Bangalore

Every morning, shortly after six-thirty there is a rustle at my hotel room door in Bangalore (India). The Deccan Herald, the daily newspaper for which I am writing for four weeks as part of a journalism exchange, is shoved under the door.

My hotel lays out four English-language newspapers, all of which appear regionally, namely containing a Bangalore local news section: Times of India (28 pages), Bangalore Mirror (32 pages), The Economic Times (18 rosé-coloured pages) and, of course, the Deccan Herald (26 pages). The Bangalore Mirror is a newspaper of a small half-Rhenish size; the others appear in the larger Rhenish format (smaller than the LVZ). There are other daily newspapers as well: the Indian Express, The Hindu, as well as newspapers in the Kannada, Hindi, and Tamil languages.

I conducted my brief press review yesterday, on the first of May, because in Germany no newspapers are released on holidays. Here in India the week has six days, meaning that my colleagues at the Deccan Herald only have one free day per week. Since the newspaper appears daily – even on Sundays and holidays – the editorial office is staffed every day. At home, by contrast, there are no editors in the office on Saturdays and days before holidays and on Sundays and holidays the staff is reduced.

The most striking thing for me is the prices of the daily newspapers here, which are really only penny goods. The Bangalore Mirror is the cheapest at 2 cents (!) per copy, the Deccan Herald costs 4 cents, and the Times of India 9 cents. These extremely low prices keep circulation high, which is important for the advertising prices, and in addition even poorer people can still afford to buy a newspaper. The actual production costs are 7 or 8 rupees. The difference, many people have informed me, is made up via paid articles. This means, for instance, that the lawyer who answers readers’ questions does not receive a fee from the newspaper, but pays to have his photo and his name filling this advisory column.

Otherwise, profits are made via advertising revenues. There are large-scale adverts by the city administration, the state government, and the national government (there was a May Day Message by the Indian labour minister in yesterday’s first of May issue of the newspaper). The Deccan Herald enjoys the reputation of being a respectable daily newspaper, but with its circulation of 200,000 (with 10 million inhabitants in Bangalore) is categorized as a small newspaper. I met the owner on my first day; he has an office in the publishing house and is, as he told me, there every day. The paper is printed 35 kilometres outside Bangalore on German printing machines, as the editor-in-chief told me.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the Times of India is more popular among the Indian people. It also appears more modern and fresh to me, has good pictures, easy-to-read diagrams, and generally a selection of news that incites one to read.

What is conspicuous about all Bangalore newspapers is that they start the local news section on page two. They like to show animal photos. In the Deccan Herald the title page with its overview character is followed by two pages of local news, then two and a half pages (sometimes even three half pages) from the state of Karnataka, whereby Bangalore as the state capital is frequently mentioned. Then come two pages with national news, the television schedule, a page of commentary, a page of international reports, and alternating advisory pages with topics such as health, education, and computers. The economic section is limited to one page of “Business,” the sport section is three pages long. “Metrolife” is integrated in the Deccan Herald as a daily eight-page supplement. It contains more local reports, reports about cultural events, and science, environmental, and travel topics. But, the supplement lives mainly from lots of big people photos, little copy, and often astonishingly trivial subject matter. Bollywood actors and sporting stars play a role, but then five or six people are photographed in the shopping mall in their shorts and asked about them – because shorts, one reads, are all the rage this year. The Times of India also contains such a tabloid-like supplement called the Bangalore Times, which is structured exactly the same way.

As for the stories in the newspaper, the journalism in India is the same as in Germany. Some articles are researched stories with background and contextual information, a large part is more the reproduction of statements by the government, the city administration, or municipal firms. Sources are quite often rather vague (“sources say,” “a resident reports”…). Local topics such as pedestrian overpasses or the quality of public outdoor pools play important roles. Twice already I’ve experienced a local report in the newspaper the day after it rained (once it was about damages and traffic jams caused by the rain, another time people simply expressed their surprise at such an unexpected rain).

I have not yet discovered anything extraordinary in the Deccan Herald that one could imitate (except perhaps placing the local news section at the beginning and thereby emphasizing it). By all means the publishing business here still enjoys quite carefree times; the loss of many advertising markets has not yet arrived. This may be because a large percentage of the population continues to be illiterate and that many of those who can read are not online since they simply cannot afford a computer. Like the taxi driver who lives with his wife and 15-year-old son in a 7-square-metre flat (!) and yet describes himself as middle class. He gets his information from the newspaper.

2 comments on “Brief Review of Indian Newspapers”

Hans-Joachim Drabner writes (6 May 2012):

Hello Ms Decker,
I read your article with great interest and pleasure. Much reminds me of my time in India 38 years ago when I received a scholarship from the Indian government. Back then, before the rustling of the newspaper being pushed under the door, there was also bed tea. A very pleasant service that sweetened the morning read.
Take care!

Kerstin Decker writes (6 May 2012):
Dear Dr. Drabner,
We’ve known one another for so long, but the fact that you were in India on a scholarship is news to me! It is nice to find out about it this way. Best wishes to everyone at home!