It has just begun. And no one knows where and when it will end. It is war of all wars in recent times. Media has grown by leaps and bounds in almost all countries and India is no exception to this. India continues to be one of the countries that have been attracting the world’s attention for dynamism and rapid growth in the media field. And the state of Andhra Pradesh in India stands to gain special significance on this count.
The war began on 24 March 2008 when the new Telugu daily ‘Sakshi’ hit the news stands all over India with a print order of more than 1.2 million copies to take on the well established big wig in the Telugu media industry ‘Eenadu’ which was on top with more than 1.1 million copies of print order . Launched by the dynamic young businessman YS Jagan Mohana Reddy, the print order of the new daily ‘Sakshi’ went up by 50 to 60 thousand in a span of hardly two weeks.
It is true that being the son of the Chief Minister of the state, he has an added advantage in making the new media print project a big success. However, if the daily has no relevant stuff and is not liked by the readers, the print order would not have gone up. Certainly, it is liked by the creative Telugu readers of Andhra Pradesh in particular and the Telugu readers of other states in general.
‘Sakshi’ is really creative with all pages coming up in multi colour, a really new phenomenon in the print media. When you take a look at this daily, you feel as if you are viewing a video picture in front of you. The advantage with this new daily is that even the old people with some reading problems can read this as the letters are big.
But the problem with this daily is that it is branded as the official paper / pamphlet of the ruling congress party which is not true. The only reason for this allegation is that the promoter of this daily is the son of the ruling party’s Chief Minister.
The leaders of Telugu Desam Party, the main opposition party in the state, who branded it as the congress daily, are always supported by the other daily ‘Eenadu’. Now they are out of power and the state government is trying to bring out the skeletons from the cupboards of the other businesses of Ch.Ramoji Rao who owns the Eenadu daily, the Telugu Desam leaders have branded it as the ruling Congress party – sponsored daily.
Ever since the Sakshi daily hit the stands, all news items found unfavourable to the opposition Telugu Desam party and to the Ramoji group of businesses as well are being published as banner items and front page news to irk them. Till date, Eenadu follows the same method to irk the ruling congress party and its leaders. It is tit for tat and Eenadu is now at the receiving end.
“Well ! The war has begun. Till now, its war is limited to the corridors of Congress and Telugu Desam parties alone. The only wish of Andhra people is that it should not turn into a proxy war between Kamma community people who dominate the Telugu Desam Party and Reddy community people who dominate the Congress party in the state”, commented a young person who is not a member of either of these parties.
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