IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-08-17
Around 1300 newspapers have benefitted from full page colour insertions by The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting commemorating former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Some also got a full page insertion from the govt of Rajasthan. DAVP also worked to ensure that the blog the PM had penned got published,..
DAVP’s advertisement allocation politics –II
IN Special Reports | 2018-08-23
Govt ad allocations increase in the year preceding an election, there is a good year ahead for the regional press.
DAVP’s ad politics--Express loses, Pioneer gains
BY SAI VINOD|IN SPECIAL REPORTS|04/07/2018
NDA government cuts ads to the Indian Express second year running, and leading Hindi newspapers get more by way of advertising than leading English ones.
When the Chief Minister is also a media owner…
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |16/07/2018
…and the dept of information and public relations is the nodal agency for allocating state govt. advertising, some interesting patterns emerge. A Telangana case study.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |23/05/2018
Paid news falls within the citizen's right to free speech and the Election Commission has no business trying to stop it, according to the Delhi High Court. ET reports that while the EC thinks paid news is a major challenge to conducting free and fair elections, and 15 cases of paid news..
Role of advertising in the Nagaland polls
BY VIKAS KUMAR| IN SPECIAL REPORTS |13/03/2018
With party ads playing a big role, the issue for the media is how to ensure a level playing field so that money does not decide the election outcome. But civil society placed ads too.
Issues of transparency in the Advertising business
BY CHINTAMANI RAO| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |10/03/2018
The dishonesty starts with the pitch. Even if they don’t actually fudge the numbers, often an agency in a pitch does a great deal of window dressing to what it presents.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |10/02/2018
There's a sharp dip in the number of television channels violating the programme and advertising codes since 2014, informed Minister for Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. From 17 private television channels that violated the code in 2014 and 2015 and
Check duration of ads on TV, MIB told
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |04/01/2018
Television Post reports that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) has asked the I&B ministry to regulate the duration of ads aired by TV channels because consumers are subjected to unlimited advertising during programmes. TRAI had attempted to regulate the number of ads a few years ago and its recommendation..
Using social media to whitewash sexual assault
BY RAJEESH KUMAR| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |19/07/2017
A social media campaign backing Kerala actor Dileep shows how public opinion can be turned in favour of someone accused in a sexual assault case
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |12/04/2017
Arnab Goswami's interview and photo shoot with Man's World is notable for 3 reasons. For the fact that the questions were vetted by the anchor's PR team and two were disallowed, for his claim that his is the first journalist-owned, journalist-run, journalist-managed news organisation (where does BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar fit in then?)..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/04/2017
That many publications of varying periodicity exist largely to skim off advertising from DAVP is well known. What was not known was just how many such enterprising publishers there are all over the country. Now DAVP has published a list of 804 publications which are being suspended for not submitting..
Demonetisation saved Goa from paid news
BY DEVIKA SEQUEIRA| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |12/02/2017
If paid news powered the 2012 elections, this time parties and candidates turned to social media. With cash in short supply campaigning went online,
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/02/2017
The budget reactions which start coming into a journalist’s mailbox as soon as the FM has finished speaking are a cheerful mix of self promotion and flattery, hoping someone in government will notice their praise. The MD of a home appliance company thoughtfully appends his career profile to his hailing..
Journalism to Corp Comm: making the switch
BY MITUL THAKKAR| IN MEDIA BUSINESS | 17/12/2016
Specialised agencies for creative works, content writing, advertising, media buying, event management, film production houses, social media and of course public relations are commonly used by corporate communications. On the other hand, media persons are supposed to execute every assignment on ...
BY PADMAJA SHAW| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/12/2016
The government of Andhra Pradesh is set to outsource its PR work to journalists for upto Rs 51,000 a month.
Public interest ads need a facelift
BY BHARAT DOGRA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |10/11/2016
Important as they are, public interest ads in print and on radio could do with pruning and fine-tuning to be more effective.
BY ANJALI PURI| IN ARCHIVE |18/11/2016
On November 18, 2010 the Radia tapes emerged. On the sixth anniversary of the scandal we republish a memorable series on PR from The Hoot.
BY ANJALI PURI| IN ARCHIVE |05/11/2016
All the hapless viewer knows as she glides from gadget PR to corporate golf PR to tell-me-your-company’s- success-story PR…is that when TV doesn’t roar, it purrs.
Hacks and Flacks: ‘Lunching, dining and pitching’
BY ANJALI PURI| IN ARCHIVE |05/11/2016
Well-spoken executives offering well-packaged stories also came in to pitch for new players who needed to build profiles, influence policy and defuse criticism.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/10/2016
You know the festival season is here when the news becomes really hard to find in your daily newspaper. Today (1 Oct) if you add up all the advertising in the first section of the newspaper, 16 plus pages out of 32 in the Times of India carry ads, preceded by another.. ??
