More Sackings at The Nation

As if almost on cue to khabardrama's long-delayed review of Arif Nizami's Pakistan Today (see previous post), comes news from chacha Majid Nizami's The Nation of large-scale layoffs at the paper there (no, we don't think there's any connection).

More than 30 staffers have been summarily dismissed today without any advance warning from the Lahore office alone and several from Islamabad as well. The Peshawar and Karachi bureaus fear that the axe will next fall on them. Economic difficulties are being cited as the only reason. It's not entirely clear yet whether the personnel sacked were the same ones who had recently received long-delayed raises or whether these layoffs had anything to do with the very recent departure of editor Shireen Mazari.

It should be kept in mind that Majid Nizami can be a vengeful proprietor. We heard about a peon who was recently summarily sacked after more than 20 years of service, simply because the management suspected that his loyalties may still lie with the embittered former editor (and nephew) Arif Nizami.

The Nation does seem to be in freefall. And it's difficult to see how such measures are going to help it meet the challenge posed by the brash new competitors such as Express Tribune and Pakistan Today, both of which have oodles of cash backing them up.

Solid Staid

First of all an apology and an excuse. I have been meaning to write about Arif Nizami's long-awaited Pakistan Today ever since it hit the newstands but have found myself contracting a severe case of writer's block every time I sat down to do just that.

Front page, Berliner-style

The reason is simple. Maybe it's just me, but I need to either love something passionately to feel motivated enough to gush about it in print or to feel it's so bad that I can't wait to tear it to pieces. In the present case, I felt no such overpowering emotion. No adulation or loathing or anything so strong. Just a vague grey reaction. Competent, I thought. Pretty decent. Promising. Not too bad really. A solid, worthy venture. But nothing exciting. Or too awful.

The paper certainly looks different though. Mainly because it doesn't look like your average broadsheet Pakistani daily due to its 'Berliner' (not tabloid, they insist) format. Now I do realise that most upmarket British dailies like the Independent, Times and Guardian also opted for this format some years ago (while giving readers a choice of both formats). But while I could understand their logic for doing so in a country where everyone reads during their long bus, train or underground commutes, why a Pakistani paper should go the same route is puzzling. Try reading anything on your coach or train commute from Lahore to Gujranwala or on a Karachi mini-bus and you will see what I mean.

Page 2 and 3: Clean spread

Once you get over the shock of holding a daily that looks like a weekly, things get pleasant enough. For example, the 32 pages are all colour and the paper quality seems to be on the expensive side. The pictures are pretty decent too and it looks like someone has put some thought into the layout rather than thrown endless, unbroken text at the reader like The News does or thrown a paintbox all over its pages, as is The Nation's preferred design choice. Still, I couldn't help but thinking the overall look was reminiscent of the Express Tribune, albeit in a once-poor relative-with-some-new-money type of way. But still, it is neat, clean and tidy. And it has none of the editorial bloopers and immaturity that initially characterised ET.

Meanwhile, like everything else, the quality of material is, well okay. Not exciting, exactly, but decent enough. Just like the editing. There are scoops but not earth-shattering ones, and a fairly intelligent selection of stories. 'Good effort' is the biggest compliment I could muster.

 Business looks appealing, entertainment ho-hum

City pages will give the competition a run for their money

The sports pages are all right, the business section looks pretty decent and the entertainment pages break absolutely no new ground. The city pages, at least in Lahore, seem pretty good and will give the competition a run for the money. Similarly, the editorial pages are all right but not spectacular. There's nothing there I would kill to read but nothing much to rant or rave against either, unless you are allergic to Humayun Gauhar. The biggest draw is the induction of The Friday Times' superb Sabir Nazir as cartoonist. The editorials are solid and take a pretty even-handed, fairly liberal line without making your pulse race. I mean, there is little, if any, of the crazy, conspiratorial hysteria that characterised The Nation after the younger Nizami stormed out to give way to (the now-departed) Shireen Mazari.

Interestingly, the editorial policy seems not to treat the Sharif brothers like the sacred cows they have become for large sections of the media. Does that in any way reflect Arif Nizami's sense of betrayal over being ditched by the Raiwind brothers during his falling out with Majid Nizami? We will never really know.

