Journalism after Independence

Journalism after Independence

 Journalism during Independence Movement was like a mission. The motto of this era’s journalism was to increase unity, nation love and feeling of nationhood amongst populace  and to rebuild tradition and cultures of our nation. Mostly all of the journalists were part of independence struggle.  The energy through which journalists work before independence vanished afterwards.  In other words Hindi Journalism after independence was on the wrong track. Commercialization attained major portion then real Journalism. Editor’s hijacked Newspapers with were owned by Industrialists. So the competition also increased which was in terms of profit and loss. But with all types of negative situations Hindi Journalism continued to develop society normally and financially also. To make India a democratic country the biggest contribution was from Hindi Journalism. Indian Journalism worked as a middle point between Government and common people. According to one survey in 1979 it was proved that circulation digits of English Newspapers were decelerated by Hindi Newspapers only. On one hand in that year the circulation of Hindi Newspapers was 9706000. On the other hand the circulation of English Newspapers was 9030000. Whether it was News Gathering , Printing Technology , Layout etc in every field development happened.

In today’s time there are different columns for News , Literature , Society , Culture, Female world, Children, Music, Films, Finance, Industrial Area, Sports, Health, Education , Critical Writing etc Magazines-Newspapers presents a developed World of Journalism. Overall we can state that after Independence Hindi Journalism attained a new platform. In these National and Language Movement , Cultural Awareness, Historical Notes, Critical Notes etc are printing day by day. The only Biggest Challenge which is there for Hindi Journalism is Commercialization. In today’s time different Journalism Agencies are competing with each other for Advertisement and are acting like a puppets in hands of Industrialists and different Politicians. This is the biggest danger on Indian Journalism.

Indian press in pre independence era

outline of start of indian journalism from Saurabh Deshpande

Magazine Journalism in INDIA

The journalistic revolution in India came not from newspapers, TV or the internet. It came from the magazine sector. If it wasn’t for magazines, Indian journalism would never ever have come of age.
The first breakthrough was Stardust which ended the old obsequious fan-magazine culture of film journalism and introduced bright, witty, celebrity journalism to India. The great thing about Stardust was that the bulk of its readers cared more about the stars than they did about the movies they made. It was not necessary to watch Rajesh Khanna’s movies to read about his relationship with Anju Mahendru. (Was he secretly married to her? Stardust asked in one of its early cover
stories.)
The second breakthrough was India Today. It was India’s first successful attempt at quality, up-market serious journalism. It was well-produced, well-written, took no sides and covered politics and social trends with style and panache. Once India Today was firmly established, the newspapers had to take note. And eventually, editors from the magazine sector migrated to newspapers and transformed them.
(Some examples: two India Today veterans, Suman Dubey and Shekhar Gupta became editors of the Indian Express; TN Ninan invented the modern Indian financial paper when he went from India Today to the Economic Times – and there are many others.)
But while enough has been said and written about India Today and Stardust, there is another era that seems in danger of being forgotten. I started writing in 1976 and became a full-time journalist in 1979 in Bombay. And while I was around for the early days of the magazine boom, I think that the golden age of Bombay journalism came in the early 1980s. Sadly, nobody celebrates that era as much as it deserves to be celebrated.
In the early 1980s, several developments changed the face of Bombay journalism. Khalid Ansari and Behram Contractor had started Mid-Day in1979 but its impact was really felt only in the years that followed.
Bombay came out in 1979. Society, a few months later. Minhaz Merchant started Gentleman around 1980. In 1981 or so, Vinod Mehta handed over the Editor’s chair at Debonair to Anil Dharker who put his own stamp on the paper. Vinod himself went on to start a Sunday paper for Jaico Publishing called the Sunday Observer. In 1983, I was part of a team that revamped the old Imprint and turned it into a monthly features magazine.
As significant as these development were, they were dwarfed by the decision of Samir Jain, who had just begun to wake up the sleepy Times of India empire to drag his company, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century.
In those days, the Times (like most other newspapers of its era) was dull and boring. Samir knew that it would take a lot of effort to turn the paper around so he started with the moribund magazine division. He moved away from journalism and reached out to Calcutta where he found Pritish Nandy, then a poet and adman of some repute, and entrusted him with the task of reviving the Times Group’s magazines.
From the moment Nandy arrived in Bombay, the knives were out for him at the Times where he was resented because a) he was an outsider, b) because he was Samir Jain’s man and c) because he came from a non-journalistic background. But Nandy proved to be quite a skillful knife-man himself. He thrived on the hostility of the old guard and determinedly set about changing things.
He transformed Filmfare and turned the awards into an Oscar-like spectacle. He kicked ass at Femina. But most important, he revived the Illustrated Weekly.
When Nandy took over, the Weekly was a magazine on the skids. Its glory days as the Khushwant Singh-led success story (in the early 70s) were over and the magazine was, frankly, unreadable.
Nandy turned it around by introducing a contemporary new design and changing the nature of the editorial content. He hired a young, new team. He pulled in academics from Delhi’s intellectual circuit to write for it. He did a series of brilliant and revelatory interviews himself. And he tapped into a pool of emerging journalistic talent in Bombay.
In those days, Vinod Mehta had introduced many new writers to Bombay readers. Some came from advertising (Kersy Katrak, Nirmal Goswami etc.) and others (Dhiren Bhagat, for instance) had just returned from university abroad. These writers changed the face of Bombay journalism because they were outside of the traditional journalistic world.


