Skip to main content

When a top media house approaches Counterview for 'content subscription'...

I felt terribly awed, and somewhat strange, when I received an email from the “Hindustan Times Media Group, India”, one of India’s top corporate media houses, owned by  offering Counterview, a nonentity, run on a voluntary basis, and edited by me, offering what was called “content subscription business.” 
The email, by the Group’s “Content Alliances manager”, elated me somewhat – that a top media house has approached me, suggesting, they seem to be closely observing what all is being published in my site, which essentially deals mainly with current affairs stories.
Addressed to me as “Dear Rajiv”, and greeting me on behalf of the powerful media house, the email from the person who sent it to me said, he wanted to “check” if we are “looking to subscribe to more Indian content” for “our website, print and magazine.” It underlined, “We can licence you our digital content. We have content from all genres – Politics, Entertainment, Business, Health and Lifestyle, Tech, Auto etc.”
I don’t know why it talked of “print and magazine”, which we are not, even though it seemed that they appeared to see our website closely. The email observed, “I have seen your website, and as per my observation, the text content of our below given portal will suit your platform and audience, please have a look and let me know if you are interested.”
I liked the criticism, one reason why I thought I should seek details of what the Hindustan Times has to offer, even though the list of offers included following areas:
National - https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/
Tech - https://tech.hindustantimes.com/
Entertainment - https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/
Health- https://www.healthshots.com/
Lifestyle - https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/
Covid 19- https://www.hindustantimes.com/coronavirus/
Opinion- https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion
Auto - https://auto.hindustantimes.com/
Desimartini - https://www.desimartini.com/
Outlook Money- http://www.outlookindia.com/outlookmoney/
The email continued: “Images Subscription: We have launched an image platform called content garden where you can search and download all the images of your choice once you buy a subscription. Please visit the content garden.”
It added, “If you don't want to buy a subscription then you can let us know the images which you want to use for editorial or any other purpose and we will provide you he original image and you can pay us on per images basis. URL - https://www.contentgarden.in/ht/#/”
It continued to explain why I should one subscribe the Hindustan Times content:
1- Well researched content written by experienced journalists and writers.
2- HT is one of the oldest media houses in India, so trustworthy and best quality.
3- Better than Agency content as agency content is available with every other news website.
4- You don't need to arrange the photo separately as the photo will be a part of Rss feed.
Just to check, I decided to send an email seeking “details on what HT has to offer”. I don’t know how it assessed the worth of Counterview, but the person concerned sent “pricing for text news from Hindustan Times”, whose “news will be shared with you through Rss feed,” adding, “Most of the stories will carry an image link also so you don't need to arrange for the images separately.”
The costing was as follows: Rs 18,000 per month for three stories per day; Rs 25,000 per month for five stories per day; and Rs 40,000 per month for 10 stories per day – all with text plus images and in English.
I was also told to note the following:
1- You will be given full access to our daily news base, you can choose and pick the story of your choice.
2- If using on website, proper credit line and canonical tagging is must.
3- Image link will also be provided along with the news feed.
“Please let me know your thoughts on this so that we can discuss and move further”, I was told.
No comments!
Postscript: I replied back stating Counterview is a voluntary site, which perhaps the Hindustan Times people didn't care to see... No reply thereafter. Not even thanks. 

Comments

A. K.. Luke said…
It was not an offer but a poisoned cup.

TRENDING

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

What's wrong with those seeking to promote Sanskrit? An ex-Hindi professor has the answer

Ajay Tiwari  I have always wondered why certain elite sections are so fascinated by Sanskrit, to the extent of even practicing speaking a language that, for all practical purposes, isn’t alive. During my Times of India stint in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat state capital, I personally witnessed an IAS bureaucrat, Bhagyesh Jha, trying to converse with a friend in Sanskrit.