HELLRAISER!..............THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE

I been noticing editorial trends very closely for a long time now. Couple of Years back Editor of Outlook Magazine Mr. Vinod Mehta said something about the cardinal principle, the foundation on which the editorial wall should stand. According to him, the editorial content of a credible title( Magazine and Broadsheets) needs to be a balanced mix of what the readers want to know and what the editor wants them to know. Alas! not many , follow this golden rule today. The thin line between editorial integrity and business interest is crossed too often these days.

Yesterday the front page caption of Times of India Paper read - " IT'S WAR: Naxals Butcher 74 in worst blow to security forces" . Just out of bed, waking up to a brand new day, the worst thing that can happen to you, is the sight of a blood stained paper at your doorsteps. I know today newspapers are all about building numbers, but by giving it such a bloody caption we are abetting the crime. We are helping the perpetrators of such heinous acts in succeeding in their mission to terrorize people. This caption could have been written in a more humane way........A Black Tuesday: 74 soldiers walk the path of death.

Wake-up my editorial friends, go back to the bible of Journalism, read the mission again. And stop taking sides with the Naxals, the bandits, the rapists, the murderers. Be on this side and not on the bloody side.

HOPES AND FEARS !!.....iPad unleashed

It's already being hailed as a seminal device in the world of computing. Apple's latest tech marvel iPad has got the media behemoths all over the world scurrying to the boardrooms again. This latest tablet is undoubtedly going to have a profound impact on the media landscape.

A world which has already been turned upside-down by the new age media "INTERNET"...... where the best of minds are working overtime to find a way to successfully move from print to digital, many feel that the launch of iPad would only add to the misery of newspaper and magazine publishers.

But I have a different opinion on this. Nobody can escape the inevitable and the best way to tackle the problem would be to look at devices like iPad as an opportunity which will offer new ways to reach out to the readers. With numbers plummeting in the traditional medium, this could give a new lease of life to many. In fact the tablets could offer multiple revenue opportunities. Both readers as well as advertisers would be more than willing to pay for trusted, reliable content.

When I look at APPLE all I can do is marvel.......ANOTHER PATH-BREAKING INNOVATION....WOW!

JOB WELL DONE MR. JOBS..........CONGRATULATIONS!!

REMEMBERING THE POLYMATH !!

I think theres more to 7th of May than what we were made to understand by our morning papers today . The world's largest democracy went to polls earlier in the day, and nothing can be more newsworthy...... its got to be the mother of all spectacles. Full marks to our friends perched atop the news towers for dedicating the lion's share of their editorial space to this magnum opus . After all it's the ultimate power tussle and the entire world is watching us ever so closely.

But its rather unfortunate that in this political razzmatazz, we completely forgot that this day also belonged to a revered historical figure. And so did our friends back at the news bureau.Today is the birthday of great Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. A poet, playwright, novelist, social reformer, educationist, visual artist, nationalist, composer.... one name, many shades.