 "Business standard at 50, BS Manthan")
What is the purpose of a business? If it is simply to make money, one can set up any kind of company.
But the purpose of a media company is to inform, educate, and entertain. These are the three driving forces of editorial operation.
“If that is your mission, then that is what drives you, and you do not sacrifice that for money,” T N Ninan, former editor and publisher of Business Standard, said. He was speaking at the opening session of Business Standard Manthan, a two-day event that started in New Delhi on Wednesday to present a roadmap for India to attain the status of a developed nation by 2047.
Ninan joined the newspaper in 1992 as a consultant and soon became its editor as the newspaper shed its tag of being a business paper for eastern India and started its Delhi edition. And he stuck to his belief of having the so-called Chinese wall – a notional but insuperable barrier – between the editorial and business operations.
“I insisted on absolutism on that,” Ninan said.
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This at a time when the Chinese wall had started to crumble at many publications. Newspaper prices in the 1990s were cut to the bone in an effort to increase circulation. This left them dependent on advertising for most of their revenues.
Unsurprisingly, advertisers began to put pressure, which was inevitably felt by the editorial. Problems of paid news started and all kinds of equity deals came into fashion.
“We stayed away completely from any of that. Editorial remained pristine,” said Ninan, conceding that it made life difficult for Akila Urankar, who headed the business side, and her team. But, at the same time, it made credibility a unique point for Business Standard. The ad sales people could sell a credible newspaper.
But the question arises, if this approach works, why have the other publications not followed the same principle of building a reputation as a credible brand by separating editorial and business?
The answer to this came from Urankar, who was Ninan’s fellow panelist at Wednesday's session. She agreed that Business Standard did indeed establish itself as a credible newspaper, but it came for a price: It meant foregoing “a lot of money”.
Regardless, Business Standard stuck to it line through thick and thin, in spite of the fact that there were many “thins” along the way.
Ninan joined Business Standard in 1992, when the Indian economy was going through a transformation. Reforms had been unleashed in 1991. The stock market was booming. There was rising all around interest in business and financial news and in policy decisions by governments.
It was an exciting time to spread a newspaper’s footprint. Having started on March 27, 1975, Business Standard wanted to go national. In any case, it was not left with much choice, with The Economic Times going national.
But all did not go to plan. The ownership changed in 1997, when Anandabazar Patrika put Business Standard up for sale. Uday Kotak, the banker, bought it on the condition that Ninan would run the company. As the new company, Business Standard Ltd, took shape, Ninan became its editor as well as publisher, a unique combination in Indian journalism.
“In principle, I did not think it was a good idea. I was a journalist. Writing about business and running a business are two different things. But I agreed to it to save the paper. There was no choice,” said Ninan.
The ensuing dotcom bust around the turn of the century did not help matters. Urankar picked it as one of the two most difficult periods she faced in her career, the other being the global financial crisis of 2008.
Nevertheless, Business Standard lives to – well – tell the tale. There was a period starting in the late 1990s that it launched an edition a year. It now has 13 editions and proudly calls itself the priciest newspaper in the country, at Rs 13 apiece.
That probably shows it has lived up to its original vision of being the business newspaper for the top end of the market, serving the thinking audience, the policymakers and decision-makers, the top management, and economists.