Op-ed: So far so solid and Sabir

The refreshing thing is that this is not, thankfully, another Nawa-i-Waqt-type super patriotic, flag-waving, rag. Nor is it The Nation in its recent utterly hysterical and conspiratorial Mazari mode. If anything, it's like The Nation when it was a fairly decent paper many years ago. In fact, what is the most courageous feature of Pakistan Today is that it is resolutely serious and eschews sensationalism. That in itself is a relief in a media environment that is becoming increasingly hysterical.

How a sober and solid (bordering on dull) paper fares in an over-crowded market is anybody's guess. Initial reports from Lahore suggest a fairly positive response. My hunch is that for a new paper trying to make its presence felt in this cut-throat, crisis-ridden market, Pakistan Today will need to do more than just be competent to take its place at the top.

I would be very curious to know if anyone violently agrees or disagrees with me on this. Or whether everyone is too lulled by indifference to offer a view on Pakistan Today, one way or the other...

Pakistan Today, In A Couple of Days?

We're hearing that Pakistan Today - former The Nation editor Arif Nizami's long-awaited new daily with the financial backing of Pakistan's richest (legitimate) businessman Mian Mohammad Mansha, among others - is set to make an appearance in the market this Saturday.

Sounds kind of odd, given that there has been no marketing push so far to introduce the paper, but that's what we're hearing and that's all we know so far.

Watch this space for updates.

Arif Nizami's Revenge

Some might be nonplussed that yet another English daily is gearing up to hit the market. Is there really such a big market for English language papers? I mean, we already have Dawn, The News, The Nation, Daily Times, the Express Tribune, Business Recorder, et al. Not to mention the scores of smaller regional English papers such as Balochistan Times, Frontier Post, Pakistan Observer, Sindh Tribune etc. What possible niche could a new paper be trying to fill?

The recent Express Tribune experiment certainly would not inspire confidence among marketing types. Sources indicate that despite its superior production values, ET's subscription base is still well under 1,000 copies, of which some 155 were previous subscribers to the International Herald Tribune anyway. (It should be pointed out that the official circulation figures of all newspapers, including English market leaders such as Dawn and The News are wildly exaggerated, often up to 3 or 4 times their reality - The News' subscription base in Karachi, e.g. is estimated to be under 5,000 copies though it has higher circulation in Islamabad; however, ET's figures are quite low by comparative standards and even taking into consideration the fact that ET is still a new paper.) In fact, there are indications of some panic within the Lakhani publishing house even before the launch of ET in Lahore and Islamabad, precisely because of the feedback from newspaper agents.

Nevertheless, the gears are churning for the former The Nation editor Arif Nizami to bring his promised baby into the market. Pakistan Today, as it will be called, has already placed advertisements in Dawn to recruit staffers and is in addition going a slightly unconventional route by also advertising positions on job hunt sites on the net. More on this in a bit.

What we do know so far about Pakistan Today is the following: it definitely has the financial backing of Pakistan's richest businessman, Mian Mohammad Mansha, who of course made his money in the textile sector and owns among other things, Muslim Commercial Bank. It is also said to have investment from London-based millionaire Izzat Majeed who made his fortunes in the petrochemicals sector in Saudi Arabia. The new media group which will publish the paper is to be called the Nawa Media Corporation and

"...intends to bring out a series of publications – in both English and vernacular languages – and also make a foray in electronic media in due course."

One can understand this project being crucial for Arif Nizami's ego and credibility (remember he promised to start his own paper when he was sacked by uncle Majeed Nizami from The Nation). But perhaps as we surmised with ET, there are reasons beyond simple business logic for other people to climb on to the media bandwagon.

We also know the following:

1. That Pakistan Today is set to be a three-city newspaper, like Dawn and The News and (eventually) ET to be published simultaneously from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad though the head office will naturally be in Lahore.
2. That ex-Karachi bureau chief of The Nation, Javed Mahmood, has been appointed the Resident Editor in Karachi, formally labeled Editor-in-Charge.
3. That former Lahore Press Club president Sarmad Bashir has also joined the team.
4. That, according to the website journalismpakistan.com (I am not linking it here since the site apparently hosts some dangerous malware that may harm your computer), the office of the paper in Karachi will be in the infamous Kawish Crown building on Shahrah-e-Faisal (Some may recall that the building is reputed to be owned by a notorious Mumbai don and has been the target not only of litigation by civil society groups for its alleged contravention of building laws, but also a couple of bomb attacks by unknown people.)