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |13/09/2016
What are the folks at the Hindustan Times thinking? You now have to access page one through a split page jacket ad. (September 13, Delhi edition). Fold back two halves to read page one. That’s expecting a lot of indulgence from the reader. Meanwhile its sister paper Mint has gone broadsheet after having been..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |12/09/2016
The Times of India has three full pages of colour advertising on Snapdeal's red-themed rebranding. And the Economic Times has a six-column red-themed story on the top of page six on the re-branding and the company's new logo. Both advertiser and the Times Group should be happy.
Does social media chatter help a film succeed
BY PALLAVI BHATTACHARYA| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |10/09/2016
Both controversies and a marketing push lead to a buzz on social media for a film. But should such manipulated discussions influence movie goers on what to watch,
Is a film with no PR destined to be a flop
BY PALLAVI BHATTACHARYA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |30/08/2016
The answer is usually yes because so many films are vying for attention. But sometimes, a film can make it on its own steam.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/08/2016
The Rajasthan Patrika has declared war on Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia. In an editorial which is also available in audio on the paper's website, the chief editor Gulab Kothari begins with the suspension of advertising to the group and goes on to ask why this has happened when advertising to this paper was..
HT Media grows in non-print areas
BY ANALYST-AT-LARGE, Research: VAISHNAVI BALA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |08/06/2016
While the company’s profits came largely from print advertising, revenue growth has come from language, radio and digital.
Failing to curb J&K’s bogus newspapers
BY IRFAN QURAISHI| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |23/03/2016
A new advertisement policy is intended to tackle ‘litho’ papers but look closely and its loopholes will allow them to get through the net..
The BJP government’s preferred icon
BY SAI VINOD| IN SPECIAL REPORTS |04/02/2016
Sardar Patel is energetically memorialized by this government, Ambedkar embraced,
and Nehru snubbed,
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/01/2016
The next stage in Facebook's relentless advertising push for Free Basics is a single page ad which appears on January 7 only in the Times of India and the Hindustan Times. In it Mark Zuckerberg ups the ante, personally urging people to respond to TRAI's consultation on whether free basic internet services should..
Facebook’s battle, media’s gain
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |25/12/2015
Facebook is advertising aggressively after TRAI has asked for its Free Basics to be put on hold, and the newspapers are raking it in. TRAI has asked Reliance Communications, Facebook’s telecom partner in India, to stop offering Free Basics until it can determine whether it conforms to Net Neutrality, the..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |17/12/2015
Does HT have a policy on ads it will not accept? On grounds of decency or grammar? This appeared in the Mumbai edition of the paper on December 17: Alliya Parlour. "Wanted male give full body massage to rich housewives foreigners earn 45000/ guaranteed daily..." etc. The paper actually has..
BY SAI VINOD| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |07/12/2015
2015 marks the 125th birth anniversaries of both Ambedkar and Nehru, but the treatment given by GOI to the two is strikingly different.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |09/12/2015
TRAI's efforts to regulate the number of advertisements run on news and non news channels have not been very successful. While it is mandatory for channels to submit data on the number of minutes of advertising to programming, the data submitted by channels to TRAI shows that close to 140 channels flouted..
Paid news in Telangana bypoll?
BY SURESH KUMAR ALAPATI| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |18/11/2015
Misuse of family-owned media at election time is exemplified in Warangal by the CM's newspaper and TV channel.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |14/11/2015
Does Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy only belong to the Congress Party? On the 125th birth anniversary of India's first prime minister it is difficult to find government ads commemorating the occasion. Only front page ads put in by the Congress party, and others by the Rajiv Gandhi Study Circle or the Himachal..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |14/11/2015
After Prime Minister Modi's speech ended at Wembley Stadium, Times Now made full use of its ratings by airing some medical advertising practically in a loop. An advertisement, made to look like a news story, highlighted Apollo Hospital's success in preforming simultaneously a liver and heart transplant surgery. At the end of.. ??
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |04/11/2015
When it suits its interest the TOI will even reprint an entire column from another paper. The Mint column it reprinted in its business section on November 4 was making the point that e-commerce advertisers get more mileage for their ads in offline media, because people are more receptive to..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |12/10/2015
The Times of India took boss Vineet Jain's assertion that the company is in the advertising business very seriously on October 12. Page one was on page 5, four pages of advertising preceded it. Then after page one you got two more pages of only ads, then one more page..
