Marathi media: Where is it going?
We live in a knowledge age and naturally media plays or are expected to play an important role in conveying or propagating any idea, business or ideology. Whether today’s media plays such a constructive role or not is not the subject of this article, but the fact remains that media is indeed an important vehicle today. India being such an all-encompassing culture, we have such a diversity of languages flourishing happily along-side each other and since each of our regional languages have a sizeable number of speakers (in many cases numbers are comparable to speakers of European languages), it would be interesting to discuss how the media in one such language is performing. So let’s see where the Marathi media is headed towards. Readers and viewers of other regional language media could easily draw interesting parallels from this discussion.
Lokmanya Tilak was one of the pioneers of Marathi mass media with his firebrand daily – Kesari. He had successfully ignited the spark for freedom among the masses through his incisive and bold writing and had also taken the British head-on, by skillfully using the newspaper medium, along with his speeches. Several years later, Marathi language witnessed a similar glorious chapter in media with the writings of Acharya Atre in his paper Maratha. Whether a fraction of such zeal and higher objectives remain in today’s media is another topic of discussion. In the early days of television, till the advent of satellite television, the news program “Baatmya” of Mumbai Doordarshan was popularly seen by people across the state and continues to enjoy significant viewership even though private news channels have made a dent in its former viewership. In the past 20 years several senior journalists from publications like Sakaal, Loksatta, Saamna and Maharashtra Times have made notable contributions to the world of Marathi media. Coming to the present status if we take a look at Marathi print media, we see numerous established newspapers, both at the pan-Maharashtra level, as well as the district or taluka level.
Sakaal, belonging to the big Sakaal Group and associated with Sharad Pawar, has a strong presence in Pune and western Maharashtra region and to a lesser extent in the other regions of the state like Vidarbh and Khandesh. It has gained noticeable readership in Mumbai since its launch a few years ago. Sakaal is known for the insightful and informative feature articles that appear in its supplements and presents a fairly balanced view, barring some exceptions for obvious reasons. It caters to a wide cross section of urban, semi-urban and rural readers. It regularly ties up with seminars, conferences and discussions, which add value to the readers/listeners/participants. It is the first major Marathi newspaper group to start a weekly Marathi paper on agriculture in the state. In Pune, Sakaal actually competes with the English Times of India in terms of popularity.
Maharashtra Times of the Times Group is primarily a Mumbai paper and has created a wider appeal in the city and its suburbs in the past couple of years. It has to a large extent become stylish and trendy, which makes it appealing to the Marathis of Mumbai, with its supplements of lifestyle, education, careers, property and culture. Its presentation style, choice of photos and graphics and increasingly unbiased reporting, is clearly making it a favourite of Marathi Mumbaikars. It has the strong backing of the huge Times Group, which makes it financially strong. However, this paper is less popular in the rest of Maharashtra, especially in the non-metro areas.
Loksatta, of the Indian Express Group, has good presence in Mumbai, along with some presence in other cities like Nagpur and Aurangabad. It also has a Delhi edition. However, over the years, due to factors like biased reporting on language and religion issues and tough competition from Maharashtra Times and others, many readers of Loksatta have changed their choices. However, its myriad supplements on family, personal finance, literature, culture, architecture and careers, remain popular. In fact many readers buy Loksatta more for its supplements, rather than news content. Both Loksatta and Maharashtra Times regularly get into tie-ups with cultural and educational programs/seminars, just like Sakaal.
Lokmat of the Darda Group is a pan-Maharashtra Marathi newspaper with presence in Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Pune, Mumbai and other cities. Of course, its major readership is in the semi-urban areas.
Saamna (the Shiv Sena mouthpiece), has over the years retained its stable readership in Mumbai, with its bold news reporting on issues of language and religion reflecting the issues close to the hearts of the masses, which are generally not expressed freely by others. However, it continues to have a niche circulation due to the lack of effective coverage of other areas like education, careers, property, personal finance, etc barring some exceptions. It also has some presence in parts of Kokan and Marathwada regions.
Some of the other Marathi newspapers worth mentioning in terms of visibility and/or content are Tarun Bharat, Navakaal, Punya Nagari, Ratnagiri Times, Sandhyanand, Pudhari and Mumbai Chaupher, among others.
And beyond these, there are perhaps more than a hundred local papers at the district or even taluka level like Latur Times in Latur and Sagar in Chiplun, that enjoy good readership in their respective areas. These local papers are also equally important for a person who wants to reach out to the local semi-urban and rural readers.
Magazines and periodicals of Maharashtra include Lokprabha of Indian Express Group, Saptahik Sakaal of Sakaal Group and Vivek (the RSS mouthpiece), among others. The Diwali “Ank” or Diwali special yearly issues of dozens of publishers across the state continue to be a favourite of a large section of readers including housewives, literature enthusiasts, trekkers, history lovers, spiritual readers and entire families, depending upon the issues and topics covered. The content on the backside of Kalnirnay calendar is also widely read.
