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In the meantime ''Dainik Jagran'' emerged as the newspaper with the largest readership from 2004 onwards having displaced ''Bhaskar'' that had occupied the position since 2002.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ninan |first=Sevanti |url= |title=Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere |date= |publisher=] |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-7829-971-6 |pages=43 |language=en |author-link=Sevanti Ninan}}</ref> The two newspapers had come to a tacit understanding since the beginning of their out of state expansion drives in the mid-1990s, that they would not encroach upon each other's territories. As a consequence, ''Jagran'' had not launched a new edition in ] or ] while ''Bhaskar'' had not launched any editions in Uttar Pradesh, ] or Jharkhand.<ref name=":5" /> In the state of Madhya Pradesh, those who were subscribed to ''Dainik Jagran'' were primarily migrants who had come from Utter Pradesh and wanted news from their native region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ninan |first=Sevanti |url= |title=Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere |date= |publisher=] |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-7829-971-6 |pages=73–74 |language=en |author-link=Sevanti Ninan}}</ref> In 2006, the understanding between the two was broken by ''Jagran'' when the newspapers launched its ] edition. The new edition would however be unable to compete against ''Bhaskar'' and '']''.{{efn|] eventually bought out the Indore based '']'' in 2012 to establish a presence in ].<ref name=":5"/>}} On the other hand, ''Bhaskar'' would respond by launching its own editions in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Patna between 2010 and 2014.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Neyazi |first=Taberez Ahmed |title=Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi Media in India |publisher=] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-108-41613-9 |pages=107–108 |language=en}}</ref> | In the meantime ''Dainik Jagran'' emerged as the newspaper with the largest readership from 2004 onwards having displaced ''Bhaskar'' that had occupied the position since 2002.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ninan |first=Sevanti |url= |title=Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere |date= |publisher=] |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-7829-971-6 |pages=43 |language=en |author-link=Sevanti Ninan}}</ref> The two newspapers had come to a tacit understanding since the beginning of their out of state expansion drives in the mid-1990s, that they would not encroach upon each other's territories. As a consequence, ''Jagran'' had not launched a new edition in ] or ] while ''Bhaskar'' had not launched any editions in Uttar Pradesh, ] or Jharkhand.<ref name=":5" /> In the state of Madhya Pradesh, those who were subscribed to ''Dainik Jagran'' were primarily migrants who had come from Utter Pradesh and wanted news from their native region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ninan |first=Sevanti |url= |title=Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere |date= |publisher=] |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-7829-971-6 |pages=73–74 |language=en |author-link=Sevanti Ninan}}</ref> In 2006, the understanding between the two was broken by ''Jagran'' when the newspapers launched its ] edition. The new edition would however be unable to compete against ''Bhaskar'' and '']''.{{efn|] eventually bought out the Indore based '']'' in 2012 to establish a presence in ].<ref name=":5"/>}} On the other hand, ''Bhaskar'' would respond by launching its own editions in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Patna between 2010 and 2014.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Neyazi |first=Taberez Ahmed |title=Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi Media in India |publisher=] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-108-41613-9 |pages=107–108 |language=en}}</ref> | ||
=== Government advertisements and shrinking readership === | |||
From the onset of ]'s tenure as the ], government spending on advertisements in ''Dainik Jagran'' saw a sharp increase. Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, the revenues solely from government advertisements of the ] was reported to be over {{INR convert|100|c|year=2021}}. In one financial year, FY2017–18, the newspaper received {{INR convert|36.4|c|year=2021}} in ad revenue from the Central Government which was more than the combined ad revenue of {{INR convert|33.2|c|year=2021}} that the paper had recieved between 2010 and 2013, covering three financial years before Modi had come to power. ''Jagran''<nowiki/>'s sister publications such as '']'' and '']'' experienced similar increases in revenue from government advertisements. The advertisement spending by state governments of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly the Uttar Pradesh Government whose advertisements regularly featured in the newspaper was not disclosed upon ] (RTI) requests.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tiwari |first=Ayush |last2=Kumar |first2=Basant |date=20 February 2021 |title=A Dainik Jagran guide to Adityanath government’s propaganda |url=https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/02/20/a-dainik-jagran-guide-to-adityanath-governments-propaganda |website=]}}</ref> | |||
