Taking on new roles…
I was back to Goa after a gap of two years. My stay in Delhi and a short stint in Malaysia was an enriching experience. It was a new life altogether. There was no question of joining any local paper for the very reason I had decided to quit it. The dream was to start something of my own; something different. The meteoric rise of IT had thrown up lots of opportunities. Goa too had made foray in the area of IT, and it had big plans. Goa had an edge over its counterparts due to her peculiar socio-economic conditions.
IT was nothing new for someone in the area of journalism, since we had been dealing with information all along. Having realized the power of information, it was my endeavour to harness the technology to make it an instrument of change.
With this objective in mind, I decided to set up a small company and named it Aparant Infomedia, (after the historical name for Goa). The basic objective of this venture was to bring the fruits of IT to the masses and use it to bring about a positive change amongst the lives of thousands of people, especially for the underprivileged.
An IT newspaper or magazine for Goa was just one idea amongst the many which the company aimed at. There were some innovative ideas to capitalize on the potential thrown up by the Internet, and particularly by e-mail, for the benefit of the common men. The paper got priority over other things simply because there was a need to create awareness amongst the masses.
There were a number of efforts underway in Goa in the area of IT by the government, industry, NGOs and the like . But there was a lack of co-ordination and hardly anybody knew what was going on in the other camp. Opportunity came calling, indicating that there was an urgent need to create a common forum for the discussion of IT-related issues and cost effective solutions.
This was priority Number One. Thus Goa's first IT fortnightly was born in the beginning of the year 2002. It was appropriately named Digital Goa, to encompass not only computer specific issues but the whole gamut of information technology even beyond computers.
Initially, this idea evoked a cautious response from both media stalwarts and IT professionals, some of whom even outright dismissed the idea as non-workable. Two individuals were exceptions to this rule, and they jumped onto the idea and have been a constant motivating factor all throughout i.e. GCCI President and D-Link General Manager Nitin Kunkolienkar and our own colleague Frederick Noronha.
One was aware of the average Goan's apathy towards reading, leaving aside few daily newspapers. This explains the fact that no periodical worth its name, and with a widespread readership, could be established in Goa, despite factors like Goa's high literacy, and relatively higher affluence levels. In the past one decade, a number of family-oriented and political magazines have hit the stands, only to disappear without making their mark. Those existing are struggling for their survival or are backed by big corporate houses. Then there was a new trend of free-sheeters that gripped Goa for a while. That too is seems to be slowly fading away.
On this backdrop, it was really a risky attempt to start a specialized magazine, leave alone the general magazine. Number one, there was no corporate house backing this effort nor did one have any savings to run it without any expected returns for the initial period. Most importantly, I did not have any other source of income since this was my full time activity.
One had to run the show all alone, which meant which meant facing demands of 12 hours or so of time each day. One must put it on record here that without the financial and moral support of my wife, Sangeeta, it would not have been possible for me to take this major risk.
It could be argued that most of the magazines which were closed down did not have a professional approach, consistency and utility value. These are critical factors for any publication's success. More so in a place like Goa. You need to study the mind of the reader, and his or her likes and dislikes. How a story is displayed is as important as the choice of the story itself. Readers should get something refreshing to read, and not just a rehash of stories already appeared in the daily newspapers.
For a product to succeed, it should also have some utility value to the readers. People are bombarded from all sides with knowledge and information in this information era. The job of the media is to screen and customize this information for the benefit of their readers. This is the role especially of the niche magazines, and it is the secret behind Digital Goa. The first issue of Digital Goa rolled out in the first week of April after a three months of running around. But very soon the initial enthusiasm was over and I had to face the stalk reality. Publication is the capital-intensive business. You have to go on pumping money for years before the product starts yielding fruits. So you need tremendous sustaining power.
Many times, one was confronted with existentialist dilemmas – whether or not to continue to invest money without any signs of returns. The returns were almost commensurate to the investments, and one point of time my investing power was almost exhausted. But I did not give up and the result is before the reader to judge.
It was only after a year that things started changing. The IT businesses who had earlier adopted a cautious wait-and-watch policy, realized that this was not a fly-by-night kind of venture, but a serious publication. Though one had some kind of a hi-and-bye relationship with a few players in the IT circuit, most of the people were unknown to me.
Secondly, this was my maiden experience of conducting business deals with the business class, being a journalist for all of my earlier years. It was a different experience altogether dealing with all types of people, including some who could be safely classified as crooks of the first degree.. But one passed this agni-pariksha (test by fire).
Being behind a small time publication, one had to be an all-rounder – looking after all areas of publication – editorial, circulation, advertising, printing, accounts, and whatever work was left to be done. One could obviously not appoint professionals and sufficient staff to look after all these departments, simply because overheads had to remain in check.
To prevent this venture going into the red, I managed the show mostly with one staff-member, and by deploying my Merces flat as the office. The first one year was really tough, as one could hardly recover the printing charges leave alone my salary.
It was a great eye opener; before starting, I had set a target of some 1000 subscribers within a couple of months at a subscription-fee of a fairly reasonable Rs 120 per year. But it did not take me long to come in terms with the harsh reality. Even my close friends did not bother to pay subscription as a support to my efforts. Those in the thick of IT sector of Goa also did not care to subscribe it too. One got the feeling that people were scared that with their single subscription I may get rich or Digital Goa could overnight grow into a big publication.
I experienced the much spoken-of Goan crab mentality very closely during this time. One thing that can be said with certainty is that Goans are very hostile towards those who make a new beginning. They would waste lots of their energies to discourage you from aiming higher, or pull you down, instead of supporting enterprising people. It is only when they feel that one has survived their onslaught and have made a mark, that they would be sympathetic to you.
This is precisely the reason why the average Goan youth doesn't take a risk and avoids aiming higher. To succeed in Goa, one should either have money-power or a godfather or extraordinary perseverance. Most of my energies still goes into Digital Goa, though today it has grown into a professional, self-sustaining magazine. It has not only gained acceptance but even attained popularity within industry, IT businesses, students and general IT users alike.
There is no dearth of advertisement and, most importantly, our advertisers do not part with their ads as a measure of their generosity, but rather on account of the mileage they get in advertising in Digital Goa. This, for us, is the biggest recognition that Digital Goa is treated as a professional periodical. In fact, one could argue that it is the fastest growing publication and one could venture a bold forecast here that, touch wood, it could have a bright future.
But, there is much to be done to make it really a good quality magazine, both in terms of content and layout and printing. We need to dream of publications on par with any national-level magazine. My preoccupation with the Digital Goa magazine has made me neglect the other projects of Aparant Infomedia. However, we could still complete a comprehensive directory of IT related businesses, including a database of around a thousand firms, with the help of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Also, we are in the final stages of completing a Website and e-mail directory for Goa, one of the first of kinds in the country. Hopefully other interesting projects on the lists will get to see the light of the day, so that it can be proudly said that journalists can themselves re-invent themselves into good publishers too!