Coming to the electronic media, from the days of Mumbai Doordarshan’s Marathi news bulletin “Baatmya”, Maharashtra now has at least two dedicated Marathi news channels, viz. Star Maaza from the Star Group and Zee 24 Taas from the Zee Group. Both these channels have gained immense popularity among the people of the state in the short span of their launch and are increasingly becoming visible in the living rooms and in their tie-ups with cultural and literary programs and functions.
In case of radio, the new FM channels of Mumbai have completely ignored the over 40 lakh Marathi listeners in the city and all the programs are in Hindi and English. However, FM channels in Pune have a decent Marathi content, mixed with Hindi and English. The good old Mumbai A, Mumbai B and Vividh Bharti continue to be popular in the semi-urban and rural areas and a category of listeners in the urban areas. These government radio channels beautifully cater to the cultural, agricultural and spiritual needs of Marathis.
A case is raised about the near absence of Marathi media outside Maharashtra or outside India. Even as Marathi papers are available in cities and towns of India outside Maharashtra, where there is sizeable number of Marathis, there is scope for more penetration for sure. Outside India, there are considerable number of Marathis in Mauritius, Israel, USA and UK. Although online editions of papers like Maharashtra Times, Loksatta and Sakaal are available to them, along with other private culture-based websites, the penetration of Marathi print and electronic media abroad is negligible. This is a point worth noting. With over 8 crore Marathi speaking people in the world, together with another couple of crore non-Marathis who know Marathi, the scope for effective penetration is immense for Marathi media going forward. However, the following lacunas need to be overcome while doing this, so that they can be overcome.
Issues related to Marathi newspapers:
The political and social content of many Marathi papers, just like many English and other Indian language papers, is many times biased and not exactly a reflection of what the general public feels.
Marathi papers need to place themselves as per the needs of their various readers. To woo the youngsters in greater numbers, they should finely blend youthful issues like education, career and entertainment, with more important deeper issues like culture, family values, literature, environment and politics.
Any Marathi paper with a balance of all aspects of what the readers want and what they ought to know has the capacity to become as popular among Marathis as any English paper is.
Issues related to Marathi channels:
Channels are many times not visible to vast sections of the population due to the tussle between the channel owners and the cable operators. For instance, the popular Zee 24 Taas is not visible to viewers of Mumbai suburbs for many months now and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
Many satellite channels just don’t reach small villages despite cable or dish connections. This has to be addressed, because nearly 60% of Maharashtra is rural.
The channels have to ensure that they give fair unbiased coverage of various social and political issues and not fall prey to false propaganda.
Lokmanya Tilak was one of the pioneers of Marathi mass media with his firebrand daily – Kesari. He had successfully ignited the spark for freedom among the masses through his incisive and bold writing and had also taken the British head-on, by skillfully using the newspaper medium, along with his speeches. Several years later, Marathi language witnessed a similar glorious chapter in media with the writings of Acharya Atre in his paper Maratha. Whether a fraction of such zeal and higher objectives remain in today’s media is another topic of discussion. In the early days of television, till the advent of satellite television, the news program “Baatmya” of Mumbai Doordarshan was popularly seen by people across the state and continues to enjoy significant viewership even though private news channels have made a dent in its former viewership. In the past 20 years several senior journalists from publications like Sakaal, Loksatta, Saamna and Maharashtra Times have made notable contributions to the world of Marathi media. Coming to the present status if we take a look at Marathi print media, we see numerous established newspapers, both at the pan-Maharashtra level, as well as the district or taluka level.
Sakaal, belonging to the big Sakaal Group and associated with Sharad Pawar, has a strong presence in Pune and western Maharashtra region and to a lesser extent in the other regions of the state like Vidarbh and Khandesh. It has gained noticeable readership in Mumbai since its launch a few years ago. Sakaal is known for the insightful and informative feature articles that appear in its supplements and presents a fairly balanced view, barring some exceptions for obvious reasons. It caters to a wide cross section of urban, semi-urban and rural readers. It regularly ties up with seminars, conferences and discussions, which add value to the readers/listeners/participants. It is the first major Marathi newspaper group to start a weekly Marathi paper on agriculture in the state. In Pune, Sakaal actually competes with the English Times of India in terms of popularity.
Maharashtra Times of the Times Group is primarily a Mumbai paper and has created a wider appeal in the city and its suburbs in the past couple of years. It has to a large extent become stylish and trendy, which makes it appealing to the Marathis of Mumbai, with its supplements of lifestyle, education, careers, property and culture. Its presentation style, choice of photos and graphics and increasingly unbiased reporting, is clearly making it a favourite of Marathi Mumbaikars. It has the strong backing of the huge Times Group, which makes it financially strong. However, this paper is less popular in the rest of Maharashtra, especially in the non-metro areas.
Loksatta, of the Indian Express Group, has good presence in Mumbai, along with some presence in other cities like Nagpur and Aurangabad. It also has a Delhi edition. However, over the years, due to factors like biased reporting on language and religion issues and tough competition from Maharashtra Times and others, many readers of Loksatta have changed their choices. However, its myriad supplements on family, personal finance, literature, culture, architecture and careers, remain popular. In fact many readers buy Loksatta more for its supplements, rather than news content. Both Loksatta and Maharashtra Times regularly get into tie-ups with cultural and educational programs/seminars, just like Sakaal.