Per the ] in 2019, ''Dainik Jagran''<nowiki/>'s average issue readership fell by 17% from a figure of 20.3 million to 16.9 million. In Uttar Pradesh which stood as its biggest market, the readership fell from 12 million to 9.97 million while in the state of Bihar, it fell from 3.41 million to 2.97 million. The fall in readership was part of a general trend of fall in newspaper readership due to economic slowdown, only 3 out of the 10 newspapers with the largest readership did not experience a fall. One of them was its rival, ''Dainik Bhaskar'' which came close to displacing Jagran's position as the newspaper with the largest readership. Its readership had increased from 15.4 to 15.6 million with gains in Bihar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Joseph |first=Anto T. |date=16 May 2020 |title=For newspapers battered by the economic slowdown, Covid-19 is the final blow |url=https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/05/16/for-newspapers-battered-by-the-economic-slowdown-covid-19-is-the-final-blow |website=]}}</ref> | Per the ] in 2019, ''Dainik Jagran''<nowiki/>'s average issue readership fell by 17% from a figure of 20.3 million to 16.9 million. In Uttar Pradesh which stood as its biggest market, the readership fell from 12 million to 9.97 million while in the state of Bihar, it fell from 3.41 million to 2.97 million. The fall in readership was part of a general trend of fall in newspaper readership due to economic slowdown, only 3 out of the 10 newspapers with the largest readership did not experience a fall. One of them was its rival, ''Dainik Bhaskar'' which came close to displacing Jagran's position as the newspaper with the largest readership. Its readership had increased from 15.4 to 15.6 million with gains in Bihar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Joseph |first=Anto T. |date=16 May 2020 |title=For newspapers battered by the economic slowdown, Covid-19 is the final blow |url=https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/05/16/for-newspapers-battered-by-the-economic-slowdown-covid-19-is-the-final-blow |website=]}}</ref> |
Revision as of 20:37, 17 September 2022
Indian Hindi language daily newspaper
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Front page, 28 March 2010 | |
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Jagran Prakashan Limited |
Founded | 1942; 83 years ago (1942) |
Language | Hindi |
Headquarters | Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Country | India |
Circulation | 34 lakh (3.4 million) daily (as of July–December 2018) |
OCLC number | 416871022 |
Website | jagran.com |
Dainik Jagran (lit. transl. Daily awakening) is an Indian Hindi language daily newspaper. It was ranked 5th in the world and 2nd in India by circulation in 2016. In 2019 Quarter 4, according to Indian Readership Survey, Dainik Jagran reported a total readership of 6.86 crore (68.6 million) and was the top publication. It is owned by Jagran Prakashan Limited, a publishing house listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.
History
Origins
Dainik Jagran was established in Jhansi, a district town in United Provinces (later renamed Uttar Pradesh), by Puranchand Gupta and first published in 1942. Prior to this, Gupta was worked as the managing editor of a local magazine since 1939 and would frequently visit Bombay to secure advertisements to publish in the magazine, which gave him the required connections and confidence to start a daily newspaper. However, soon after its establishment, the newspaper suspended its publication during the Quit India Movement.
In 1946, Gupta decided that Dainik Jagran should be launched in the city of Lucknow, which was the capital of United Provinces. In preparation for the launch, he acquired a building on rent and sent machinery to be set up there but soon learned that the newspapers National Herald and Pioneer were in the midst of launching their first Hindi language editions Navjeevan and Swatantra Bharat in the same city. It prompted Gupta to quickly change his plans with the decision to launch the newspaper in Kanpur instead. The machinery was diverted to Kanpur, new premises rented out and the newspaper launched on 21 September 1947.
Dainik Jagran reflecting the beliefs of its founder, took a right wing pro-Hindutva line from its inception.
Early history
The newspaper was faced with financial problems in the beginning and Gupta had to borrow from his family to keep it running. He took to cutting down on editorial costs by relying on syndicates which offered articles at cheaper rates and by getting free article submissions from political players and activists who were hungry for publicity. He was on constant visits to metropolitan cities to sell advertisement space on the newspaper, and hired reporters on a part time basis during his visits for newsgathering in those cities. P. D. Gupta who was the younger brother of Puranchand launched two editions of the newspaper in Madhya Pradesh; the Rewa edition in 1953 and the Bhopal edition in 1956.
