Saturday 24 June 2017

Hindustan Times launches its Pune edition with Abhay Vaidya its Resident Editor


Hindustan Times launched its Pune edition this morning. 

I am delighted that the city has one more newspaper in addition to the
Times of India, The Indian Express and the Sakaal Times

I am happy because the Pune Edition has Abhay Vaidya as its Resident Editor, the author of Who Killed Osho?. He is the student of the Department of Communication and Journalism, the University of Pune in the 1987-88  batch, where I taught news reporting. Immediately after he passed out, he joined me as a colleague in the Pune Bureau of the Indian Post (now defunct). He has worked with, among others, the Times of India and DNA. 


Read also:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hindustan-times-joins-the-convers
ation-in-pune/story-7t8FFIJmaLfcusEkRCTCeK.html 



Hindustan Times (HT) had thus entered the western region of India where it has its Mumbai edition. Today, HT has over 1.6 million daily readers. In a press statement, HT said that it was only natural to expand its presence in the West, specifically Pune with its young and growing population that has an appetite for English daily.
HT will have Pune and its citizens at the heart of the paper, covering topics that affect them and are of interest to them. Right from the very first issue, the effort will be to foster the community spirit of Pune for the pursuit of the common good, by including local stories which impact the city, day-in and day-out.
HT Pune edition will have 50+ pages of national, state and local affairs, entertainment and lifestyle and specials. The weekend edition of HT Pune shall see unequalled offerings including HT Brunch, Mint Lounge, which focuses on art, food, culture, fashion, sport, music and the like, and HT CafĂ©. 
With the product being the core, it will be supported by massive surround marketing activities during the launch to create buzz and excitement among readers. Digital will be the key driver to create launch awareness amongst the TG complemented with Outdoor and Print. Over the weekends, Punekars would also get a glimpse of HT’s on-ground activation celebrating the culture and tradition of Pune.
Bobby Ghosh, Editor-in-chief, Hindustan Times, says, “We are bringing a lot of history in this youthful city; rich and credible journalism and along with it our commitment and passion for bringing to you the newspaper that the city has ever seen.”
Rajeev Beotra, CEO, HT English, adds, “Our goal is to bring to you a paper that is community-centric and captures the ideas, ideals and aspirations of Pune. A newspaper that serves as your chronicler and companion and a genuine member of the community.A newspaper that the entire neighbourhood tunes into for solutions for the common good.”
RajanBhalla, Group CMO, Hindustan Times, adds, “The weather in Pune is just about to heat up. Through Hindustan Times, we will give everything you need to understand your neighbourhood, city, state and world better. We are looking forward to waking Pune up, daily, with innovative content and a passion that will be an industry-first.”  (http://www.exchange4media.com/print/hindustan-times-launches-pune-edition_69397.html)

--
Please read also:

http://mediasceneindia.blogspot.in/search?q=Osho For the story on his book.


Thursday 22 June 2017

92 Percent of 25-34 Age Group Consumed News/Information Digital Content

Following is from worldpress@comscore.com

comScore Reports Top News/Information Digital Media Entities from Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices in India

