Raja's read only memories

Print in its myriad forms -- source: Internet One may proclaim that factors such as corporate ownership or paid news are the biggest enemies of print media. Bunkum. Its real enemy is, also the unlikeliest: its consumer or the price-conscious reader. The reader, who invariably makes no distinction between content and price and would not even bat an eyelid before switching to another brand simply if it costs a rupee less.  Thanks to him, newspapers dread the prospect of raising their prices, fearing that it may drive him away to their competitors – even if it means facing an existential crisis, day-in, day-out .  Even a high-school economics student would point out that if the selling price of your product is not even a third of its manufacturing cost, rest assured of a deep hole in the pocket. Be it the stockbroker at Dalal Street, the roadside vegetable seller or the dealer for the latest range of iWhat-nots, margins matter. Even if you are running a Ponzi scheme. ...

Life must have come a full-circle for Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday when Bangalore police commissioner M N Reddi announced that the phones of relatives close to Union railway minister D V Sadananda Gowda were wire-tapped for five days. The previous time a similar scandal erupted in the state – wire-tapping of the phones of former Lokayukta, Justice Santosh Hegde, who was to submit his report on illegal mining in the state in 2011 – it was Siddaramaiah, as leader of Congress party-led Opposition, who galvanized public anger against then BJP government. Hence, his abject silence over the latest controversy brewing in the state comes as a shocking surprise. Questions arise over whether the government went by the rule-book in ordering the eavesdropping. The commissioner defended it by saying Gowda’s son Karthik – who has been accused by a Kannada actress of cheating and raping her – did not turn up even after two police summonses were issued to him. It is diffic...