CREDITED TO hindustantimes.com

LANGUAGE PRESS IN INDIA

HISTORY OF INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS

HISTORY OF INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS

                            Emperor Asoka’s pillar inscriptions & rock edicts in different parts of the Mauryan Empire during 3rd century B.C are considered examples of imperial political communication to the informed & literate section of the population. Ashoka used the Prakrit language in his communication on ethics & morals as evidence by his inscriptions.

                            The learning languages were confined to high casts, the aristocracy, priests, army personnel & landowners. Another feature of communication in ancient India was the emphasis placed on oral & aural systems. Writing was done on palm leaves using a style, but the written documents were considered too scared to be touched or used by the lower classes. The ruling class used certain methods for coding, transmitting & decoding messages secretly through the network of spies to information about neighboring enemies.

                             According to historians of journalism, news was collected in a well-organized manner under Akbar the Great. In 1574, Akbar established a recording office that helped later medieval historians to gather materials for chronicles.

The Bengal Gazette

                          Founded by James Augustus Hickey (surname) or Hicky, a highly eccentric Irishman who had previously spent two years in gaol for debt, Hickey's Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertiser was the first English language newspaper, and indeed the first printed newspaper, to be published in the Indian sub-continent.

                      It was a weekly newspaper, and was founded in 1779, in Calcutta, the capital of British India. The memoirist William Hickey (who, confusingly, was not in fact related to the paper's founder) describes its establishment shortly after he had succeeded (in his capacity as an attorney-at-law) in having James Hicky released from debtor's gaol:

                        "At the time I first saw Hicky he had been about seven years in India. During his confinement he met with a treatise upon printing, from which he collected sufficient information to commence  as a   printer, there never having been a press in Calcutta.....it occurred to Hicky that great benefit might arise from setting on foot a public newspaper, nothing of that kind ever having appeared. Upon his types &c., therefore reaching him, he issued proposals for printing a weekly paper, which, meeting with extraordinary encouragement, he speedily issued his first work. As a novelty every person read it, and was delighted. Possessing a fund of low wit, his paper abounded with proof of that talent. He had also a happy knack at applying appropriate nicknames and relating satirical anecdotes".

