Weblokam Challenges Century Old Monopoly of Newspaper Houses in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram - June 11, 2003 -Welcome to weblokam, the premier Internet portal in Malayalam which is revolutionising the average Keralites use of Information technology and the Internet to read and communicate in their own mother tongue. As in other parts of the world, the Internet is slowly becoming a powerful medium in Kerala, the most literate state in India, with large number of newspapers, weeklies, magazines, TV channels, radio, and other means of information dissemination. In a special interview with KM editor, T.Sashi Mohan, senior journalist and founder editor of weblokam.com speaks about various aspects of web portals and the new media.

A special Place in the Media

"All the inherent and innate features of Internet make weblokam to assume a small place in Kerala's media arena, infested by a large number of newspapers and TV channels," Sashi Mohan, said in response to KM Questions. "Big newspapers cannot give real time coverage of detailed news everyday. Their online edition now is a stale copy of the day's newspaper with yesterday's news. But Internet portals like weblokam can upload news as and when they occur," he says. Of course, newspapers with huge circulation figures have been worried and confused about the penetration of Internet media.

Leading publishing houses have been facing a dilemma because providing free access to their internet editions would definitely affect their circulation figures. Internet editions will not be successful if entry is restricted through subscription charges. Advertising revenue from the net editions is still negligible compared to the cash flow from the print editions.

Easy to Update News to global audience

"TV channels do the same job. But they do it periodically - say once in two hours or so. Even if they Telecast news, they cannot provide any connected story or back grounder in detail. But Internet can do this. The story can be linked to related stories. if necessary, to any news source in the world for detailed reading or information," reasoned Sashi Mohan, a senior journalist with rich experience of nearly two decades.

Internet is a global media more powerful than the other media segments like newspapers or television. It can reach any Malaya lee reader who stays any where in the world. No other media brings Malayali folks in the world under one umbrella like the Internet, says the first journalist to take up a challenging and risky assignment in the cyber media. "Internet, at this early stage too, has an important place in Kerala. Weblokam assumes a great importance by virtue of being the first integrated Malayalam web portal from Kerala. It is one of the widely visited Malayalam portals in the world. Weblokam.com is positioned just below Malayala Manorama and Deepika if only the online editions of newspapers are taken into account. It is great achievement for a small media organisation to become close to giants like big newspapers," Sashi Mohan added.

No portals to compete Source for Newspapers,

"I know that many leading newspapers including Manorama and Mathrubhumi depend on weblokam for news tips. I can site any number of instances where a small story which appeared in weblokam is carried by news papers even with byline (of course with some investigative inputs from their side) While major Kerala based Internet portals' news coverage is very poor, weblokam.com out competes even other professionally run portals. However, Sashi Mohan does not face any competition from the mushrooming website and portals from Kerala, more so in Malayalam.

" In fact, there are only a few portals from Kerala. In strict sense most of them are not portals at all. All of them are in English. There are some portals in English, which are not based in Kerala. They all survive because they cater to the Kerala interests of a specific group of Malayalees in a specific geographic region," Sashi Mohan reasons. " Otherwise they would have gone by this time. The main drawback of these portals is that they are known to only a minority of people who can read and understand English. Those who follow English have got large variety of news sources on the net. But Kerala specific or Gulf Malayali specific news and features are the main attraction of these portals,"he says in response to KM questions about the competition in the cyber place for the Malayali viewers.

"There are some Malayalam portals from other parts of India, which are not doing as good as weblokam. Most of them lack the taste or punch of Kerala. They are not updating as vibrantly and regularly as weblokam. I believe that weblokam needs smarter reporting. Now we are not doing it because we have no competition," he added .It is true that weblokam has set a new trend in vernacular Internet media.

Portal News, Not an Easy Task

"Running a News portal is not easy. It needs lot of money , investment, people and support - if it should last long and carry out the job sincerely. Internet is a fascination and many are attracted impulsively. They think it is an easy job," he says. "But after few months they will start realising the hardships and eventually they perish without anybody's notice. This has happened in many cases of big dot com companies like Indiya.com," he added.

Cyber Journalism after 20 years in Print Media

No Gains without Pains

Sashi entered cyber journalism equipped with two decades of rich experience in the print media -both as a desk person and reporter. "I am most experienced in managing the news desk. I was the principal correspondent of a newspaper in Hyderabad, staff reporter in Wynad, chief reporter and chief sub editor in Calicut. This is in addition to my assignments in Trivandrum where I was put in most of the time of my career," Sashi says.

"I had been working in Mathrubhumi as Deputy News Editor at Trivandrum. I was asked to make a move to Kottakkal and assume the News Editor post of Malappuram edition. I was very comfortable in Mathrubhumi, but for the uncertain and frequent transfers," he said about his move to a new and risky cyber media. "I was not in a position to leave Trivandrum. If I accepted the News Editor's job I had to shift from Trivandrum. So with a paining heart I had to resign from Mathrubhumi, one of the prestigious dailies in Kerala," he added.

