[Cobrapost] Operation-136 II sting operations (PayTM, TOI, Hindustan Times, New Indian Express, etc)

[iPwnz]

Newspapers are sold at 80% loss i heard, this is why you get paid to recycle

I doubt that. I used to work for a rather popular local daily (still a lot smaller when compared to the bigger ones in the state). The revenue for ads (non-govt) used to be around 7k daily avg. Maybe it's because our salaries were also much lower than other mainstream ones but even if it was making 10k daily without govt ads it would never go out of business. And that was a year ago. Last I checked, front page ads covering 1/6 area cost 10k against some 3k during my time. And the ads which I used to carry for one of our business which used to cost 250rs now is at 700rs. If anything revenue is increasing. Prices of raw materials have also increased but increased ads revenue is still higher.

Piss of the govt, they won't use your paper for tenders ads. You will fold after some time.

But you're not wrong about this. Govt. like to cover as much area as they can. It sure is easy money when it comes to their ads. But newspaper can still survive if the org isn't chocked by the politicians and other unsocial/radical elements.
This doesn't include the very minor/tiny newspaper organization with only a few thousand subscribers.
But if there's one thing about the news/media industry which I've learned it would be: there's no such thing as "ethics" here.
And if our judiciary/courts were a little more powerful many of these print media orgs will be in trouble.

 

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I would rate both the american media and the public as idiotic as in india, except the people there might have a teeny little bit more sense, calling trump out on his bs, whereas here they keep praising modi no matter what he does.

Last 3 bypolls don't suggest people praise him no matter what he does. He has made a lot of promises and if those don't materialise he loses. This is why the suspicion is BJP will have to polarise more towards the elections. But the opposition has anticipated it already. So its going to heat up more. It's an election year so any nonsense is justified just don't read too much into it

I used to think american media was good that is until Trump showed up and i was shocked to find how partisan it was. There was a concerted campaign to vilify him as candidate and it still continues. Everything he does & says is distorted. I don't find nyt & wapo as good anymore or any of the cable news networks. CNN is the worst here, garbage. I prefer to listen to what he says rather than takes of what he said and then see how he delivers. The man is anti-establishment and a disruptor. This means every thing he says or doesn't do is examined at the micro level. And its really pointless as far as a reader goes. It's great for the industry though. He has been a real boon to the industry, lots of things to say every day. It's a strange world when you have to second guess what Americans say about him. It is easier to follow what happens in Pakistan than the US these days.

This brings me to the english langauge media in this country. Read by a mere 8 million. I don't know how reliable it is. The local language media or even regional english papers do a better job i think. Less partisan. I got into far fewer fights online the moment i stopped reading TOI over a decade ago.

I was listening too a talk by Yogi's biographer, Shantanu Gupta and he said 95% of the english language coverage about him was negative. Writing articles sitting in the big cities without going and checking what is really happening at the ground level isn't doing any one any favours. The same can be said about american media when it came to who would win the US elections. Almost everybody got it wrong

However, the one big singular factor which brings much needed balance there is the justice system. It's not perfect, but the supreme court etc. almost guarantees that the constitution is upheld. Which to me seems like the only sane thing in a mad world. And it's also probably one of the main reasons why people are happier there than here. Here it's more of justice delayed or twisted than otherwise.

Our supreme courts primary function is to uphold the constitution. I think they did a fine job in the karnataka polls.

 

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I doubt that. I used to work for a rather popular local daily (still a lot smaller when compared to the bigger ones in the state). The revenue for ads (non-govt) used to be around 7k daily avg. Maybe it's because our salaries were also much lower than other mainstream ones but even if it was making 10k daily without govt ads it would never go out of business. And that was a year ago. Last I checked, front page ads covering 1/6 area cost 10k against some 3k during my time. And the ads which I used to carry for one of our business which used to cost 250rs now is at 700rs. If anything revenue is increasing. Prices of raw materials have also increased but increased ads revenue is still higher.

Would this apply to the two Bengali papers in question ?

Bartaman Patrika & Dainik Sambad

Anyone familiar with those two publications care to comment.

How much of a commie heritage do they have for instance. That would rule out printing anything religious as a matter of principle.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

I used to think american media was good that is until Trump showed up and i was shocked to find how partisan it was. There was a concerted campaign to vilify him as candidate and it still continues. Everything he does & says is distorted.

You don't need the media to know he is total nut job. His own twitter posts and public statements are more than enough proof of it. Nobody needs to put any effort to vilify him. He does a tremendous job of it himself. I hope you don't want to claim that somebody else is posing as him to vilify him.

He doesn't even have the intelligence of a monkey. He is a bit clever at doing shady and dishonest things, but not definitely not intelligent. He is more like an immature brat who throws tantrums whenever he is made aware that the world doesn't start and end with him.