92 Percent of 25-34 Age Group Consumed News/Information Digital Content
Bangalore, India, 22 June 2017 – comScore today released data from the comScore MMX® Multi-Platform service, reporting key online activity in the News/Information category in India for April 2017. The service combines data from desktop and mobile consumer panels with data from the comScore census network, providing an unduplicated, persons-based measurement of total digital reach across desktops, smartphones and tablets. This release follows the recent launch of MMX Multi-Platform, along with major enhancements to Mobile Metrix in India, with the introduction of mobile consumer panel data.
Top 15 News/Information Entities from Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices in India
According to MMX Multi-Platform, 84 percent of India’s Total Digital Population accessed News/Information digital content in April 2017. 13 percent of News/Information visitors/viewers accessed the content from both desktop and mobile platforms, while 79 percent accessed exclusively via mobile devices.
The Times Of India Sites ranked #1 overall with 69 million unique visitors/viewers, followed by India Today Group with 54 million and India.com Sites with 41 million. In the top 15 ranking, more than half of the time spent on News/Information digital content is via mobile devices, with The Times Of India Sites having the highest engagement at 44 percent of total minutes for the category.  
Top 15 News/Information Entities from Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices in India
April 2017
Total India – Age 6+ on Desktop and Age 18+ on Mobile 
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform
RankEntityTotal Unique Visitors/Viewers (000)Total Minutes (MM)
Total Digital PopulationDesktopMobileTotal Digital PopulationDesktopMobile
Total Internet: Total Audience200,82159,317169,247560,36473,235487,129
News/Information168,73835,574154,86817,1302,93214,198
1The Times Of India Sites69,46912,95162,5316,8596286,231
2India Today Group53,68410,20948,234881105776
3India.com Sites40,6738,60635,416808116692
4The Indian Express Group39,8535,90736,63840964345
5HT Media Ltd37,7516,57933,92940764343
6NDTV37,5348,27532,6031,047133914
7Jagran Sites32,0373,54129,926554124430
8Bhaskar Group Sites31,5853,05529,9271,068249819
9ONEINDIA.COM Sites22,2334,64919,315479233245
10AMARUJALA.COM21,6851,26921,06231745272
11ABP News Network21,2591,71120,07234447296
12Patrika Group20,47689319,9371667158
13News 1819,4164,98016,16832667259
14FIRSTPOST.COM11,5983,7548,8621275869
15The Economic Times11,2514,0878,334457222235
Demographic Profile of News/Information Visitors/Viewers from Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices in India
In April 2017, 92 percent of the 25-34 age group in India visited/viewed News/Information digital content, the highest reach among other age groups, compared to 76 percent for persons aged 45 and above.
Males spent more time on News/Information digital content, contributing to 79 percent of total minutes for the category, with 85 percent of that time accessed via mobile devices. The 15-24 demographic spent the most time on News/Information content, representing 40 percent of total minutes for the category, with males consuming 80 percent of the total minutes and females at 20 percent.
Demographic Profile of News/Information Visitors/Viewers from Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices in India
April 2017
Total India – Age 6+ on Desktop and Age 18+ on Mobile 
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform
Target Audience Group/Target Audience% ReachTotal Minutes (MM)
Total Digital PopulationDesktopMobileTotal Digital PopulationDesktopMobile
News/Information: Total Audience84.060.091.517,1302,93214,198
Persons - Age
    Persons: 6-1428.228.24646
    Persons: 15-2488.966.391.86,8598346,025
    Persons: 25-3491.566.493.35,5328344,699
    Persons: 35-4480.965.389.12,2935841,709
    Persons: 45+75.563.688.92,3996341,765
Males - Age
    All Males89.365.992.113,5172,04711,471
    Males: 6-1430.030.01717
    Males: 15-2494.567.694.95,5155874,928
    Males: 25-3494.268.793.14,7906644,126
    Males: 35-4478.667.585.41,6293991,230
    Males: 45+77.767.688.71,5663801,186
Females - Age
    All Females73.853.290.13,6138852,727
    Females: 6-1427.727.72929
    Females: 15-2476.664.384.61,3442471,097
    Females: 25-3483.661.394.1742170572
    Females: 35-4484.862.195.8664186478
    Females: 45+72.960.289.2833254579
To learn more about MMX Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, please contact us.
About comScore
comScore is a leading cross-platform measurement company that measures audiences, brands and consumer behaviour everywhere. comScore completed its merger with Rentrak Corporation in January 2016, to create the new model for a dynamic, cross-platform world. Built on precision and innovation, our data footprint combines proprietary digital, TV and movie intelligence with vast demographic details to quantify consumers’ multiscreen behaviour at massive scale. This approach helps media companies monetise their complete audiences and allows marketers to reach these audiences more effectively. With more than 3,200 clients and global footprint in more than 75 countries, comScore is delivering the future of measurement. Shares of comScore stock are currently traded on the OTC Market (OTC:SCOR). For more information on comScore, please visit comscore.com
Zach Huang
comScore, Inc.
+65-6704-0250
worldpress@comscore.com

Source: 

Wednesday 7 June 2017

Prof Arbind Sinha is back to MICA fold, Ahmadabad

Prof Arbind Sinha is back to MICA fold, Ahmedabad, after two years, this time in an advisory role.
He will largely take care of the Centre for Development Management and Communication (CDMC) of MICA. The Centre was earlier known as Centre for Social and Development Communication. However, in present form also, the focus remains the same – Service to the Society.

