'26 pages of Nonsense'

"hey there, meet me, 'The 26 pages of Nonsense' "

After a nice long nap in the night, the only 2 things that I love to see early in the morning is - a bright shining sun in the sky and my dad with a cup of filter coffee in his hand, trying his best to get me off the bed. The tantalising smell of coffee is more than enough for me to rise and shine.

It’s the best time of the day, where dad and I catch up with each other, discussing about his work and his usual interrogation of what I’ve been up to. He always amazes me with the abundant knowledge that he has about everything happening around the world, current affairs, trends and anything & everything to do with banking & finance. A long chat that covers almost every event happening under the sun is what I look forward to, every morning.

What I have skipped to mention here, is a 3^rd element that was once a part of our morning sessions, i.e. ” The 26 pages of Nonsense”, yep the daily Newspaper. Heights of creativity right ;)

It is irritating enough that I can’t get past through a few ads on the TV, that now, I totally would not want to waste my money on a newspaper that pays more attention to Advertisements than cover up the various events happening across the city, state, nation, world, outer space et al. wonder who keeps a tab on the content of newspapers (if at all there is any regulatory board, are you listening???)

Have a glance at it, and you’ll be done with the paper even before you are done with your cup of coffee. Not that I’m against the ads on the paper, but really, I find it unfair to come across more ads and that too in all kinds and sorts namely pictures, text, advertorials etc. Supplements that come along with these papers, surprisingly carry some of the news articles which are covered in the main sheet on different days, just that they appear with a so called glamorous image attached to it and yet again, more and more ads or irrelevant information.

It’s a shame that, these papers have totally taken it upon themselves, to not to stop at anything when it comes to promoting brands, but bring in a complete halt to providing news that is essential; news that serves the purpose of a newspaper. It’s almost like, if I start a paper, and cover news about nosy neighbours, gossiping friends and whining relatives along with a few candid images of babies and oldies trying to make it to 4 sheets of Page 3’s, especially when they are ready to pay any amount to be in it. I guess I have a successful newspaper as well :D

A national newspaper of 20 pages main sheet, when compared to the local newspaper of 12 pages main sheet, shows that national newspaper contains information worth only up to 8 to 10 pages same as a local newspaper that also carries information worth at least 8 to 10 pages. Agreed that the advertisements are more in a national daily when compared to the local newspaper. Agreed that they bring in revenue. But, are they running short of news on current affairs? Isn’t there anything at all happening around the world that is interesting and worth a read?  And yet somehow, there is an increase in the number of advertisements and the information that they carry about these brands in such in-depth compared to other relevant information.

How can anyone think of filling in 26 pages of nonsense and crap, plus wasting paper and still get away by selling it to the public at a cost? One thing is for sure, a team of managers from various departments sit together and ensure that they take all pains in making our mornings as colourful as possible and confuse or rather irritate the readers every morning with the amount of crap they put into it. There is no point of taking up initiatives and getting the youth to participate and filling in the newspaper with just that info. Hasn’t any of those readers questioned the agency about their ways of ‘making a monkey’ out of readers?

Not only does the paper disgust me in the morning due to its lack of relevant information but also has amazed me, that paid news has caught up so much that everyone has turned a blind eye to it rather than trying to bring about some change. The power of money definitely rules in every industry, it’s only sad that the most influential media has also joined the bandwagon of corrupt news and information or are they the actual inventors of this bandwagon?

Nevertheless, I would definitely thank the print media, for having made my mornings much more enjoyable with people who matter the most, my family. I guess that is a better tagline for these newspaper agencies to promote their brand. Although, my paper has a name that is apt to the present generation, ‘the times have definitely changed’ ;)