Now, coming to the net-based recruitment drive, here is a job listing for Pakistan Today on one such website. According to the description of the paper on the site:

"Headed by one of the most credible names in Pakistan’s newspaper industry Mr Arif Nizami, Pakistan Today has among other personalities of high net worth, the financial support and backing of the best-known corporate entity in the country – Mian Mohammad Mansha. Post-modern and contemporary in its outlook, Pakistan Today will espouse core values of independence, authenticity and credibility. With its fresh and vibrant approach, it will definitely make a huge impact on our polity and create a broad-based readership that cuts across all segments of the society.

Pakistan Today is an equal opportunity employer that values merit and professionalism. At our website you can explore new career opportunities, meet our key people and learn about the culture and working environment at our organisation.We offer unique opportunities for recent college and university graduates, as well as for talented professionals who are looking for a more dynamic experience. There are numerous opportunities across the entire organisation where your skills and talent can make a difference - to you and to us."

This particular ad is to recruit News Editors for Islamabad and Karachi. Slightly unsettling is the requirement that the News Editors (the most senior position in a daily after the Editor) need only be educated up to Intermediate / A-Level. One understands that some of the most best news editors Pakistan has seen had no formal degree qualifications but a wealth of hands-on experience and that finding good staff is a challenge in the best of times. But what is bizarre is that while News Editors and Senior Sub-editors need only be educated up until Intermediate / A-Levels, Reporters and District Correspondents, whose copies they will be editing and vetting, must be at least graduates.

Obviously the June 2010 stated launch date for the paper is also not going to be met. So far, from the evidence of the recruitment drive, the paper still seems many months away from being launched. No information so far on what might be a realistic timeline.

The bigger question still remains: is there space for another English language paper? Or is this basically an attempt to wipe out The Nation and Majeed Nizami's right-wing Nazariya-e-Pakistan philosophy? Not that that would be such a bad thing in and of itself, mind you.

ET: First Day, First Show

What's a poor blogger to do? You write about them, they get upset. You don't write about them, they get even more upset. Apparently, as a bunch of Express Tribune staffers have informed all and sundry, Cafe Pyala NOT urgently firing off a post about the the new paper's first day in print has been a topic of much speculative debate at the office.

And then, of course, we have you, our loyal readers who mostly don't seem to care about anything else either and insist on bringing up the topic in random discussions. Shoaib and Sania? Yeah, but how much is the Express Tribune going to cost? Wasim Akram may have buckled under legal pressure to retract his wild allegations against Lahore doctors while dating Sushmita Sen but did you know Ayesha Siddiqa is now writing for ET? Seven people died in Hazara protesting the name Pakhtunkhwa but will ET have the full International Herald Tribune? (Answers: Rs. 20 25, yes, yes.)

If the comments on this blog are anything to go by (and I have no reason to believe they are), ET has certainly captured its market's imagination.

Now, here is the real reason why we haven't blogged about ET on its first day: it's much too early to make a considered evaluation. I mean, it's the first day, for crying out loud. What I can offer, however, is first impressions (sorry Ahsan, was forced to fish outside off stump):

1. The paper looks very good. And by that I mean its design, its paper quality, its clean font (though the older lot may find it too small to read) and its liberal use of big pictures and highlights.

2. It will almost surely appeal to the young, upper middle-class, English-speaking market who like the USA Today type of soundbite news (the numbers, the random quotes, the cool graphics), who follow European football (main story in 'Sport' is about the Barca - Real Madrid match) and would like to read international news directly from the IHT . And it is obviously consciously targeting that demographic - hell, its main story in the city pages is about the Gulf Shopping Centre in Clifton, it highlights the number of books in the Sind Club library and it has a story about Karachi Grammar School admissions.