By the mid 1950s, Gupta had started making pitches for advertisements and advertising the Dainik Jagran itself. In the 1956 edition of The Indian Press Year Book, the newspaper was advertised as The Daily Jagran and claimed to have a circulation of 21,000 copies covering Uttar Pradesh and Vindhya Pradesh. Gupta registered the newspaper at the Registrar of Newspapers for India, joined the industry body Audit Bureau of Circulation and joined the publisher's club Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society (IENS) where he became an executive member by 1960. He also inducted his six sons into the newspaper's management while they were still in school.
Conflict with Aj and Emergency
In 1975, Dainik Jagran launched its Gorakhpur edition which brought it into direct conflict with the newspaper Aj. The Kanpur edition, run by Puranchand Gupta was covering four neighbouring districts from the city and had reached a limit where it could no longer increase its circulation in the regional market.
The newspaper had become financially secure and had liquid funds at hand, that led Gupta's sons to encourage him to look into expansion. They had thought of Gorakhpur as the first place to go as it did have a local newspaper or an newspaper edition that was based in the city at that time. Gorakhpur was instead being covered by the Varanasi-based Aj and the city lay within its circulation area. Aj itself had a monetary surplus and its editor Vinod Shukla was looking to expand the newspaper as he predicted that a single edition newspaper in Uttar Pradesh would become unviable in the long term. Shukla who had visited Kanpur in 1974 found Jagran to have carried very substandard content and expected an expansion attempt in the city to be easy. The paper had brought out printing machines for Kanpur in December and responded almost immediately after Jagran's Gorakhpur launch by launching its own Kanpur edition in April 1975.
The Kanpur edition of Aj had launched only two months before the imposition of Emergency rule and subsequent press censorship. Shivprasad Gupta, the owner of Aj was unsure about the expansion but Shukla supported by Gupta's son used the period as an opportunity to consolidate the newspaper. The Emergency created a demand for critical journalism which the newspaper provided and enabled it to make inroads in Jagran's market share. On the streets of Kanpur, fights broke out between men hired by the two newspapers who used weapons such as batons and improvised firearms against each other for control over offices, territory and distribution.
In midst of the conflict hawkers gained significant influence over the newspapers; initially Aj was charged a commission rate of 20% while Jagran was charged 30%, but the hawkers forced the former to increase its rate over the latter, marking the beginning of a period of fierce negotiations over commission rates and recurrent increases in the rates for both newspapers. Eventually the conflict ended when the two newspapers decided to join hands against the hawkers and pushed the commission rate back down to a fixed 30%.
During the Emergency, the circulation of Hindi newspapers rose significantly as a result of increased political consciousness and by 1977, the number of newspapers that were selling more 100,000 copies had risen to over 10 from a figure three before its imposition. Dainik Jagran and Aj were both among the new newspapers to join the 100,000+ club. The period had transformed the newspaper industry and regional language papers including that of Hindi became the face of the rapidly changing industry that would be transformed into mass media over the course of the following decades. Government policy was changed as well which facilitated the growth of the industry.
Expansion in Uttar Pradesh
Jhansi (1942)Kanpur (1947)Gorakhpur (1975)Lucknow (1979)Varanasi (1981)Meerut (1984)Agra (1986)Bareilly (1989)class=notpageimage| Editions of Dainik Jagran in Uttar Pradesh as of 1990.The launch of Jagran's Gorakhpur edition marked the beginning of the newspaper's own period of rapid expansion. In 1979, the newspaper launched two editions in Lucknow and Allahabad. Vinod Shukla was hired to oversee the Lucknow edition and help them force its way into the Lucknow market, where the newspaper faced intense competition and pressures from trade unions. The Allahabad edition was shifted to Varanasi in 1981. The newspaper then entered the circulation area of Amar Ujala, launching a Meerut edition in 1984, a Agra edition in 1986 and a Bareilly edition in 1989. In 1989–90, Navbharat Times which dominated the circulation in Lucknow discontinued all its editions except the Bombay and Delhi editions after being hit by an eight month long shut-down in the cities of Lucknow and Patna. The discontinuation allowed Jagran to rapidly increase its circulation in the Lucknow region with minimal hindrance.
