I started my media business 10 years ago. When I started, my intentions were to make the system more transparent and put my best foot forward to structure the business of media. All these years, one thing that I have constantly been asked, probably because we are the so-called watchdogs of this industry, is whether the media owners really run their media businesses and prosper only on them, or it is just a facade for multitudes of businesses they run behind it.
I obviously do not have the answer to these questions, but they definitely make me think. I cannot name, but a dear friend, also an entrepreneur often tells me, “Media business is actually a business of patronage. You can never make money through media; it’s always the other businesses that flourish through its existence that get the moolah.”
Dainik Bhaskar for an aam aadmi is the name of a newspaper that serves news with the first light every morning. My media friends would know, but I am sure not all, that the group has its own power plants, refineries, rice mills, spinning units, infrastructure projects, textile units, amusement parks and also plans to develop SEZs and residential projects across the country. The group started initially with just its newspaper publishing business and has today grown into a conglomerate. Most of the sectors mentioned above have huge government involvements and it is undoubtedly not an easy task to get through. So does the media business act as a patron to these non-media businesses? Dainik Bhaskar is just an example. Subhash Chandra began the television revolution in this country through Zee and then diversified into every thinkable non-media business including sports, technology, packaging, infrastructure, gold refinery (Shirpur Gold Refinery is India’s first and Asia’s largest) and the latest passion of most of the media businesses...education! Every leading media house is running its own educational institute today. While Dainik Jagran has diversified its portfolio and has made its presence across all verticals of media, the group also have sugar mills, knitting unit and many institutes and schools. It is often that while the media businesses run into a loss, the others are profitable.
So, is it the power of the media businesses that provide the pillar of strength to the non-media ones? Or maybe just enable the existence of these? I am not sure. Maybe. But the fact that most of the politicians in our country have great interests in media properties is not hidden from anyone. In fact, many say that if there is anything that can control our politicians, it is the media. So it becomes quite natural that they put all their forces to control the free bird. I am reminded of the controversy that arose in Punjab a few years ago when a politician of the opposition party blamed Mr Badal for spreading his agenda because of his connections with the cable networks and media there. And it is not only Punjab, states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have most of the media businesses in the hands of the power controllers there.
I am an entrepreneur myself and I understand that when you are out there in the market your aspirations grow and you dream of transcending horizons and in that bid, diversify as much as possible. That’s the way the biggest businesses in India have grown. But when it comes to journalism, the Press, it is that pillar of the society which has to remain undeterred by any external influences. And when you increase the strands of your business, they somehow or the other tend to impact the editorial consciences. But does all this impact the everyday consumer of these media? Is a normal reader even bothered about who is advertising on his favourite platform or not? While the answer remains unknown the question still remains the same..... Is it the facade or the pillar?
Talking about the pillar leading to patronage, I am reminded of these famous lines of Edmond Rostand:
“…I’ll be
My own intention, stand alone and free,
And suit my voice to what my own eyes see!”
