Role of Press in Pakistani Media Landscape

“Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, like the New York Herald Tribune, history itself is denied a devoted witness.”

-Richard Kluger

Newspapers

Newspapers are very prominent representatives of the press. They are considered more objective and more reliable then the sensationalized TV news channels. To have an in-depth look at the prominent newspapers and their editorial setup we interviewed Mr. Asif Noorani.

Mr.Asif Noorani is the sub editor of The Star Pakistan's most widely read English Language evening newspaper. It was founded in 1953, in Karachi, Pakistan.

It is published as part of the Dawn Group of Newspapers by Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Limited (PHPL). Focusing on controversial and current issues, the STAR has gained a reputation for being outspoken and hard-hitting.

Although evening newspapers are no longer very popular in Pakistan, The Star had managed to stay afloat, thanks to a steady and reliable reader base. Imran Aslam, now President of Geo TV, served as an Editor for The Star.

Editorial setup in Pakistani Newspapers

In most cases in Pakistan those who have financial stakes in newspapers and magazines (mostly proprietors) are also the editors of the publications, which is an unfair practice because commercial interests often clash with responsible editorial policies.

There have, however, been a few exceptions. Pakistan Times, published from Lahore and Rawalpindi, and Dawn, now published from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad have had professional editors, who reported to the owners only in so far as the policy of the publication was concerned. They have the authority to hire (and fire) the editorial staff and transfer them, if there be a need for it. The owner’s name doesn’t even appear on the newspaper.

Newspapers and their Political alliances

In papers like called Jasarat( Jamaat-e-Islami paper), the high command of the party appoints the chief executive who has to subscribe to the policies of the party. He in turn appoints a professional editor, who just has to have policy guidelines in front of him while running the show professionally.

Musawat, a paper from the stable of the Pakistan People’s Party, now no more, was another such example. That’s not an unusual point we come across papers all over the world which are owned by political parties.

We also find papers which have their fixed leanings. For example, The Telegraph of the UK is a rightist paper, while The Guardian and The Independent, both published from London, are what they call the left of the centre publications.

In Pakistan some journalists who have enough money or can get financial support become the proprietors of the newspapers and/or magazines that they start bringing out. After them their sons take over. But it’s not a happy sign for as already mentioned the owner should not be the editor for there are chances that economic considerations may take precedence over editorial honesty.

Professional setup in the print media

Let’s have a look at the professional setup in print media. The editor is considered senior to production director, finance director, marketing directors (one responsible for advertising and the other for circulation), HR chief and the procurement head. He is in some ways a more privileged person in the newspaper industry.

Under the editor there are assistant editors or senior subeditors responsible for the leader and op-ed pages (abbreviated from opposite the editorial page), news pages, city pages, business and financial pages, sports pages and magazines.

In the case of news section, under the news editor there are shift in charges, who work in two shifts, one that commences in the afternoon and ends till the late evening, and the second shift, often nicknamed the graveyard shift which works till the early hours of the morning. The shift in-charges have subeditors working for them, whose job is to edit the copies. The shift in-charge of the second shift gets the news pages done, both national pages and international pages. The city editor has subeditors too and he gets the page makers to make his pages. The city editor has reporters and photographers working for him. In some leading foreign papers they have photo editors too, who work for the news editors. They commission the photographs and determine the size of its publication.

The reporters have their beats. The lady who covers the educational institution will not cover the annual general meetings of corporate bodies, just as a sports reporter will not cover cultural functions like book launches and art exhibitions. Also among the political reporters, there is a division of political parties. So, if there is a press conference of the PPP, the reporter whose beat is the PPP will attend it. About the same time there may be a demonstration by the MQM, so the reporter who is assigned the party will make it a point to cover the event.

Some of the leading newspapers have special correspondents employed on a salary basis or as stringers, who are paid on the basis of their reports, both at home and abroad. The main cities have bureaus, where there is a chief reporter under whom there may be one or more junior reporters.

Since it’s not possible for any newspaper to have reporters at all places at home and abroad, they rely on the news and photographs from news agencies, such as Reuters, AFP, AP and our own APP.

They also have syndicated services with leading newspapers abroad, whereby they can carry news items, articles, features and photographs published in those papers. Needless to say, the newspapers which use the contents pay to the content-producing publications. For instance, Dawn uses Guardian Service (which is based on the articles or features published in the Guardian newspaper).

