In this era of mercenary managers and predatory propreitors, brave is the editor who can actually stick his neck out—at least in public—and vouch for the virginity of his product. But Aditya Sinha, the new editor-in-chief of the Bombay daily Daily News & Analysis (DNA), clearly doesn’t mind taking the risk.
The masthead of the paper, also published from Bangalore, now sports a seal affirming that the paper is free of the latest scourge of Indian journalism—paid news. And this, in the cradle of the newspaper group that is seen to be the motherlode of all things negative about the profession: medianet, paid news, private treaties and what have you.
For the record, DNA, under its previous editor R. Jagannathan, had kicked off a front-page campaign in 2009 against paid news with a set of advertisements.
Also read: Time to drop the “A” from DNA?
Aditya Sinha on the world view of Delhi journalists
***
Also read: Pyramid Saimira, Tatva & Times Private Treaties
Times Private Treaties gets a very public airing
SUCHETA DALAL: Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
SALIL TRIPATHI: The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility
Selling the soul? Or sustaining the business?
PAUL BECKETT: Indian media holding Indian democracy ransom
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
PRATAP BHANU MEHTA: ‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’
The scoreline: Different strokes for different folks
A package deal that’s well worth a second look
ADITYA NIGAM: ‘Editors, senior journalists must declare assets’
The brave last words of Prabhash Joshi
‘Only the weather section isn’t sold these days’
The paid news of India: guess who monetised first?
Free, frank, fearless. No, grubby, greedy, gutless
churumuri 
Yikes! I do not know whether to smile or weep…
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Maybe they have got all the payments and no more incoming now. Now is the time to deliver.
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You mean they are going to oblige partis for free?! :D
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Is it got anything to do with this: http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/time-to-drop-the-a-from-dnas-masthead/ ? :D
No content, no money!
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Not bad, DNA – if you really follow up what you say, I take my hats off for you.
Orissa’s govt. has bent backwards to give away several unlawful concessions to Anil Agarwal’s University. Govt has lost crores of revenue because thousands of acres valued at Rs. 15 lakh per acre has been gifted for 2 lakh.
Why doesn’t this ever get any publicity on the news channels or dailes?
Why is Congress the only target of alleged scams?
Why did the 400 crore loot by Madhya Pradesh IAS officers right under the nose of the CM, being ignored by the media?
WHy is the media not gunning for Yediyurappa’s resignation like it screamed and screached till Kamladi and Raja and Ashok Chavan were booted?
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Orissa’s govt. has bent backwards to give away several unlawful concessions to Anil Agarwal’s University. Govt has lost crores of revenue because thousands of acres valued at Rs. 15 lakh per acre has been gifted for 2 lakh.
That’s because Vedanta University will be our first world class university after Banaras Hindu University, our only other true university. It will change the economics of Orissa and proivide a meaningful career to millions of Oriyas. That’s why. Iyt will not be used to buy one more Tuscan villa for Sonia or create one mor eTV channel for her chief enforcer Karunanidhi or build one more palace for Shiela Aunty’s son who has swallowed Rs.30,000 crores in the CWG loot.
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Hats off to DNA for its ethical stance and allowing its journalists freedom to research and report.
In one instance, DNA’s rival Mumbai Mirror carried an exclusive front page report on the attempted arrest of a whistle blower on allegations of defamation (link #1). This was an exclusive. Curiously, Mumbai Mirror were the only media present at the right spot at the right time ! Incidentally, Mumbai Mirror’s parent TOI had some kind of treaty in place as they had been placing “paid news” type of material on the concerned organisation to promote it (a sample at link #2). Scratch a little and private treaties tumble out !
Now, compare that with DNA India’s balanced reporting on the background situation, a year or two before the incident. This covered some on ongoing consumer disaffection and whistle-blowing in the same organisation (link #3). When read side by side with the DNA India report, Mumbai Mirror begins to look like a party to the smear job on the whistle-blower.
Link #1. Mumbai Mirror. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/20100415201004150444035498c0a203/Ecole-Mondiale-staffer-arrested-for-defaming-exBombay-HC-judge.html
Link #2. TOI paid news or private treaty news, sample: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/QA-Expatriate-Indians-prefer-Indian-education/articleshow/3483048.cms
Link #3: DNA India report: http://www.dnaindia.com/worl/report_indian-expats-figh-fee-hike-through-blogs_1166668
Now you know how these private treaties and paid news works!
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Kangeya
Why should govt lost crores of money, just because of one university? Does that mean govt should go around subsidizing all universities, colleges, schools? Where will get money from, when corporate thugs are busy evading taxes?
It’s not just subsidy. Agarwal asked for 15,000 acres and govt went and allotted 6000 acres! 6000 acres is at least ten times more than the biggest universities in USA. WHy on earth does a university need 6000 acres? Here is the catch: The university is located in mineral rich area – clearly there is more than meets the eye. The court has struck down this plea of Vedanta – and rightfully so! But the media makes no noise about its blue eyed boy Naveen Patnaik, but chooses a soft target like Raja!
When Raja was bulldozed for giving away spectrum at dirt cheap prices, Kaangeya was the first person who benefited -his call rates and sms rates were crashed to delightfully low prices.
Kangeya’s driver and maid can afford a mobile now because the call rates are low.
700 million customers in India today can afford a mobile because the spectrum prices were kept low. This has directly helped the economy. With so much money swimming around, it has become a consumer driven society! No wonder the economy is growing at a blistering speed of 8.5% and the share market has reached dizzying heights. Compare this with NDA, when the economy became stagnant! Jobs were scarce, income was less, income tax was high, economic growth was struggling at 5% – and worse, mobile penetration was very low.
People like Kaangeya are ungrateful wretches, you get the maximum benefit from UPA – from higher income, to lower income taxes, to cheap mbbile call rates – and yet bash the Congress! Shame !
Tuscan vila for Sonia, did you say? That shows you have truly become desperate to flung demented charges at her. 30,00 crore eaten by Sheila’s son? haaahah…where? how? Prove it. Or stop spreading rumours.
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And when will we have a TV Channel or a Newspaper or a Blog that says in its masthead that ‘WE WILL NOT BE BIASED AND REPORT ISSUES OBJECTIVELY’?
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Guardian UK covered the “Paid News” phenomenon of India.
————- Quote ——————
Last week, the reporter telephoned Medianet, as it reveals today, posing as the PR agent of a company wanting coverage for a party at an exclusive shopping mall in Delhi.
The Medianet executive said space could be bought in the Delhi Times supplement, The Times of India’s society pages, for £27 a centimetre on the front page, or £16 inside.
This could be dressed up as a genuine news story, as long as it met a “celebrity quotient”. Celebrities were available to attend the event at an extra cost, he said.
He later confirmed that a recent Times article about the launch of a range of ballpoint pens had been paid for by a marketing company.
The story quotes Ravi Dhariwal, the chief executive of The Times of India, as saying: “There is no paid news in any of our main papers and titles. We do have advertising and promotional supplements which sometimes carry paid features.”
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