                                Unfortunately for Hicky he himself benefited little from the paper, as William Hickey further tells us that he allowed it "to become the channel of personal invective, and the most scurrilous abuse of individuals of all ranks, high and low, rich and poor, many were attacked in the most wanton and cruel manner.His utter ruin was the consequence”. The paper itself survived until the 1830s, when its circulation was exceeded by The Englishman (also published from Calcutta from 1818, and now known as The Statesman).

                                                  The first newspaper in an Indian language was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue of this daily was published from the Serampore Mission Press on May 23, 1818. In the same year, Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya started publishing another newspaper in Bengali, the Bengal Gazetti. On July 1, 1822 the first Gujarati newspaper the Bombay Samachar was published from Bombay, which is still extant. The first Hindi newspaper, the Samachar Sudha Varshan began in 1854. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which papers have grown over the years are Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam,Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Bengali.

The Indian language papers have taken over the English press as per the latest NRS survey of newspapers. The main reasons being the marketing strategy followed by the regional papers, beginning with Eenadu, a telegu daily started by Ramoji Rao. The second reason being the growing literacy rate. Increase in the literacy rate has direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the regional papers.

The people are first educated in their mother tongue as per their state in which they live for e.g. students in Maharashtra are compulsory taught Marathi language and hence they are educated in their state language and the first thing a literate person does is read papers and gain knowledge and hence higher the literacy rate in a state the sales of the dominating regional paper in that state rises.

The next reason being localisation of news. Indian regional papers have several editions for a particular State for complete localisation of news for the reader to connect with the paper. Malayala Manorama has about 10 editions in Kerala itself and six others outside Kerala. Thus regional papers aim at providing localised news for their readers. Even Advertisers saw the huge potential of the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more due to the efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge market.

THE MAJOR INDIAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

                            Digdarshan was the first Indian language newspaper. It started in April 1818 by the Serampur missionaries William Carcy, Joshua Marshman & William Ward. They soon started another journal in June of the same year & named it Samachar Darpan.
The famous Raja Ram Mohan Roy also brought out periodicals in English, Bengali & Persian. Some of Roy’s papers were Sambad Kaumadi, Brahmical Magazine, Mirat-ul-Akhbar, and Bangadoota & Bengal Herald
.

ASSAMESE:-

Amnodaya, a distinguished journal in the Assamese language was started in 1846 under the editorship of the Reverend Oliver.T.Cutter.

GUJARATI:-

The newspaper with the greatest longevity in India, Mumbai Samachar was also the first Gujarati Newspaper. It was established in 1822 by Farduvji Marzaban as a weekly & then became a daily in 1832.

HINDI:-

The first Hindi daily was samachar Sudhavarshan (Calcutta, 1854). Later Samayadant Martand, Banaras Akhbar, Shimila Akbar & Malwa Akhbar came out.

Calcutta was the birth place not only of English, Bengali & Hindi journalism. The first Urdu newspaper was published by Urdu Akhbar in the second decade of the 19th century.

KANNADA:-

Kannada Samachar was the earliest Kannada journal, according to many scholars. But others think that the first Kannada journal was Mangaloora Samachar. Later Subudhi Prakasha, Kannada Vaatika, Amnodaya, Mahilaasakhi & Sarvamitra came out during the 18th century.

MALAYALAM:-

Mathrubhumi, Malayala Manorama, Kerala Kanmudi are the main newspapers of Kerala. The other daily newspapers are Desabhimani, Mangalam, Madhyamam, Chandrika, Deepika etc.

MARATHI:-

Darpan was the first Marathi newspaper started on 6 January 1832. Kesari & Sudarak were other papers of the 18th century. Induprakash was an Anglo-Marathi daily established in 1862.

ORIYA:-

The first Oriya magazine Junaruna was published by the Orissa Mission Press in 1849 under the editorship of Charles Lacey. Then came another publication from the same press ‘Prabhatchandrika’, under the editorship of William Lacey. Utkal Sahitya, Bodhadayini, Baleshwar Sambad Balika etc… started in the 18th century.

