VES COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE & COMMERCE

CHEMBUR, MUMBAI – 400071

SEMESTER V
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2010 -2011

SUBJECT: EDITING
TOPIC : ANALYSIS OF THE NEWSPAPER
NEWSPAPER: FREE PRESS JOURNAL

SUBMITTED BY:
PRIYANKA AGARWAL (01)
SINDHU KASHYAP BORPUZARI (03)
POOJA TIKEKAR (17)
TANVEER DORHAILAY (19)

Under the guidance of Mrs. Vrinda Dev

FACULTY OF EDITING
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We the students of T.Y.BMM (journalism) would like to

thank our Professor Mrs. Vrinda Dev for giving us an
opportunity to work on Free Press Journal. This not only
helped us know more about the paper but also cleared
many wrong conceptions we had about the paper in our
mind.

A special thanks to Ms. Kaveri Roy (free lancer for FPJ) for
interacting with us and giving us her valuable inputs.

THANK YOU
 INDEX / CONTENTS

(1) INTRODUCTION

(2) BRIEF HISTORY

(3) THE WAY IT WORKS NOW

(4) NOTE ON S. SADANAND (THEN EDITOR)

(5) LANGUAGE

(6) AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEWS

(7) COVERAGE OF NEWS/VARIETY OF NEWS

(8) PRESENTATION OF NEWS

(9) LAYOUT OF THE PAPER

(10) READERSHIP AND CIRCULATION

(11) SPECIAL EDITIONS

 (12) CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION/ BRIEF HISTORY

S. Sadanand started the Free Press Journal in the year 1923 to
support India’s freedom movement. He was a strict Gandhian
himself. The paper was totally independent and did well those
days because of the bold stand it took against the British. The
British came down heavily on the paper with severe punishments
like demanding security deposits, seizer of the press and on one
occasion complete closure of the paper.

S. Sadanand went to Madras and launched the Indian Express.

He restarted the Free Press Journal in Bombay and it the paper
was a success till 1954 when he died.

During his lifetime, Free Press Journal was literally a training

ground for journalist and he produced an entire galaxy of
distinguished journalists all over the country. The Journal had
25 eminent journalists reporting events from all over the
country.
During his time, it was a well equipped paper and insisted on
covering all the world news. It had a distinct look of its own with
bold headlines, strong editorials and covered all kinds of news
available.

The Free Press had a weekly magazine called “Bharat Jyoti”

which closed down in 1958. It also had an evening paper
named “Free Press Bulletin” which is no longer in existence.

THE WAY IT WORKS NOW

The Free Press continues to be a well edited and objective

paper giving wide coverage and independent editorials.

They have a number of veteran journalist and columnists like

(a) Kuldeep Nair
(b) M. V. Kamath (once the editor of free press journal)

It is presently owned by a group of businessmen from Kolkata,

“Kothari’s” cement, Jute and Pharmaceuticals. It’s an Umbrella
Organization under the Kothari’s. The paper has lot of
government advertisements and 6-7 pages of tender notices. It
still functions on the guidelines laid down by S. Sadanand.
In 1970 the Govt. of Maharashtra granted them land for their
office and press at Nariman Point called “The free press house”
It has two editions, one in Mumbai and the other in Jaipur. They
also have a Marathi newspaper named “Nav Shakti”

Presently:
• EDITOR : G.L. Lakhotia
• It has a resident editor for each edition

ABOUT S. SADANAND
A revolutionary in the skin of a journalist
(Pioneer of free press journal and the then editor)

Acclaimed national journalist S. Sadanand was the Managing

Editor of the Free Press Journal. keen student of public affairs,
habitually clad in spotless Khadi, he was in the thick of politics
right from the start of his career, was a signatory to the pledge
against the Rowlatt Act, and joined the Civil Disobedience
Movement. On Reuter's staff in 1920, he later became Assistant
Editor of The Independent, Allahabad. In October 1930, he
promoted the Free Press of India News Agency, and later, the
Free Press Journal, and continued to be its Managing Editor.
Prosecuted by the British Indian Government under Press Laws
and convicted in 1930, on appeal he was acquitted. On a
number of occasions, monetary securities were demanded of
him making him forfeit more than Rs. 50,000. Sadanand took
over the Indian express in 1932 from Dr. P. Varadarajulu Naidu
and conducted it as a newspaper of the Free Press Journal
group. He went to the Imperial Press Conference in 1946, and
was a member of the Indian Newspaper Society delegation to
London in 1948. He was in the All-India Newspaper Editors'
Conference from inception, and a member of its Standing
Committee.

LANGUAGE
The Style of Writing in Free Press Journal is very much
colloquial. The framing of sentences is very much simple and
seldom complex or compound. The language differs from other
newspapers because it caters to different class of readers. It
was started as a paper for supporting the freedom struggle,
and still follows the norms laid down by S. Sadanand. The word
choice is simple so that even a layman can understand it. The
style of writing in this newspaper has not changed the form of
writing is direct and formal and when it comes to world n
national issues they have more of direct quotes. The headlines
are not decorated but are strong and bold. The paper is
dominated by Summary leads with very less Figurative leads.
We find Descriptive leads in crime beat. The use of jargons and
different terminologies are minimal and abbreviations used are
the standard ones pertaining to the story.
 AUTHENTICITY OF NEWS
We have found that Free Press Journal has more number of
wired copies compared to other papers particularly in the World
beat. They avail the copies from eminent news agencies like PTI
(Press Trust of India), AP (Associated Press). We rarely find
bylines, and only baseline or place lines are to be found.
Though we do not find many quotation leads, but quotes are to
be found in plenty making the news stories credible. News is
Free Press Journal is considered as sacred and are not doctored
much in comparison to other papers. The news stories are
mainly fact based with fewer speculations as compared to TV
channels and some other newspapers which indulges in Yellow
Journalism. They mention the name of agencies from where the
news has been taken and in special cases the name of the
person if they are re-edited.