Anti–Reservation stir and Communalism
The owners of the mainstream Hindi newspapers came from upper caste families, and had mercantile urban backgrounds. The Gupta family that owned the Dainik Jagran was one them. They social background of the owners formed the core base of support for the Jan Sangh and its successor the Bharatiya Janata Party. The reporters of these newspapers were generally given clear instructions by owners and their editors to toe a particular line in their reports. The announcement from the V. P. Singh government on implementation of reservations for backward castes on the basis the Mandal Commission recommendations around 1990 became the impetus for many of these newspapers to promote Hindutva propaganda.
Uttar Pradesh between 1989 and 1992 had severe communal tension as a consequence of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which also made espousing Hindutva profitable as communal reportage generated greater circulation and advertisement revenue. The kind of reportage was further spurred on by direct financial and social support from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva organisations. Dainik Jagran in particular used the situation as an opportunity and took advantage of it by pandering to communal sentiments. It would establish itself as the dominant newspaper in the state during this period.
The newspaper adopted an openly pro-Bharatiya Janata Party and pro-Vishwa Hindu Parishad line, helped disseminate Hindutva opinions and presented heavily skewed as well as falsified accounts of the opposition to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, while taking an heavily adversarial stance towards the parallel emergence of backwards caste and Dalit movements. During the Ram Rath Yatra, Jagran strongly endorsed the movement and began asking readers through news reports and editorials to take a stand. Between late November and early December of 1992, the weeks leading up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the newspaper would regularly dedicate eight columns on the front page to the Ayodhya–Ram Janmabhoomi episode. The sustained coverage is considered to be unprecedented in the history of print and electronic media. According to an insider at Jagran newsrooms, the bias was so conspicuous that the staff chanted "Jai Shri Ram" when the mosque was brought down.
Narendra Mohan, the Chairman of the Jagran Prakashan would get elected to the Rajya Sabha through a nomination from the Bharatiya Janata Party. In Ranchi, a complaint was filed at the Press Council of India against Aj and Jagran by a local editor for instigating communalism. The animosity towards lower castes culminated into an incident known as the Halla Bol in 1994 where the offices of the Jagran and those of Amar Ujala faced widespread attacks from followers of Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Press Council would eventually rebuke Jagran among several other newspapers for instigating mass hysteria and provoking communal hatred through rumours, exaggeration, doctored pictures, fabricated figures and other distortions. Mohan would some years later instruct his editorial staff to tone down its coverage so that it wouldn't be seen as a substitute to Panchajanya, the official Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh magazine.
Mayawati daughter story (1995)
In December 1995, Dainik Jagran published a story with the claim that Mayawati, the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, had an illegitimate 12 year old daughter. Published at the bottom of the first page in a short two column section, the story included claims that her daughter was hidden away in New Delhi and was borne out of a former "love marriage", based on an interview with a disgrunted member of the party. The newspaper went to the extent of calling Mayawati a "chamarin", a derogatory slur used for Dalit women.
Despite the story having been given less importance by the newspaper, it created a sensation as having an illegitimate child was a serious accusation for an unmarried woman and a question of virtue. In addition, Mayawati maintained a public image that she had denied herself family and children to fulfill the objectives of the Self-Respect Movement which sought equality for lower castes. The story caused resentment among Dalits and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which mainly drew support from them described it as the latest example of a Brahmin dominated press and establishment's constant mudslinging against lower castes. In Lucknow, supporters of the party demonstrated around the office of the newspaper, blockading it for a day. There were reports of violence during the protest and the author who wrote the piece was threatened.
The story also faced criticism from journalists and commentators. It was condemned as sensationalist journalism that was engaging in gossip about the private life of a female politician and disparaging her. The criticism was accompanied by questions on Dainik Jagran's ambitions of becoming a serious national newspaper and charges of the newspaper lacking journalistic ethics, professionalism and credibility. Some of the prominent critics included the chairman of the Press Council, Judge P. B. Sawant and the editor-in-chief of Jansatta, Prabash Joshi. K. Vikram Rao, the national chairman of a major journalist's union suggested that a more rigorous system was required, that a specialised training in journalism should be needed before a person could be employed by a newspaper and that the Press Council should have stronger tools for penalising journalists.
Staff at the newspaper strongly rejected the charges against the newspaper though they were apologetic about the story. Vinod Shukla, who was the resident editor in Lucknow was infuriated by the criticism, particularly that from Joshi and dismissed it as jealously during his editorial meetings. Narendra Mohan who was the owner and editor-in-chief of the newspapers at the time, responded to the criticism with an editorial. In the newspaper's defense, he stated that the newspaper itself was against this kind of journalism and he regretted that the story had been published but alleged that the fault lay on western norms influencing Indian journalism and on Mayawati herself who according to him used "ugly language" and was part of a trend where Indian politics had become unethical which had led to the situation.