Lokmat of the Darda Group is a pan-Maharashtra Marathi newspaper with presence in Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Pune, Mumbai and other cities. Of course, its major readership is in the semi-urban areas.
Saamna (the Shiv Sena mouthpiece), has over the years retained its stable readership in Mumbai, with its bold news reporting on issues of language and religion reflecting the issues close to the hearts of the masses, which are generally not expressed freely by others. However, it continues to have a niche circulation due to the lack of effective coverage of other areas like education, careers, property, personal finance, etc barring some exceptions. It also has some presence in parts of Kokan and Marathwada regions.
Some of the other Marathi newspapers worth mentioning in terms of visibility and/or content are Tarun Bharat, Navakaal, Punya Nagari, Ratnagiri Times, Sandhyanand, Pudhari and Mumbai Chaupher, among others.
And beyond these, there are perhaps more than a hundred local papers at the district or even taluka level like Latur Times in Latur and Sagar in Chiplun, that enjoy good readership in their respective areas. These local papers are also equally important for a person who wants to reach out to the local semi-urban and rural readers.
Magazines and periodicals of Maharashtra include Lokprabha of Indian Express Group, Saptahik Sakaal of Sakaal Group and Vivek (the RSS mouthpiece), among others. The Diwali “Ank” or Diwali special yearly issues of dozens of publishers across the state continue to be a favourite of a large section of readers including housewives, literature enthusiasts, trekkers, history lovers, spiritual readers and entire families, depending upon the issues and topics covered. The content on the backside of Kalnirnay calendar is also widely read.
Coming to the electronic media, from the days of Mumbai Doordarshan’s Marathi news bulletin “Baatmya”, Maharashtra now has at least two dedicated Marathi news channels, viz. Star Maaza from the Star Group and Zee 24 Taas from the Zee Group. Both these channels have gained immense popularity among the people of the state in the short span of their launch and are increasingly becoming visible in the living rooms and in their tie-ups with cultural and literary programs and functions.
In case of radio, the new FM channels of Mumbai have completely ignored the over 40 lakh Marathi listeners in the city and all the programs are in Hindi and English. However, FM channels in Pune have a decent Marathi content, mixed with Hindi and English. The good old Mumbai A, Mumbai B and Vividh Bharti continue to be popular in the semi-urban and rural areas and a category of listeners in the urban areas. These government radio channels beautifully cater to the cultural, agricultural and spiritual needs of Marathis.
A case is raised about the near absence of Marathi media outside Maharashtra or outside India. Even as Marathi papers are available in cities and towns of India outside Maharashtra, where there is sizeable number of Marathis, there is scope for more penetration for sure. Outside India, there are considerable number of Marathis in Mauritius, Israel, USA and UK. Although online editions of papers like Maharashtra Times, Loksatta and Sakaal are available to them, along with other private culture-based websites, the penetration of Marathi print and electronic media abroad is negligible. This is a point worth noting. With over 8 crore Marathi speaking people in the world, together with another couple of crore non-Marathis who know Marathi, the scope for effective penetration is immense for Marathi media going forward. However, the following lacunas need to be overcome while doing this, so that they can be overcome.
Issues related to Marathi newspapers:
The political and social content of many Marathi papers, just like many English and other Indian language papers, is many times biased and not exactly a reflection of what the general public feels.
Marathi papers need to place themselves as per the needs of their various readers. To woo the youngsters in greater numbers, they should finely blend youthful issues like education, career and entertainment, with more important deeper issues like culture, family values, literature, environment and politics.
Any Marathi paper with a balance of all aspects of what the readers want and what they ought to know has the capacity to become as popular among Marathis as any English paper is.
Issues related to Marathi channels:
Channels are many times not visible to vast sections of the population due to the tussle between the channel owners and the cable operators. For instance, the popular Zee 24 Taas is not visible to viewers of Mumbai suburbs for many months now and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
Many satellite channels just don’t reach small villages despite cable or dish connections. This has to be addressed, because nearly 60% of Maharashtra is rural.
The channels have to ensure that they give fair unbiased coverage of various social and political issues and not fall prey to false propaganda.
-- Atul Sathe © (The author owns the copyright and can be contacted at atulsathe@yahoo.com)
Comments
I read your blog with keen interest towards the Marathi media. You have not mentioned Sadhana weekly while mentioning Marathi magazines and periodicles.It had been started by late Sane Guruji in 1948 and then after his untimely death, is continued consistantly. This year is its 61st year. The Present editor Dr.Narendra Dabholkar has transformed this weekly in the last 8-9 years by giving a new look and having association with young and energetic writers.Your question as Marathi Media: Where is it going? may be answered by Sadhana's campaign. Pl do take Sadhana's work into your account.
Nikheel Shaligram