When print journalism falters and disappoints

I have always been a fan of Economic Times, the first business daily in India. A  reader for the last 35 years and a subscriber for 33 years, the paper has unquestionably helped me in knowing more about business, finance, economics and management. I used to cherish  the unconventional approach and to a very large extent the courage it demonstrated in being very focused. I was also fortunate and privileged  to get three or four of my articles published on the edit page of the paper.

But, of late, the very focus which attracted me to the paper seems to be losing, leading to disappointments. For example, the paper on June 15 carried an article by Reshmi Dasgupta on the edit page about the media Baron Rupert Murdoch’s divorce from his current wife Wendi Deng(“The Media Baron, the Wives and Making Decisive Splits”).Had the piece been about  the economics of divorce, I wouldn’t have cared much. But sad to say, it had nothing  much inside that deserves to be published  in a business daily, much less  any positioning on the  edit page.

The paper may lose its  hardcore followers, unless  the editors  take special care to be more focused.