PUNJABI:-

Although Maharaja Ranjit Singh encouraged the development of Punjabi journalism. The earliest Punjabi newspaper was a missionary newspaper. The first printing press in Punjab was established in Ludhiana in 1809.

TAMIL:-

The first periodical ‘Tamil Patrika’ a monthly was brought out in 1831 by the Religious Tract Society in Madras; it lasted till 1833.

The next periodical weekly was the Dina Vartamani published in Madras from 1856 by the Dravidian press & edited by the Reverend P.Percival. Later Swadeshamitran, Deshabaktan etc… were other papers.

TELUGU:-

Kandukuri Veeresaliongam Pantulu, known as the Father of the renaissance movement in Andhra & the founder of modern Telugu, sparked a social reform movement through his weekly Vivekavardhini. He also founded separate journals for women; Satihitabodhini.

HISTORY OF INDIAN NEWS PAPERS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Hindu

    The Hindu is a leading English-language Indian daily newspaper. With a circulation of 1.45 million, The Hindu is the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in India after Times of India, and slightly ahead of The Economic Times. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008 The Hindu is the third most-widely read English newspaper in India (after Times of India and Hindustan Times) with a readership of 5.2 million. It has its largest base of circulation in South India, especially Tamil Nadu. Headquartered at Chennai (formerly called Madras), The Hindu was published weekly when it was launched in 1878, and started publishing daily in 1889.

The first issue of The Hindu was published on September 20, 1878, by a group of six young men, led by G. Subramania Aiyer, a radical social reformer and school teacher from Thiruvaiyyar near Thanjavur. Aiyer, then 23, along with his 21-year-old fellow-tutor and friend at Pachaiyappa's College, M. Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput, and four law students, T.T. Rangachariar, P.V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu were members of the Triplicane Literary Society. The British-controlled English language local newspapers had been campaigning against the appointment of the first Indian, T. Muthuswami Iyer, to the Bench of the Madras High Court in 1878. "The Triplicane Six," in an attempt to counter the dominant attitudes in the English language press started The Hindu on one British rupee and twelve annas of borrowed money. Aiyer was the editor and Veeraraghavachariar the Managing Director. The first editorial declared, " the   Press does not only give expression to public opinion, but also modifies and moulds it."

The Times of India

The Times of India (TOI) is a popular English-language broadsheet daily newspaper in India. It has the largest circulation among all English-language daily newspapers in the world, across all formats (broadsheet, compact, Berliner and online).  It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.

In 2008, the newspaper reported that (with a circulation of over 3.14 million) it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations as the world's largest selling English-language daily newspaper, placing as the 8th largest selling newspaper in any language in the world. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008, the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 13.3 million. This ranks the Times of India as the top English newspaper in India by readership. According to ComScore, TOI Online is the world's most-visited newspaper website with 159 million page views in May 2009, ahead of the New York Times, The Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA Today websites.

The Times of India was founded on November 3, 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, during the British Raj. It was adopted in 1861. Published every Saturday and Wednesday, The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce was launched as a bi-weekly edition. It contained news from Europe, the Americas, and the Subcontinent, and was conveyed between India and Europe via regular steamships. The daily editions of the paper were started from 1850 and by 1861, the Bombay Times was renamed The Times of India. In the 19th century this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizable circulation in India and Europe. Originally British-owned and controlled, its last British editor was Ivor S. Jehu, who resigned the editorship in 1950. It was after India's Independence that the ownership of the paper passed on to the then famous industrial family of Dalmiyas and later it was taken over by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain group from Bijnore, UP.

The Times of India is published by the media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company, along with its other group companies, known as The Times Group, also publishes The Economic Times, Mumbai Mirror, the Navbharat Times (a Hindi-language daily broadsheet), the Maharashtra Times (a Marathi-language daily broadsheet).

The Times is self-declared as a liberal newspaper, and is sometimes described as irreverent.