COVERAGE OF NEWS/ VARIETY OF

NEWS COVERED
In comparison to other papers, they do not have a large coverage
area. They lay more emphasis on Nation and World beats. They
have no special pages dedicated to education unlike others,
except for in the Monday paper. This page was launched on
March 2010 and has completed a six month pilot venture
successfully and hence made a permanent addition to the main
supplement, similar to most dailies. The other beats covered by
the paper are

 ENGAGMENT: this speaks about various upcoming events

in the country and around the city.

 MUMBAI/STATE: this informs us about the important

happenings in Mumbai and Maharashtra as a whole.

 EDUCATION: The Education page comes every Monday,

with the main paper. And is targeted at the group from STD
10th students to year 3 of graduation and seeks to address
things relevant for them - from a career and education
perspective. This comprises of tips/career/pep-talks from
CEOs/ simple dos and don’ts to handle life/grooming tips,
etc.

 MUMBAI CITY: this gives us a glimpse of important

happenings in the city.

 GLAM: this is basically space dedicated to news related to

actors and the film industry and this can be termed as the
Page3 column of the paper.

 MARKET: this page informs about the rise and fall of shares
in the share market and it mentions alphabetically the share
values of all the listed firms in BSE (Bombay Stock
Exchange). It also mentions the rise and fall of commodities
like gold, silver, etc.
 BUSINESS: this page informs the readers about the latest
happenings in the business world- mergers, acquisitions,
bail-outs, fiscal and monetary policies, financial regulations,
etc.

 SPORTS: This page gives its readers all the information

they want about their favorite sports and people associated
with it. The sports beat is covered quite extensively and the
page devoted varies from 2-3.

 ETCETRA: this page speaks about the upcoming trends in

lifestyle, health, medicines, etc.

 TECHNOLOGY and INDUSTRY: this page updates us with

the latest developments in the technology used in the
industrial sector.

 SUNDAY EDITION: there is a supplement on Sunday called

“Weekend”. This covers sob stuff, human interest stories,
Fluff, etc. the different pages in Weekend include:

1. What’s up: it has schedules of TV channel programs,

horoscopes, Sudoku, agony aunt, etc.

2. Lifestyle: it has a section called cool gadgets talking

about the latest gadgets like iPod, View Pad, USB Flash
Drive and their latest versions.

3. Mind Matters: it’s quite an interesting page which

deals with human psychology, changes in mood,
 different therapies to overcome psychological
problems.

4. Literati: it talks about the latest literary creations with

references to the past works, literary development, etc.
It mentions the latest books. M.V.Kamath and Prof.
V.Rajaraman are the regular columnists.

5. Food and Travel: it talks about various delicacies of

different places in India and abroad.

6. E-bizz: it is a typical entertainment page.

7. Limelight: here we have features dealing with social

issues and harsh realities of life.

PRESENTATION OF NEWS
The presentation of news is very structured and follows the
inverted pyramid style of writing, where it answers all the W
and H questions in its lead paragraph. The news is presented in
a much simpler manner when compared to leading English
newspapers in our country. It remains unbiased and truthful to
its readers. It is fair to a large extent and has a sense of
objectivity. The presentation of news is not sensational and
outrageous. It has independent objective editorials taking up
issues of national importance.

LAYOUT OF THE PAPER

The Free Press Journal is not commercialized and remains

independent. It does not have many advertisements, and is
black and white all over. The black space meant for
advertisements is dominated by Tender notices of government
and the other ads are mainly financial ads, institutional ads and
PSA’s. We do not find advertisements of any premium brands.
The copy is not colored and jazzy unlike other papers. It still
maintains the simple look like it had at the time of its launch.
For S. Sadanand, the paper was not a business venture and he
believed that the sole purpose of the paper was informing the
masses, so not much attention was paid to coloring the
copies. . But they are now experimenting with color for
education and glamour beats.

SPECIAL EDITIONS

In special edition we can talk about the recent edition on 15th

August, the Independence Day as it was a Sunday, it had the
tabloid “Weekend” where we found that in the literati page
M.V.Kamath wrote a piece on the relationship Mohammad Ali
Jinnah shared with leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal
Gangadhar Tilak. The headline was “Jinnah and Tilak: Comrades
in the Freedom Struggle”. The paper was more colorful from
usual, more features and articles related to the theme, more
ads, and few slugs were in tricolor.

SUGGESTIONS
We feel that it should have more correspondents especially in the
World Beat, more extensive coverage, more pages, and
supplements. We would like to suggest changes in the feel and
look of the newspaper and not in the style of writing. The layout
of the paper can get more appealing by adding some colors to it,
if not flashy, at least sober colors can be used. They can try and
experiment with various kinds of leads i.e., descriptive lead,
question lead, figurative leads, etc.

CONCLUSION

The newspaper has stuck to only journalism, omitting the need

for successful publishing. In our opinion, it can be one of the
reasons that details like layout are compromised. Also, FPJ is a
breeding ground for young talent, which gets a break here and
grows from here. So, most of the work that is seen is by young
professionals and hence the difference from the huge commercial
entities in the newspaper market but it has veteran journalists
like M.V.Kamath, Kuldeep Nair writing columns in it. Over, the
years as commercialization has taken over the print media, FPJ is
even now one such paper that remains rooted to focus on news.
By simple economics, due to the falling readerships budgets had
to be cut down for color pages. The newspaper is now
experimenting with color additions in pages of Education and
Glamour. News in FPJ is still considered sacred and is not played
around too much with.