Tarun Tejpal, CEO, Tehelka.com
Any ideal media product, which is meant for the masses, should reflect all the aspects of an Indian life. The key is the treatment, and the quality of the treatment. It's not about what you cover, it's about how you cover it
Any ideal media product, which is meant for the masses, should reflect all the aspects of an Indian life. The key is the treatment, and the quality of the treatment. It's not about what you cover, it's about how you cover itHe is one of the most respected journalists in India. In a career spanning 20 years, he has been the editor of India Today, The Indian Express Group, and managing editor of Outlook. He has written articles for several international publications, including The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Financial Times and Prospect.
In March 2000, he left Outlook to start Tehelka.com - a news and views magazine on the net that has broken ground with its sting investigations. In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tarun Tejpal as one of Asia's 50 most powerful communicators, and Businessweek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia.
Tehelka has garnered worldwide acclaim for excellence in journalism, and is seen as one of the seminal websites of world media. The coming months will see Tehelka's weekend newspaper and revamped version of its website being re-launched.
In conversation with exchange4media's Nikhil Gupta, Tarun Tejpal, CEO, Tehelka.com talks about the threats to journalism, ingredients of ideal news media, its new weekend newspaper and the target number of readers. Q. On the flaws of the news environment… I think the news environment does change and shift all the time but especially in democracies, you have moments when the news world is called upon to full fill its mandate. This sole mandate is the protection of institutions, protection of fundamental principles of democracy. I think, today after several years, the news world is again being called upon to fulfill its mandate.
Q. On the time when news world is called upon… This happens when the quantum of misuse of power grows beyond the tolerance levels, something which has been seen as a progressive trend in the last 10-15 years. When the citizens are under greater threat and it is a periodic process; it happens in every democracy, like we are just starting to see it in the US.
Q. On the new trend of editorial heads reporting to marketing directors… I think it is an incredibly unhealthy trend. There is a division between the church and the state. There is a wall, I think the wall can be straddled at the very highest level but if you demolish the wall altogether, you create anarchy of commerce and content, which I think is a bad idea. I think journalism has a very deep soul, and if you take it away from that, it no longer remains journalism, it becomes a mere peddling of products.
If in a democracy like ours, we are called the Fourth Estate, and we are given privileges in our social set up, we must understand that these privileges come at a price of our duties and integrity. So, I think it can be a big mistake, if the driving engines of journalism become commerce and not content.
Q. On whether pure content can earn its own life… Oh, I absolutely think so. See, there is a distinction; the content of integrity, the content of purity is not necessarily boring content. That's the mistake we all make, the fact of the matter is you must be engaging if you are in the mass media. But in that engagement of audience you don't have to become a trivial fool or a commercial idiot, the engagement, must retain the basics of integrity and credibility. At the same time, a marketing man is an honorable man, but a journalist should do everything to protect journalism.
Q. On the reason behind the entry into print medium… Well, basically I am a print journalist. I worked in print journalism for 18 years; at that time too, if anybody had funded me to start a print product, I would have done that any day. But at that time there was this new economy boom, and there was funding available for a dot com, so we started a dot com.
I feel, Tehelka is coming back because of the enormous connect it has with the people, because of the enormous goodwill that exists with it. And we carry a burden of expectation, which I am aware of, all the time.
I think that a print product is a true vehicle for Tehelka at this stage so that we can carry on, not just the kind of good work we have been doing in the past but also much better and refined work.
Q. On the advantages of print media over dotcom… Yes, certainly print has a kind of solidity and enduring quality, which no other medium can have. We are also going to revive the website. So what we do in print we will also do it on the website, as print in the end is a finite product, while the net is not.
Q. On the target group of Tehelka newspaper and website… Well, in India we are just pushing the paper, the website is being encrypted and created for the diasporic Indians, the NRIs. In India, we are focusing on the paper, because as an instrument of change, as an instrument of social intervention, a newspaper has far, far greater value than the internet can ever have, that is why the paper is very important.
Q. On the ingredients of ideal newspaper, which is meant for masses… Any ideal media product, which is meant for the masses, should reflect all the aspects of an Indian life. Our lives consist of many things: cinema, politics, books, lifestyle and so on. Any good media product should cover these and so will the Tehelka newspaper. The key is the treatment, and the quality of the treatment. It's not about what you cover, it's about how you cover it. In this we want to be rigorous, we want to be credible and we want to be independent.
Q. On the definition of content of Tehelka.com, when it broke cricket scandal… When I started Tehelka, what it was trying to do was to bring back hard journalism of the 1980s. I was the child of 80s journalism, when journalism was extremely combative, adversarial, with a very strong sense of social role.
Q. On the shift in the definition of content of Tehelka… The last two and a half years have been incredibly difficult. I have lived two lifetimes in the last two years, and I will be very honest, I am no longer the journalist I was. Today, my sense of journalism has also been altered to a great deal. Today, I wish to mandate Tehelka to practice the two Cs: Crusading and Constructive journalism. That is what I want the heart of Tehelka to be. I feel we do not only need exposes but also some kind of constructive engagement with the society. I hope Tehelka will do that.
