Bartaman
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Bartaman Patrika is the only anti-Establishment Bengali language newspaper published from Calcutta. Apart from the Calcutta edition, the newspaper has four other simultaneous editions, published daily from four major towns of West Bengal -- Siliguri, Burdwan, Malda and Midnapore.
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[edit] History
The newspaper was founded by Mr. Barun Sengupta, the legendary journalist of Calcutta in December 1984. He started his career with the Ananda Bazar Patrika, worked with them for quite a long time and touched the prime of his career. On retiring from that group he started his own initiative, Bartaman, which was to create history in time to come.
Within a short span of time since its inception, Bartaman has established itself as a major broadsheet daily in West Bengal. Its strengths are its strong anti-Establishment (in Bengal, anti-Marxist, anti pseudo leftists, rather) stance, uncompromising voice and a devoted readership and wide circulation. Although Bartaman still falls behind Anandabazar Patrika regarding its daily average circulation, mainly due to its uncompromising anti-establishment stance, it has won the respect of those, who otherwise would have gone unheard of in the midst of seeming political oppression. It has revealed the courage to speak out against communist conspiracies in West Bengal when other newspapers remained silent. Bartaman's biggest strength has been its vocal journalists and columnists.
The newspaper is often criticised for its dull presentation, pastoral and naïve language and improper use of photographs. But at the same time it can not be denied that a huge section of rural readership still relish reading the paper. Bartaman Management is known to believe that the simple and unassuming look of the paper has been helpful to make it popular among simple, semi-educated village and suburban people . On the flip side, these features are held responsible by a section of Media-Pundits for a steady decline in the readership of the newspaper in urban areas. Some has to say that Bartaman is just unable to identify the transformation of readership. Others are in the opinion that Bartaman deliberately overlooks the change of taste in urban areas, as they are focusing gradually more on increasing village readership. This debate leaves a question in its trail: Can a newspaper survive only by catering rural readership?
[edit] The Elections in West Bengal
Bartaman is the only newspaper in West Bengal which did not participate in the bandwagon of glorifying the West Bengal government headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. It is the sole newspaper which has relenlessly attempted to reveal the truth behind Left Front's overwhelming victories in the elections in West Bengal since 1977. Bartaman was the first Bengali daily which talked about scientific rigging, - how the ruling communists manipulate the electoral systems to retain power.
[edit] Online edition
Bartaman's online edition-www.bartamanpatrika.com [1] - is also a huge success. Within a very short span since its inception in April 2002, it has drawn blood from its main competitor, the Anandabazar website, to a large extent. In its second year of operation, bartamanpatrika.com[2] was ranked the top Bengali website from West Bengal and Bangladesh according to the better known search engines. Bartamanptrika's online feature magazine 'Chatushparni'is also very popular.
[edit] The company
Bartaman Pvt. Ltd., which was originally centered at 76A, AJC Bose Road, has recently shifted its entire operations to a new state-of-the-art building on 6, JBS Haldane Avenue (Eastern Metroloitan Bypass), Calcutta - 700105. The building was officially inaugurated on 07.12.2005.
Bartaman group also publishes two very popular magazines: Saptahik Bartaman (Weekly Journal of Bartaman) and Sukhi Grihokon(Happy Housekeeping). Both are well appreciated by their readers and have wide circulations.
The newspaper is currently concentrating on a major expansion of its operations. Earlier, the newspaper had an advertisement sharing arrangement with the English language daily The Statesman, but the tie up has been estranged two years back.
[edit] Bartaman's influence
Sopmetimes pen can really prove to be mightier than sword.Ever since its birth in December 1984, Bartaman continues to focus on the plight of deprived people of West Bengal. When other newspapers took the safest road of catering to the irresponsible neo-consumerist needs and eulogising the left front government of West bengal, Bartaman continued with its severe protest. It has been relentless in revealing how the rulling communists are sucking West Bengal dry. For this blasphemy, the newspaper is unofficially banned in some parts of West Bengal. In many corners of Burdwan, Bankura and Birbhum, communist workers try to restrict the circulation of Bartaman. In areas like Keshpur (Midnapur), readers of Bartaman had been made social recluse.
For thousands of oppressed people Bartaman is not just a newspaper, it is a source of inspiration to build better and prosperous West Bengal. In other words, Bartaman is not just a Newspaper, it's a revolution right on the face of the hypocrit left front rulers of West bengal.But it is now losing relevance due to its blind anti-establishment stance.−
It is extremely important for Bartaman to come to terms with reality . While there many flaws of the ruling party of Bengal – it is still significantly better and mature than the current opposition who have time and again failed to play an constructive opposition role. Thus , Bartaman should not oppose the West Bengal government just for the heck of it ( or is to increase circulation ?) rather provide factual picture to its readers. The last state election has proved that the masses are behind the current government , so this blind anti establishment stance may not be commercially wise either. If Bartaman does not mend its ways , it can still have some readership in the coming years but will become largely irrelevant in the future.
