What’s with ET’s new masthead?

So this is how one reads the name (for today, at least): “The Economic & Political Times”.

by Anant Rangaswami :first Post :11 Mar 2013

“For decades, ET’s political coverage has informed, explained and amused you, its sharp insights giving you a ringside view of the grand theatre of Indian politics. Starting today, we expand our coverage by adding another page of politics as part of a refreshed offering of political content…, The Economic Times says in a front page explanatory note.

The note is required – as this is what this morning’s masthead looks like:

So this is how one reads the name (for today, at least): “The Economic & Political Times”.

There’s obviously no change in the legal name for the newspaper – as far as the Registrar of Newspapers is concerned, it will remain The Economic Times.

So what causes ET to flag their political content now, when it is not content that they have decided to introduce from this morning – it is content that they have always carried. What their explanatory note underlines is that, henceforth, there will be two pages in the ET which focus on political developments. These two pages will be branded ‘Pure Politics’.

What will the content on these pages do? They “will give you everything to help connect the dots between people, politics and policy. It will be the distilled essence of political news that matters. You won’t need anything else,” says their note.

“You won’t need anything else,” helps one understand why they’re highlighting the political content. If one thinks of ET as just a business newspaper, then the reader will have to go elsewhere for his political news and analysis (if he believes ET does not give it to him). Considering the impact of politics on policy, industry and business, anyone in business needs, increasingly, to have a more than basic understanding of likely developments in the political arena. How will an NDA government, if voted to power in the next general elections, view, for example, FDI in retail? What are the chances that the UPA government will continue to cut subsidies in the oil sector?

An understanding of the political environment will allow businessmen and industrialists to make more informed decisions on their investments and risks – and this is what ET wants to take advantage of.

Take the story which is alongside the explanatory note on ET’s front page today. “YSR Cong may back Congress post 2014,” the headline says. The news, if true, has significant impact on the fortunes of the UPA, considering that, in 2009, the Congress with YSR won 33 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

Such news would not significantly impact the reader of a general newspaper. But to the reader of a pink paper, it would suggest that the UPA’s prospects in 2014 are better than one might have thought before this morning’s ET.

And if the reader connects the dots, it would suggest that he covered his bases with the Congress and with other possible UPA constituents.