3. Its news content is fairly standard, its headings often pedestrian (the main heading "Gilani calls for paradigm shift in government policies" begs the question who the prime minister is calling on to do this!) and it had almost no hard-hitting exclusives. In fact, most of the stories were either Pakistani wire-agency-ish ('Fake liquor business flourishing in Islamabad') or featurish ('A window into what was Peshawar'). This was sort of expected given the lack of a strong reporting squad. But after the novelty of the new paper and its design wears off, this may become a serious issue: what exactly is the paper offering in terms of local content that is not available in other (cheaper) papers, on television or the net?

4. The front page and back page are a bit of a disaster: a total of three (count them, THREE) stories on the front page (none of which really grab your attention) and only one (ONE!) tired feature-ish story about blood transfusions on the back page. Incidentally, the back page is titled 'Rear Mirror'. One of the newspaper's staffers, recently tweeted "I'm embarrassed working for a paper that calls its back page 'Rear Mirror'". He should probably be more embarrassed by the content. The point is, if you're going to slash the number of stories on the two most important pages of a newspaper, at least make sure the stories you do carry are something to talk about.

5. There is a distinct lack of news analysis. The one piece dubbed 'Analysis' ("The politics of language and ethnicity" by a Zia M. Khan) on the 'National' pages  is a singularly uninformed piece of speculative waffle. It even manages to mis-label the Hazarawals "an ethnic community different from Pakhtuns."

6. The most engaging pages seem to be the 'Life & Style' pages, which at least have a couple of exclusive pieces on the fashion sense of the Bhuttos (admittedly more of a blog post) and the policy regarding Indian films in Pakistani cinemas.

7. The editorial pages again look good and they have managed to rope in ace-cartoonist Zahoor, though the editorials themselves seem lost in the clutter of the opeds. The opeds themselves today are nothing much to write home about though Ayesha Siddiqa's piece and Indian writer Farzana Versey's were quite readable and interesting.



In general, we need to see more to make a proper judgement. We still have to have a dekko at their magazines and what advertising does to their layout and design over time also remains to be seen (obviously the first day's paper has only minimal advertising). ET should make inroads into a niche elite market (and pretty much wipe out the miniscule readership of The Daily Times) but without some must-read news stories, it is going to find that very few regular readers of Dawn and The News (or even The Nation, when the paper eventually launches in Lahore) are going to jump ship. And it is worth remembering that fewer and fewer people are subscribing to more than one paper because of the rising costs of newspapers (to which ET has added).

Of course, that may all be irrelevant, since as we all know, English newspapers (or newspapers in general) are not published for their wide readership in Pakistan. Political and media leverage is, more than ever, the name of the game. Even Arif Nizami has been heard confirming that he too is planning to bring out yet another English paper.



Post-Script 1:


Here's the paper's editorial which will be printed tomorrow. I know nobody buys a paper for the editorials but now why would you put it on the net the day before?

A new name for a province

Editorial -- Express Tribune -- April 13

"The deaths of at least five people in Abbotabad on Monday after protests against the NWFP’s name-change turned violent are most tragic and serve to remind us just how emotional this whole issue is. The lives were lost after police tried to break up protests which had been continuing in the city since the passage of the 18th amendment in the National Assembly late last week. The protesters are part of a movement that seeks to create a new province from NWFP’s Hazara district on linguistic grounds and bases its argument along the same lines as the one that enabled the province to get a new name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. That said, it is worth pointing out that living in a democracy often means having to accept the views of the majority and this is precisely what has happened in the case of the people of Hazara vis-a-vis the ANP’s successful challenge to the province’s existing – colonial – name. It also means that one can express divergent views but within the boundaries of the constitution and preferably through one’s elected representatives. In that context, one may ask that why wasn’t this disagreement or dissension channelled through Hazara’s MNAs and MPAs when discussions were going on to draw up the draft of the 18th amendment?

We would like to counsel caution and restraint on all sides for now given that the political and administrative centre of the province happens to be in a Pashto speaking area. The police action – which the ANP will inevitably say was unavoidable – is only going to inflame passions further and for that very reason the onus lies on the provincial government to direct the law-enforcement agencies and the local administration in Abbotabad to proactively take steps to defuse the tension. As for the protesters, they need to understand that it would be best if they were to make their point through parliament not in the street."

Post Script 2:

'The newspaper's already turning up the heat in media circles across the nation... If this was war, the Express Tribune team are ready for their turn." Enjoy!

