Going hyperlocal through community services in India: the Siasat Daily

The family-owned newspaper was founded exactly 60 years ago, and presents itself as "the most techno savvy Urdu newspaper" in the country. "Muslims are lagging in jobs, in education. We have to help our readers to feel more powerful, to be self-confident, as the illiteracy rate in our constituency is particularly high," comments news editor Amer Ali Khan. "We also have an education role for kids who come from the slums. We have to show the right direction to many members of our community who for what they think as religious requirement, are reluctant to access to services like insurance coverage."

Like the broadcast media programs The Siasat Daily is developing, aired a few hours a day to start with, these efforts in education also include the offer of language course booklets, printed by the media company. They are designed to get closer to the Urdu-speaking community, representing a 10% minority in this south central state of Andhra Pradesh, and a stronger 35% in the capital city Hyderabad. Many Muslim readers also need to be helped to have a better knowledge of English in order to increase their chances to get a job in the so-called "BPOs", or Business Process Outsourcing (call centers).

The 60,000 circulation newspaper based in Hyderabad's popular district Abids was created in 1949 by Ali Khan's grandfather Padmashree Abid Ali Khan. "Siasat" means "politics", and in its six decades of activity, it has built itself up as more than an information provider. "We turned into a lifetime companion of our readers through unbiased reporting and secular policies", explains the current publisher and editor, Zahid Ali Khan, Amer's father.

The Siasat Daily's computer equipment seems a out-of-date by western standards. Some of the journalists sit in front of eye-protecting double screens, which disappeared in Europe over 10 years ago. But the "time tested" newspaper with "old values" and "rich traditions", as claimed in a brochure handed over by the Ali Khan family, has been early in computerizing its operations, developing its own version of Urdu software in 1989. Those investments are an achievement per se, considering the extremely low price of the publication. 

Siasat was also the first newspaper to launch its Internet edition in this language, twelve year ago. Its website www.siasat.com - which is read by over 2 million people on average every month, in particular among the NRI diaspora ("Non Resident Indians") - includes English pages, as well as an e-paper version of the original print since 2004. It was the first to do this among the thousands of Urdu newspapers. "There are about one million Andhra Pradesh people living abroad, of whom 40% are Muslim," explains Amer Ali Khan. "We had 1500 visitors just in France last month", his father adds.

The most original endeavors, however, are Siasat's numerous extra-journalistic social activities, which encompass education (including computing, cooking classes and exam coaching) to health support, like the "Abid Ali Khan Eye Hospital", based in the old part of Hyderabad City. The publication was several times awarded - by Unesco among other - for its services to the community and in favor of girls education in particular.

When we entered the building facing the newsroom and the administrative offices, where the classes and broadcast activities take place, the news editor signaled numerous piles of old newspapers. "Readers are invited to put them together and bring them back, for recycling in paper mills," Amer Ali Khan explained. "The income is used as a charity, to help orphan girls finance their wedding."

This waste management effort has also other positive impacts in a country where all disposable goods are littered everywhere. Inducing a newspaper's readers to have cleaner streets is also a way to be closer to its community.