It’s been many years since a good spy story broke in India. And Madhuri Gupta unfortunately is turning out to be an also-ran story at best, but funny.

Let me start with a caveat: there is no official version of the story yet, not one released on a signed statement by any wing of the government involved. Read more

In the newsroom here, as in most newsrooms around the world, we have a name for practically every inch of the newspaper. And when I say every inch, I mean it.

Page One, for instance, is made of anchors, briefs, above-anchors, lead, second lead etc. We have been through all this in an earlier blog, I know, so I will not bore you with more of the same. But here is what I want to know. And please to reply, I really need to know. Read more

I must write something special about the people who have been pulling off this most special package that Hindustan Times has been running for over a year now.

It all started with a small story on Page 4 of a weekday edition late 2008. Read more

The one story that stayed on page one the longest in the last seven days was about Mumbai, in varying shapes and sizes.

Lead story, second lead, single column and sometimes as just a Must Read. Read more

I love speaking to journalism students. Their curiosity about the newspaper actually makes me go back to the basics and revisit some of things we tend to take for granted after a few years in the profession.

I was with a bunch of them last Sunday and they were no pushovers. Read more

There are great headlines and there are memorable headlines. Let’s not talk about the bad or pedestrian ones – there are too many to do justice to any one, or a bunch, of them. Read more

We got lucky with Kobad Gandhy and that’s how we had with the best story in town. Or was it more?
The excitement began early in the day.

Our Jamshedpur correspondent who has been in Delhi for a refresher course heard from a source: someone big has been picked up in Delhi. Read more

It’s heartbreaking to follow stories done by others – newspapers or television news channel. That’s the way we grew up, in a two-newspaper town.

It was a matter of shame to be beaten by the rival paper on a story. And we were conditioned to deal with that shame by ignoring the news-break. Read more

We have been overwhelmed by the response to the new design. Most of it has been extremely good, some have been critical but bridging the two worlds are those urging us to concentrate on content.

“It’s looking very good,” went a response, “but it’s all about content.” “An equal emphasis on content as on presentation is what readers really want,” said a post on this blog. Read more