Private treaties “are just another way of channelizing one’s (ad) inventory,” says Laxmi Narasimhan, who heads the Network 18 division called New Business. “It’s like a barter system where, in return of your air-time, you take what the other company can easily offer. It could be equity, or some service or product or some other asset. It’s a pure commercial transaction where you get your ads, and the company in question gets advertisements without having to dip into its limited cash resources.”
Still, Narasimhan insists that “there is a Chinese wall between our marketing and editorial teams. We never interfere with our editorial function.”
Some Indian editors, very few of whom would want to speak to Mint if their names were used, point to The Economic Times editor Joshi’s internal email to say that it is unlikely the boundaries between news coverage and the interests of treaty clients will stay intact.
“As a concept, it (private treaties) is an innovative and aggressive prescription (to shore up one’s revenues),” says Shekhar Gupta, the editor-in-chief of The Indian Express. “But, given the commitment made to the (investee) companies in such deals that you will promote them and build consumer and investor confidence around them, it is challenging to keep the editorial integrity,” Gupta says.
BCCL’s website for such treaty clients lists stories that have appeared about them, mostly from the company’s two flagship papers, listing various clients who are mentioned in articles that are broader in nature.
For instance, a story headlined “Action heats up for home deals, as loan rates soften” is cited for Assotech, KLJ, Amrapali and Meriton, four of BCCL’s treaty partners.
In many cases, the headlines on the stories, which are mostly from The Economic Times and The Times of India (though the website includes articles from papers such as The Hindu, DNA and the Business Standard as well), “alone reveal the slant”, wrote Dalal in her article, which first appeared in MoneyLife, a fortnightly personal finance magazine published from Mumbai, but has been widely circulated on the Internet.
Adds Janmabhoomi’s Vyas: “BCCL is keeping its commitment to the PT clients quite well. But, what about its responsibility towards its readers and the media community at large?”
For its part, BCCL insists that Private Treaty clients have no influence on its editorial coverage. Joshi declined to comment on his email cited by Dalal in her article saying he was not the official spokesperson of the company.
Rajshekhar strongly refutes any allegations about the influence of treaties on editorial coverage in BCCL’s publications.
“We have no influence over our editorial colleagues,” he insists. “On the contrary, many of our treaty clients complain that they get a lot more coverage in other publications.”
But, at least on BCCL’s website, clients seem to expect the nature of their relationship with the news side of BCCL will change because of such treaties.