BARC’s new norms for ratings claims
IN MEDIA BUSINESS |11/10/2015 ?“Analogous misuse of TV ratings is commonplace and BARC India… must use the powers vested in it by its constituents to prohibit it.”
Impact of ad blockers on the media
?BY NIKHIL PAHWA| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |05/10/2015 ?The technology battle over ad blocking will hurt the web: Readers have the right to use ad blockers, and publishers will be pushed to block users who use ad blockers.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |29/09/2015
Mr Modi wasn't the only one who went to Menlo Park. A bunch of Indian journalists from top newspapers did too, as guests of Facebook. As the debate in India over Net Neutrality and Facebook's Internet.org grows, the company evidently decided on a PR corrective. As Mark Zuckerberg tells both the Hindu and..
Getting into a twist over noodles
BY Jyoti Punwani| IN OPINION |22/06/2015
The coverage of Nestle's Maggi controversy was massive but unbalanced, with fulsome praise for the brand and irrelevant nostalgia. Its controversial record abroad was ignored.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |17/06/2015
Aggressive marketing does not always pay. The Advertising Standards Council of India, has upheld CNBC-TV18’s complaints against the advertising campaign released by ET NOW on May 31. Of ET NOW’s claim - “India’s No. 1 Business Channel,” it said this declaration is misleading by omission on the advertiser’s part and contravenes Chapter I.4..
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |27/02/2015
A Kerala government enquiry has pointed to instances which smack of ads for coverage in the paper, and another report of a finance inspection wing has questioned the manner in which it was given advertising.
IN OPINION |19/02/2015
How indispensable are professional PR and advertising agencies to a political party at election time
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |16/02/2015
Known locally as 'litho' newspapers, these rags are purely devices to attract government advertising.
What advertising could not buy
IN BOOKS |10/02/2015
An election. A veritable blitzkrieg by the BJP in the final week of the Delhi polls, came to nought even as AAP, a party that took out no newspaper ads at all, swept, 67-3.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/09/2014
The Delhi High Court has restrained IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning and Management) from using the term 'management' for its courses. It has asked the institution to say prominently on its website that it is not recognised by any statutory body or authority. The court referred specifically to the "huge expenditure..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/09/2014
The prime minister had a birthday and the newspapers got no advertising from the party faithful wishing him? Now that is a change. The only ads on Wednesday were from the Gujarat and MP governments promoting local schemes or inviting investment, with the PM's pictures...
BY SAMOD SARNGAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |06/08/2014
A paid encomium to a Mumbai MLA was happily published by four papers.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS | 04/08/2014
First, Prithviraj Chavan and Ajit Pawar went "missing" from Maharashtra government's advertisements boosting their respective parties' electoral prospects in the October Assembly polls. Then they returned on all, print and television, with a Rs 50 cr to Rs 95 cr advertising budget. Understandably, there is media silence on misuse of public..
Liberalisation, consumerism and Indian TV commercials
BY Rohitashya Chattopadhyay| IN BOOKS |05/07/2014
India today is, thus, a wealthier nation, a more Hindu nation, and a nation that is more confident and proud of its past and present than it was in the nineteen eighties,
BY NILOVA ROY CHAUDHURY | IN MEDIA PRACTICE |09/05/2014
From the moment Mr Modi was anointed as the"prime ministerial candidate," the media has fallen over itself to be there at every turn, broadcasting his every phrase.
BY SHALINI JOSHI| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |06/05/2014
Advertisers today are riding on a topical issue which has a mass appeal but what is striking is the way the ads are embedded with political promotion of a certain image.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/04/2014
Even as everybody’s eyes are popping out at the sheer volume of the BJP’s advertising on the print medium, Business Standard carried a story on the top of page 1 (April 10) claiming that media spend by political parties would be at around Rs 2000 crore in these elections and radio and..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/04/2014
The sheer volume of the BJP's advertising presence--three to four ads per day in the newspapers with the highest advertising rates--seems to confirm the general hunch that big business is contributing mightily to this campaign. The Congress can barely keep up with this barrage, and mostly fails to...
BY PRANATI MEHRA| IN BOOKS | 31/03/2014
The 'innovative' ideas of Medianet and Private Treaties are discussed with some generosity and without examining what it did to journalists and their trade.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |26/03/2014
Will the Times of India be flattered, amused or worried? The Hindustan Times announces today a combo advertising plan through which advertisers can reach the language and English readers of the HT, Hindu and Ananda Bazar groups through a single ad. In other words, the competition is ganging up against..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |03/03/2014
The Free Press Journal carries press releases on its website, and labels them as such. Most of these are of a commercial/promotional nature, and they are generously carried in full. Is this service for free..
