Why Mahfuz Anam's job is easy?

In a bid to encourage me to learn better English, my late grandfather used to urge me to read the Daily Star on a regular basis from when I was as young as 15. So having read the leading English daily of Bangladesh for an ardent 17 years, I have now realised that the job of the editor Mr. Mahfuz Anam has been very easy – almost tantamount to a walk in the park (Ramna, Chandrima etc.). A few hypotheses to support my assumptions are here.

Daily Star Means Business

Its extremely encouraging to learn that the leading English daily of the country - The Daily Star - is going to revamp its business section in an 'exciting 8-page format, from personal finance to heavy industry, from green business to small business, from management styles to real estate, from luxury goods to logistics -- we will be giving you something new to read every day.'

Undoubtedly a very timely initiative by the English daily to highlight Bangladesh corporate, businesses-small and big. Some quick observations regarding their intention when they said we will be giving you something new to read every day. I don't want to sound cynical here but it would help in near future if we allow, enable and encourage followers of the Daily Star to do more than merely 'reading'. In no way the new initiative should be a reinforcement of a passive participation by mere reading the business news. The Daily Star is in an extremely advantageous position to facilitate more interaction, collaborative production from its business readerbase who can contribute to the formation of the business journalism that they are trying to focus on. I would be biased to advocate for more blogging aided with consumer journalism with videos, audio, images, text etc. from its readers who are first hand consumers of products and services of Bangladeshi companies. Please keep in mind that there is a difference between business journalism and business blogging and DS can't expect to do both. Also, it would be interesting to see how the DS takes advantage of digital platforms i.e. websites and social media to propagate its renewed focus on Corporate Bangladesh to make the Brand Bangladesh more visible and much talked about beyond the borders.

The Brac Bank Chamcha (Sajjadur Rahman) at The Daily Star

Sometimes companies get too close for comfort with the media. Some are painfully obvious to normal readers while the ones participating in the act do so without any recollection or humility.

It has been a constant observation that one writer, X of The Daily Star usually has one goal to promote and talk about: Brac Bank. So close is the relationship between this "reporter" that whenever his Brac Bank publicity article is published, the newspaper also carries a Brac Bank ad. A quick search of The Daily Star archive will find that Brac Bank and X are indeed married.

Moreover X enjoys unhindered access to the top management of Brac Bank. Why is this odd? Because most executives stay away from the media to avoid the "cut and paste" of statements to suit a motive. But Brac Bank is strikingly different, giving X access to the entire staff, Chairman and MD. The financial link between these two entities is painfully obvious after articles after articles always center around Brac Bank.

Even the most unrelated bank news always has a Brac Bank tie in, even though it is not relevant. Bangladesh Bank letting banks open branches? Oh, Brac Bank is opening 15 branches this year (others don't matter). The entire article follows like a Brac Bank ad.

Nevertheless it does not mean that Brac Bank itself is not newsworthy. Believe me they are. The bank is still continuously refusing to reimburse victims of the 1970s style locker heist that took place last year. Where is X's puff piece on that? You won't see anything regarding this news or any updates either by X or The Daily Star.

Secondly I don't know if anyone has noticed their stock has tanked for no good reason for awhile now. This is long before GSP Finance came into the picture or went out. What no discussion why a stock trading at Tk 1200 is now at Tk 550 even without any dividend announcement? But I will disclose that I own Brac Bank stock (and if I was X I would also disclose the financial arrangements between us).

Other than the American banks, I don't believe any Bangladeshi Bank's stock has tanked so badly. This is even after paying for articles and stretching the truth in so many X articles.

Although the financial arrangement is obvious there are lessons to be learnt. Like the noted MasterCard ad, somethings in life are priceless. Maintaining proper security over bank lockers is one of them, because 40 puff pieces and paying off a reporter is not going to fix it. Neither is it going to cover up for a flawed business model. But even more important is a writer's reputation. Everything that X will ever write has been paid for.

Something I Assumed was Free

Our beloved corporate shill, The Daily Star, has announced something spectacular. So spectacular you will grasp why this has made the front page on multiple occasions. You would assume with the money they get to promote Grameenphone's objectives (more about that later) and promote some companies in a unnatural way -that giving free copies to school children would be standard.

But no. Not even a single copy of this newspaper was ever given to anyone free-of-charge. Its not like there was ever a shortage of paper, the copies or distribution. They just simply chose not to for the Tk 10 hawker price. What made them change? A sponsorship deal from AKtel.

This newspaper is shrewd that it required the money from AKtel to get them to give free copies to poor school children who cannot afford newspapers let alone an education. Kudos to AKtel for picking up on this deal, showing Bangladesh your brighter side and in the process revealing the shocking practices of The Daily Star.

At times like these, you wish the inevitable would come faster. You wish that tomorrow all of Bangladesh, like the Western world stopped paying for Newspapers, their expensive ads and classifieds. And instead rely on their online versions, view them with Firefox Adblock, and post our classifieds on Craigslist. This would be a better project for AKtel -getting rid of adulterated and the ruthless media altogether and at once.