The Nizami Full Court Press

Ah, this will probably most excite the hordes who flung (rather sleazy) mud at each other the last time we posted something about The Nation and the Nizamis duking it out. Seriously, we have never had as many comments on a post or as public a sharing of intimate bedroom details (I think anal sex was also featured at some point!), whether true or not. Now, the battle is rejoined.

Arif Nizami, the ex-editor of The Nation, who was booted out by uncle Majid Nizami and daughter Rameezah, and who has been revealing his general banality in columns in The News these days, has played his trump card and petitioned the Lahore High Court to wind up the company. On his side are heavyweights Aitzaz Ahsan and Abid Hasan Minto. You can find the reported details here.

If the petition is accepted, that would obviously be the end for The Nation as a paper. Shireen Mazari and her band of yahoos must be watching with at least a bit of nervousness.

Meanwhile, if for any reason you think that would be a bad thing, here's something to refresh your memory about the elder Nizami and the kind of paper he would like The Nation to be. Yes, the heading on that DOES read as follows: "We Must Be Ready To Fight Hindus, Says Nizami." I will quote the opening lines of the 8-column (!) story published in today's paper (bad English and all):

"LAHORE - Editor-in-Chief The Nation and Chairman Nazria Pakistan Trust Majid Nizami has said that we should remain well-prepared for war against Hindus as they were casting bad eye on Pakistan and our independence, which is a blessing of Allah."

All one can say to the elder Nizami is, dude, you've got "bad eye" on you from much closer quarters. Prepare for battle.

Arif Nizami's Termination - Update 2

So yeah, while the mud keeps flying between the Majeed and Arif Nizami camps - apparently nowhere more so than right here in the comments section of this blog - here's what Dawn reported today:

Arif Nizami to launch newspaper

By Our Staff Reporter
Sunday, 13 Sep, 2009 | 05:45 AM PST

LAHORE, Sept 12: Arif Nizami, who was recently removed as the editor of The Nation, plans to bring out his own newspaper “within months” and hopes to promote professionalism in the media.

Talking to Dawn about his future plans, he said he was not a rich man but could count on friends to help him launch his paper. He described the project as “a moral obligation” since one of his aims was to provide jobs to all those colleagues who had resigned to protest his sacking.

“The unprecedented support that I have received in the last few days only goes to prove my professional credentials,” Mr Nizami told Dawn by telephone. “It is heartening to see so many professionals standing by me.”

Arif Nizami’s departure last week from the group that was synonymous with his name has led to a raging debate in journalistic circles all over Pakistan. He has been hailed as someone punished for his professionalism and alternately described as a victim of internal strife.

Mr Nizami himself blames his ouster on a combination of “professional and personal reasons”. “Professionally, the space for independent journalism was getting squeezed with time because of certain economic and unprofessional pressures.

“During the last three months of my tenure, I was under intense pressure to resign. I withstood the pressure because I believed that the demand was being made of me because of personal and not professional reasons,” he said.

I guess what is interesting in this report , beyond the actual announcement, is the fact that Dawn has broken it. Keep in mind that Arif Nizami was always close to Dawn CEO Hameed Haroon. As for Majeed Nizami, I'm not really sure who he's ever been close to, professionally speaking of course. Other than Nawaz Sharif of course. Hmmm.

It's not that I haven't enjoyed the back and forth between the two camps, obviously coming from people rather close to the main parties on both sides. (And who knew people were so eager to spill all the deep dark secrets of each others' personal lives.) But really, folks, a little civility to each other would not be an unreasonable demand.

By the way, for all those holding up Hameed Nizami as some sort of shining beacon, he may rightly be called one of the pioneers of journalism in Pakistan, but he was hardly either an upholder of progressive values or a champion for workers and the under-priveleged. His editorial line was exactly what is wrong with Pakistan today - hypernationalist, pro-establishment and right-wing. McCarthyist would not be an inappropriate appellation for him with regards to the left / liberal sections in Pakistan. And en masse lockout of workers protesting non-payment of salaries was fairly common during his days.

Just to set the perspective straight.

Arif Nizami's Termination Notice - Updated

So, here is the first update to my earlier post... just in case you thought I was making up the bitter tussle between chacha-bhateeja...