Kerala’s model of media regulation
BY MUHAMMED SABITH| IN MEDIA BUSINESS | 26/09/2013
The issue of banning advertisements to 'Thejas' by the Kerala government is a serious issue pertaining to press freedom and pluralist media and should be discussed as such,
Way forward for the ad cap stand-off
BY CHINTAMANI RAO| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |03/09/2013
TRAI was not wrong to insist on a cap, but it couldn't have come at a worse time: the coincidence of the economic slowdown and digital distribution.
Advertisers fear Mamata's wrath: refuse to run anti-rape campaign ads
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/08/2013
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has found a new target for her censorship drive: advertisers!
"Understand the sea you swim in"
BY P KUMAR| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |24/08/2013
If people don't think critically about techniques advertisers, politicians and others use to influence us, then they will be easily fooled and manipulated,
BY AJITH PILLAI| IN OPINION |25/07/2013
When a general election looms, the competition among PR agencies hots up.
BY Geeta Seshu| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |06/07/2013
Was he a whistleblower or simply a PRO who could not prevent a story that described management failures in the company from being published
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |28/05/2013
NDTV has landed in a PR crisis with launch of 'Improving Lives', a new series on its three channels, on development opportunities in India in partnership with Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India. The company is infamous for pushing its genetically modified seed varieties. NDTV's decision to associate with the company comes at a time when..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/05/2013
As they strategise to oppose TRAI's 12-minute per hour cap on advertising on TV, broadcasters are coming up with a variety of rationales. At a Delhi meet today Jawahar Goel of Zee said that advertising is content and since TRAI can regulate only carriage not content, it has no locus..
BY MANU MOUDGIL and MONAZIR ALAM| IN BOOKS |03/04/2013
A monitoring of advertisements appearing on news channels shows that adhering to the TRAI's 12 minutes per hour limit will be tough for the Hindi news channels.
IN OPINION |03/01/2013
Don't call Outlook and ask for Vinod Mehra when you want to speak to Vinod Mehta. And it doesn't help to get Rajdeep Sardesai's personal number and ask for arch rival Arnab Goswami.
Are advertisers the key to regulation?
BY MAYA RANGANATHAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |11/12/2012
In earlier episodes too when media had crossed the line, public outrage was considerable. But it was the pulling out of advertising support that seemed to have a sobering effect on the stations and their presenters.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/12/2012
Before the group has lived down the Naveen Jindal sting for which its chairman and managing director took anticipatory bail, another Zee channel, Z24 finds itself implicated in a paid news report front-paged by the Indian Express. Chhattisgarh's PR department apparently regularly pays news TV channels in the state to highlight..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS | 09/11/2012
Dainik Bhaskar is offering foreign trips as incentives to its bureau chiefs in Haryana if their stringers can meet festival season advertising targets. Letters have gone out from executive editors, with a copy marked to the Haryana resident editor. “ Management has offered you a foreign trip as mentioned below...so get..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |03/11/2012
As Himachal goes to the polls tomorrow the good news this time from those keeping an eye on the local coverage, is that paid news was not very visible. Poll advertising was amply evident, but in the advertising columns...
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |15/10/2012
The head of Hindustan Unilever writes an edit page article in the Economic Times on handwashing initiatives undertaken by the private sector and the government of India. His company ofcourse makes soap. Elsewhere in the same issue of the paper there is a full-page paid feature on Handwashing Day with..
BY ANJALI PURI| IN ARCHIVE |25/09/2012
A HOOT SPECIAL REPORT-close to two years after the Radia tapes emerged, media management remains a hardy industry.
IN BOOKS |06/06/2012
Public Relations in India: New Tasks and Responsibilities
BY BHARAT BHUSHAN| IN MEDIA BUSINESS | 17/03/2012
Media-sensitive politicians and their bureaucratic cronies have tremendous influence the structure and complexion of news in today's papers, what with the government being the country's biggest advertiser.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |22/02/2012
A reader writes: Last Sunday morning, Times of India readers experienced a strong odor emitted by the newspaper. It was supposed to be the coffee smell, perhaps a requirement from Bru, which had paid for the front bottom half page advertisement. However, far from smelling anything like coffee, it smelt like..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/02/2012
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/11/2011
Government is considering setting up an inter-ministerial committee to check ‘false and misleading advertisements’ which especially target vulnerable sections of society- children, women and senior citizens. At a conference organized by Advertising Standards Council of India, Prof. K.V Thomas, Union Minister of State for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution..