The present management of The Times Group has been instrumental in changing the outlook of Indian journalism. In India, as is elsewhere in the world, the Editor of a newspaper has traditionally been considered as the most notable position in a newspaper set up. The Times of India, however, changed this in the early 1990s, in keeping with the management policy of treating the newspaper as just another brand in the market. The main newspaper and its many sub-editions are now run by editors who are appointed within the ranks and the company gives equal chance to everyone to occupy the editor's seat. The Times Group also places equal focus and importance to every department and function - which has made it a professional entity and ensured its place as the most profitable newspaper in the country.

In January 2007, the Kannada edition was launched in Bengaluru and in April 2008 the Chennai edition was launched. Their main rivals in India are The Hindu and Hindustan Times, which hold second and third position by circulation.

Hindustan Times

Hindustan Times (HT) is an Indian daily English-language newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the independence movement. The name comes from the Persian word 'Hindostān', which amongst Muslims is synonymous for northern and central India. Hindustan Times is the flagship publication of HT Media Ltd. In 2008, the newspaper reported that with a (circulation of over 1.14 million) it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations ranking them as the third largest circulatory daily English newspaper in India. Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008, revealed that HT has a readership of (6.6 million) placing them as the second most-widely read English Newspaper in India after Times of India. It has a wide reach in northern India (barring Southern India), with simultaneous editions from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Bhopal and Chandigarh. The print location of Jaipur was discontinued from June 2006. HT has also launched a youth daily HT Next in 2004. The Mumbai edition was launched on 14 July 2005 and the Kolkata edition was launched on early 2000.

Other sister publications of Hindustan Times are Mint (English business daily), Hindustan (Hindi Daily), Nandan (monthly children's magazine) and Kadambani (monthly literary magazine). The media group also owns a radio channel Fever and organises an annual Luxury Conference which has featured speakers like designer Diane von Fürstenberg, shoemaker Christian Louboutin, Gucci CEO Robert Polet and Cartier MD Patrick Normand. Hindustan Times is owned by the KK Birla branch of the Birla family.

HISTORY OF INDIAN NEWS PAPERS IN HINDI

Dainik Jagran

Dainik Jagran is a daily newspaper in India. It is 2nd in India and 17th worldwide for the greatest circulation of a daily newspaper.

Dainik Jagran, is a Hindi newspaper in India. It is the 17th most widely read newspaper in the world. It was the brainchild of the aggressive freedom fighter Mr. Puranchandra Gupta. The first edition was launched in Jhansi in 1942m and in 1947 Dainik Jagran shifted its headquarters to Kanpur, where it launched its second edition.

More than 55.7 million people reach out for Dainik Jagran making it the largest read daily of India. Dainik Jagran’s 37 editions carve a huge swathe across eleven states – Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ratlam, Satna & Saugor) along with the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Jammu& Kashmir .

Some supplements offered by the Dainik Jagaran are: Jhankaar ,Yatra,Sangini ,Josh,Nai,,Rahein and E - PAPER

Dainik Bhaskar

Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi-language daily newspaper of India published by Bhaskar Group. It was started in year 1958 from Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. Its is owned by the Agrawal family in Bhopal and its current national editor is Shravan Garg.

Dainik Bhaskar was first published in Bhopal and Gwalior of the central province. The newspaper was launched in year 1956 to fulfill the need for a Hindi language daily, by the name Subah Savere in Bhopal and Good Morning India in Gwalior in year 1957, it was renamed as Bhaskar Samachar In year 1958 it was renamed as Dainik Bhaskar

Dainik Bhaskar has 27 editions in 9 states- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab , Himachal Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

In Gujarat, Bhaskar Group publishes Divya Bhaskar a Gujarati daily launched in 2003. This ;aunch is a case study in IIM ( Indian Institute of management - Ahmedabad) and the door-to-door-twin-contact launch programme has been recognised as an Orbit shifting innovation. It has won Business Process Innovation award by Marico Foundation.