Q. On the numbers Tehelka hopes to achieve with its weekend newspaper… I think that the top 15% of the all- English newspaper readers in major metros, will be buying Tehelka. There will be best columnists writing for it, there will be best reportage and the best content.
In March 2000, he left Outlook to start Tehelka.com - a news and views magazine on the net that has broken ground with its sting investigations. In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tarun Tejpal as one of Asia's 50 most powerful communicators, and Businessweek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia.
Tehelka has garnered worldwide acclaim for excellence in journalism, and is seen as one of the seminal websites of world media. The coming months will see Tehelka's weekend newspaper and revamped version of its website being re-launched.
In conversation with exchange4media's Nikhil Gupta, Tarun Tejpal, CEO, Tehelka.com talks about the threats to journalism, ingredients of ideal news media, its new weekend newspaper and the target number of readers. Q. On the flaws of the news environment… I think the news environment does change and shift all the time but especially in democracies, you have moments when the news world is called upon to full fill its mandate. This sole mandate is the protection of institutions, protection of fundamental principles of democracy. I think, today after several years, the news world is again being called upon to fulfill its mandate.
Q. On the time when news world is called upon… This happens when the quantum of misuse of power grows beyond the tolerance levels, something which has been seen as a progressive trend in the last 10-15 years. When the citizens are under greater threat and it is a periodic process; it happens in every democracy, like we are just starting to see it in the US.
Q. On the new trend of editorial heads reporting to marketing directors… I think it is an incredibly unhealthy trend. There is a division between the church and the state. There is a wall, I think the wall can be straddled at the very highest level but if you demolish the wall altogether, you create anarchy of commerce and content, which I think is a bad idea. I think journalism has a very deep soul, and if you take it away from that, it no longer remains journalism, it becomes a mere peddling of products.
If in a democracy like ours, we are called the Fourth Estate, and we are given privileges in our social set up, we must understand that these privileges come at a price of our duties and integrity. So, I think it can be a big mistake, if the driving engines of journalism become commerce and not content.
Q. On whether pure content can earn its own life… Oh, I absolutely think so. See, there is a distinction; the content of integrity, the content of purity is not necessarily boring content. That's the mistake we all make, the fact of the matter is you must be engaging if you are in the mass media. But in that engagement of audience you don't have to become a trivial fool or a commercial idiot, the engagement, must retain the basics of integrity and credibility. At the same time, a marketing man is an honorable man, but a journalist should do everything to protect journalism.
Q. On the reason behind the entry into print medium… Well, basically I am a print journalist. I worked in print journalism for 18 years; at that time too, if anybody had funded me to start a print product, I would have done that any day. But at that time there was this new economy boom, and there was funding available for a dot com, so we started a dot com.
I feel, Tehelka is coming back because of the enormous connect it has with the people, because of the enormous goodwill that exists with it. And we carry a burden of expectation, which I am aware of, all the time.
I think that a print product is a true vehicle for Tehelka at this stage so that we can carry on, not just the kind of good work we have been doing in the past but also much better and refined work.
Q. On the advantages of print media over dotcom… Yes, certainly print has a kind of solidity and enduring quality, which no other medium can have. We are also going to revive the website. So what we do in print we will also do it on the website, as print in the end is a finite product, while the net is not.
Q. On the target group of Tehelka newspaper and website… Well, in India we are just pushing the paper, the website is being encrypted and created for the diasporic Indians, the NRIs. In India, we are focusing on the paper, because as an instrument of change, as an instrument of social intervention, a newspaper has far, far greater value than the internet can ever have, that is why the paper is very important.
Q. On the ingredients of ideal newspaper, which is meant for masses… Any ideal media product, which is meant for the masses, should reflect all the aspects of an Indian life. Our lives consist of many things: cinema, politics, books, lifestyle and so on. Any good media product should cover these and so will the Tehelka newspaper. The key is the treatment, and the quality of the treatment. It's not about what you cover, it's about how you cover it. In this we want to be rigorous, we want to be credible and we want to be independent.
Q. On the definition of content of Tehelka.com, when it broke cricket scandal… When I started Tehelka, what it was trying to do was to bring back hard journalism of the 1980s. I was the child of 80s journalism, when journalism was extremely combative, adversarial, with a very strong sense of social role.
Q. On the shift in the definition of content of Tehelka… The last two and a half years have been incredibly difficult. I have lived two lifetimes in the last two years, and I will be very honest, I am no longer the journalist I was. Today, my sense of journalism has also been altered to a great deal. Today, I wish to mandate Tehelka to practice the two Cs: Crusading and Constructive journalism. That is what I want the heart of Tehelka to be. I feel we do not only need exposes but also some kind of constructive engagement with the society. I hope Tehelka will do that.
Q. On the numbers Tehelka hopes to achieve with its weekend newspaper… I think that the top 15% of the all- English newspaper readers in major metros, will be buying Tehelka. There will be best columnists writing for it, there will be best reportage and the best content.
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