The Hindu ’s Mumbai edition organised its first Readers’ Editor’s Open House on Saturday, an event that attracted a full house at the newspaper’s office in south Mumbai. The Hindu is one of the few media houses in India that has a Readers’ Editor, an office that looks at issues raised by readers regarding accuracy, ideological bias, and content quality.
“The key aspect here is the distinction between a visible mending process and an invisible mending process,” said A.S. Panneerselvan, Readers’ Editor, The Hindu . “The office of the Readers’ Editor ensures that the mending process is visible to the readers when a correction, and clarification if warranted, is carried out. While the errors in pages that are common for all editions are corrected in the Perspective Page, the mistakes that happen in city pages and regional pages are rectified in the respective sections. It is an act of humility that recognises the fact that journalists, like other human beings, are fallible.”
Mukund Padmanabhan, Editor, The Hindu , and Sachin Kalbag, Resident Editor (Mumbai), The Hindu , also addressed readers’ queries about the newspaper’s Mumbai edition, which celebrates its first anniversary on Monday, November 28.
Some seniors readers said they have been subscribing to the newspaper’s Chennai edition for over four decades, and that the Mumbai edition was a welcome addition to their daily news and analysis consumption. While there was positive feedback regarding the news as well as the features offerings, there was some criticism, too. One reader, Mr. Murthy, who has been reading the newspaper since 1983, said he wanted the newspaper to look at national and sensitive issues in a broadbased manner. He was also critical of the newspaper’s pricing.
Mr. Padmanabhan responded, “Indian newspapers are cheaper than most others anywhere else in the world. While this makes the print medium accessible to a larger audience, the bad side is that the media house becomes completely dependent on advertisements for its revenue, which is unhealthy for journalism. To be a healthy, independent newspaper, it is necessary that much of a newspaper’s earning come from its circulation.”
He added, “You can sell twice as many newspapers with price-cutting, but we would rather reach out to people who want to seriously read us.”
‘Excellent articles’
Film critic Anupama Chopra said, “I wasn’t a big reader of The Hindu before it came to Mumbai. My life is about movies and I watched with great anguish as entertainment coverage became more and more advertorial. Today, when I open The Hindu and read the excellent articles that no one else covers, I learn from them and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Economist and academic Professor H.M. Desarda, who has been reading The Hindu for four decades, said English-language newspapers need to be regional in their character, though they attract the so-called elites in society. He impressed upon the editorial team that The Hindu ’s coverage should stress on three factors: ecological, ethical, and educational. “Readers can approach The Hindu with these demands because we know this newspaper will listen to us,” he said.
London-based filmmaker and author Nasreen Munni Kabir said, “Reading The Hindu is a sobering experience. There is a lot of extreme rubbish in the papers about cinema, but The Hindu is doing a terrific job. I go through most newspapers in 20 seconds, but I take at least 10 minutes to read The Hindu .”
Readers commented on a range of aspects about The Hindu , including its coverage of the city’s key issues, features, business, sports, editorials, and international news. While some felt that the city coverage could be better and more extensive, others opined that the features in The Hindu were clearly its strong suit. As Thane resident Omprakash Padmanabhan put it, “Barring the first two pages, I can read any edition of The Hindu at a later date. When the Mumbai edition was starting, I wasn’t sure what The Hindu would have to offer for me, but today, I found myself renewing my subscription.”
Devina Dutt, writer and founder of First Edition Arts, commented on the arts coverage of The Hindu , calling its arts features “a very welcome addition to the desolate area of arts coverage.”
V. Shankar, a self-confessed “Hindu addict”, suggested publishing of thematic supplements, especially for the youth, “guiding and educating them about careers and technology.”
Making the newspaper more relevant to the youth was brought up by more than one reader, to which Mr. Padmanabhan responded, “People say youngsters read our competition because they have content about parties and other related pieces. But every survey we have conducted shows that we have a young-reader demographic. Also, I am not sure it’s true that the youth doesn’t read. When I was a kid, I would read books of 100 pages at the most. The young generation these days reads books like Harry Potter , which are voluminous, there is some serious crossover fiction that is very complex.”
N. Vaidyanathan, Regional General Manager, The Hindu , Mumbai, added, “Forty per cent of The Hindu ’s readers in Mumbai are in the 21-40 years demographic. In less than a year, our subscription numbers at IIT-Bombay are the same as other leading newspapers.”