Why TV channels love Anna Hazare
BY hoot desk| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |18/08/2011
He makes money for them, as a monitoring of news clips and their advertising value in April this year, show. This document highlights the number of news clips carried and their equivalent ad value on various television Channels.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |21/07/2011
News you can use sections are a gift to the PR community. Though the newspaper is yet to announce it the PR circuit is agog with the Hindustan Times' plans of starting a new section on technology and gadgets which will feature reviews, trend stories, news etc on the tech world...
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |26/06/2011
When an interview on CNBC-TV18 with the MD of Research in Motion (RIM) India-- the makers of Blackberry phones-- has a backdrop advertising a Blackberry PlayBook (june 25) what is one supposed to deduce? That it is a sponsored interview? Or that the backdrop is being paid for by the..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/06/2011
French regulators have banned the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” from French TV and radio unless those words are used to refer to the companies themselves in news stories. The regulator, France’s Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, says that it is "clandestine" advertising to use the names otherwise, violating a 1992 decree..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |22/05/2011
An Outlook reader wonders if it is a mere coincidence that the magazine’s latest issue has a story related to India’s defence chiefs followed by another on the Pakistan army, with three full pages of defence-related advertisements alongside. Or is the magazine linking advertising to editorial?..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |24/02/2011
The Indian advertising industry recorded a 27 per cent growth in calendar year 2010, wiping out loses of 2008-09 with a gain of about Rs 5,000 crore. Good times are back and the TV channels which reported losses in the last financial quarter have a chance to make good this year...
BY sevanti ninan| IN OPINION |05/12/2010
Every editor who counts in the English media, pink or white or electronic, pops up in the transcripts... Every editor also understands that you need to meet them to get a fix on the issues. ??
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/12/2010
A visibly disturbed Barkha Dutt decided to let herself be questioned by four journalists on her controversial role in the Radia Tapes, on Nov. 30. While it was a brave performance she did not answer two crucial questions adequately. One, posed repeatedly by Manu Joseph, Editor,Open -why did she fail to report..
BY Muralidhar S| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/11/2010
The Radia Tapes debate: Is defining clear guidelines a solution to prevent recurrences? No. The issue is not about defining a code, but its implementation.
The Radia Tapes debate: working journalists introspect
BY POORNIMA JOSHI, RADHIKA RAMASESHAN, AMMU JOSEPH F| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |26/11/2010
Every hack covering government formation in May 2009 knew the PM didn't want Raja and TR Baalu because they were "tainted". Were Sanghvi and Barkha--the former gave the impression he had a hot line to the Gandhis--unaware of this?
The Radia Tapes debate: journalists and others write in
BY SAIKAT DATTA, ANURADHA RAMAN, SADANAND MENON, ANAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |24/11/2010
So let us build a "What If?" argument here. What if, I am a journalist covering the ministry of defence? What if, an arms dealer (or lobbyist) becomes one of my "legitimate sources" for news?
Radia Tapes: Media ethics at the crossroads
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |23/11/2010
"From as far back as I remember in my 20 year career as journalist, the primary rule has been: cultivate your source, listen to all his woes, extract information from him, but don't promise to ‘fix’ anything for him." Starting a debate on the Hoot.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |10/11/2010
Prasar Bharati getting greedy during the opening ceremony telecast of the Commonwealth Games proved counter productive in the long run. Its revenue from advertising during the CWG was just a little over a quarter of the Rs 200 crore projected. The government reacted to adverse criticism of the onslaught of..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |04/11/2010
It had to happen. The TOI has got so fat with advertising that hawkers are protesting that it weighs too much. A printed pamphlet issued by a hawkers’ union inserted in the newspaper on November 3 said, “in recent months, we are facing some difficulties in delivering the newspaper, Times..
Mixed response to `talking ads’ in print
IN OPINION |22/09/2010
Impact of this `speaking ad’ was amplified by the social networking websites. The Times group’s critical comment on this ad is a step forward for the community.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS | 16/08/2010
The Dainik Bhaskar is on an anti-corruption drive. The paper’s MD said in a letter last week that corruption in journalism would not be tolerated. It listed three categories: taking a bribe for publishing news, blackmailing somebody, and publishing useless news. He did not say anything about news as advertising which was carried by the paper during the Haryana zilla parishad and panchayat elections in June this year.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/08/2010
DNA's Mumbai edition is thinner soon after its fifth anniversary.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/07/2010
The state's advertisement budget has jumped even as criticism of Nitish Kumar's government in the local and national media has slumped.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS | 01/07/2010
Bangalore Mirror has an article spewing outrage on CSWs openly soliciting in ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Bangalore (Call girls 'fly' on BIA road’). The paper also has a classified section dedicated to "Massage Parlors and Escort Services". Was the piece a marketing ploy to get the pimps to start advertising in their classifieds?