In response to the protest by BSP supporters, journalists who were supportive of newspaper held there own protest against the party describing it to be in defense of press freedom. It was reported that several newspapers were going to boycott the party's campaign during the upcoming assembly election though the boycott was only upheld by Dainik Jagran. Some commentators noted that while journalists had frequently faced violence, generally from Hindutva groups, such an instance leading to a boycott was unique and had resulted from the only instance in which a newspaper had faced attacks from a Dalit group.
Later expansions
The Delhi edition of the Daink Jagran was launched in 1990. According to the then Chairman of Jagran Prakashan, Yogendra Mohan Gupta, his executives had advised him that in order to make Jagran a national newspaper, they had to launch an edition in Delhi. From the 1990s onwards, established Hindi language newspapers such as the Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and Amar Ujala went on a multi edition expansion beyond their home states. The newspapers had a new generation of foreign educated heirs, generally sons or nephews of the older owners who unlike their predecessors took active interest in expansions, capital acquisition and partnerships. For Jagran, it was the second and third generation of the proprietors who charted the expansion and localisation strategy of the newspaper.
The expanding newspapers were motivated by the prospects of revenues that could be obtained by offering increased overall readership figures to advertisers. They copied the strategy that was devised by Samir Jain's The Times of India, a newspaper that had become extremely profitable by increasing marketing efforts, introducing colored newspapers while lowering cover prices that starting a price war and led to increase in circulation which in turn brought in high revenues from advertisements. Dainik Jagran also adopted a mass media content strategy of localisation through trivia laden local news, and employed local part time stringers for its newsgathering operations. The expansion efforts by the established newspapers led to increased localisation of news content across the Hindi belt but severely harmed stand-alone local newspapers who were unable to compete against them in terms of production or offers to advertisers. The changes however did not bring about any improvements in the working conditions, job security and professional autonomy of reporters. Most of them were kept as part timers and those who were granted regular positions were retained on a "hire-and-fire" basis. In 1992, Jagran had only 55 full time staff correspondents and 300 "working journalists" in a total staff strength of 700, the rest being stringers, regional correspondents, etc.
Jagran launched its Aligarh edition in 1993, the Dehradun edition in 1997 and the Jalandhar edition in 1999. In 1995, its circulation exceeded 0.5 million and the newspaper was being published from 12 locations across Uttar Pradesh and in New Delhi. In the National Readership Survey of 1999, Dainik Jagran was the first and only Hindi language newspaper to feature in the top 5 newspapers in terms of readership, at a time when newspapers from southern India dominated the readership figures. When Uttaranchal became a state and Dehradun its capital, Dainik Jagran’s circulation experienced a four fold growth in the new state due to the increased commercial importance of the state's capital. In 2000, the Dainik Jagran launched three editions in Hissar, Patna and Allahabad, and in the following year it launched an edition in Moradabad. In Patna, the capital of Bihar, the newspaper focused on crime stories and prioritised presenting the law and order situation in a negative light to its readers.
In February 2003, the newspaper launched 3 editions in Jharkhand in the cities of Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. The newspaper was aggressively marketed and publicised but was unable to make a significant impact as Prabhat Khabar dominated the market in the state. Dainik Jagran launched editions in Bhagalpur and Panipat in the same year, two more editions in the cities of Ludhiana and Nainital in 2004 and then the Muzaffarpur, Dharamshala and Jammu editions in 2005. In Punjab, the newspaper faced competition from the likes of Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala and Hindustan, all of which expanded aggressively in the state. The rapid expansion by the 4 newspapers broke down the dominance of the Punjab Kesari by 2005. Commercial interests in the wake of the rapid rise of Hindi newspaper readership also compelled the mainstream Hindi newspapers to moderate their adversarial stance towards backward and scheduled caste leaders. By 2006, the upper caste Chairman of Jagran Prakashan, Mahendra Mohan Gupta was vying for a Rajya Sabha nomination from the Samajwadi (Socialist) Party which was led by the backward-caste Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In the meantime Dainik Jagran emerged as the newspaper with the largest readership from 2004 onwards having displaced Bhaskar that had occupied the position since 2002. The two newspapers had come to a tacit understanding since the beginning of their out of state expansion drives in the mid-1990s, that they would not encroach upon each other's territories. As a consequence, Jagran had not launched a new edition in Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh while Bhaskar had not launched any editions in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or Jharkhand. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, those who were subscribed to Dainik Jagran were primarily migrants who had come from Utter Pradesh and wanted news from their native region. In 2006, the understanding between the two was broken by Jagran when the newspapers launched its Indore edition. The new edition would however be unable to compete against Bhaskar and Nai Duniya. On the other hand, Bhaskar would respond by launching its own editions in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Patna between 2010 and 2014.