 

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I defend the freedom of people to say what they want. This does not mean i consider everything they say as serious or meaningful. The man is a successful businessman, to then survive as a candidate out of a pool of 13, to then win and become president clearly shows the man isn't an idiot. American institutions are strong, that country will survive even if they elect a sock puppet to the white house. They might suffer a loss of prestige but things will still go on. It shows that personalities aren't as important there as over here. Leadership always matters though. So far the jury is out. Let's see what he gets and what he loses after more time

Trump is increasing his popularity. If the NK summit starts a meaningful process he will have gone further than any president since the Korean war. He offered to meet Kim very early. That did not go unnoticed by me. He stuck to it and looks are he will meet him. Seasoned analysts are afraid, why ? they think he will make things worse. Before anything happens they are already second guessing. This is what cynics do.

People find the difference between him and college prof Obama a bit jarring. And he does put his foot in it which we all learn to ignore but the man is everybody's punching bag. In comparison i think Modi had it easier. He doesn't seem to have any class and some of his crass comments put most people off. i think this is the biggest problem.

When the presidential debates were on i made it a point to ignore what their media said and listened myself. Then i watched a few takes and it was amazing how dismally they portrayed him. There is no way i came to that conclusion after listening to what he said. And the man speaks in a very simple language.

It's irritating that you have to do your own homework here and cannot trust readily what is said. If i'm reading anything and i see they are bashing him i just turn off

 

[Lord Nemesis]

The man is a successful businessman, to then survive as a candidate out of a pool of 13, to then win and become president clearly shows the man isn't an idiot.

That is a laughable line of argument. Winning an election does not mean the winner is eligible or capable leader. In India too, the worst of scum quite often win the elections. That does not make them intelligent or capable leaders. US is no different from India in that. Just like people in India vote with caste, religion or money as factor, it is not difficult for a vote bank to be built on similar lines in US too. The racists, white supremacists, Neo Nazi's, Islamophobes, Xenophones and misogynists were a big vote bank that voted for Trump. Then there were those who just didn't want to vote for Hillary and would be fine with any body else that stands opposite to them. He did not win because of his intelligence or leadership skills, he won for the most part because people acknowledged him to be a racist who would help further their own agendas.

When the presidential debates were on i made it a point to ignore what their media said and listened myself. Then i watched a few takes and it was amazing how dismally they portrayed him. There is no way i came to that conclusion after listening to what he said. And the man speaks in a very simple language.

My sister in US listens to him too and so did I to an extent and the conclusion we came to is that he is disgusting. He came across as a immature, spoiled and self entitled 5 year old brat in the body of a old man. That is how he speaks.

 

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I did not get that impression of him at the presidential debate. In fact i understood immediately why people would want to vote for this man. As i said he speaks in a very simple language that is engaging. You forgot to mention more women voted for him than Hillary. Hah! A year before the elections were to be held someone told me people don't want an establishment type anymore because they are all professional liars. Republican or democrat just did not matter, one was worse than the other. On that basis its obvious why he won. See how he tries to enact everything he said on the campaign trail. But i didn't believe it at the time, i thought the people would go for some one with experience. I didn't give Trump much of a chance at all.

They also tried to get votes across states. Democrats like to say they got the popular vote but remember clustering does not win elections. Getting three million in California isn't necessary to go from 54 to 55 in the electoral college of the state. Popular vote is a meaningless consolation prize

Couple of people i've spoken to love him, their wives are opposite. But end of the day i'm following who is in office and what he does and trying to understand the reasons. I won't waste my time with opposition rhetoric. That is for the haters. Everybody has an opinion about him which makes it really hard to get a straight take. 99 out of 100 opinions are worthless, people going on about his mental state, 5yr old behaviour etc isn't helpful. What i found curious with Indian watchers is they were actually cautiously optimistic about him. They thought we could do something, Given you have one business man talking to another i think we are going to be fine. I'm not following immigration topics because that does not matter to even less than 1% of Indians.

He brings uncertainty to the world stage. We need a leader who can deal with that and i think Modi is the best suited for the job. Excellent speech he gave at the Shangrila conference. Over half an hour he spoke putting us out there for the world. No teleprompter. Last PM who did this was Nehru with a posh english accent. This one was gujarati accented but you know what, he was heard. Trying to connect up with as many other countries in the region and beyond

Now will the same apply for us in 2019, people decide they want some ragtag coalition whose leader is uncertain over the tried and tested. Like the americans did with Trump[DOUBLEPOST=1528006550][/DOUBLEPOST]Big media is in big S***. She's saying the problems i just mentioned about Trump exist over here too, but in reverse

 

[iPwnz]

OT but still relevant.

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