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/06/2010
The Hoot decided to do a six week survey of five newspapers and four magazines to see which ones benefit the most from the advertisements the Institute puts out.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |25/06/2010
The Dainik Bhaskar in Haryana has found an ingenious way to make money from election coverage without attracting the allegation of indulging in paid news.
BY T S Sudhir| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |30/05/2010
And if the government is keen on a scroll from two hours before the CM's speech (`Watch CM live at 11:30 am today from Guntur'), that will cost more.
BY Meena Gopal| IN MEDIA MONITORING |25/04/2010
When a government adopts propaganda as a mechanism to reach out to the people, it is a tacit admission of a people's divided thinking on the role of the Maoists.
Nitish Kumar’s "Bihar Shining" campaign
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/04/2010
In four years the chief minister has taken annual advertisements placed in newspapers from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 25.25 crore.
BY sevanti ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/03/2010
Then there is underwritten news, which is simply a matter of picking up the tab for coverage on location.
All the news that’s fit to buy
BY S Y Quraishi| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/03/2010
Paid news is not free speech. The commission is concerned about the undue influence that paid news can create in the mind of the voter. It is against free and fair polls. It could derail democracy,
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |04/03/2010
The Vedanta ads about its aluminium project in Kalahandi is making people wonder whether it is okay for newspapers to accept advertising that makes misleading claims. The full page ad which appeared on March 3 in the Hindustan Times, and in the Indian Express and elsewhere earlier, paints a rosy..
Andaman govt tightens screws on local media
BY Andaman Chronicle| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |09/01/2010
The administration has taken one more step to cut advertising support to the local media, by empowering a department to stop ads.
BY hoot| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |07/12/2009
Media establishments have begun to implement dubious editorial practices and the individual no longer has a choice.If journalists young and old are writing copy that could put PR agencies out of business, who among us is going to do something about it..
When the government swallows up more newsprint than news
BY Madhavi Goradia Divan|IN LAW AND POLICY|31/10/2009
What are the chances of opening a national daily and not seeing page after page of advertisements adorned with pictures of preening politicians?
Selling coverage and getting away with it
BY hoot| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |29/10/2009
Now that the elections in Maharashtra are over will the Election Commission consider being more proactive than it was after the Lok Sabha elections in the matter of paid news?
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |26/11/2009
The Hindustan Times will contribute ten per cent of their 3 days advertising revenue to the Mumbai Police Welfare Fund "to prevent any future 9/11s." It urges advertisers to advertise in the 26th, 27th and 28th November issues of the Mumbai HT to support this cause.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/10/2009
Ads have become progressively intrusive during the economic slowdown, because media outlets are desperate enough for advertising to allow any positioning demanded. But even so the Sunday Hindustan Times (October 25) took the cake. It had a front page bathed in an ad for a bathing bar. You could read..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/05/2009
Newspapers are sporting far more half jacket ads, which enclose the entire front page, than before. Obviously with the collapse of advertising advertisers are able to dictate terms more favourable to themselves. Newspapers which had remained conservative about the ad positioning they would allow, are now giving in...
More obtrusive, more intrusive
BY Andy Goldberg| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |14/03/2009
As online publishers and behemoths like Google strategise to fight the recession, more in-your-face advertising and more intrusive tracking of surfers will result,
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/02/2009
Responding to concerted lobbying by newspaper owners and editors in recent days, the Government today decided that it would raise the DAVP advertising rates by 30 per cent, and scrap newsprint duty of 3 per cent. It could not afford to ignore media pleas in an election year...
BY Manu Moudgil| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |04/02/2009
Recently, one of the highest circulating English newspapers carried an advertisement by an ayurvedic centre claiming a cure for AIDS.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |19/12/2008
She shares a love-hate relation with the media and several party members who dared to disobey her commandment of not talking to the "presswalas" have been made to to suffer. But all that is changing, and the BSP¿s "Behenji" has decided to make peace after all with the media. After its debacle in Delhi..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/11/2008
Her infamous "bite" about women being "adventurous" after the murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, has returned to haunt Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit. The BJP is using it in their advertising arsenal against the Congress. The party has come up with a series of attack ads including "They sell election..
BY hoot| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |17/11/2008
What are the manifestations of a growing media recession? Postponed launches, dropped supplements, shrinking advertising, cancelled ads. And more.
Political ads on FM, but no news
BY Sajan Venniyoor| IN LAW AND POLICY |21/11/2008
If political ads are broadcast without the context of impartial news reportage and analysis by the broadcaster, it will achieve manipulation of news and views.
