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Neighbourhood newspapers reflect the special concerns of residents, and provide area-specific news, something mainstream papers don't
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U. Ramachandra Rao, who runs a community newspaper — Photo: K. Murali Kumar
BY DEFINITION, their world begins and ends in the neighbourhood. But they're making quite a difference in this small world. Neighbourhood newspapers, well entrenched in the West, are now catching on in India too.
Bangalore itself has around 12-15 such papers, all in bigger neighbourhoods. Some areas like Banashankari and Koramangala have more than one. Some are weeklies, some fortnightlies, others monthlies.
Not all are of the same quality and utility though. From providing valid, much-needed information about local events/services and spearheading successful civic campaigns, to being mere pastimes for its wannabe editors and remaining largely unread, Bangalore's neighbourhood newspapers cover the entire gamut from high utility to superfluity.
Small newspapers come into being and flourish since they have the space, time and freedom and the platform to do what their big cousins, the mainstream newspapers, cannot: that is, holding a magnifying glass to the smaller details of community life. As Asha Murthy, publisher, Times of Vijayanagar and Times of Banashankari, puts it, it is also a way of getting to know your neighbourhood better. In fact, their content is of area-specific interest. So besides ads, you typically find forthcoming events (engagements column) and reviews of just-gone ones; new restaurants, banks, or educational institutions opening up and existing ones adding new services; tuition details; art/dance/music/fitness classes; who has newly moved in or who's leaving; award/honour/achievement by a local resident; visits by celebs or VIPs and so on. Also featured are general information features/columns, on health, books, art and culture. In and Around Richard Town also boasts a cartoon by Ponnappa.
With such a rich fund of valid, local info and community news that mainstream newspapers don't offer, it is little wonder that they have a bank of loyal readers, are patronised by advertisers, and hold their own against bigger publications with city supplements.
Also important components are civic issues. Neighbourhood newspapers reflect the special concerns of the residents and help to create awareness and mobilise local opinion. They even carry out successful civic improvement campaigns. There are articles and alerts on matters of garbage clearance, stray dogs, crime, electricity and water supply.
Lakshmi Krishnamurthy, a resident of Indiranagar, says their association newsletter is effectively helping eradicate the menace of stray dogs and garbage pile-ups in their area. Other papers tell you how they mobilised community support to solve a long-standing streetlight problem or get more drinking water connections.
This community service agenda is often related to the origin of neighbourhood papers. Many of them are offshoots of the local residents' welfare associations and function to further the association's agenda for the neighbourhood — like the Kshema Samachar Herald of Banashankari 2nd Stage or In and Around Richard Town.
The papers' size and substance vary too — from miniature four pagers to 12-page ones. Many tend to keep away from crime or sensationalist stories as a policy, and also leave politics to the bigger guns. However, Kshema Samachar Herald did do a special on the elections, focusing on the local candidates and local election issues. Almost all neighbourhood newsletters are distributed free. (Notable exception: Herald at Rs. 20 per year). This entails less revenue but guaranteed greater reach (most are delivered door-to-door) and, importantly, no headaches of subscriptions and pricing strategies. So, how do they survive? Advertisements are almost always the only source of revenue. And there are lots of them, sometimes overwhelming the editorial content. For advertisers, it makes business sense. Here they have a platform that is close to their target. And from mere handbills, posters and banners they have a more focussed medium.
For financial reasons, the staff in these newspapers mostly comprise part-timers. Some are journalists and others residents with a flair or desire for writing. Asha Murthy has an editor who is a real estate businessman editing the paper in his spare time. Anyway, given their size, periodicity and area of operation, these papers don't really need full-time workers.
How seriously do readers take them? Koramangala residents C. Vaishali and C. Gunaranjan, software consultants, feel their community newspaper is useful when it comes to finding out about local art classes and tuitions. "It is a better alternative to the posters in supermarkets, street corners in sourcing such information, but there is not enough of really useful stuff like a list of useful local numbers for example: we find the papers too advertisment-and event-centric."
Banashankari 2nd Stage resident and software company partner Gautham Murthy says: "They are useful for making us aware of the goings on within the community — both social and civic. But their articles are not mature enough and don't have enough depth to warrant more than a glance."
There is also another aspect to these papers, which indicates why they survive despite some shortcomings. As Manjunath Sadavashiva, Chief Programme Officer, Public Affairs Centre (an NGO which maintains a list of these papers), says: "NNPs have the potential of fostering a sense of community. They give you a sense of belonging." So an emotional and psychological factor too contributes to their establishment and patronage by the target neighbourhood.
In the end, the desire to change things and communicate with others is a natural one. It's difficult to influence a country. If we want to change things, it is a good idea to begin at the micro level. And a neighbourhood newspaper tries.
A FEW NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWSPAPERS
Star of Koramangala
This Week, Koramangala
This Week, Indiranagar
This Week, Jayanagar
JNR Today
Times of Banashankari
Times of Vijayanagar
Times of Indiranagar
Koramangala Suddhi (bilingual)
Sneha Setu (Kannada)
South Bangalore News (covers a few neighbourhoods)
Mitra (in HSR Layout)
ARUNA CHANDARAJU
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