Swathi editor felicitated

October 26, 2009 06:03 pm | Updated 06:03 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA

Moment to cherish: Editor of Swathi Vemuri Balaram with his daughter and grandchildren after his felicitation by the Rotary Club in Vijayawada on Sunday. Photo: Raju V

Moment to cherish: Editor of Swathi Vemuri Balaram with his daughter and grandchildren after his felicitation by the Rotary Club in Vijayawada on Sunday. Photo: Raju V

Rotary Club of Vijayawada Mid-Town on Sunday, felicitated editor of Telugu weekly Swathi, Mr. Vemuri Balaram, with ‘Vocational Excellence’ award.

Special place

Chairman and managing director of Vijaya Agro Oils Mallineni Rajaiah, who was the chief guest of the function, said that it was not possible to separate Swathi from the Telugus, as the weekly occupied a special place in their hearts.

“One must appreciate the writing skills and marketing strategies of Mr. Balaram, who launched his magazines Swathi monthly and weekly at a time when magazines from reputed media houses were ruling the roost. Very soon, he made his magazines number one in the market,” he said.

President of the club T. Trinadha Raju said that Swathi became a household name in every Telugu family only because of the hard work and dedication of Mr. Balaram. Secretary of the club M. Satish Babu, while introducing Mr. Balaram to the audience, said that Swathi weekly was enjoying a huge readership and has become the number one magazine in Telugu. “Mr. Balaram visited many countries along with Prime Ministers and Presidents on behalf of Swathi. He covered many historic events, including the Lahore bus trip of the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajapayee,” he said.

In his response to the felicitations, Mr. Balaram wondered why the local cultural organisations were not recognising talented Telugu personalities around, but were felicitating people outside the State. “I am receiving this felicitation on behalf of all the readers of Swathi,” he said.

Hard work

Recollecting the early days of his career, Mr. Balaram said that he never dreamt of anything, but worked hard to achieve success. “The electronic media is not at all a competition for the print media. In fact, many television channels are going by the articles being published in Swathi and launching special programmes for women and children,” he said. He said that even if the channels broke the news, people would believe it only after reading it in newspapers. “That is the power of the print media,” he said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.