"News That Matters Not” (NTMN) is a news satire and social
commentary website based in India. Founded in late 2009, it is known to publish
sarcasm, criticism, satire and the like, usually in the form of humorous news
parody. It targets the media, politics, life and society among other entities
of the world.Check out their website
It has been covered in print media on two occasions: by MiD-Day
and by The Times of India. NTMN was a finalist at Manthan South Asia Awards for
socially responsible e-content, and will feature in their Grand Finale in New
Delhi on December 1–2, 2011. Vijay
Narayan talks to the people who
started it!
Q. Please Introduce yourself. Who are the founding
members?
Tanay:
I am Tanay, a third-year civil engineering student from Delhi College of
Engineering. NTMN was initiated by me in November 2009. I love to write, and
when I am not writing something, I am either editing articles, reading,
listening to music, thinking, trying to be a good engineering student, watching
cricket, internet-strolling, or maybe thinking, once again.
Prateek, a
childhood friend of mine, provided the initial boost for NTMN; he joined me
three days into the venture. Sugandha has been associated with the website ever
since its first month, and is now Head of Operations with me. We handle all the
administration, team handling and decision-making.
Sugandha:
Well, I ain’t who you would really call a “founding member”, but I don’t deny
playing somewhere a not-so-unimportant role in the overall growth of NTMN from
the time when it was just a blog to now, when it is a full-fledged website
being run by an entire team of students from across the country. I am Sugandha,
a third year Software Engineering student from DTU (formerly DCE). I choose to
call myself a “multi-hobby-ed” person because my interests range from music to
dance to dramatics to public speaking and of course, writing. I love my blog
(http://thoughts-in-play.blogspot.com) and I love updating it, as much as I
love penning down funny/philosophical/random thoughts that occur to me every
now and then in the form of one-liners! I think I have a penchant for them. I
think I am good. Yeah, am not modest. :D
Q. What made you start this site? What first gave you
this idea?
Tanay:
One day I read about the concept of news satire in the newspaper. That was my
first tryst with this. I had the sudden urge to try it out myself. I had never
actually written any humour, and did not believe I could either. But the urge
to attempt gave way to NTMN. Back then, it was still very early days for
successful and noticeable news satire on the Indian web. I wrote few articles
on my personal blog just after my exams ended, and within a week, I was on a
new full-fledged website. I got much-needed assistance and support from Prateek
in the initial days.
Q. How has the experience been? Can you share some
things about life that you have learnt at NTMN?
Sugandha:
For me, becoming a part of NTMN has been one of my most fruitful undertakings
ever since college started, and I really mean that. Having served first as an
author, then as an assistant-editor, later assisting Tanay in all the planning
& management and now, as the official HoO, I can vouch for one thing: the
growth in me, not just as a writer, but as a planner, as a team-leader and
above all, as an individual, has been manifold. The NTMN team, in particular,
is nothing less than terrific.
Our team, I
feel, derives its strength from the fact that every single person here firmly
believes in NTMN and takes pride in their association with it. We all have been
taught in our childhood good old stories that prove ‘united we stand, divided
we fall’; I am lucky to have got to experienced that first-hand. The fact that
so many of us are contributing to NTMN’s growth, sans any personal interests,
is really heartening. I am thankful to NTMN, for having taught me for life, the
value of such valuable traits as team-spirit, dedication, creativity, honesty,
innovation and above all, integrity. Knowing that I wasn’t half as good as I
hopefully am today, as a writer and as a person, I sure have a lot to thank
NTMN for.
Q. How difficult was it to start up? Did you
encounter any set-backs? How did you deal with them?
Tanay: It
never began as a start-up. That a start-up venture could be made out of this,
only dawned upon me, 14 months into the venture, thanks to Sugandha. Even
today, it is not a proper entrepreneurial venture.
So, back
then, the only issues dealt with creativity and response from readers for
quality of content. The quality was not the best, and the satire was not of any
critical value to the society. Experienced readers were quick to notice; some
wrote in hate comments, some wrote in detailed quality feedback. The latter of
them helped; I got in touch with other satire-writers and some experienced
journalists, and by April 2010, we had more careful approach to better satire,
and we knew where to improve at. Our first sweet taste of success came in
April, when Mid-Day chose to reproduce an NTMN post in its Mumbai edition in
return for remuneration to its original author.
Q. What were the sources of finance you could
leverage?
Tanay: There
were no significant finances involved initially, except the domain
registration, which I funded myself. Now, there are hosting charges, which are
just covered by our advertising revenue.
Q. How many writers and editors does your team consist of? How easy
was it to find these people?
Tanay:
Our team has writers from all over India, who joined voluntarily to avail the
platform. We have an editorial team of around 7 editors in principle, who I ask
for assistance according to requirement. There was no proper editorial setup
before August this year; articles were solely edited by me. During our
successful internship program this summer, I came across some talented
individuals who possessed the accuracy of editing that I always looked for but
never got. The interested editing interns were given an opportunity to be part
of the team.
Q. How will your work affect the masses?
Sugandha: We
believe our work can ‘inspire change through humor’; and on a more realistic
note, it does. Satire, or even plain humor, are actually very powerful literary
tools. When used for the right cause, they can draw a lot of attention to what
might have been ignored otherwise, can force the reader to think and come with
his own view-point about the same. Awareness of this kind, is really important
for our generation — otherwise touted as a rash and careless lot. It is only a
blessing in disguise, that we have got support from a reader-base constituted
not just by the youth, but more experienced individuals too.
Infact, it
gives us utmost pleasure, to be able to come out with something truly useful.
Which is why, we don’t mind digressing sometimes from our main genre, to let
people know of, say, the harmful effects of the now-trending Hookah or reasons
why women ought to be offered a seat in public buses or our lack of true
patriotism and love for the nation!
Q. Where do you see yourself after five years? What
are your plans for the future?
Sugandha: We
do wish to expand as much as we can. We have plans for the same, but this is
too early to comment on them. Having run on a no-profit basis all this while,
even being able to survive till five years later would be gladdening for us. If
our team and readers continue to co-operate and encourage us, we aren’t going
anywhere for as long as possible. This is a promise, to them, and ourselves.
Q. Any such belief as a “formula for success”?
Tanay:
Success does have a formula, but that formula can’t be applied by everyone.
It’s like you form water not by knowing it consists of hydrogen and oxygen, but
by actually having hydrogen and oxygen. If you don’t have the constituents, you
have to be very careful to ensure you don’t stumble midway. For me, success
comes from ambition, execution, perseverance accompanied with humility, a
constant urge to learn and share skills with all levels of people at every
opportunity. Before everything, you have to be a good person, else that success
has no value.
Sugandha:
I’ll tell you once I achieve it. You tell me if you get to taste it before me.
:D
Tanay: After
Sugandha’s reply, lemme add that I gave some formula, doesn’t mean I am
successful. :(