Government advertisements and shrinking readership
From the onset of Narendra Modi's tenure as the Prime Minister of India, government spending on advertisements in Dainik Jagran saw a sharp increase. Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, the revenues solely from government advertisements of the Central Government was reported to be over ₹100 crore (equivalent to ₹112 crore or US$13 million in 2023). In one financial year, FY2017–18, the newspaper received ₹36.4 crore (equivalent to ₹41 crore or US$4.8 million in 2023) in ad revenue from the Central Government which was more than the combined ad revenue of ₹33.2 crore (equivalent to ₹37 crore or US$4.4 million in 2023) that the paper had recieved between 2010 and 2013, covering three financial years before Modi had come to power. Jagran's sister publications such as Mid-Day and Inquilab experienced similar increases in revenue from government advertisements. The advertisement spending by state governments of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly the Uttar Pradesh Government whose advertisements regularly featured in the newspaper was not disclosed upon Right to Information (RTI) requests.
Per the Indian Readership Survey in 2019, Dainik Jagran's average issue readership fell by 17% from a figure of 20.3 million to 16.9 million. In Uttar Pradesh which stood as its biggest market, the readership fell from 12 million to 9.97 million while in the state of Bihar, it fell from 3.41 million to 2.97 million. The fall in readership was part of a general trend of fall in newspaper readership due to economic slowdown, only 3 out of the 10 newspapers with the largest readership did not experience a fall. One of them was its rival, Dainik Bhaskar which came close to displacing Jagran's position as the newspaper with the largest readership. Its readership had increased from 15.4 to 15.6 million with gains in Bihar.
Coronavirus pandemic and aftermath
On 22 March 2020, the COVID-19 lockdown in India was announced and it heavily impacted news publishers who were already strained due to the emergence of other forms of news media that had splintered audiences and due to the economic slowdown caused by demonitisation and GST. R. K. Agarwal, the CFO of Jagran Prakashan described the situation as a nightmare. Dainik Jagran adopted across the board cost cutting measures; the newspapers halved the number of pages and consolidated printing. It also started raising its cover prices whenever it could which Agarwal claimed was done to recover lost advertisement revenue.
In its pandemic reportage, the newspaper promoted conspiracy theories against Muslims and extensively publicised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh including through the publication of various articles authored by its senior leaders. The overall coverage lacked transparency, journalistic ethics, accuracy and factual reporting. The reportage prioritised stories on Tablighi Jamaat publishing 230 of them on its frontpage including 120 above the fold and blamed Muslims for the pandemic. The newspaper created a narrative that the government was well prepared and had brought the pandemic under control but simultenously presented the idea that Muslims were intentionally spreading the virus which had led to the nation losing the "battle against coronavirus". Muslims were dehumanised as the "nation's enemies" and depicted as uncivilised violent people who attacked healthcare professionals and violated lockdown measures.
Dainik Jagran's coverage largely ignored and distracted from issues such as the mass exodus of migrant workers, low testing rates, the lack of PPE kits and ventilators in hospitals and general mismanagement by the government. It instead condemned opposition parties that criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's management and accused them of spreading "negativity" at a time when the government was dealing with a "war-like situation". The newspaper itself criticised measures taken by state governments with a opposition party or coalition in power while praising similar measures taken in Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.
Mass burials story (2021)
During second wave of the pandemic, national news publishers such as Dainik Bhaskar, India Today magazine and Mojo Story, and international ones such as Reuters and BBC had published reports and images of mass burials on the banks of the river Ganga and bodies floating all across the river caused by people's inability to afford crematoriums that were severely overburdened from Coronavirus related deaths.