"By that time I got an offer from webdunia, to be the editor of their Malayalam portal weblokam.com," he added. Webdunia is the company which started vernacular Internet portals in three Indian languages. "I knew very well that I was taking a big risk. But nobody has gained anything without taking risk. More than that I thought I am going to get acquainted with a new media, new ideas and a current or contemporary journalism," he added.

Rank Holder for B.A., MA

Sashi has entered journalism with an excellent academic background too. He has to his credit a first class post graduate degree in Sociology. During his college days, Sashi was in the news when he got second rank in M A from Kerala university in 1979 . When he took his graduation from Zamorin's Guruvayoorappan college Calicut, he passed the Bachelor of Arts- Malayalam & Sociology double main course in first Class and First Rank! No wonder, he got a prestigious job in Mathrubhumi in 1981. Then he was also doing a PhD. course in the University campus, Karyavattam. Sashi hails from Govindapuram, Calicut district. "My schooling was in Govindapuram UP school and Zamorins' college High School," he recollects.

Secret Number of Visitors and Hits

Sashi is however, hesitant to disclose the actual number of visitors to weblokam.com or the total hits or page views. "It is a secret. No dot com company is willing to disclose it. We are getting around fifty thousand page views on an average. As you know hits per day will be in lakhs .Web performance analysing agencies like Alexa.com rates weblokam very high. It is third among the online Malayalam portals. Just below Manorama and Deepika," he disclosed. Not a mean achievement for a news portal without anything like a legacy of 120 years journalism experience as claimed by leading newspaper houses in Kerala.

Within two years, weblokam.com has become a force to reckon with in the media sector of Kerala. However, the Internet is yet to attract even a small percentage of the multi crore advertisement budget of multinationals and marketing companies.

Advertisers Neglect Cyber Media

"Yes, In India, especially in Kerala web advertising is at infant stage. Nobody recognise the potential of web advertisements, especially the medium's interactive nature. Advertisers must get themselves educated on the vast possibilities of web advertising, a medium that will help them reach the targeted customers easily, without spending much," he added in response to questions about the advertisement support to weblokam.com.

"We get ad support from certain companies, which operate, on an all India basis. Banks, financial institutions, matrimonial groups, liquor companies, food and beverages companies.etc do advertisement with weblokam. But that is not enough to support our expenses," Sashi concedes.

What type of advertisement support, the Internet media in general and weblokam in particular get? Is it possible to sustain a news organization without much capital investment?" It required lot of capital investment to start a newspaper, television or even radio. This has been a major reason for the control of media by big business houses and politicians. However, the Internet may changing the traditional pattern of media ownership and control..

"Web is a compiling media. There are great news sources on the world wide web itself. Therefore operating expenses can be considerably brought down," he reveals. "Moreover, one can feed news globally from any corner of the world . No other media can do this so easily," he adds. "But I don't think this has changed the ownership and control pattern now . But eventually this may happen."

Discouraging Attitude towards Cyber Journalists

Being an experienced journalist, Sashi feels that there should be a change in the public attitude towards web journalism. "All are against web journalism. It is a worldwide trend. Nobody recognises them," he complaints. Most of the sensitive news breaks recently in Indian media have come from news portals like Tehelka.com and rediff.com. Tehelka.com has created a national debate about dot.com and investigative portals. However, the current situation facing tehelka.com is self revealing. Web portals are yet to attract the right and talented journalists like Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka or Sashi Mohan of weblokam to the cyber media.

Changes are required in training cyber journalists. There are many negative aspects of working in web journalism, he added. " But I am an accredited web journalist. I don't think there is no web journalist in India, perhaps in the whole world, recognised or accredited by any Government. This is coincidence. Even Kerala Government which has been talking at the top of its voice to encourage Information Technology (IT) and the use of Internet, has not recognised weblokam as listed recognised media. However, they release some advertisements to weblokam on important occasions," he added.

Web Journalists - Technicians/Writers


"Yes there is a need for training web journalists. A web journalist is a technical person as well. It is a media, which demands tight writing more than any other media. Now most of the web journalism courses in Kerala are not doing justice to students. There should be proper syllabus, practical training and technical training. Sashi Mohan has been associated with the Press Club training courses for journalism students.

Weblokam has been conducting a number of special web based campaigns and programmes like the online model SSLC examination and Sallapam' discussion. " To be frank, most of our web campaigns have not evoked the kind of response as we expected. But when the reality that not many people in Kerala are net savvy is considered, ours was a great success," Sashi added. Use of the Internet and computer is still limited in Kerala. With lot of government services, examinations, application forms etc are going to be received online in the near future, what is the prospects for Internet portals like weblokam.com?

