Making a point
Ashutosh Tiwari in his Nepali Times column warns:
Beware of superstars
It's tempting for a new company to get a head start by recruiting journalists working at other publications. Though this can be monetarily exciting for journalists, it's hardly in the long-term interests of the owners.
Ultimately, the expenses of keeping a team of superstars, and making sure that their egos are not easily bruised, exceed the revenues, especially when the revenue pie is not growing fast.
Indeed, borrowing a page from the Nepali music industry, the executive may glumly concede that the superstars are known only for being, well, superstars, and not necessarily for scoops and ground-breaking stories that make the readers and the advertisers regularly sit up and take notice. As such, it's well worth thinking whether it's better to hire fresh recruits who have the stamina, the focus, and the raw talent to succeed. After all, in journalism, as in music, you are only as good as the quality of what you last delivered.
Here’s a reader’s (Suman Shakya) response:
I don’t think there is any harm in being a superstar if there is demand for one. It is good for the professionals and the industry. Media companies now need to realise that the entry barrier has gone up that much higher and must accommodate it in their financial projections while ensuring that the company is profitable with positive cash flow.
And I told Tiwari that my main concern was ‘quality, quality journalism.’
Here’s what Tiwari had to say:
My experiences have taught me — all things being equal — to put a greater faith in relatively untested (young) people who have the smarts, can work hard, have the focus, can learn quickly from their mistakes, and look toward the future than on superstars who seem to coast along on some past reputation.
Salik, it's too early to make predictions about the quality of new publications. Since they do have strong teams, let's wish them the very best for success on both editorial and revenue fronts in times ahead.
Well, I don’t want to make a roundabout, let’s talk about
The Kathmandu Post that had without any doubt one of the strongest teams in the country. Before I make my point, here’s
an interesting dissection of a post-split editorial of
The Kathmandu Post by a writer who once worked for it. Here's an excerpt from my comment there that would explain what I think about their "strong team."
As far as the newspaper (The Kathmandu Post) is concerned, the former leadership, despite all their qualifications and credentials, were, on the whole, a big disappointment. I don't have to tell you they failed to achieve what they could in all those years. I don’t expect much from the new team either.
Now the old men want a new newspaper. I’m sorry to say but their current mindset (fear — to experiment and to invest —) ain’t gonna work. Why would we want a new newspaper in NEPAL? (Oh, I forgot they write for the English readership whose number only they can tell…) Maybe they want to publish a shoddy piece of money-making paper to create job opportunities for our desi paper stalwarts?!
I wanted to sound harsh because now is not the time to play the softie. I worked for the publications for about a year and the job filled me with self-doubt and my future as a writer looked bleak. The work deprived me of all my creative energy, partly because I was with their online team — I’ve a blog, as you can see, and I’m a technology kid who understood early what new journalism would be like —) and corporate politics, and partly because of the pay. When there’s no substantial reward for hard work, employees tend to lose focus and that’s exactly what happened with the old folks at one of the nations’ most powerful institutions.
“Sadly, I don’t see the desire to learn and produce quality work in… or it's just my impression, but it seems mediocrity is their mantra...” That’s all I could tell Tiwari from my experience.
A bewildered young man, like many before him, took the difficult decision and moved to Delhi — still clueless about his capabilities but confident about his potential. And he’s now working for an American newspaper as a copyeditor. But there’s a catch, my two year of journalism in Kathmandu wasn’t as satisfactory as the last eight months in New Delhi has been. It’s not just about money. Like most people in this organisation, I don’t want to quit my job simply because of the work environment we have here. I like these cool people around me who are equally competent. There’s so much to learn; there’s so much energy at work. Of course, there’s money too. Indians obviously know how to do business better than we do.
“It depends on the owners' understanding that they are in a for-profit industry, and not in a for-charity one. What this means is that the way Nepali media companies are viewed, managed and run needs to be rethought,” Tiwari says and he’s right.
It’s time to do business. I don’t have to tell if you don’t pay your employees well, you can’t retain the talented lot or expect them to deliver par excellence. They will die of suffocation and, the publication would be mired in mediocrity. Well, there are people who know more about journalism there but they are not giving full attention to their work. They expect to earn more doing extra work and that’s one thing that’s stopping our broadsheets from meeting the bench mark set by leading newspapers across the world and even in neighbouring India which has an impressive history of journalism, as Bhuwan Sharma, one of former
The Kathmandu Post employees, also tells me. (We work in the same organisation today.)
I used to devour Indian newspapers as a kid and it was sad to discover the quality I was looking for — as a matter of habit — in our media was always lacking and that’s one of the main reasons why I didn’t want to work for them anymore. Anyone who has had worked with foreigners would be disappointed with the kind of attitude we have towards work in our country. But I do wish them success and I do care and that must have already become clear. I don’t think the old men can’t learn new tricks. There is no other way around and they have to learn what needs to learned about running a newspaper and inspiring a whole new generation and shaping their thoughts, and that’s my point.
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