Thursday, March 08, 2007

Churn at Daily Bhaskar?

Firstly, this isn't a rumour, this is pretty much confirmed news. Daily Bhaskar, aka DNA, has had a fairly undramatic two years. It launched, unlike EchTee Bombay with not so much fanfare, maybe after the Mirror destroyed its campaign (And hints of the Mirror's campaign are being used by MetroNow as well), but according to rumours there is a realisation that Times managed to get rid of a lot of fairly useless and lazy people and dump them in DNA. As 'The V' said in a very nasty joke around the time of DNA's launch - it was nothing more than the Times' Retirement Scheme. Not that EchTee Bombay was anything more than the Jadavpur University Graduates Job Scheme (aka get suckers from Calcutta to Bombay on the cheap).
But now, it seems the powers that be at DNA - Pradeep Guha, Subhash Chandra and most importantly the Aggarwals of the Bhaskar Group want a change at the top. They seemingly want to cut the high-level flab (I guess a diva editor who does nothing could well be retrenched) and get some pizazz into the ranks. The people at Bhaskar, used to riding roughshod over competition in the vernacular medium, and honestly if you thought Times' people were hyper-aggressive and didn't care for the little guy, Bhaskar marketing and editorial is hell-bent on dominating the cow-belt. But, I don't think they quite comprehended the sheer insanity of taking on Bennett head-on, even though the effort was spearheaded by the person who virtually built the Bennett machine. That said, just look at Papermint, five weeks on, and despite paying top dollar to sales people and having greater assured circulation than FE and BS put together, they get no ads whatsoever - so I'm not surprised they're chasing a tech-guy to head their sales team (he has clue why they're chasing him though).
So, I assume it is the end of the line for Gautam, or is it? I don't know, but I do know that these guys are desperately looking for someone to come stir up the Kool-Aid, maybe Gautam will still be around, but if I was in DNA, at any level, I would be a tad worried about job-security. Will keep you posted on where the hunt ends.

3 comments:

Renovatio said...

I just read that entire post in shrek's voice... well the voice was in my head, but you know what I mean... either way, since I'm not too up to date (but getting there) about the shifting of scales in corporate media, it's interesting to get it all in one go
Cheers

Anonymous said...

Rumours have it that Gautam may not be the only one to go ... more heads could roll (not just the "young" diva) ... including in DNA Money ...

Like all experts are saying about the global markets now, it's not as if there were no warning ...

- Bonatellis

thalassa_mikra said...

Please don't use "vernacular". It reminds me of that terrible snotty South Bombay "vernie" which is very condescending (ironic too, given the sing-song crap English most of these South Bombay kids themselves speak)

The Bhaskar group is formidable. Not Sahara formidable perhaps, but I'm willing to bet that they probably top TOI circulation-wise.