One more survey that is actually an ad?
BY Sudeep K S| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |11/10/2008
If you thought this was a subtle and tasteless campaign for selling more blades, worse was waiting to come.
Corporate communication’s newest avatar- The Blog
BY Deepti Bharthur| IN OPINION |31/07/2008
Corporations are turning to blogging in a bid to connect with their publics and move away from the traditional secrecy that surrounds their operations.
How private treaties influence reporting
BY CLIFTON D’ROZARIO| IN MEDIA BUSINESS |17/06/2008
The Times of India was careful to leave out the name of its Private Treaty partner while reporting a worksite accident in Bengaluru.
Dow Chemicals’ real intentions
BY Vinita Deshmukh| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |09/03/2008
As villagers living on its periphery stepped up their protests against its 100-acre R & D Centre, the multinational resorted to a hectic PR campaign. (Pix: A village outside through whose land the chemical plant runs.)
Scrutiny of private treaties builds up
BY hoot| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/01/2008
The Times Group pioneered this trend, and others are eager to follow.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/12/2007
With Bennett & Coleman about to launch Ahmedabad Mirror, it was just a matter of time before DNA responded. And it did by launching DNA in Ahmedabad before TOI could launch its compact. After all, advertising is a 1-2 game and it would have been a shame if TOI walked..
BY Vijay Nambisan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |02/12/2007
This angst of the industry is reflected in two commercials that have been aired in the last month, during the cricket series.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |26/10/2007
The ministry of information and broadcasting is set to spend Rs 800 million on its answer to the NDA’s India Shining. The advertising campaign is aimed at publicising the government¿s initiatives in the agriculture, rural development, education, infrastructure and healthcare sectors. IANS..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |26/10/2007
Tehelka, Aaj Tak, and Headlines Today were full of righteous horror and indignation at Narendra Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat carnage. But that did not stop them from using their expose to rake in the moolah. The volume of advertising had to be seen to believed. No wonder they kept..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |30/08/2007
NDTV’s soon to be unveiled lifestyle channel has done a deal with the UB Group for committed advertising for five years worth Rs 100 crores, in return for which the Kingfisher logo is likely to be woven into the channel identity.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |10/03/2007
At least 195 show-cause notices were issued to TV channels in the last two years for telecasting obscene material and violating the programme or advertising codes, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dashmunsi told Parliament.
Indian condom ads: missed messages
BY Charumathi Supraja| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |21/02/2007
Condom ads seem to be failing in their basic function. Given their role in preventing AIDS, it becomes a dangerous failing.
Kerala Govt hiring journos for PR
BY Rajeev P I| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |25/09/2006 ?The idea is to use seasoned journalists to monitor, advise and feed the "bourgeois media" which often backed Achuthanandan in his fight with Vijayan.
Must ads contain sexual innuendos
IN OPINION |03/06/2006
Letter to the Hoot: Can`t they think of some clean and decent ideas to sell their product
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |29/06/2006
The country’s leading multinational is getting desperate enough to resort to suggestive advertising. Hindustan Lever’s ad copy for LUX body wash: ‘A loofah is a great **X toy. Goes where no man has gone before. There is no such thing as too much **X’ ??
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/05/2006
Amity School has been advertising furiously on all channels but perhaps more so on CNN-IBN and maybe there is a bit of quid pro quo going on here. A debate on the issue of reservations was conducted by the channel on the schooløs NOIDA premises
BY sevanti| IN OPINION |23/03/2006
Advertising today is more than a vehicle for selling products. It shapes popular imagination.
Pre election advertisement politics
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |17/02/2006
Ever seen a sting or expose on how governments spend money on meaningless press advertisements? You won’t.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/01/2006
On every national holiday ONGC advertisements take over the major newspapers and you can tell which papers allow intrusive advertising and which don’t. This year a gas pipeline was permitted to sneak all over the paper, from page to page in the Times
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/01/2006
In these days of competition it makes TRP sense to indulge in good PR. On the recently launched news channel CNN-IBN, while covering the launch of Upamanyu Chatterrjee’s latest book, the camera lingered on the face of the television critic of a leading…
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |21/12/2005
Advertising grew at 14 per cent in 2005 in India, and print media growth outstripped the growth in TV advertising. The latter was 11.4 per cent and the former 16.1 per cent. Of print media advertising 90.5 per cent was the share of newspapers. (ET/Ad
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |03/12/2005
Now the Pentagon is financing the production of upbeat articles on Iraq which are translated into Arabic and fed to the Iraqi press, says an NYT story reprinted in TOI. The PR firm which executes this has also paid a dozen Iraqi journos $100 a month
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |10/09/2005
The paper with the most aggressive advertising has proved to be the most disappointing.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |07/06/2005
The Delhi Times of India put out a 68-page seventh anniversary issue of Education Times on June 6 with 13 full pages of advertising, 11 pages which had predominantly editorial matter and 44 pages either half or three quarters full of ads. It establish
BY Nirmala Aravind| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |16/05/2005
So could we have some sensible, self-reliant women in our serials and advertisements, for a change?
