Can recession be good for media?

A friend says: "Recession is when you lose your job, depression is when I lose mine. " So, till we get into depression, let's talk about recession.

It's bad times. Ya everybody knows that but it was believed there won't be much impact on media. But recent developments, starting with Saakal Times Delhi office lock out, seem to indicate a bleaker future. While NDTV's Metro Nation decides to take a final bow, Metro Now has started downsizing in every aspect- staff, pages and beats besides shedding the daily tag to see the print on weekly basis. They are penetrating deep into streets and mohallas of Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida avoiding the bigger picture. Definitely, they don't have competition there, but neither would they have big advertisers.

An interesting fact is that while biggies like HT, TOI and Dainik Bhaskar decide to reduce pages, cut perks or sack staff, Indian Express seems to have largely remained untouched (except reduction in pages at some centres). The reason- insiders say- that it never got much corporate revenue. IE continues to get government tenders on which it has thrived on for long. So, it has not been that badly hit.

This gives birth to a thought- should Indian media be free of market influences and return to the age of socialism? Revenue has more importance over readers today with people in management and marketing spelling out news. We also have FDIs now, which obviously depend upon markets abroad.

The way media industry has expanded from handful of national language newspapers to regional dailies, lithography to digital printing, Doordarshan to CNN-IBN, things have moved on to mean better quality (of the paper and design), pay structures competing with other professions and deeper penetration. To cover a country like us, we really needed money, which the market has been eager to offer.

And we are also able to insert the meaningful journalism in bits and parts while pursuing greater revenue goals. Jessica Lal case stands as the best but not the only testimony. But are we prefering quantity over quality here? Sting operations are thankfully out, but media houses have outrightly rejected any proposal for regulation in its coverage.

At the time when media is campaigning for accountability of judges, it's not ready to put its own house in order. The marketing gimmick has also given rise to a tribe of journalists who feel power, galmour or fame are the only outcomes of dispensing news. Many of them either exhibit false pride in the press card or gain favours. Blackmailing and extortions are also not uncommon.

Lack of accountability also promotes malpractices within the industry. The way media houses chuck out people and believe that labour issues only exist elsewhere, the current scenario is dismal. Recession has in fact provided us an opportunity to cut the weed. Reinventing the wheel maynot be possible since the industry supports lakhs of people and influences many more. But at least the imbalance that has persisted over last several years can be corrected. May be it's about time editorial gets its due share when the chips are down.