In booming India, bad news is bad for business

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In booming India, newspaper and magazine sales have been skyrocketing. Newspaper circulation was up 54 percent from 2001 to 2006, along with an 85 percent increase in advertising revenue.

Unfortunately, one enterprising magazine has been struggling. Tehelka, which FP featured in a Global Newsstand article last year, isn’t getting the advertising rupees it needs to stay afloat. The weekly publication, which calls itself “Free.Fair.Fearless,” has gained fame for bold undercover investigative reporting that has exposed government corruption. For example, journalists with hidden cameras posed as defense contractors and gave cash bribes to politicians and military officials. The defense minister had to resign as a result (though he was later reinstated).

But challenging the powers-that-be doesn’t exactly reel in investors. Editor in chief Tarun Tejpal, who recently launched a Hindi-language Web site of the English-language magazine, says, “There’s a certain reluctance to be associated with us because we are seen as people who create trouble and get into the wrong side of money and power.”

Part of the problem, too, may be that as India booms, people want more upbeat, “feel-good” news. “The serious part of journalism is taking a back seat. The entertainment journalism is at the front,” says a consulting editor for the Indian Press Agency. Anil Dharker, a media critic and columnist, may sum it up best by saying:

Psychologically, Indians are on such a high with the economy booming. They are in no mood to hear bad news. And that’s what Tehelka offers.