Government Uses Weblokam Strength

"Our Speciality is a powerful Malayalam (medium) on the net. Government and its agencies are making use of this potential. We are giving support to the akshaya project of the IT Department, Government of of Kerala in a big way. When C Dit, a government IT entity developed a Malayalam CD called webDarshini, they depended on weblokam content for the browsers to see. In fact, they bundled weblokam URLs of different sections and subsections to demonstrate the ready Malayalam content on the web. It was a great recognition for us," Sashi says proudly.

"IT @ school project is going to work with us in a big way.Similarly, we we are selected by the IT mission for developing CDs for the Akshya project," he revealed. "However, the Kerala government is yet to develop a positive attitude towards portals. Instead of recognising our services, most of the Government departments are doubtful about our capabilities and (relative) technical supremacy," he added.

Government encourages IT, discourages Portals


"This time Kerala Government denied portals like weblokam the CD chanting mark list of SSLC exams. But somehow we managed to get it unofficially and put it on our site at 10 am on the result day. Though the Government announced that result will be available in 8 Government site only two were functioning that too results were uploaded only by 5 pm. This is the government's attitude. Government is trying to keep the information monopoly. The simple reason for this is the ignorance of the Government officials about IT, he lashes out at the Antony Government's perverted IT policy.

Mainstream Media Neglect

A section of the Kerala media, dominated by a few big families, especially the Malayala Manorama, follow a negative attitude towards portals like weblokam. While there are many clippings about weblokam from various newspapers, the leading papers have apparently not given any coverage about weblokam.com. Of course, the dominant media organizations have been concerned about the emergence and growth of Internet portals like weblokam.com and would not encourage any small organizations to come up in the state. The newspaper does not publish even a classified advertisement given by small start up portals. Complaints of this nature are many. (This is our experience at Keralamonitor.com)

"You are absolutely right. Media especially the print media is dead against portals like weblokam. The largest circulated daily places us as a competitor .We have no other complement bigger than this. If in three years we have grown enough to place a threat for the online editions of the largest daily it is a fabulous achievement. TV channels are more accommodative and helpful.

"Still news papers like Mathrubhumi and Deshabhimani have helped us. Our online SSLC exams got content support from mathrubhumi's successline and vidhyaaramgam edu . So is magazines. We have provided link from online editions of Mathrubhumi and Deshabhimani, the second and third largest news papers from Kerala. We are now giving technical support to Deshabhimani Daily to run a daily online Poll. The poll result is published in the front page of the daily.

Circulation through Cyber Space

The biggest adavantage of portals is that there is no circulation and money collection on the basis of circulation. Even if there are only ten visitors, no body can stop one portal from functioning. But on a later stage, when the question of Ads come, the role and control of big groups will be detrimental.

"Still I hold positive approach, that the effective entry and maintenance of big groups in Internet is not harmful to small groups In turn it will help the growth of small companies, by attracting more viewers/visitors to Malayalam content on the web. Gradually these visitors will come to know about small but efficient companies like weblokam," says Sashi.

Font Convertibility is Essential

Maintaining a portal in Malayalam is a difficult task especially due to the lack of a common Malayalam font. There are talks for a commonly useful Malayalam font for all Internet portals. Many journalists complaint about the colonial mentality of certain media organizations to monopolise and control everything including fonts?

"A common Malayalam font is not the answer. It is not practical also. There should be convertibility or compatibility of fonts as we see in English. Arial can be converted to Tahoma just by a mouse click. Just like that shreelipi should be able to be converted to matweb of Mathrubhumi or to any ISM fonts or CDAC fonts. For this a vast understanding is necessary. Only if the problem of font convertibility is solved , the Malayalam content on web will grow.

Rank Holding Actress Wife, Happy Family

His family life too is a mixture of merit, media and entertainment." My wife Vinodini is postgraduate in Sociology with first class and First Rank. She is youngest daughter of the illustrious Indian Dancer Dr Guru Gopinath. She was a child artist in Malayalam Movies like Kannum karalum, Ammaye kaanaan ,Bhakta kuchela, Manavaatti , Karuththakai sneehadeepam etc. Her last film was Devi kanyakumari. Popular actor Kamala Hasan has acted with her in kannum karalum."

His son Gopimadhav is a IV th semester Mechanical Engineering student of Anjuman Engineering college Bhatkal, Karnataka Daughter Mathangi is a 6th standard student of Bharatheya vidya bhavan Kodungannoor Trivandrum.

Sashi Mohan, who hails from Calicut, is the son of U Madhavan Nair (retired. MSP) and T.Janu (retired Teacher KCMAUP school Calicut). Brother Raja Mohan is in Kuwait and another brother Jayamohan is Manager Oriental Insurance Kochi -keralamonitor.com

T Sashi Mohan, Editor Weblokam.com Below a view of weblokam home page

Editor Sashi Mohan with his family Click for detailed view

Picture shows an An ad in weblokam.com