IN OPINION |18/03/2005
Why isn’t the media correcting itself and calling Aishwaryaøs bluff?
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |15/01/2005
The US has launched a month-long advertising campaign in the Pakistani media announcing financial rewards for information leading to the nabbing of key terrorists believed to be in the region. The US State Department has run advertisements in Pakista
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |05/12/2004
Between aggressive advertising and tabloid derring do the front page of the Delhi Sunday Express on December 5 was a trifle indigestible. Even if the Marie biscuits advertised right in the middle of news stories are usually easy to digest.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |15/08/2004
In India, "hard-sell" is that much easier. The lack of laws regulating advertising ensure unscrupulous manipulation of the target audience.
Advertorials: Blurring the dividing line
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |31/07/2004
Eight people in a sample of forty were able to distinguish between editorial content and advertorials
Health and fitness, did you say?
BY hoot| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |07/06/2004 ?Delhi’s leading dailies promote massage parlours and escort services by running luridly suggestive advertisements
BY ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |04/06/2004
The Times of India began by devaluing editors. Devaluing journalism is the next logical step. Selling news brought the paper Rs 18 crores in 2003-2004.
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |17/05/2004
The Congress party says that it did do a lot of print and television advertising: only it chose to do it in the regional media, with 90 per cent of the party’s ad spend being in such outlets:in Meerut, Shimoga and Kutch. Between March 2 and May 10,
The media and the verdict of Election 2004
BY ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |13/05/2004
The media missed the big picture, and it was the party will less advertising on television that got seats.
BY ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/03/2004
To avoid being taken for a spin journalists should start treating spin doctors for what they are: not news providers, but government workers running campaigns to get their bosses elected.
The Ruling alliance’s fire power
BY ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |09/02/2004
As the new chief election commissioner noted at his first press conference, the NDA government is blowing tax payer’s money to promote its achievements.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/10/2003
Another milestone in permitting intrusive advertising. The Financial Express of October 1 has a T-shaped J K Tyres ad on the back page actually cutting across two stories, between the headlines and the text of the stories!
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/03/2004
The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the Pakistan Government’s decision to place a ban on government advertising in the Nawa-i-Waqt group of publications. It affects over 11 publications of the group. The IFJ has called the decis
| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/09/2003
The wall between advertising and editorial has disappeared. On September 9 the Times of India carried a full page eulogy of the Samajwadi Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav. There were several items within this package, all laudatory. No explanation anywh
The Times of India: conscience keeper or FMCG?
BY vivek sharma| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/04/2003
What its competitors lost in market share was less costly than what they lost by giving the Times the perceived legitimacy for its actions.
| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |23/03/2003
In calendar year 2002 news channels in India accounted for 11.30 per cent of total revenue from TV advertising despite enjoying just two per cent viewership, according to consulting firm KPMG which presented a status report on the entertainment industry.
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |20/03/2003
On the day the war on Iraq began Doordarshan scrapped its regular evening news bulletin, believe it or not, and showed cricket. The news was shifted to DD Metro. A World Cup semi-final fetches loads of advertising. News does not. Public service television
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |03/03/2003
The Kashmir Observer has protested that the Jammu and Kashmir State government has stopped giving it advertising and has delayed payments for ads already carried. The editor and publisher is the son-in-law of an All Party Hurriyat Conference leader.
The times, they are a-changing
BY Sidharth Bhatia| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |25/02/2003
The gradual introduction of small doses of poison into the body of this profession began a long time ago
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |25/02/2003
Commerce is behind the media’s uncritical promotion of Valentine’s Day, but shouldn’t we be protesting?
BY mannika| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/02/2003
The previously hermetically sealed capsules separating advertising and editorial have become more and more porous.
A Rude Splash In The Face Of Parched Village India
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |31/08/2002
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |24/05/2002
Watching a show or watching an ad?
BY Shailaja Bajpai| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |18/04/2002
How far should a channel go in cross promotions for its popular shows?
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/01/1900
A professional PR man doubling as a newspaper columnist can be expected sometimes to carry his business into his writing. Even so, the column by Suhel Seth on Biki Oberoi in Express Newsline on March 16, took the cake. Just read it.
