Diary of a real estate journalist
Collective consciousness is no longer trusting media in general and real estate media in particular. Media has lost its credibility and relevance like never before. One question that I am compelled to take up in the series “Ask Track2Realty” is whether real estate media is just directionless or corrupt.
Someone pointed out that I just touched upon the corruption angle when I talked about barter deals between the builders and the media houses. I should have thoroughly exposed it for the greater good of greater number of people.
Ok. So, the story goes back to more than a decade ago and it is the root of most of the evil, if not all, in the media space of real estate news.
Some of the English dailies had come up with marvellous marketing idea, as they called it then, of barter deals which they thought was a win-win for both the media houses as well as the builders. They got into a barter deal where builder got crores of advertising space with the publication without a single rupee exchanging hands. In such deals, the media houses instead of advertising revenue got that much exchange value of property in the upcoming projects of these builders.
Property supplements were launched by the mainline newspapers that violated all ethics of journalism to glorify the builders and their projects. Such was the clout of these builders that they even interfered in the editorial policies of these newspapers. They felt empowered & free to label the news copy and the journalists as negative, if they didn’t like a news item.
I am not happy with your story was thrown at the face of journalists in a way as if these builders have a divine right and the poor journalists are meant to serve them.
The industry body of real estate, CREDAI, every now and then dared to threaten the advertising seizure if they found the media houses carrying stories that was negative in their perception. Why should I advertise with this newspaper if it is so negative on the sector, was a common question. It was as if they were doing a favour by advertising and not placing ads for their own vested interests of sales. I am only saying sales here and not brand because the sector even today by and large doesn’t understand anything about brand.
Everything was hunky dory till these builders started getting into the defaulter list. The journalists were offered property at a discounted rate by their own employers as a goodwill gesture of their hard working journalistic career. Malaise was so deep rooted that even the 2nd and 3rd rank media houses got into such deals. But then the proposed property was never delivered and the marketing team of these media houses that earned such deals were all sacked.
Since then real estate media has never regained its lost ground. And rightly so! You allowed the builders to arm twist you and they did what it served their own purposes.
And when the ecosystem is such it only breeds further corruption down the line. So, corruption got deep rooted into the system. Nowadays, the builders feel it is convenient to get their press release published through a leading news agency that is mindlessly carried by some 30-40 publications. So, it serves their purpose. And some of the journalists with news agencies are ready with a rate card – PPR, as they say, that is Pay Per Release. The cost differs as per the size of the developer as well as the type of housing project, affordable rate card being lower than luxury housing project.
There are other kind of journalists in this space who think proximity to a few select builders and giving them more than due coverage is a better way to enhance career than enhancing their skill sets. Do so for a few years and then join the builders office at a senior position. Even if not so qualified, you get the corporate communication department where your experience as a give & take journalist is the best suited skill set.
The advent of digital journalism that took away the large share of audience of these monopoly media houses was supposed to democratise the media space. It was supposed to give space to well meaning journalists who wanted to do honest and impactful journalism. To some extent it did so, but then the builders have more money power for influence peddling. And they can do so by a fraction of the cost that they spent on the monopoly media. So, digital space too is full of builders’ influence peddling.
For a well meaning journalist, it is not agenda; he will say what is right and then move on to the next story. But the builders will continue with their narrative.It is like THANDA MATLAB COCA COLA (Cold means Coca Cola). We all know what THANDA (Cold) means, but then the narrative is so repetitive that it affects the collective consciousness. And builders have the last laugh here as well.
As always, I will yet again be labelled as “NEGATIVE” for spoiling their party; and I continue to be an outsider in real estate journalism. But then who cares!
Ravi Sinha
X : RaviTrack2Media
Ravi Sinha is a journalist with over two decades of cross-discipline media exposure. He is the CEO of real estate thinktank group Track2Realty. He has been writing extensively on the real estate sector for more than a decade now. Evaluation of real estate brand performance is his core domain expertise and he has immense insight into consumers’ psychograph. He has conceptualised Track2Realty BrandXReport as India’s 1st & only objective & non-paid brand rating journal that is industry-accepted benchmark of brand equity & ranking of the Indian real estate companies.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
Subscribe our YouTube Channel @ https://bit.ly/2tDugGl
