A Romantic Realist

Touché

Raju Narisetti — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:35:00 GMT

Regular readers of this Romantic Realist know he is a bit of an equal opportunity offender when it comes to the hand that feeds him. Still, in the face of smart creativity, one has give credit where credit is clearly due. The latest November 16-20 2008...(read more)

On a newspaper's birthday and an industry's birthday suit

Raju Narisetti — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:55:00 GMT

It was good to see a fat one-year-old show up at my house on 16 November morning in the form of a 96-page Mail Today, the slimline (a slightly longer tabloid) daily newspaper in New Delhi from the India Today group that turned 1. The 96-pager had a lot...(read more)

Heads Above (and Below) The Rest-2

Raju Narisetti — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:44:00 GMT

An occasional look at some great and not-so-great headlines, all trying to be clever and some pulling it off better than the others. Heads Above The Rest 1. Mail Today's 14 November front page headline " Billionaire Slide Show " is a clever...(read more)

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable

Raju Narisetti — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:11:00 GMT

Every once in a while, a story comes along that reminds this Romantic Realist that journalism--and newspapers--can still be about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable . Here is one such story that ran on the front page of Mint on 12...(read more)

Price on request? Well, why don't you request it?

Raju Narisetti — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:50:00 GMT

Coming out of one Indian holiday season and headed into Christmas and New Year, Indian magazines and newspapers are full (well, not too full in these tough economic times) of editorial features clearly aimed at getting readers to buy stuff. But what really...(read more)

Refugees blogging for real refugees

Raju Narisetti — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:29:00 GMT

If many bloggers are themselves refugees (either voluntary or involuntary) from the journalistic establishment, here is an idea worth blogging about. Bloggers Unite is a global, volunteer group of bloggers, podcasters and videobloggers who use their space...(read more)

The making of an Obama front page

Raju Narisetti — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:06:00 GMT

Barack Obama's election saw a surge in newspaper sales, temporarily lifting the mood in what has been a very gloomy year--full of layoffs and cutbacks--at American newspapers. While the story was quite compelling, powerful images also drove sales...(read more)

I am No 1. No, I am No. 1

Raju Narisetti — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:04:00 GMT

Newspapers readers in New Delhi woke up on 6 November to front pages dominated by Barack Obama's clear win. But readers of the two main papers in town, The Times of India and Hindustan Times also got what amounted to dueling headlines on their front...(read more)

Of Headhunters and their Cattle Calls

Raju Narisetti — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:37:00 GMT

Lost in the 21-month battle that Barack Obama waged to try and become president of the United States is perhaps the fact that, come 20 January 2009, when the 44th President is sworn in, it will be one of the most challenging assignments anyone can voluntarily...(read more)

Do you endorse endorsements?

Raju Narisetti — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Mint's Views page formal endorsement ( read it here ) of Barack Obama and the rationale behind it ( read it here ) is raising some debate on other blogs ( read one here ) in addition to soliciting comments such as this from Mint readers. Dear Sir...(read more)

May you Rest in Peace and, by the way, Happy 100th birthday

Raju Narisetti — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:42:00 GMT

Two seemingly disparate pieces of news from two continents both sounding the death rattle for celebrated media organizations that ought to be joyously celebrating their 100 th birthday tells you the story of an industry that is hurting badly in much of...(read more)

Outsourcing the business of predicting the Obama-McCain race to India, via Vaastu

Raju Narisetti — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:33:00 GMT

It is eight days to go before Americans finally decide on their next president. By many accounts—and most polls and forecasts-- Barack Obama is walking away with the election. Still, there are serious questions about many of the polls as well as the methodology...(read more)

When blogs beget blogs that beget blogs...

Raju Narisetti — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:51:00 GMT

Increasingly, many of us in print media are coming to realize that content is not king, conversation is. A good example of that, for me, has been the fact that a couple of recent blog postings on A Romantic Realist , in addition to generating a lot of...(read more)

Whose IPR is it anyway?

Raju Narisetti — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:19:00 GMT

If it weren't such an egregious violation of the Indian Copyright Act of 1957, there would be delicious irony in the fact that India's National Knowledge Commission , a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India created with the objective...(read more)

So, how many Muslims do I have in my newsroom--and my life?

Raju Narisetti — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:16:00 GMT

It was one of those serendipitous encounters. Rather than continue waiting for an errant car service at 6.30 am on a Saturday morning and risk missing my flight, I walked up to someone on the campus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore since...(read more)