those florid subordinate clauses at the top of both the Times and the Post versions of the health-care story. The revolt against pyramid style is also why you get those you’ll-never-guess-what-this-is-about, faux-mystery narrative leads about Martha Lewis, a 57-year-old retired nurse, who was sitting in her living room one day last month watching Oprah when the FedEx delivery man rang her doorbell with an innocent-looking envelope … and so on. (The popularity of this device is puzzling, since the headline—“Oprah Arrested in FedEx Anthrax Plot”—generally gives the story away.) But ruthless adherence to classic inverted-pyramid style can also lead to repetition of the story again and again, with one or two more nuggets of information each time.
And then, finally, comes the end, or “tag.” Few writers can resist the lure of closure—some form of summing-up or leave-taking. Often this is a quote that repeats the central point one last time, perhaps combining it with some rueful irony about the limits of human agency. TheTimes health-care article does this. “‘Our plan is not perfect, but it is a good start toward providing affordable health care to all Americans,’ said Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon.” The same day’s story in The Post does it too, with a quote too long to quote.
On the first day of my first real job in journalism—on the copy desk at the Royal Oak Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, Michigan—the chief copy editor said, “Remember, every word you cut saves the publisher money.” At the time, saving the publisher money didn’t strike me as the world’s noblest ideal. These days, for anyone in journalism, it’s more compelling.
Michael Kinsley is a columnist for The Atlantic. He is also the editor of a new Web site to be launched early this year by The Atlantic’s parent company. Follow him on Twitter.
NYT on “free versus paid” in online news content
Media Cache – Free vs. Paid, Murdoch vs. Rusbridger – NYTimes.com
By ERIC PFANNER
Published: February 7, 2010
DATELINE — Welcome to the liveliest fight on Fleet Street. In the blue corner, we have Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp. In the red corner, Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian. Each wants to knock out the other’s vision of the future of journalism.
On paper, it’s no contest. Mr. Murdoch is the heavyweight champion of the media world; an old-fashioned brawler whose prizes include newspapers like The Sun, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. Mr. Rusbridger is a relative flyweight, a Harry Potter lookalike who runs a single, modest-size publication.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/business/media/08iht-cache08.html?ref=technology
Paresh Trivedi
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Peter Horrocks: backing Facebook and Twitter. Photograph: Martin Godwin
Nieman J-Lab on “haven for journalists & leakers “
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/
Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers
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We could just say we’re taking the source protection laws from Sweden, for example…we could take the First Amendment from the United States, we could take Belgian protection laws for journalists, and we could all pack these together in one bundle, and make it fit for the first jurisdiction that offers the necessities of an information society.
We can’t expect everyone to go through the extraordinary efforts [that] we do. Large newspapers are routinely censored by legal costs…It is time this stopped. It is time a country said, enough is enough, justice must be seen, history must be preserved, and we will give shelter from the storm.
Mukut K Saha 