Divya Bhaskar is the largest circulated daily of Gujarat as per ABC ( audit Beauro of circulation ) and has the maximum edition by any newspaper in Gujarat. It is published from Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot,Jamnagar, Mehsana, Bhavnagar ( saurashtra Samachatr ).

The company launched English newspaper DNA in Mumbai in 2004 in partnership with the Zee Group. DNA is today published from Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. DNA is the second largest broadsheet newspaper of Mumbai. as per Indian Readership survey ( IRS R2 09)

HISTORY OF NEWS PAPERS IN BENGALI

Sambad Prabhakar

Sambad Prabhakar or Sombod Provokar was a newspaper created by Ishwar Chandra Gupta in 1831. It was a newspaper read by many and included views on: religion, politics, society, and India as well as covering literature and foreign news.

Sambad Prabhakar was the brainchild of Ishwar Chandra Gupta. He was patronized by Yogendra Mohan Thakur of Pathurighata. It began as a weekly newspaper launched on January 28, 1831 (16 Magh 1237BS). As stated, Mr. Thakur was the backbone to this paper and his death caused the paper to close publication in 1832.

 In 1836, the newspaper was revived by Ishwar Chandra Gupta and appeared as a tri-weekly on August 10, 1836. The Thakurs of Pathurighata lent a helping hand to the paper again and in 1837 the Sambad Prabhakar became the first Bengali language daily on June

14, 1839.

Samachar Darpan

Samachar Darpan was a Bengali weekly newspaper published by the Baptist Missionary Society from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore in early half of the 19th century. It is considered to be the first Indian language newspaper although some historians contend that the Bengali weekly Bengal Gazetti published by Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya had commenced publication first.

The success of the Bengali monthly Digdarshan encouraged the missionaries of the Baptist Missionary Society to embark on a new venture - the publication of a Bengali newspaper. The initiative was taken by Joshua Marshman and William Ward. At about the same time Harachandra Roy was also planning to start a Bengali newspaper from his own printing press at Chorebagan Steet in Calcutta. But before he could bring out his publication, the missionaries published the first issue of Samachar Darpan from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore on May 23, 1818.

The newspaper was published every Saturday and was edited by John Clark Marshman. Its price was 4 annas per copy. It contained news, both Indian and European, collected from various sources, particular from English newspapers. It also contained brief articles on various subjects. It carried some material of educational value which made it respected and popular among the educated people. Both in typography and contents the Samachar Darpan maintained a fairly good standard. Its coverage of local news was certainly better than any other English or Indian language newspaper. By reprinting news and comments from other Bengali newspapers, the Samachar Darpan enabled its readers to have acquaintance with the different sections of the Bengali opinion.

The paper covered seven main beats: news of the government officials, government circulars, news of the European countries other than Britain, new events, birth, obituary and wedding, news of England, history of India and its scholarly books. It published useful information on the appointment of judges, collectors and so on.

From July 1829, the newspaper began to appear in both Bengali and English; the Bengali and English sections represented translation of each other. From January 1832, the Samachar Darpan began to be published twice a week - on Wednesday and Saturday. The price was raised from a rupee per month to one and a half. However as a result of the hike in postage duty the twice a week publication was discontinued and it again became a weekly newspaper from 8 November 1834.

In December 1841 the missionaries decided to discontinue the publication that ended with the last issue of December. The official reason stated was that John Clark Marshman who was still the editor of the newspaper couldn't find sufficient time owing to other pre-occupations. But the actual reason was that the Samachar Darpan, though very successful as a newspaper, had failed miserably in its primary objective - propagation of Christianity.

Samachar Darpan had an uninterrupted career till the end of 1841, when the publication was discontinued. By 1836, the circulation had reached 400, which was much higher than any other Indian language publication.

THANKFULLY CREDITED TO http://vishnuprasadu.blogspot.in