The man or woman in-charge of the op-ed pages gets editorials written by the team of staff writers and articles on these pages (also referred to as leader pages, since leader or lead article is the word commonly used for editorials). The op-ed page in-charge commissions articles, who are supposed to be authorities in their fields and also hires columnists, who write every week or sometimes every other week on different subjects.

Columnists don’t write only on the op-ed pages. Even pull out magazines have their columnists. There are some guests columnists who are invited to write for a particular slot once in a while.

Newspaper printing press at work

Magazines

With the increase in the number of pull out magazines, which are mostly weekly magazines, the business of magazines sold separately has suffered. Why would anyone, except for diehard film enthusiasts buy a film magazine, when almost all newspapers have entertainment sections or pull out magazines at least once a week?

But there are still some magazines such as She for woman, Spider for computer users and two or three business magazines, and three fashion magazines which are doing quite well. There used to be a magazine for teenagers (Teenager) but because of poor quality of writings and bad editing the magazine didn’t run for a long time. Also there are now youth pages in many newspapers. There used to be children’s magazines, but now with almost every newspaper having a children’s magazine or a page or two for the kids, those magazines had to close down.

The magazines have columnists, freelance writers, reviewers and experts writing on different subjects. Since the magazines have to go into print earlier so as not to disturb the schedule of the news pages, the deadlines have to be three or four days before the day they are supposed to be delivered with the main newspaper to the subscribers.

The introduction of 24 hour TV news channels and the Internet, even if a smaller segment of the population has access to it, leave the newspaper to carry comments and analyses on events and developments of national or international importance. This happened even in the past when cricket aficionados saw a one-day international or a day’s proceedings of the Test match but read the comments of the likes of Omar Kureishi avidly.

Similarly comments on the changes in the performance of the stock markets evoked keenness among the readers to get the comments and the forecasts of experts in the next day’s newspapers.

Multi-city Newspapers

For a multi-city newspaper, the editor and most of his deputies sit in the head office – Karachi in the case of Dawn and Lahore in the case of Daily Times – there are, however, resident editors in other cities from where they have reporters and subeditors. The local pages are produced by the resident editors. The main body of the newspaper – the editorial pages, the business section, the international news section, the sports pages and the pull out magazines are all produced at what one would call the head office, for want of a better word.

PCs replacing Paper

A point worth mentioning is that these days newspapers offices have become paperless. The reporters work on PCs and the writers email their contributions, so the person who is supposed to sub (or edit) the copy does that on his own PC before the matter is transferred to the PCs of the page makers. As mentioned earlier even film is being dispensed with in leading newspapers. The pages on the computers are transferred to the plate making section, eliminating the middle stage thus saving both time and money alike.

Deadlines

Journalists, whether they are in the field or are on the desks, have to work under strict deadlines. Any delay would result in the delay in the printing of newspapers. Mind you, there are few things more perishable than the newspaper and nothing more stale than late news.

Niche Magazines

As for magazines, there are very few general interest magazines left in the world. Akhbar-e-Jehan is a notable exception in Pakistan but its circulation is dropping noticeably.

Today we have niche magazines – news magazines, women’s journals, fashion magazines etc. In the US you have magazines devoted to even a subject like cigar. Then there is an old magazine called Ebony, which is only for African-Americans. There are magazines for migrants from different countries such as Pakistan Link and India Abroad.

If there are magazines of national and international importance, there are also magazines which are of interest to people in a certain city. Even in India there are magazines which pertain to cities like New Delhi. They are all about the events and the places in that particular city. Also some international magazines such as Time, Newsweek and Readers’ Digest have editions for different areas in much the same way as some newspapers like Financial Times and Wall Street Journal which have editions in different countries.

The Editor

The editor in the magazine is the ultimate boss. She (or he) has assistants who are in charge of different sections. They have contributors, reporters and columnists too, who are all experts in their own fields. As Mr.Noorani said:

“I write travel pieces and reviews of books, music and art exhibitions, but I have no knowledge of business and industry so I will not attempt that subject, nor will I be asked to write on them.”

Mr.Asim Noorani

The editor is considered senior to production director, finance director, marketing directors (one responsible for advertising and the other for circulation), HR chief and the procurement head. He is in some ways a more privileged person in the newspaper industry.