Every morning I look forward for the
newspaper. What I get in return is a bundle with lots and lots of advertisement
right from the first page to the next six to seven pages. I still try to search
for news in this bundle and I get to see many more advertisements in inner
pages. This bundle of papers carrying advertisements is called newspaper in
Delhi. I keep my search on for news in this bundle which I finally find tucked
away in some ignominious corner a couple of pages inside. Headlines have lost
the prime of place in newspapers which are published today. Even the honoured
mast head has been compromised away for advertisements. Indeed advertisement
plays an important role in keeping newspapers afloat but too much of it has killed
the good old newspaper which we waited with baited breath every morning. The
trend of publisihing the most headlines on first page has been replaced with
full page advertisements that find a place on the first page of every newspaper
in Delhi. Preventing people a peek at news without purchasing it might have led
to this decision but the fact remains that newspapers ought to be bought to
read news and not advertisement. As the festival season progresses, the
thickness of daily newspaper increases so much so that its “raddi” (scrap) value outweigh the value
of news that it carries. Else too the quality of news has reached its nadir.
The loyalty of each newspaper rests, not with its readers but, their political
masters and the news reflects the views of the political party rather than it
being an objective analysis of events and happenings. To make matters worse,
often they delve on visual delight to raise its sale while they are least
bothered to satisfy the intellectual cravings of its readers. Publication
houses have long compromised with their conscience and newspaper today can be
called anything but a newspaper. It has been reduced to a pamphlet which
provides minimal information to the person who buys it every morning in the
hope of reading a newspaper.
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