805. Life of a Journal

Journals, magazines and newspapers are successful because of a dynamic management or a long tradition of high standards. A newspaper is an organisation, as any other business organisation, but it becomes live when we cater to its personality as a journal. This is to speak in generalities. Editors are highly educated, vastly informed people who constantly exercise their minds on the news. Fresh views and new ideas arise in them in view of their vast experience. It is a delight to hear them. Famous heads of state call such journalists and ask them to interview them. Such is their quality of thought. It is the mind of a seasoned journalist that converts dull, flat news into a point of view which sometimes comes to stay. Those men dominate the field.

They rise to that eminence because they have instinctively known what the reader looks for, which sometimes the reader himself may not be aware of. They know the reader's pulse. The great names in the field are those who know the small man's small urges in the right direction. In India, readers do not generally write to authors when they appreciate his writings. The writing habit is not there. One columnist over ten years published articles over a hundred days in a leading paper and was uniformly praised. Only one of his articles, ‘Indo-US Cooperation' evoked any response. Seven letters came. A poet politician once said that all the letters he received were about how to get romance completed. People respond to themes of love or romance. They respond to health. Between appreciation and writing to the author, the gap is very long. A book which was sold out in 50 days went into ten editions without the author receiving any letter or recognition or appreciation. Ken Gold's articles have received more than a hundred responses from readers who have actively related to the ideas expressed in his articles. It is not true only of him. There is a market that is live, growing, dynamic, actively looking for occasions to act, as newspaper readers.  But they do not know their minds.

The journalist is a resourceful person. Exercising his resourcefulness to know all that the reader is actively interested in - sports, education, health, politics, civic affairs, international affairs, employment, personality issues - any journalist can NOW evoke a vast response from the reading public. Professionalism raises efficiency. It is great and shining. The editors, the staff on the editorial board are an endless resource to a newspaper. It is they who turn a stone into an uncut gem. They can polish it too. Editors who know the pulse of the public are no mere editors, but make the public opinion of the nation. They are the leaders of thought and hence the thought that moves all of us to action. The life of a journal is a phrase that denotes its length of existence. I use it in the sense that makes the journal live. To be an American is a privilege anywhere in the world today, as he is looked up to. The whole world has entrusted its savings to the USA as they are rich. Those editors who enter into the emotions of the reading public will become the conscience keepers of the Indian population