Legacy newspaper, Deccan Herald recently completed 75 years in the industry of news circulation. With its presence in Karnataka for almost as long as India's independence, Editor of Deccan Herald and CEO of The Printers Mysore, Sitaraman Shankar spoke to Exchange4media about the journey of the company, its future prospects and what makes audiences rely on news produced by Deccan Herald.

"While it’s great to have the 75 under our belt, the team knows that any product is only as good as its last iteration or refresh – be it the newspaper or the website. We’re looking ahead," Shankar mentioned during the conversation.

Excerpts:

It’s been a fascinating three-quarters of a century, from the time the paper was founded by Mr K N Guruswamy in 1948. Many fine journalists have passed through its portals, and the group has been quick to embrace technology, be it setting up high-quality printing presses or going online relatively early, and, best of all, it’s been true to its DNA of public interest journalism. I’m coming up to the five-year mark as editor of DH, and it’s nice to have been part of one-fifteenth of the paper’s history!

I appreciate the relatively free hand and support I have gotten from the owners in bringing some changes and introducing new products, be it the relaunch of the paper, the new tagline, the new masthead and the app. I have enjoyed working with talented and unassuming colleagues – it’s a quieter newsroom than many I have worked in, but extremely competent, and, while being justifiably proud of its legacy, it’s been keen to embrace the changes, given a supportive environment.

DH has always been a champion of public good, and we formalised this in 2019 with the tagline ‘The Power of Good’. I have always been struck by the goodwill we enjoy among readers – people stuck with us through the pandemic and did not demur when we raised cover prices recently. We have also not been afraid to speak truth to power, whichever government is in the saddle nationally or locally, and that seems to have resonated with the public.

It's interesting that you ask about the school paper. We relaunched it earlier this month with a general knowledge focus, and it has been embraced by students. It also complements our relatively new online education business under the Mastermind umbrella.

Oh, fairly quietly. We allowed ourselves a little nostalgia, cut a nice cake in the newsroom and produced what we’d like to think was a memorable centerspread looking back. But we quickly went on with our job of making the next day’s paper and of keeping the website in tip-top shape.

I have heard several reasons. The most common one cited is that we are willing to speak up for the little guy, given our liberal ethos, and as I said earlier, to speak truth to power, regardless of the politics of it. I have heard older readers say they polished their English by reading DH as youngsters, which underscores the need to keep working at our writing and editing, especially when standards on that front across the media are facing challenges.

We will always ensure that the product remains fresh – a small example is the revamp of our Saturday and Sunday editions. The Saturday Story, which is usually experiential, is a big hit. The Sunday edition has lived up to its promise of ‘Ideas on every page’. Our business section on Mondays, in salmon pink, is another innovation. We will keep at this, surprising and hopefully delighting readers. Our website is unrecognizable now from a few years ago, truly national in outlook and on the ball. You will see a new look there soon. We used a design studio for our app and it’s worked well for us. Our events business is doing very well – we have two major Intellectual Properties under the DH brand – the DH Bengaluru 2040 summit and the DH Changemaker awards, and they have gone from strength to strength. Expect more developments in the events space. Also, expect our high-quality video section to get more traction, and for us to adopt exciting tech tools over the next year or two.

At a time when there is widespread cynicism around, I like to think that DH stands for something and that young journalists will make their way to our doorstep because they want to do work that makes a difference, to be honest about their purpose, to the purpose that prompted them to take up this career in the first place. DH means the world to me in that it gives my fellow journalists such a vehicle, and in that it gives readers a reason to continue to believe in journalism. But enough of such serious stuff – here’s to a good front page tomorrow, great World Cup stories later this year and top-class general election coverage in 2024!