A different flavour article Smriti,Vinod

MEDIA MATTERS

A different flavour SEVANTI NINAN

The tabloid is here, albeit prim when compared to its British counterparts.

Photo: AP

Wide choice? More doesn't necessarily mean better. Does more media mean more choice? Currently that is a no-brainer. Does one more tandoori-Chinese takeaway in the neighbourhood constitute more choice?

Early mornings in Delhi just got louder. Slipped under the door along with the other broadsheets and compacts is Mr. Aroon Purie's latest contribution to consumer happiness: our very own morning tabloid, never mind if the Brits from Daily Mail were here for a while to make sure the locals got the hang of it. Most of page one is taken up with six or seven inch tall headlines and large photographs, all intended to convey what Mail Today's owner calls attitude. It's different, I'll grant them that, until it develops its own predictability. Political fracases, corruption in anything from doctor's clinics to airlines alternate with equally long, screaming stories on the tear in Deepika Padukone's jeans, the triplets Farah Khan is expecting after in-vitro fertilization, or Bollywood's estranged couples bonding over their kids. Rule of thumb, light stuff on every right hand page to hook the reader.

Numbers and choice

This is, to the best of my knowledge, Delhi's English newspaper number 14. Does it increase choice? Superficially yes, It does not give you the day's news on page one, leaving that to the TV channels and the rest of the print competition. It claims less width, less length and more depth, succeeding on the first two thanks to its tabloid size, the last is debatable. Much of the depth comes from the size of the headline. In fact, in the tradition of morning tabloids, the real talent displayed is the headline giving, designed to sex up any story from UNESCO reports to PWD pilfering. The real copout is in the absence of titillating personal scandals that British tabloids specialise in. Or fleshed-out gossip. A central minister is having a along distance affair with a European diplomat and the government is wondering how to handle it. Who? We're not telling.

This is tabloid journalism for middle India and specifically for women. But the emphasis is on India. In comparison with British tabloids, it is positively prim. Will the in-your-face stories on sexy underwear come later as its readers warm to prurience? Or will the paper get its claws from exposing corruption as it promises in its inaugural issue?

Being way beyond its target age group, I would happily opt for the latter. And for its promised freedom from ideology. With the exception of the Times of India which only upholds its alignment to the market, the existing pan-Indian newspapers in English (pompously called the national press) are completely predictable on the line they take on major issues.

Mail Today is also experimenting with stuff that sells on the quality of its writing. More power to that, but unfortunately the sharp writers are being lured away by TV. Vir Sanghvi on behalf of INX has been snapping up quite a few for the sort of fat sums that newspapers cannot compete with. We'll wait for the almost-clever copy in the new paper to be replaced by the real stuff. May be they need to get some of those star authors Mumbai and Delhi are swarming with on board, to write on a regular basis.

So does more media mean more choice? If you are willing to be at least a two newspaper household, yes. Or if you are happy to get the day's news from television and the Internet and go tabloid with your morning tea.

More of the same

Then we come to the yet-another-channel in the Hindi entertainment category, born out of departures from Star India. 9X is here and it wouldn't really matter too much if it wasn't. You don't need a whole new channel to showcase Smriti Irani in yet another matronly role, or Vinod Khanna's return to television as a simpering, costumed Benares patriarch presiding over yet another family drama. The setting of "Mere Apne" is supposed to be original, but ask Varanasi dwellers if they see anything of their city in the houses and roads featured here. Okay, you don't watch Indian soaps for realism, if you did they would not be soaps. But where are those alternate genres or formats that constitute television choice? 9x has its own version of singing contests, featuring ustaads. On weekend prime times it sticks to movies. And for reasons best known to it, it actually repeats episodes of soaps at prime time. NDTV Imagine, when it comes early next year will doubtless have the same mix. Its CEO, another Star departee, Samir Nair, is already on record saying that each new entrant has to have the regular mix, presented differently. Small town girls pursuing their dreams, scheming aunts, li'l champs' singing shows, etc. So what's new? Presumably the kind of stuff you get on Bindaas, a youth channel so bizarre that you're glad you're not young any more.

If people were really willing to pay, would they get an intelligent, quality channel with high class drama, talk shows or spoofs? We won't know because it doesn't look like any of the new entrants over the next few months are about to risk targeting more discriminating viewers yet.