On 23 May 2021, Dainik Jagran published a frontpage story that claimed that the mass burials were normal, that no increase in deaths had occurred and that those who were buried had died of leprosy and snake bites, dismissing the reports from other news publishers as mere sensationalism. The story included a comparison of a recent image with an image that it claimed was taken three years ago from a mass burial at the Shringverpur ghat in Prayagraj and on its basis falsely stated that most images of mass burials at the ghat were taken before the pandemic. According to the news piece, Jagran had employed a five-man team who made finding after covering over a dozen villages along a 70 km stretch on the Ganga, which included the Phaphamau and Shringverpur ghats. The story was highlighted by BJP politicians including the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and then followed by a series of reports from the newspaper between late May to early June that attempted to reinforce the same idea. The newspaper before publishing the 23 May piece had previously published news reports which contradictorily stated that there was an increase in mass burials and coronavirus related deaths.
In June, a journalistic investigation was conducted into the claims made by Dainik Jagran that found their claims did not match ground realities and noted that the newspaper was known to have been receiving large revenues through government advertisements and disguising them as news. The investigation could not verify the age of the old image but it was found that the image was taken at a different location. Independent journalist Prashant Singh conducted several interviews with pandits, pandas (household priests), gravediggers and other locals at the two ghats who all confirmed that while some burials had always occurred, they had never seen such a large scale increase in their numbers before the pandemic. The investigative report was published by the fact checking organisation Alt News, which was supported by Prayagraj-based photojournalist Prabhat Kumar Verma, Aaj Tak reporter Shivendra Srivastav who had covered Phaphamau ghat and government data related to local management. Alt News contacted reporters at Dainik Jagran's Prayaraj edition who refused to comment on the story but two of them confirmed that there was an unprecedented increase in the number of mass burials.
In response to the Alt News report, Dainik Jagran filed a defamation case against the organisation claiming that the report had made disparging remarks about the newspaper and forwarded a plea that the report should be suppressed for the duration of the case. On 1 November 2021, the Delhi High Court squashed the plea stating that there was "no reason to intervene and stifle free speech", noting the interviews that the report was based on and stated the report was within the ambit of public interest.
Criticism
Dainik Jagran observed silence over Delhi violence and was accused of suppressing the incident.
Dainik Jagran is also accused of running false narratives in support of the BJP government. It ran a news covering Hathras gangrape and murder incident declaring it as a false case of rape and tried to defend the rapists which were later refuted by the CBI when it said that gangrape did occur and the state tried to do a cover-up.
Dainik Jagran is accused of running smear campaigns against Indian mathematician and educationalist, Anand Kumar printing false news about his institution called Super 30.
Dainik Jagran demonised and ran a smear campaign against activist Afreen Fatima when UP officials demolished her house, including claiming that she expressed her support for terrorist Afzal Guru.
See also
Notes
- Dainik Jagran's story on Mayawati also revived earlier rumours that she had been in an illicit long term relationship with the founder Kanshi Ram, which contributed to the general depiction of Dalits as immoral people.
- Jagran Prakashan eventually bought out the Indore based Nai Duniya in 2012 to establish a presence in Madhya Pradesh.
References
- "Highest Circulated Daily Newspapers (language wise)" (PDF). Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- Aneez, Z.; Chattapadhyay, S.; Parthasarathi, V.; Nielsen, R. K. (2016). "Digital Transition of Newspapers in India: Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Times, and Malayala Manorama". Indian Newspapers' Digital Transition. Centre for Internet and Society. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – via University of Oxford.
- "Details of most circulated publications for the audit period Jan – Jun 2016" (PDF). Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- "INDIAN READERSHIP SURVEY 2019 Q4" (PDF). Indian Readership Survey.
- Nag, Tirthankar; Basu, Rituparna; Dasgupta, Buroshiva (1 January 2017). "Dainik Jagran: sustaining leadership in the newspaper industry". Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies. 7 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1108/EEMCS-05-2016-0083. ISSN 2045-0621.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 54–56. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
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- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 17. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
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- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 57–58. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 269. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Rajagopal, Arvind (2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-521-64839-4.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Jeffrey, Robin (2005). "The Public Sphere of Print Journalism". In Rajan, Nalini (ed.). Practising Journalism: Values, Constraints, Implications. SAGE Publications. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-7619-3378-6.
