Pink slip time
Initially it was just postponed launches and new ventures put into cold storage.. Now it is time for media sector layoffs. After a few people were told to leave a few weeks ago, and notice served to a dozen others thereafter, Sakal Times apparently posted a notice on its Delhi office door on Sunday morning saying "The editorial work carried out at
Sakal Times is published from Pune while the group also runs a popular Marathi daily, Sakal. There were around 70 employees in Delhi, including editorial staff, who camped at the gate for several hours, angry over the management¿s decision to close down the Delhi operation a mere six months after Sakal Times was launched May 7. The employees instantly constituted an action committee to protest the lock-out.
Asia Pacific Communications Associates (APCA) which had been contracted by the Sakal Group to start up Sakal Times exited the operation at the end of September. Several editions across the country were on the anvil, but a few months after the launch of the paper from Pune it became obvious that those plans would have to be shelved. After APCA exited the editor who came from Pune to take charge was Dhananjay Sardeshpande.
At the beginning of this year Sakal announced a number of expansion plans. The global affairs quarterly IGA was launched, the flagship Marathi paper Sakal was relaunched, Cuban designer Mario Garcia was hired for both, and the launch of a national English paper which would replace ae, going to whom seems to have become de rigueur for Indian publishers. Scheduled for later in the year is the launch of a national English paper Sakal Times, and two TV channels, in Marathi and in Hindi. Sakal Times was to replace the group¿s two English dailies: Maharashtra Herald and Gomantak Times in
IGA is also produced for Sakal by APCA. Now there will be a change there too, with APCA taking over the running and financing of this journal for the year 2009 while Pawar will remain publisher. At the end of that year the situation will be reviewed.
Things have not been smooth since the May launch. In October a signed email from a number of people describing themselves as the Pune Newspaper Readers Forum was circulated describing in colourful language all manner of goings on in Sakal Times¿
Sakal proprietor Abhijit Pawar (who is Sharad Pawar¿s nephew) might have overreached in attempting this huge expansion in a year when rising newsprint prices spelt bad news and the global down turn began to be felt.
Earlier this year he had said in an interview that the scale of expansion that was on the cards would need a private equity partner in the short term, and in the longer term "an IPO partner who can take us to a scale and level far, far beyond what we can do on our own." Evidently, such financial support has not been forthcoming. The absence of investors coincided with the global downturn. Starting up TV channels this year did not help, and contributed to the group¿s current dire financial straits.
Though it became clear earlier this month that there was trouble coming, the staff did not anticipate that they would be dealt with so abruptly. They issued a statement saying that their anger was not so much about the shut down but about the way it was done. "Their belongings are inside, they have no idea about salary and compensation, and of course jobs to look for in an industry no longer booming. Senior Pune management have switched off their phones. The lock-out is illegal as they have not followed labour laws. The journalists have formed an action committee that plans to move court. The nearly 50 journalists are angry and aghast at such despicable treatment. This is an insult to journalists all over
Legally what the paper has done is not sustainable. The law requires that layoffs be preceded by written notice.
Member of Parliament Supriya Sule is on the board of Sakal Papers Ltd.