Newspaper Management and Time Management

I was late for class today. By the time I entered the classroom the lecturer had already discussed a few things about newspaper management. Along with newspaper management, I may need a lecture on time management too!

Well, I maintain a busy schedule and you have to excuse me if I am unable to attend my lectures on time. A typical weekday starts at around 5 am and ends at around 11:30 pm. I don't get 8 hours of sleep! Last weekend I thought that I'd be able to catch up on some lost sleep. But I had to attend a seminar on "Theater in Education" and catch up with some old friends. That kept me busy throughout the weekend.

Anyways, I should not deviate from the topic of my blog. So let me recapitulate the points about newspaper management which were discussed by the lecturer.

Is management a profession? That was the question asked by the lecturer. The answer is No. In India, management is yet to attain the status of a profession like medicine and law has. The law students have to be ratifed by the Bar Council of India and the medical students by the Medical Council of India before they can start practising in their area of work. In case of management, no such codified admission system is functional.

Q) What is the goal of a newspaper?

A) To facilitate public opinion formation in an objective, accurate and correct manner.

The Press is called the "Unsleeping Guardian of Democracy". It's also known as the 4th Estate. Why?

Well, it acts like a watchdog, keeping an informed eye on the activities of:

i) the Legislature;
ii) the Executive;
iii) the Judiciary.

The business aspects of newspaper management were also discussed today. The main source of revenue for a newspaper house is advertisements. Newspaper business is all about increasing readership, circulation and hence the number of advertisements flowing in.

Without offering news value and following the principles of ethical journalism, theoretically it's not possible for a newspaper publication to survive. I hope you noticed that I used the word, "theoretically". Though the lecturer didn't use it, we all know that a newspaper can survive without adhering to the principles of ethical journalism!

I know, most of the matters that I have discussed on my blog are the bare basics of journalism. But then, isn't it the basics that we often forget?