Here is the text of the notice sent out by Majeed Nizami to the staff of The Nation / Nawai Waqt:

Please note that the services of Mr Arif Nizami Editor of The Nation have been terminated with immediate effect.

You are informed not to deal with or to take any instructions from Mr Arif Nizami regarding the business of the newspaper of the company. The new Editor ie Ms Shireen Mazaari has taken charge from today and shall be responsible for the working of the newspapers.

Signed
(Majid Nizami)
Editor-in-Chief

Ooh. This is masala-time.

Update: Had missed this bit of live theatre, with Arif Nizami live on Aaj TV talking about how and why he was sacked. Thanks to khabardrama for pointing me in this direction... You don't need to watch the entire piece, it's only in the first few minutes. By the way, you can ignore Nusrat Javed's platitudes about the Nizamis, it's the kind of false crock that people come up with before they plunge in the knife... And that bit where Arif Nizami says that Majeed Nizami has become more self-centred and unable to hear opposing views with age... more crock, he's always been that way!

Nizamis Battle It Out, Lakhani Moves In

Apologies for being AWOL for so long. I couldn't explain it even if I wanted to.

In any case, some major developments in the media in the last few days, which really I should have posted as soon as I found out about them. But better late than never I guess.

First off, there has been a major quake in the house of Nawai Waqt. Yesterday, i.e. Monday 7 September, the grouchy old patriarch Majeed Nizami (who must be in his mid-80s now and, yes, the guy who claimed it was he who forced Nawaz Sharif to explode the bum by threatening to explode HIM if he did not) staged a coup of sorts in his own empire. He ousted the founding editor of The Nation, Arif Nizami, who it must be pointed out is his nephew and the son of the late Hameed Nizami, the founder of the Nawai Waqt group. In his place, he appointed... and this really beggars belief... Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf Secretary General and spokesperson, Shireen Mazari, as the editor.

A friend was joking that Majeed Nizami obviously thought The Nation was becoming too leftist a paper (ha!), and wanted to correct the dangerous tilt towards liberalism by bringing in the woman who makes no bones about her connections with the intelligence agencies of the country, and who has been on the warpath against the US ambassador of late. But jokes aside, it is being said that this coup has to do with family turfs - Majeed Nizami would like the "spoils" (a most appropriate term for the Nawai Waqt empire) to remain in the hands of his (adopted) daughter, rather than be taken over by his nephew. Nevermind that he himself took over the media house by default when his brother passed away. Shireen Mazari, according to this version, is merely keeping the seat warm. What it doesn't explain is how Majeed Nizami's benefactor, Nawaz Sharif, will see the PTI Spokesperson being appointed editor at his favourite English paper. And will the new editor continue in her role as the Secretary General of the most irrelevant party in Pakistan?

But there's more: today, according to some reports, the entire editorial team of The Nation has resigned to protest the sacking of Arif Nizami. This is now getting really interesting. Watch this space for updates.

Meanwhile, Sultan Lakhani, known more for selling consumer goods as Lakson Group and who began the Express newspaper and Express 24/7 channels mainly to spite the Jang Group - at whose hands he had received some not too positive coverage - is now thinking of launching a new English language newspaper. His son, Bilal Lakhani, is going around meeting all sorts of journalists on a major recruitment drive for the paper, which is set to be launched in the coming January or February.

Whether there is space for another English paper, I leave to you to judge. But so far the following people have already signed up: Dawn's former Islamabad resident editor and London correspondent, the veteran M. Ziauddin, will be the "Executive Editor". Abbas Athar, currently editor of the Urdu language Express, will be called the Group Editor, which I suppose means he will be higher in the heirarchy than Ziauddin. In addition, the Editor Reporting of The News (and ex-Dawn) Kamal Siddiqui has also apparently jumped ship, though as what, it's not exactly clear.

All those being recruited may want to ask one simple question of Mr Lakhani: what about Business Today? Some of you may remember that that paper, also owned by Sultan Lakhani, was shut down one fine day at 5 pm with Mr Lakhani coming in and telling the newsroom that the paper would not be publishing the next day and that everyone should henceforth go home. They may want to ensure that this is not the fate awaiting them one fine day down the road...

As I said, watch this space for updates...