Editor,
Well, The Shillong Times has done it. A full front page ad on August 17, 2011 and it has proved the apprehension of John D Jayakumar, who in the recent past said whether the four pages will actually help the local news items or the advertisements only time will tell. And the time has arrived, perhaps a bit too early.
But in any case, congratulations to The Shillong Times for adding four more pages to the daily. Also the new look website is indeed a pleasure to watch. What is sought now is it’s round the clock updating because without that this website will be no different from any of the state government websites which provides only details that are dead and gone. Coming back to the 12 page, it is quite evident that these 4 additional pages were added to accommodate more local news but that is not the case as huge advertisements almost everyday swallow the pages like monsters. The additional pages, it can be said, quite unfortunately has given more impetus to advertisers since by comparison The Shillong Times is the only daily among the many others here now, that don’t mind endorsing ads by having lesser news items, or so to say, by dropping news items for ads. I have seen that particularly the first and third page that carries local news is infested with ads and that means lesser news from the state. Here I have few suggestions to make.
(1) Is it possible to shift these advertisements to other unimportant pages or is it the advertisers that call the shot? (2) If it cannot be shifted, then the pages which have been lost due to ads must be compensated with additional pages, so that, local news finds place in the daily. (It has been seen that The Shillong Times has lesser amount of local news than other dailies in recent times, due to this trend).
What is the use in buying The Shillong Times if it carries monstrous ads, only? (3) Now that it is a 12 pager, why not there are more unusual news items (by unusual I mean offbeat – in journalistic terms). Politics, crime, conferences etc. are reported everyday but what is required is that there should be a balance between all these with other offbeat news items, too. The stereotype, political, crime, conferences etc., makes it monotonous reading. (4) I have seen there are correspondents who are hired for reporting on offbeat matters in big dailies. Why can’t The Shillong Times take a lead in this direction? (5) Last but not least, there is no point in having three sports pages in a local daily and that too in a state like Meghalaya where sporting activities are nil.
It may be mentioned that GC Kharkongor, Vice Chancellor, Martin Luther Christian University in a similar letter has rightly said recently that three sports pages are not necessary. I would like to add here, why not we have more pages for local news?
These are only suggestions from a reader and I hope the management would keep in mind the greater interest of its readers.
Yours etc.
CN Smith
Shillong – 14