HT Media experiments

IN Media Watch Briefs | 13/09/2016

What are the folks at the Hindustan Times thinking? You now have to access page one through a split page jacket ad? (September 13, Delhi edition). Fold back two halves to read page one? Thats expecting a lot of indulgence from the reader. Meanwhile its sister paper Mint has gone broadsheet after having been a Berliner since inception and is making a virtue of it, claiming to be wider, broader (which everybody else already was) and deeper. Will it get more advertising now? On day 2 of its new avatar the most prominent ads were house ads.       

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The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.                   

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.                 

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