A Telugu newspaper branded as the heartbeat of Telangana will roll off the presses on Monday, seeking to galvanize the region’s campaign for separation from Andhra Pradesh and to provide a platform for activists who complain the mainstream media is biased against the cause of Telangana statehood.
Namaste Telangana will start with a print run of 750,000 copies across seven editions, said Katta Shekar Reddy, chief executive officer of Telangana Publications Pvt. Ltd. The daily—a 12-page broadsheet with a 16-page tabloid supplement containing local news—will have 800 employees including 210 journalists, he said.
It will be priced at Rs.3 on weekdays and Rs.3.50 on Sundays—the same as the cover price of the most read paper in the state, Eenadu.
A brainchild of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao, Namaste Telangana is seeking to piggyback on the political movement being spearheaded by the TRS for the creation of a state out of the region, home to 35 million people.
In Hyderabad, public buses have been emblazoned with the sloganTelangana gunde chappudu (Telangana’s heartbeat) as the publishers and staff prepare for the newspaper’s first edition inside a four-storey building on Road No. 10, Banjara Hills.
It will be the latest entrant in a crowded industry that already has seven Telugu mainstream newspapers competing for readership and advertising.Eenadu, Sakshi, Andhra Jyothi, Vaartha, Andhra Bhoomi, Andhra Prabha andPrajasakti have a combined average issue readership in excess of 14 million, according to the Indian Readership Survey for the fourth quarter of 2010.
“There is no newspaper that supports the Telangana cause,” Shekar Reddy said on Thursday in his third-floor office. “We need a paper to support the cause and to rejuvenate our culture, history and social traditions.”
The mainstream media, dominated by publishers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, is biased against the Telangana movement, said Shekar Reddy, a 23-year journalism veteran who moved to the newspaper from Mahaa TV, although he didn’t cite specific instances of this bias. The media tends to “belittle” the movement and Telangana leaders, he said.
News developments in the state have been seen through “the eyes of the Seemandhra (coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema) media” because Telangana has lacked a newspaper to promote the region and its interests, he said, adding: “Now we want to show our own picture of issues.”
Many journalists came to the newspaper from existing newspapers on their own, out of a zeal to work for a Telangana publication, he said. Most are backers of the movement. Some 45 of the 210 journalists have been trained at Namaste Telangana itself.
Editor Allam Narayana has moved to Namaste Telangana after working as an assistant editor at Andhra Jyothi. “I have joined Namaste Telangana for the cause of Telangana,” he said.
Shekar Reddy said the publication of the newspaper involves an investment of Rs.40-50 crore and Rs.20-30 crore of initial operating capital. Some of the money came in the form of bank loans, he said.
Four people, including Chandrasekhara Rao, are partners in the project, according to D. Damodar Rao, managing director of Telangana Publications and a partner himself.
Public response has been so good that the newspaper stopped a subscription drive well in advance of the publication date, said Damodar Rao, a tax lawyer.
“We never thought we would get this kind of response,” he said.
To be sure, other Telugu newspapers have their own political sympathies, as do newspapers published in other states.
Sakshi, for instance, is published by Congress party rebel Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who also runs a channel of the same name. Eenadu has traditionally been perceived to be close to the Telugu Desam Party, the main opposition, having backed it in its initial years under the late N.T. Rama Rao, a former movie star, who parlayed his slogan of fighting for Telugu pride into political power.
“Any new entrant has to cut into existing readership, but a new readership is also coming into the market” with the launch of Namaste Telangana, said the editor of a mainstream newspaper, who belongs to Telangana, but did not want to be identified by his name or publication. A challenge the new “movement newspaper” will face is to remain relevant going beyond the Telangana campaign, the editor said.
Shekar Reddy has that figured out. If and when a state of Telangana is formed, the newspaper will switch to setting “the agenda for the development of Telangana”, he said. Both Shekar Reddy and Damodar Rao say Namaste Telangana will be a business proposition as much as it will be a mouthpiece of the Telangana movement. Initially, though, the newspaper is looking to circulation than advertising.
“Initially, we are not expecting much corporate support, because we have to establish our numbers; we have to get the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation certification) and all those things,” Shekar Reddy said. When the newspaper establishes itself, it will venture into the metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, in search of corporate advertising, he said.
Analysts say there is space for a regional newspaper focused on Telangana and the movement for statehood given its vast population and public sentiment.
“The regional movement has generated more political consciousness,” said K. Nageshwar, a professor of journalism at Osmania University who is also an independent member of the legislative council. “Literacy rates are expanding. It is fertile ground for media to grow. It (Telangana) has an almost four crore population—bigger than that of many states like Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam.”
“There is market space. Given the fragmentation of the ad cake, whether ad revenue comes in depends on other factors—who reads it, what is their socio-economic background, consumption behaviour,” he said.
