‘Credibility is critical to a news organisation’

Each year, journalists turn up in their Sunday best to attend an evening that acknowledges the foremost in their profession. This year was no exception. The Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Awards 2018 – 30 winners from over 2,000 entries across 15 categories – were announced on Friday evening at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA.

Instituted by the Mumbai Press Club, the awards are an opportunity to debate the problems that beset the profession and take stock of the state of the media. This year’s topic, ‘Is there a business in news media’ was debated by Vijay Darda, Chairperson, Lokmat Group, Raghav Bahl, Founder and Chairperson, Quintillion Media, Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group and Samir Patil, Owner and CEO, Scroll Media. Moderated by senior journalist and Founder, IndiaSpend.Org, Govindraj Ethiraj, the debate concluded that credibility was the cornerstone of a quality news organisation.

Mr. Goenka kicked off the conversation with the statement, “It’s good business, just not great business.” Impactful journalism, he said, can be sustainable, but if profit was one’s primary motive then news might not be the best space to be in. Highlighting the divide between rural and urban journalists, Mr. Darda said the values and principles of the news organisation were crucial.

R. Ramachandran of Frontline being presented with Mumbai Press Club Red Ink Award by Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, Chairman, Press Council of India at NCPA in Mumbai on Friday.   | Photo Credit: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Mr. Bahl, a veteran of the television space and a recent entrant in the digital business, said for an organisation based on hardcore political news, it was imperative to build a bouquet of media offerings that would help subsidise the core business. “You have to build a constellation of businesses around news for it to become bigger.” Mr. Patil said non-news organisations like Google and Facebook make money off news.

The panel had no trouble in agreeing that it was important to run credible businesses. As Mr. Bahl said, “You are in the [news] business because you want to be in the business. Pressure [from external sources] is part of the job.”

Earlier in the proceedings, convenor of the awards, Gurbir Singh, spoke of the free nature of the press, while outlining the challenges: curtailing of personal freedoms, journalists coming under attack for their opinions and reporting, Internet trolling and the scourge of fake news. Befittingly, the theme for a year that’s seen a host of problems for the media in relation to fake news was, ‘The truth always finds a way’.

The Hindu Group is a media partner of Red Ink Awards.