- ^ Rajagopal, Arvind (2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-521-64839-4.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 225–226. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Rajagopal, Arvind (2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-521-64839-4.
- ^ Neyazi, Taberez Ahmed (2018). Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi Media in India. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-108-41613-9.
- ^ Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 209–211. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- ^ Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 215–216. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003). India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India. Columbia University Press. p. 414. ISBN 978-0-23112-786-8.
- Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 217–218. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 220–222. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- ^ Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- ^ Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 14. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (2013). The Indian Media Business: Pandemic and After. SAGE Publications. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-81-321-1356-0.
- Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (2013). The Indian Media Business: Pandemic and After. SAGE Publications. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-81-321-1356-0.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 20. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 24. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 42. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Rajagopal, Arvind (2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-0-521-64839-4.
- Stahlberg, Per (2002). "The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India". In Poluha, Eva; Rosendahl, Mona (eds.). Contesting 'Good' Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 211–215. ISBN 978-1-136-12538-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 16. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 196. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 159. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Harivansh (2005). "Prabhat Khabar: An Experiment in Journalism". In Rajan, Nalini (ed.). Practising Journalism: Values, Constraints, Implications. SAGE Publications. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-0-7619-3378-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 47. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. p. 43. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- ^ Neyazi, Taberez Ahmed (2018). Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi Media in India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-1-108-41613-9.
- Ninan, Sevanti (2007). Headlines From the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere. SAGE Publications. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-81-7829-971-6.
- Tiwari, Ayush; Kumar, Basant (20 February 2021). "A Dainik Jagran guide to Adityanath government's propaganda". Newslaundry.
- Joseph, Anto T. (16 May 2020). "For newspapers battered by the economic slowdown, Covid-19 is the final blow". Newslaundry.
- Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (2013). The Indian Media Business: Pandemic and After. SAGE Publications. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-81-321-1356-0.
- ^ Musolff, Andreas; Breeze, Ruth; Kondo, Kayo; Vilar-Lluch, Sara (2022). Pandemic and Crisis Discourse: Communicating COVID-19 and Public Health Strategy. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 362–363. ISBN 978-1-350-23269-3.
- Musolff, Andreas; Breeze, Ruth; Kondo, Kayo; Vilar-Lluch, Sara (2022). Pandemic and Crisis Discourse: Communicating COVID-19 and Public Health Strategy. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-350-23269-3.
- ^ Musolff, Andreas; Breeze, Ruth; Kondo, Kayo; Vilar-Lluch, Sara (2022). Pandemic and Crisis Discourse: Communicating COVID-19 and Public Health Strategy. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-1-350-23269-3.
- ^ Mehta, Archit; Singh, Prashant (29 May 2021). "Dainik Jagran's misleading reports portray mass burials in Prayagraj haven't risen due to COVID". Alt News.
- "Court rejects 'Dainik Jagran' plea to remove 'Alt News' article on its reporting of mass burials". Scroll.in. 3 November 2021.
- "Delhi Court Rejects Dainik Jagran's Injunction Application to Take Down Alt News Article". The Wire. 3 November 2021.
- Thapliyal, Nupur (2 November 2021). "'No Reason To Intervene & Stifle Ever Widening Contours Of Free Speech': Delhi Court Rejects Dainik Jagran's Plea Seeking Removal Of Alt News Article". Live Law.
- Hasan, Zeb (2 November 2021). "No reason to intervene and stifle free speech: Delhi Court junks Dainik Jagran plea seeking removal of Alt News article". Bar & Bench.
- "Jagran ignores Delhi violence, Ujala leads with it — a look at front pages of Hindi press". The print.
- David, Supriti. "How Dainik Jagran and TOI's Lucknow editions ignored the Hathras rape". Newslaundry. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- Amarnath Tewary (22 August 2018). "Bihar Super-30 founder faces smear campaign". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
When asked who is behind all this, he quipped, "everyone knows in Patna who is he…why should I take his name?" Is he former DGP Abhyanand who was earlier associated with Super-30 for five years?, Mr. Kumar did not respond.
- "Dainik Jagran plays judge, jury and executioner as UP officials raze Afreen Fatima's house". Newslaundry. 13 June 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
External links
- Official website (in Hindi)
26°28′50″N 80°18′07″E / 26.48050°N 80.30200°E / 26.48050; 80.30200
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