Those who know him have always recognised his contribution to development communication, in various sectors – health, environment, agriculture, rural development, and humanitarian development, etc.

Sunday 4 June 2017

New York Times ends its traditional copy desk

Thanks Mahesh Vijapurkar for the following, which I was about to miss:

New York Times ends its traditional copy desk




The late David Carr, longtime media columnist for the New York Times, once explained to the Erik Wemple Blog: “The brand promise of the New York Times is editing.” Layer after layer of line editors, copy editors and other types of editors restructure, massage, amplify, abridge, tweak, adjust and, sometimes, mangle reporters’ copy to “within an inch of its life,” said Carr.
Perhaps not so much anymore. In a memo sent to staffers this morning — and promised earlier this month — New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn cited a problem with this brand promise: “Every day The New York Times produces the best edited news report in the world. It is a marvel of ambition, discipline and accuracy,” reads the opening line of the memo. “But as the news business changes, most of us have come to believe there are too many layers in our process, too many editors touching the same stories, particularly on routine news coverage. This system is a vestige of an assembly-line structure held over from a newspaper-only newsroom built around multiple print deadlines. It is costly and slows us down.”
Does this mean that the newspaper is bailing on its grand editing tradition? Not according to the top newsroom managers: “Editing is an essential ingredient in what makes The Times special. From guiding the report to perfecting stories, we are determined to preserve that distinguishing feature of The New York Times newsroom. Having examined editing at other institutions, we can assure you that even with these changes, we will still devote considerably more resources than our competitors to the meticulous editing of our journalism,” reads the memo. Experimentation with new editing approaches has favored what the newspaper calls the “strong desk model,” which obliterates the distinction between copy editors and “backfielders.” “In fact, what we now know as the copy desk will no longer exist,” says the memo.
The buyouts are designed to “streamline” the New York Times’s “multi-layered editing and production system and reduce the number of editors,” says the memo. Savings from the staff reductions, write Baquet and Kahn, will be used to hire up to 100 additional newsroom staffers. The idea is to bag commodity news and go for big-impact stuff. “Our goal is to significantly shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times, giving us more on-the-ground journalists developing original work than ever before,” says the memo. “Our future depends on stories like the one about Bill O’Reilly’s payouts to settle sexual harassment claims, as well the daily drumbeat of exclusives from the White House, our investigative and explanatory videos, the climate and graphics team’s Antarctica blockbuster, Metro’s powerful dissection of the city’s jails, the deep look into the dysfunction at Uber, our chart-topping podcast The Daily, and the visual-first storytelling that has become a regular feature of our International report.”
Nor does the memo omit just the institutional arrogance that — along with a great copy desk — has long set the New York Times apart: “There is a deepening recognition outside the building that The Times is vital to the future of the country, one of the few institutions with the drive and ambition to cover a changing Washington,” write Baquet and Kahn.
Okay, Baquet and Kahn. Just be on notice: We here at the Erik Wemple Blog, and thousands of people on Twitter, will be watching for the slightest decline in copy quality. And if we spot it, we’ll make sure that this memo lives on.
The full memo:
To the Staff,
Every day The New York Times produces the best edited news report in the world. It is a marvel of ambition, discipline and accuracy. But as the news business changes, most of us have come to believe there are too many layers in our process, too many editors touching the same stories, particularly on routine news coverage. This system is a vestige of an assembly-line structure held over from a newspaper-only newsroom built around multiple print deadlines. It is costly and slows us down.
So we are now announcing a buyout primarily designed to streamline our multi-layered editing and production system and reduce the number of editors at The Times. A new model of editing will end the distinction between backfielders and copy editors. One group of editors will handle all aspects of a story, with a separate set of eyes looking over their shoulders before publication. We will use the savings from having fewer editors to invest in our core strength — reporting and breaking big stories.
Thanks to an outpouring of support from our subscribers, we have already begun hiring aggressively to build on the original newsgathering that sets us apart. In recent months we have brought in investigative reporters, new cultural voices, foreign correspondents, beat reporters, videographers, and new talent for the Washington bureau that is leading in the biggest story in the world. The savings from the buyout will enable us to accelerate this hiring and bring in as many as 100 additional journalists.
