Who's Minding The Store? - Part 2 (TOI Story)

The man driving a tank down New York’s 5th Street is not some American General who’s on a victory parade. He was 15 and spotty when he wrote the first copy for his own magazine. He once bungee-jumped 100 metres off a Las Vegas tower to launch domestic flights. He has flown on balloons across the world. He has also spent a night in jail for smuggling records and evading taxes (he later paid them so escaped a sentence). The man is none other than Richard Branson. Crazy adventurer and successful businessman! When he was about to launch his airline’s first flight from UK to the US he called up the press in New York to announce his grand airline; Virgin. They asked him how many aircrafts he had and his team proudly said: “1”. The press didn’t bother and nobody cared. That’s how Branson decided that instead of depending on the press he would do his own thing for publicity. He drove the tank to launch Virgin Cola and shot the cannon at Coca Cola. The cola flopped but his publicity stunt remains famous. Among many, two people in India were most inspired by Branson. One was Vijay Mallya who imitated him but didn’t have his business sense. The other is Samir Jain the head of the huge media empire of the Times Group (TOI). Branson had a business principle: If something doesn’t succeed in one year, dump it. Samir Jain has it, Vijay Mallya doesn’t.  

SamirJain

What Samir Jain learned from Branson he turned into a successful ‘profit-model’ while Mallya has only ‘models’ and no profits. Branson had remarked in an interview that he had saved his company tens of millions of dollars in advertising with his stunts which the media covered for free. That’s what triggered the idea for Medianet, Advertorials and “paid publicity” for TOI. SJ said: “When I read it, I said, ‘Oh, my God, eureka—I’m stupid!’ Why these guys are not advertising in my paper is because I’m giving them free PR”. Today, nothing is free in TOI. Want to promote an event? You pay! Want to promote a movie? You pay! Want to promote a rising starlet? You pay! Running a fashion show? Sure, TOI will cover it but sponsor wants mileage; You pay! Then followed ‘Private treaties’, a barter system, under which small companies got advertisements and publicity in exchange for equity.

In the previous part we discussed the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani in the 1980s. Samir Jain’s rise to the leadership of TOI also started around the late 80s and thus followed a string of innovations. His brother Vineet Jain, who jointly runs the business, told New Yorker’s Ken Auletta: “We are not in the newspaper business, we are in the advertising business”. That’s redefining the business although it has been that way for ages. It used to be that newspapers as per rules had to devote at least 33% of space for news and editorials and 67% could be used for advertisements. It still may be, but supplements and pull-outs extend it beyond such limits. TOI practices are not respected by observers but none of it is illegal. What the TOI started as ‘pay for everything’ has culminated into ‘paid news’ as we now know it. While TOI may be sticking to some standards various other big and small newspapers have used the concept of ‘paid news’ widely. TOI is financially independent and doesn’t need doles from govts or frequent doses of investments. That’s the big difference.

For a newspaper whose editor once said “he had the second most important job after the PM” the TOI has more or less made the editor redundant. There are periods when TOI has even gone without an editor. It doesn’t need one. Strikingly, Vineet Jain observes: “Earlier, the newspapers were written more for the intellectual élites.. It was too serious at some point. It was not relevant to our readers”. In other words, it was about making TOI more relevant for the ‘Educated & aspiring Aam Aadmi’. I consider that a splendid move because I consider some intellectual elites to have caused more damage to India than any other group. But make no mistake, with its rise in circulation and reach the TOI did wield considerable power in the “establishment”. Vineet was invited to a function when Barack Obama visited India but he declined and he adds: “What will I do? It’s just meeting somebody, shaking hands. What’s the point... the closer I get to politicians, the more they’ll interfere. It’s a Catch-22. Politicians are no one’s friends”. Well said. Which is why it is surprising that that TimesNow has lately been frequently on a witch-hunt of certain politicians with Arnab Goswami as the obnoxious hunter.