As the numbers get crunched, Namaste Telangana publishers are trying to introduce a bit of emotion to the opening ceremony. The mothers of two Osmania University students who committed suicide for the cause of Telangana have been invited to preside over the ceremony, said Shekar Reddy.
Namaste Telangana will start with a print run of 750,000 copies across seven editions, said Katta Shekar Reddy, chief executive officer of Telangana Publications Pvt. Ltd. The daily—a 12-page broadsheet with a 16-page tabloid supplement containing local news—will have 800 employees including 210 journalists, he said.
It will be priced at Rs.3 on weekdays and Rs.3.50 on Sundays—the same as the cover price of the most read paper in the state, Eenadu.
A brainchild of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao, Namaste Telangana is seeking to piggyback on the political movement being spearheaded by the TRS for the creation of a state out of the region, home to 35 million people.
In Hyderabad, public buses have been emblazoned with the sloganTelangana gunde chappudu (Telangana’s heartbeat) as the publishers and staff prepare for the newspaper’s first edition inside a four-storey building on Road No. 10, Banjara Hills.
It will be the latest entrant in a crowded industry that already has seven Telugu mainstream newspapers competing for readership and advertising.Eenadu, Sakshi, Andhra Jyothi, Vaartha, Andhra Bhoomi, Andhra Prabha andPrajasakti have a combined average issue readership in excess of 14 million, according to the Indian Readership Survey for the fourth quarter of 2010.
“There is no newspaper that supports the Telangana cause,” Shekar Reddy said on Thursday in his third-floor office. “We need a paper to support the cause and to rejuvenate our culture, history and social traditions.”
The mainstream media, dominated by publishers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, is biased against the Telangana movement, said Shekar Reddy, a 23-year journalism veteran who moved to the newspaper from Mahaa TV, although he didn’t cite specific instances of this bias. The media tends to “belittle” the movement and Telangana leaders, he said.
News developments in the state have been seen through “the eyes of the Seemandhra (coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema) media” because Telangana has lacked a newspaper to promote the region and its interests, he said, adding: “Now we want to show our own picture of issues.”
Many journalists came to the newspaper from existing newspapers on their own, out of a zeal to work for a Telangana publication, he said. Most are backers of the movement. Some 45 of the 210 journalists have been trained at Namaste Telangana itself.
Editor Allam Narayana has moved to Namaste Telangana after working as an assistant editor at Andhra Jyothi. “I have joined Namaste Telangana for the cause of Telangana,” he said.
Shekar Reddy said the publication of the newspaper involves an investment of Rs.40-50 crore and Rs.20-30 crore of initial operating capital. Some of the money came in the form of bank loans, he said.
Four people, including Chandrasekhara Rao, are partners in the project, according to D. Damodar Rao, managing director of Telangana Publications and a partner himself.
Public response has been so good that the newspaper stopped a subscription drive well in advance of the publication date, said Damodar Rao, a tax lawyer.
“We never thought we would get this kind of response,” he said.
Sakshi, for instance, is published by Congress party rebel Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who also runs a channel of the same name. Eenadu has traditionally been perceived to be close to the Telugu Desam Party, the main opposition, having backed it in its initial years under the late N.T. Rama Rao, a former movie star, who parlayed his slogan of fighting for Telugu pride into political power.
“Any new entrant has to cut into existing readership, but a new readership is also coming into the market” with the launch of Namaste Telangana, said the editor of a mainstream newspaper, who belongs to Telangana, but did not want to be identified by his name or publication. A challenge the new “movement newspaper” will face is to remain relevant going beyond the Telangana campaign, the editor said.
Shekar Reddy has that figured out. If and when a state of Telangana is formed, the newspaper will switch to setting “the agenda for the development of Telangana”, he said. Both Shekar Reddy and Damodar Rao say Namaste Telangana will be a business proposition as much as it will be a mouthpiece of the Telangana movement. Initially, though, the newspaper is looking to circulation than advertising.
“Initially, we are not expecting much corporate support, because we have to establish our numbers; we have to get the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation certification) and all those things,” Shekar Reddy said. When the newspaper establishes itself, it will venture into the metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, in search of corporate advertising, he said.
Analysts say there is space for a regional newspaper focused on Telangana and the movement for statehood given its vast population and public sentiment.
“The regional movement has generated more political consciousness,” said K. Nageshwar, a professor of journalism at Osmania University who is also an independent member of the legislative council. “Literacy rates are expanding. It is fertile ground for media to grow. It (Telangana) has an almost four crore population—bigger than that of many states like Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam.”
“There is market space. Given the fragmentation of the ad cake, whether ad revenue comes in depends on other factors—who reads it, what is their socio-economic background, consumption behaviour,” he said.
As the numbers get crunched, Namaste Telangana publishers are trying to introduce a bit of emotion to the opening ceremony. The mothers of two Osmania University students who committed suicide for the cause of Telangana have been invited to preside over the ceremony, said Shekar Reddy.
