The exchange4media 40 under 40 English Journalism Awards was preceded by an exchange4media conference, where Ruhail Amin, Senior Editor of BW Businessworld, and exchange4media, held a dialogue, free-flowing, with Sukumar Ranganathan Editor-in Chief, Hindustan Times. This discussion focused on the use of different media in a changing newsroom.
Amin began by pointing to the immediacy of television news as opposed to the daily nature of print news and asked Ranganathan how print had navigated that sea change in news consumers’ expectations, where they could get news from their screens immediately while their newspapers came in once a day.
Ranganathan held a slightly different point of view, noting, “If you look at most news channels, and even the specialized channels, they have two kinds of information. The first is real-time information. But by and large, if you look at the substantial stories that TV plays out in the course of the day, you’ve already read it in that morning’s paper. So rather than print following TV, the unfortunate thing that happens in our country is that TV follows print when it comes to the big stories.”
“This is not a print versus TV thing. Some of my smartest friends work in TV. Maybe it’s that they don’t spend enough on research or specialists who can help them identify the areas they should be looking at. The morning paper is often consulted by TV journalists who say that they haven’t covered the story. There are many other examples of this happening, particularly with exclusive stories. And the good thing in print is still that when you invest in good journalism and good journalists and in allowing them to travel and spend time on stories, you will get interesting investigations and exclusives.”
Ranganathan said that it was these stories that the TV news jumped into and claimed without crediting the person or publication who broke the story. Then, of course there was digital media which completely changed the game.
“Now, the news is broken on digital media. The TV broadcasts the news, and also discusses different aspects. In an ideal scenario, print would give you perspective and reinforce your thoughts. But given the fact that many of these platforms are not functioning to their ideal requirements, the truth is actually very, very different.”
According to Ranganathan, “The biggest advantage that print has not just in India but anywhere else in the world is the fact that print, unfortunately, is still the only medium that believes in newsrooms. It’s also the only medium that believes in reporting with shoe leather. It believes reporting is essential, and that getting readers to the story’s location is crucial. It believes that it needs specialists, beats, and everything else. TV does not. So irrespective of whether you’re looking at an Indian television channel or an international television channel, you have to look at how many reporters they have.”
“If you take the Indian example, it’s very glaring, because TV channels invest in anchors. They do not believe in investing money in journalists or reporters. There are more anchors than reporters. Sadly, the goal of every TV personality is to be an anchor. I don’t believe anyone wants to become a journalist. And without reporters, what journalism are you really going to serve?” he added.
Amin, pointing to industry benchmarks such as the New York Times with its successful subscription service and digital age, asked Ranganathan what he thought would be the future of Indian print media.
“I know everyone keeps obsessing about the New York Times and The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. I believe it is important to recognize that, when discussing business models, they all have a time element. All of the examples we discussed began at a specific time. If they tried to do the exact same thing today, I am not sure that the business model would be successful. A lot of the Financial Times’ subscriptions, even the digital subscriptions, still go to organizations. Unilever is based out of London and I’m sure you would give your senior managers digital copies of the Financial Times. Will they still be doing it 20 years from now is my question, because the entire generation of managers would have changed and they’re not people who will probably get their information from the Financial Times.”
Noting that he wasn’t sure if that model would work if NYT and FT started them today, meaning that they definitely wouldn’t take in a market like India, Ranganathan said, “I’ve said this countless times before and people who’ve heard me before will probably think I’m repeating myself but at least I’m being consistent. It is still a long time before the big digital conglomerate in India can be built. Nobody has yet built it. Even the big media companies of old are still struggling to find a model that works. We are facing our own challenges. We have our own problems. But the big digital New Age media conglomerate in this country is waiting to be built.”