Bill Gates was late to latch on to the internet. So too was the Times Group on the TV front. Bill Gates never recovered ground but TOI managed to make up for its TV presence. I have no data but safe to say that among English news channels TimesNow can claim to be No.1 in India. On the internet front Indiatimes occupies a strong leadership position, both in terms of news and online business. It may face threats from the likes of Flipkart in times to come; nothing alarmingly worrying though.

TOI has done away with the “intellectual” editors. I now call this tribe not editors but “editorialists” whose main job is to “swing public opinion”. It’s not as if TOI has completely ignored the “mini-bar” owning intellectual elites. Sometime back they came up with “Times Crest” just to soothe the crestfallen egos of the elites. A former head of TOI’s marketing once claimed TOI is read in the drawing rooms while local language newspapers are read in barber shops. Since then that has been altered a bit with ventures in regional languages. Latest being a Bengali version too. Surprisingly, from a drawing room paper, TOI is now frequently referred to as the TOI-let paper. It doesn’t faze them as it rightly shouldn’t any business organisation. What should be even more surprising is that despite years of Kolkata being their home, the Jains are not as Commie as most other newspapers and TV channels. It is just as unlikely that you will regularly find Election opinion polls or Exit polls in TOI. This is a job for the “swinging” editorialists and TV channels.

Sometime back Arnab launched a major witch-hunt against Suresh Kalmadi and CWG. Ah I guess that had something to do with TOI not getting certain CWG media contracts which were doled out unfairly to NDTV and CNN-IBN. Fine! TOI as a group also hounds Narendra Modi frequently. Partly understandable considering Modi had slapped a sedition case against their Ahmedabad edition. But the excessive witch-hunt of Nitin Gadkari is certainly inexplicable. The insipid Gadkari is not even news-worthy most times. That’s a rare political witch hunt the truth of which will unfold in time. What TOI started as a revenue generation practice others have used for both political and business profits. If you filter and crunch all the news for a whole day it wouldn’t last more than 15 minutes. Add regional news from all states and it still wouldn’t last an hour. So what do our 24X7 news channels do? Repeats, yes! Then you have all the shows on cars and bikes, Bollywood pre-release promos, Foodie programs, Cars and bikes, Marks4Sports, Hills and environment and so on. All of it, I repeat, all of it is paid for and sponsored. None of these programs are genuine news items or documentaries. And most of all, political news is also paid for and sponsored. Panellists on debates are also paid for appearance (Not party spokesmen). Quite often the debates are “fixed” as in match/spot fixing in sporting games.

Even as I write I watch NDTV doing a 5-minute promo for Café Coffee Day as “news item”. Most people would confuse this nonsense for Sunday trivia but it’s not. It’s a cleverly disguised paid promo (Sunday, November 11, 9.20am). For the quarter ended September 2012 NDTV showed another loss of 16 crores. This must add to their heavily accumulated losses but still companies keep pouring funds into this channel. Must be some magic, eh? Reliance has indirect investments in NDTV through DE Shaw. Jindals have invested in NDTV. Surely, there must be something about NDTV’s failing business that holds an attraction for these investors. Reliance infused some 1400 crores in the TV18 network (CNN-IBN and the gang). If “Congress toh apni dukaan hai” and Reliance is minding that store then guess who’s minding the store for Reliance.

One of the good things about TOI’s full front-page-ad sheet is that you can safely remove it and dump it; which is what most people do. TOI being the leader others followed their example and tried but failed to evoke the same PR revenue. So instead, political PR was the next best choice. Some like to call the TOI a TOIlet paper but one of the realities they have accepted is that the “Editor” is useless. For that reason the TOI is far less biased than its competitors. Most wouldn’t know who the TOI editor is. Compare that with editors of Hindustan Times, Indian Express or The Hindu or TV channels. Compare Vinod Sharma, Shekhar Gupta, Vardabhai, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai. Who do you think are more biased and pepper their news items with a definite tilt? Some even peddle outright lies as news. TOI does have its bias but it’s clearly in favour of business more than politics or govt. Why do you think TimesNow is perceived to be less biased when compared to NDTV or CNN-IBN? The answer is not hard to guess.

