BOMBAY, 18 July 2005 — More news is good news — that’s what the newspaper reader and television channel viewer would like to hear and read. Now newspaper readers in Bombay will have two more options to choose from. Two more news channels will be vying for viewership. But the billion-dollar question is what does this mean for the media, the advertisers and, most interestingly, the readers.

The good news is that Bombay finally has another English-language newspaper. The Indian Express has been in existence, but has sadly never been considered a worthy competitor to the Times of India.

The two leading English-language dailies published from Bombay now face a new challenge from the Hindustan Times, which was launched with much fanfare on Thursday. The paper appears to focus on superior editorial content and tried to create a sensation on the very first day when it published the transcripts of a purported audiotape containing a telephone conversation between movie stars Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

In the past many newspapers tried to establish themselves in Bombay and failed. They included The Indian Post, Independent, Pioneer, Business and Political Observer and, more recently, Morning Quick, which did not quite take off after making a high profile entry. And, of course, who can forget R.K. Karanjia’s The Daily and The Sunday Observer, both of which shut down.

To boost its sales and develop a successful marketing strategy, the Times of India launched Mumbai Mirror in tabloid format in May this year, essentially to pull readers before they switch loyalties, but early reports are mixed.

Taking note of a flourishing real estate and the close proximity of Pune, a pensioners’ paradise, large media players started looking at their account books to figure how many millions they could invest in launching a newspaper in the financial capital of the country.

The Hindustan Times, which was attacked by the Times of India in Delhi, decided to return the favor and launch a Bombay edition. But what was more surprising was the getting together of Zee Television network with Daily Bhaskar Group of publications to start a morning newspaper. The Daily Bhaskar management believed it could counter the Times of India Group’s marketing muscle with a project titled Daily News and Analysis. DNA is all set to launch later this month, with former boss of the Times group, Rajdeep Guha, at the helm and a host of his former colleagues manning key editorial and marketing positions.

This new development and media wars mean that salaries will jump for print media journalists and marketing executives, although the new compensation packages may be dubbed unreal, for too long have print folks been paid pathetically. Unfortunately in a business that depends so much on the skill of its workforce, journalists get salaries that drive away the bright and talented to more lucrative careers.

The boom in the news media is not restricted to print alone. Two news players are set to enter television — Times Now, a Times-Reuters joint venture, and Broadcast News, a Rajdeep Sardesai-CNBC 18 channel joint venture.

When Sardesai was asked if there was place for yet another news channel, he said: “Definitely there is a place for one, and it will give viewers more choice.”