DNA drops the edit page
The lead story on Daily News & Analysis (DNA) on February 1, 2011 was the newspaper itself.
after decrying the negativism of the contemporary and undertaking to shift to more positive coverage of the country, DNA has bucked the trend – no daily pontificating on the same page in the same format, says Mahesh Vijapurkar
The lead story on Daily News & Analysis (DNA) on February 1, 2011 was the newspaper itself. In a four column-wide box, in an all-caps headline, it announced that “From today, DNA does away with the edit page”. The one major reason for this shift from the tradition was explained: “It’s boring, very few read it, and it’s a chore to fill it. It’s more punditry than expert comment. It’s become a sing-page ghetto.”
The Editor-in-Chief, Aditya Sinha, who signed it at the bottom the item, points out that such editorial content “makes little sense in this TV/mobile/web age where you’re looking for more news validation and analysis”, the latter being part of the newspaper’s title. Maybe he has a point, after all newspapers are evolving and media is in a state of flux with new things emerging, challenging the print medium as well as aiding it.
So, after decrying the negativism of the contemporary and undertaking to shift to more positive coverage of the country, DNA has bucked the trend – no daily pontificating on the same page in the same format. But the analysis offered on three different pages is by non-staffers: Jyoti Punwani, a free lance commentator, Nilotpal Basu, CPM MP, and Jayadeva Ranade, a former bureaucrat. On Sinha’s watch as the boss, the newspaper aims to be a different beast.
Traditionally, the edit page has ensured that in print journalism, news is ring-fenced from views by having an editorial page, but the practice has been to slip in opinion in the guise of interpretation in news stories. One has to see if this new approach by DNA merely trims the number of editorials, allows opinions from outsiders as analysis or merely smudges the lines by reallocating the normal stuff on editorial pages around the paper.
The 400-word ‘leaders’, the unsigned comment on the edit page, which does not now encumber the newspaper from today does not mean the newspaper would not comment. “As and when a news event warrants a stand by DNA, it will appear on page 1”. Such positioning is normally provided by other newspapers when events of extraordinary import take place, sometimes not even once a year. However, the Times of India does on occasion carry a terse comment of about a 100 words alongside a story regardless on which page it is printed. DNA will now spread its comment daily across the pages.
Obviously, the comment when it “warrants” could be by the newspaper’s own edit writers and if the first new avatar of the newspaper is an indication, the analysis is by outsiders. Is it possible that the top team that wrote edits on a daily basis after the morning conference would be reassigned other tasks? So far, during R Jagannathan’s spell as Executive Editor, he spent more time in meetings allowing little time for the journalists do any work – their day’s tended to be excruciatingly long.
Jyoti Punwani is on page 2, Nilotpal Basu on page 17, and Ranade on page 18. They have their pictures with their bylines, have almost an acre of space to argue their points of view – double column, and almost 16 inch deep. Which means space is not a constraint. The readers’ ought to rejoice for their letters has secured more space than it ever did – more than twice what was assigned hitherto. On page 2, as many as six letters to the editor have appeared.