Our goal is to significantly shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times, giving us more on-the-ground journalists developing original work than ever before. Our future depends on stories like the one about Bill O’Reilly’s payouts to settle sexual harassment claims, as well the daily drumbeat of exclusives from the White House, our investigative and explanatory videos, the climate and graphics team’s Antarctica blockbuster, Metro’s powerful dissection of the city’s jails, the deep look into the dysfunction at Uber, our chart-topping podcast The Daily, and the visual-first storytelling that has become a regular feature of our International report.
There is a deepening recognition outside the building that The Times is vital to the future of the country, one of the few institutions with the drive and ambition to cover a changing Washington. We see it in the rising subscription numbers and the daily notes from readers thanking us for our work.
But we should remember that while we have built a large and growing digital business, we still have a newsroom built on the giant profit margins and specific needs of the print era. We can’t afford to slow down in our efforts to build The Times of the future.
The buyout, which includes an enhanced cash payout, outplacement services and other benefits, is primarily focused on reducing layers of editors. But we will also accept buyout requests from reporters and others in the newsroom. Some desks — Business Day, Metro and Styles among them — are undergoing changes. In those departments there will be shifts in beats and emphasis. In some cases new department heads will have different expectations and different ideas about coverage. So some reporters no doubt will want to consider the buyout. Everyone should visit his or her department head to have a frank conversation about the future. We should be clear that we reserve the right to deny a buyout to people whose talents and expertise are indispensable at this crucial moment in The Times’s history. Our goal is to increase our reporting strength, not diminish it.
(As we push to do more visual journalism, the graphic and video operations, as well as digital design, will be excluded from this buyout. An accompanying note from Charlotte Behrendt will describe the terms.)
As many of you know, we recently set up a series of experiments on National and Metro to test different editing structures. The consensus favored a new system we have come to call the “strong desk model,” where the traditional distinction between backfielders and copy editors disappears. In fact, what we now know as the copy desk will no longer exist.
Under this model, desk editors — drawn from the existing copy desks and backfields — will handle all aspects of a story, through the various drafts to a completely copy edited version that is ready for digital publication. They will also be involved in the selection of photographs. A strengthened print hub will prepare these stories for the paper.
This model will encourage ownership of the article and result in editors who have a broad range of skills, from conceptualizing, to editing, to making sure stories reach the widest possible audiences. Another editor on the desk will have a second look to root out inconsistencies and oversights. When National used this model, editors found themselves broadening their skills significantly, and discussions on the desk expanded greatly to include the many important aspects of producing a strong digital report. And there were fewer layers.
In the coming weeks, editors around the newsroom will be able to apply for various jobs created by this system. Not everyone will agree with or want to work in this setup. And frankly, not every editor will have the range of skills necessary to adapt to it. All current editors should consider whether the expanded editing role in this new model is a fit for them and should discuss with their managers whether their skills and expectations are a match for our needs.
If we do not get enough takers to fund our ambitious plans to reduce the editing staff and hire more reporters, we will unfortunately have to turn to layoffs.
Editing is an essential ingredient in what makes The Times special. From guiding the report to perfecting stories, we are determined to preserve that distinguishing feature of The New York Times newsroom. Having examined editing at other institutions, we can assure you that even with these changes, we will still devote considerably more resources than our competitors to meticulous editing of our journalism.
We know the past three years have been a time of dramatic change in the way we produce The Times, and that it has placed tremendous pressure on everyone in the newsroom. And we know that this latest buyout — like previous ones — will mean saying goodbye to cherished colleagues. But this is a good moment to take stock of how these changes have transformed our report. Our digital audience is growing faster than anyone expected not just because of the crush of news. We have learned to tell stories in different ways. We are faster and more attuned to our audience. Most important, we produce more original, deeply reported journalism than any other news organization in the world. We must take this next step — a significant reorganization of the newsroom — to solidify and enhance our stature as the newsroom with the greatest ambition, the one that can compete day to day on the biggest story in the world, while also covering the world. Events have brought The Times to a historic moment and we have to seize it, for ourselves and the readers we serve.
Thank you.
Dean and Joe

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/05/31/new-york-times-ends-its-traditional-copy-desk/?utm_term=.30b839b4055c