Samir Jain is a very reclusive man and said to be quite spiritual. He doesn’t make too many public appearances, not even in the awards shows of his company. If Rahul Gandhi really wanted to learn “BackOps” he should have chosen Samir as his teacher. Vineet Jain in contrast is more in the public eye. Even the frivolous “Aman Ki Asha” campaign is nothing more than a business campaign and not some Track-2 diplomacy. You can tell by the increase in ‘Shaadi’ classifieds from Pakistan in their papers. TOI doesn’t have to depend on the govt for money. Indian Express wouldn’t survive without doles from the govt.

Like Dhirubhai Ambani, there is no Padma or any major award decorating Samir or Vineet Jain. While petty media celebs like Barkha, Rajdeep, ShekharG and others have many such awards. If Congress is a “Dukaan” for Reliance there must be some playing the role of the “Delivery boys’. TOI is not that delivery boy, I leave it to you to guess who the delivery boys and girls are. Yes, TOI does mind a store, one of its own, that of covering up the business-end of crimes. Don’t expect TOI to bother too much about corruption or exposing politicians or govt; Nitin Gadkari is an aberration. Don’t ever expect TOI to expose any major advertiser or major business unit. Its business is not political but of turning every available cm and mm of its newspaper into money.

Quotes of Samir Jain and Vineet Jain and some trivia from “Citizens Jain” by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker (October 2012)

Concluded.

IPL - Big Toys For Grown-Ups

Disclaimer: Most of the people mentioned in this article are those who have achieved success and fame on their own. Their skills and talents are beyond doubt and no aspersions are being cast on them. This is nothing more than a hilarious ‘Theory’. And as with all theories, this can be right or wrong. And I’m usually wrong..

Remember the movie Sharaabi? That little pest (later Amitabh Bachchan) wouldn’t sleep nights. So single parent, Pran, would feed him a spoon or two of alcohol and in a snap the little monster would fall into deep and peaceful slumber. In later years alcohol becomes his favourite toy. Well, all parents aren’t that creative. Most sing a lullaby or put the little one in the cradle and rock it. At other times when little ones wail parents try hugs and  kisses but most often hold out a squeaking toy or a one that goes “ting-a-ling” and in a few years this graduates to Barbie dolls and stuffed toys and even attractive guns that create a racket. The addiction to toys doesn’t end even as adults for some of the rich and famous kids and especially spouses. So give them a few millions or crores and indulge them in their own toy-world. In later years there might be other toys like Las Vegas, Monaco or Atlantic City. Sooner or later even those toys get boring. So they found a new toy - the IPL (Indian Premier League).

I will avoid going back to the times of Dhirubhai but let’s start with his kids and spouses.  Since she got married to Anil Ambani what exactly is Tina Ambani doing? She maybe a board member of Anil’s part of Reliance but I am not aware. However, there is a business fully operated by her. Heard about it? Not sure about the entire Vimal operation itself but Tina does operate Harmony Furnishings. Now Vimal and Harmony aren’t in anyway the biggest businesses of Reliance anymore. For a woman who was active in the film world there had to be something to keep her occupied. So let’s say Anil gave her a big toy. ‘Harmony furnishings’!  You run it, play with it, make profits or losses and do whatever you like! That keeps Tina occupied and allows Anil to run his businesses peacefully.

What about Mukesh Ambani? You won’t find Nita Ambani routinely involved in petroleum or gas or stuff like that. She operates her own domain of education. There’s the Dhirubhai International School and the upcoming Reliance University and she’s involved in a lot of related areas. That occupies her most of the time. Make no mistake that is some good work being done by her. She’s also the owner and the most prominent face of an IPL team, Mumbai Indians. Naturally! The name Mumbai Indians clearly distinguishes them from, say, Cherapunji Indians. And you’d never see Nita jumping for joy and hugging them 11 pins anywhere else. Of course, with those toys go fantasies of royalty. Some team names would outline that obsession. Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkatta Knight Riders. Yeah, that should tell you how deeply rooted in democracy we are.

