Goenka - changing his mindWhatever happened to the Madras edition of theFinancial Expressthat was to have come out on April 10 this year?Hectic groundwork, to the extent of inviting agents for canvassing subscriptions, had been done well before the predetermined date of birth of what would have been the third publishing centre of the Financial Express. (The two existing publishing centres are New Delhi and Bombay.) The editorial and reporting office rooms of the Indian Express, Madras, were reportedly re-aligned to accommodate the arrival of the to-be-born sister publication and senior staffers were transferred to Madras to strengthen the existing one-man bureau.New lino machines were also reportedly installed for the purpose. But a little before the zero-hour dawned, the top-brass of the Express empire apparently felt that the resources at their disposal could be channelized for more productive purposes - expanding their own Express News Service network probably ranking high on their list of priorities.Sometime last year, the Bennett and Coleman group were seriously thinking of opening an edition of their Economic Times in Madras. Negotiations were made with the fast-sinking Tamil language daily Swadeshamitran for purchase of its printing press. But the project never saw the light of day and the Economic Times continues to air-lift copies of its Bombay edition to Madras.The Ananda Bazar Patrika group's Business Standard (total circulation 15,000; Madras: 4,000) printed in Calcutta is not doing as well, circulation-wise, as its older rival the Economic Times (total circulation 48,806; Madras: 1,600) is in Madras..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The Economic Times, the Business Standard and the Financial Express (total circulation 15,465; Madras: 520) air-lifted from other cities, all put together, hardly sell to the extent one would normally expect in Madras - a city that is supposed to be one of the major metropolitan centres of trade and commerce.While the decision-makers in the Express empire must have had their own reasons for thinking of starting an edition of the Financial Express in Madras, pundits in the field hereabouts are quite skeptical of the amount of readership a specialized newspaper like the Financial Express could command in Madras. In any case, the decision to start the Madras edition seems to have been shelved, for the time being.Meanwhile, with effect from April 14 (the date on which Samachar was split up), the Indian Express has stopped subscribing to two major international news agencies - UK's Reuters and France's Agency France Press (AFP). In consequence of its tie-up with Reuters, the Press Trust of India (PT1) does not find the Indian Express chain amongst its list of subscribers. The Express now depends only on the Associated Press (AP), the United News of India (UNI) and its own Express News Service.The grapevine has it that the big bosses in the Express group would like to develop their Express News Service (ENS) into a more-than-an-alternative to PTI. The entire ENS is being revamped and expanded with this goal in mind. Additional foreign correspondents are to be posted to give ENS an international image. There is also talk of ENS pooling forces with The Statesman in this venture.To make good the absence of Reuter and AFP reports, a powerful microwave wireless receiver has been installed in the Madras centre of the Express chain. The apparatus is said to have cost a tidy sum. Radio stations like the World Service of the BBC are monitored on it and the news bulletins are recorded on cassette players.High-speed stenographers then transcribe the required news items for use in the next morning's paper. Little wonder that ENS foreign reports have lines like "... according to a BBC report" or "reports the BBC" and the like.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jan 20, 2015--- ENDS ---
