Welcome to Goa, ToI

BY Frederick Noronha| IN Opinion | 19/02/2008

Dear Times of India,

 There has been talk of your paper opening an edition in Goa for the past decade or so.Finally it¿s happening, and the journalist world is agog with anticipation, at getting access to new jobs and higher salaries.

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. 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 ToI.

 We are flattered by your decision to finally set up base in our small place But we journalists are unsure about the impact your arrival will have on our profession,  as also on 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).

We are already seeing the Times impact being felt here. The most obvious  impact is the fact that journalist salaries are going up in Goa. Phenomenally. Salaries 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). Low and stagnant salaries have forced many journos into changing their profession or leaving.  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.

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. But 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  those changing jobs primarily due to the high-salaries bait end up pricing themselves out of the market? 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. Because the number of staff lured away from the existing papers is surprisingly high. Is the ToI goal simply to bring out a new product; or is it to debilitate and crush the competition? 

Your paper comes here with a mixed reputation. The Times has become an advertiser-driven paper. Sometimes I do buy it primarily because the advertising is interesting! 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.Many smaller newspapers, 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.

And price wars. 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! You will  use 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.

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.

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 them, if only to allow many voices to speak out. 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! Goan media need a "dose ofprofessionalism". But is this going to come from the ToI?

Frederick Noronha
fred@bytesforall.org