Remember Shashi Tharoor? He had to resign as minister just because he was accused of gifting a toy worth 70 crores to his spouse Sunanda Pushkar. She is a businesswoman in her own right according to reports. But hey, even they require toys, don’t they? Unfortunately, the move backfired like some Chinese ‘toxic’ toy and now Kochi Tuskers are no more part of the IPL. It is intriguing though how the IPL ended up with so many film stars and celebs who have nothing to do with Cricket at all. Let’s see, Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airline has been in trouble for a long time. So he brings in his son Sid Mallya (He can’t sue me for not calling him SidharthA) to help resolve many of KF’s problems and set the airline back on course again. Oh wait! No, that’s not what he did! Instead, he bought an IPL team and gave it to his kid to play with it. The little one is the Director of RCB and now manages its affairs. What’s the risk, if you ever break that toy we can just go buy a new one. Yes, RCB is in the news lately and not for cricketing reasons. Don’t mess so much with those toys!

IPL Women - Big Toys Are Fun!

Preity Zinta, the successful film actor, hasn’t done a movie in about 2 years. She was associated with Ness Wadia and was helping him in managing the many Wadia group companies. Aha, you say! No, none of that. He bought her a team, KingsXI Punjab, and she’s so happy and thrilled with that toy she sometimes even invades the ground like those WWE tag team wrestlers who suddenly jump into the ring. What about Raj Kundra, the trading magnate, who married Shilpa Shetty? Given that Shilpa is originally from Rajasthan (!!!) nothing beats a wedding gift like buying an IPL toy – Rajasthan Royals. Raj Kundra is a stingy husband though. His purchase, compared to other IPL toys, was quite modest in expense.

And there’s Shah Rukh Khan, India’s greatest opening batsman ever. Both he and co-actor Juhi Chawla have long been good friends and business partners. Jay Mehta, Juhi’s husband, wanted to gift her an IPL toy but to his great joy he found that SRK was joining in. Imagine, the man who invented cricket himself is a partner in KKR. As Juhi tweeted from Florence, Italy, on May 19: “If today SRK were to get upset and quit the IPL I wonder if there d be any people watching the matches .. In wankhede or any stadium !!!” I completely agree! SRK has to be the IPL Toy Story’s biggest ambassador. Then there is that wonderful journalist called Gayathri Reddy who runs a newspaper called Deccan Chronicle. Hmmm! Newspapers only report news but playing with toys can create news. So DC gifts good looking Gayathri an IPL toy – Deccan Chargers. You hear their name and would imagine they would go hammer and tongs at everything. Well, doesn’t matter what they do as long as the toy is still wound up.

What about Delhi Daredevils. It’s one team where its owner, GMR, doesn’t want to be seen in public playing with the toy. So sometimes they get stuntman Akshay Kumar to show how to really deal with toys. Subrato Sahara Roy has the credit of being a big time cricket sponsor. But being that he spends so much money on the game he had to struggle hard to gift a toy for his son. If instead Roy were a film actor it would have been easier. Well, all ends well, his son Sushanto Roy finally has his toy. Sushanto manages the real estate business of Sahara group.

The truly odd one in the group has to be N. Srinivasan, the current BCCI president. He wants the BCCI, the IPL and CSK toy all for himself and nobody else. Haha, selfish bastard! Reports say his son is not on good terms with daddy since he became a homosexual. If he weren’t that, he would have possessed the most expensive toy in the IPL. And as all the celebs play with their toys, dance in the stands, bring in some cheer-leaders why leave the media out. Let them have a good time too with at least 2 to 3 hours of Toy Story every single day. So, politicians, film actors, real estate giants, media crooks did find a substitute to exotic casinos. It’s just that there is a thing about toys. Sooner or later the owner gets bored with them and needs a new toy. IPL was a made for media soap-opera and now the challenge is to make it even more raucous and tasteless. 

There’s a good part to all of this. You see, unless these rich kids and spouses are given some big, expensive toys, they might break something else. In the meantime, let’s play!

Rahul Gandhi's Stunted Evolution

Pictures do tell a lot more than mere words. And this one does too. After a brief statement to the press on March 6 after the UP loss Rahul Gandhi walked away with his sister. So the Sarees are gone, jeans are back. Don’t have to deal with the beggars for a while. I wonder if anyone will interview Priyanka Vadra in the near future and ask her a question about one of the silliest statement from this campaign. Her frequent advice to voters was if they had a Congress govt in UP they too would benefit from the Centre’s schemes. She’s supposed to be more intelligent and articulate than RG but that question reveals a very unintelligent mind. As for all the statements, theatre and ‘angry man’ approach by RG, reams will be written. Never mind all that.RG is sinking his party pretty much like another man has sunk his airline.

Now from November 14, 2011 till about mid February 2012 the usual suspects in the media, like NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow and their cousins in the Hindi media more or less reported only one campaigner in UP. If it wasn’t RG “coming of age” on CNN-IBN it was how “RG had evolved” on NDTV, that was the script. That guy Akhilesh Yadav was around only in some stray clips here and there. Then suddenly after around the 3rd or 4th phase of voting all the Editors and Bureau Chiefs and reporters were doing exclusives with Akhilesh Yadav, in his flights, in his bus and even in his home. Some featured even his kids on the bus. What changed? I suspect only one thing: that by mid-February the exit polls which were held back the channels must have clearly indicated Samajwadi Party was winning handsomely and Akhilesh Yadav was becoming a hero. Rajdeep Sardesai finally went on a flight with Akhilesh to interview him. Even CNN-IBN and StarNews got that part right. So quickly increased focus on AY. RG was now an also-ran. Akhilesh also gave quite a few one on one interviews which RG seems either incapable of or deems it unnecessary.

Exactly at the same time as the media’s exit polls started showing the real picture RG called for a secret, off the record meet of editors of various media outlets (February 18). Your guess is as good as mine that some of these editors would have told him what their exit polls are showing. They may not have been permitted to make it public but they can certainly share it in an “off the record” meet of this nature. Such is the crawling nature of our media that editors shamelessly even attended the breakfast meet. It is fair to believe that even the Congress pollsters would have given him the feedback about the SP’s better showing.

After four phases of voting Barkha Dutt even held a special programme on “How RG has evolved”, followed by a very interesting ‘Barbecue’ debate by Prannoy Roy and then again another programme for the ‘Muslims of UP’ by Barkha. The muslim debate was particularly in the light of great announcements for them by RG, Salman Khurshid and Digvijay Singh. It is one thing for Digvijay to say “I am responsible” and also for RG to say “I am responsible” but the question really is what are they going to do next? If RG really wants to “evolve” as a leader he will need to take some decisions. It doesn’t help to be surrounded by the likes of Digvijay, Salman or Beni Prasad who are capable of undermining a campaign without external help in stupidity. RG himself needs to learn that lines like “elephant eats money” maybe humorous a couple of times but spoken too often become a stale joke that people stop buying. Another serious lesson that these guys need to learn is “minority appeasement” doesn’t work either. Like others, muslims too refuse to be fooled anymore. He can also learn that media doesn’t help win elections.

RG could even learn from a part-time politician, Vijay Mallya. He sunk an airline much as RG is sinking his party. There is an interesting article by M.J. Akbar in India Today (Earth on Earth) about how Mallya sunk his airline by focusing on all the other things. That he still expects banks to bail him out. There is one thing for a few ministers or party-men to be rated as non-performers but when the top leader himself is seen to be repeatedly failing then either the talent or skill for that particular business is missing. Except for the liquor business which Mallya ‘inherited’ he has nothing but a string of failures to his credit. At the moment all signs are that Kingfisher may not be revived. There is interesting blog about the history of Kingfisher’s murky dealings which have meticulously chronicled by @TheKaipullai titled ‘The Curious Case of Vijay Mallya and his bailout. And one more scam!’. Perhaps in another country Mallya would have been kicked out of the business by his board. But much like the Congress, dynasty sustains many of our business groups too. Each time he campaigns there are huge noises in the media about his having “evolved as a political leader”. His sycophants may not tell him but so far it looks like stunted evolution.