Ajay Shah has some thoughts on Private Treaties.

He quotes a Sucheta Dalal article about an email forwarded by the editor of the Economic Times.

At ET, we are carving out a separate team to look into the needs of Private Treaty clients. Every large centre will have a senior editorial person to interface with Treaty clients. In turn, the senior edit person will be responsible, along with the existing team, for edit delivery.

This is obviously unethical. ET should most definitely not be in the business of selling editorial coverage. I dont think any marginally intelligent person would argue otherwise.

My point about Private Treaties is that if its an advertising ONLY deal, I dont see an ethical issue. Instead of paying in cash the company is paying in equity. Equity has a value, and the stake divested is based on that.

If there is an editorial coverage component to the Private Equity deal its no different from the reprehensible practice that Bennett Coleman has with Medianet. It is however an ethical failing of that particular company. I do not believe that invalidates the potential benefits of Private Treaties to both, a hopefully ethical Media Company, and the company gaining ad inventory for stake.

If youve never read The Wheel of Time, this post might seem like gibberish to you.

It was the first set of Fantasy/SciFi books that I read, and I’ve never gotten as immersed in a book as I was in this story. Not 1 book, but 12 enormous books(11 in the main series and 1 prequel).

Unfortunately Robert Jordan passed away in the middle of writing the final book in the main series. His widow, who was also his editor for all the books, selected Brandon Sanderson to finish the last book. Sanderson is going to be writing some of his thoughts about the series of books as he runs through the entire series in preparation. He just posted his first set of impressions on The Eye of the World. He talks about foreshadowing:

I know how difficult it is to foreshadow across an entire series, and am frankly astounded by how well Mr. Jordan laid the groundwork for his future books.  Min’s prophesies are one great example, but equally potent is Mr. Jordan’s use of mythology and story as a means of preparing the reader for events such as the Great Hunt, future interactions with the Aiel (and the People’s relationship with them), and the coming of the Seanchan.

If you havent read these books its impossible to realise just how difficult and incredible a job this foreshadowing is. This is a massive story, the scope of which Ive never come close to seeing anywhere else. Its 3.1 Million words. compare that to the average length of a novel which is around 100,000 words.

He talks about 2 kinds of foreshadowing above, Prophecy and Myth. Theres another thing RJ did, which delighted rereaders in particular. A throwaway line, will wind up alluding to significant events, character arcs in the future. One that comes to mind is Mat telling Rands father how he is interested in war. Theres another line by Moiraine about Egwene becoming the Amyrlin Seat.

Robert Jordan really was an incredible author.

Something that makes me happy reading this and all of Sandersons post on the Wheel of time, is just how much he gets the series. Based on my first few sampling of his blog, I’m encouraged, that he will give this series the finish it deserves. I have also ordered the first book of his Mistborn series, which I understand is darker, but will hopefully give me more reason to be excited about A Memory of Light.

Finally and most importantly we have been promised the identity of Asmodeans killer. I cant wait for 2009.

I came across this blog post by Rashmi Bansal. Shes unhappy with Vodafone, for what she considers unjustified billing.

My latest Vodafone bill says I need topay 25 bucks for 2 downloads:
a) Callertune from Onmobile – Rs 15
b) Wallpaper from Hungama – Rs 10
Exact download dates and times have been given. Which is great except that I have not made these downloads. I’ve had the same caller tune – ‘California Dreaming’ for many months now. And neither am I into wallpapers!

Ridiculous right? How dare the operator scam people in this way. Except that the callertune is clearly a subscription service, that she acknowledges using.

Heres a screenshot from the Vodafone site:

I have huge issues with Mobile Operators. But a complaint like this does nothing and serves no purpose, other than venting  frustration. The operators track record is such that most people will believe anything about them no matter how bad.

What this does do is obscure legitimate issues with the operators practices. Such as the disaster that is the Do Not Disturb list.

Hilarious

Read about this on India Uncut today, and have some thoughts on it.

This is a recent phenomenon in Indian business, where companies give up stake to major media companies in exchange for Ad Inventory. I first heard about this a year and a half ago or so, when a friend was considering this. He never went ahead with the whole thing for many reasons.

I really don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with the concept. If anything its an innovative way for Bennett Coleman, HT Media, or any other media group for that matter, to book ads well in advance. For companies that need to build a brand through advertising, its a fantastic deal. You give up a little stakes for a minority investor, who doesn’t try and get involved in your business. As mentioned in this article, its a win win for both.

And it is not difficult to see why. Share swaps for ad space is a win-win deal for both sides. For a start, it is almost a zero-cash transaction.

What this neglects is the 3rd stakeholder implicit in the arrangement, the reader or viewer or listener. And that is the objection most people have to this kind of arrangement. Disclosure is the most obvious solution.

But here’s my question: Do newspapers or TV channels disclose every bulk advertising deal they do? What’s the difference between stake and cash when it comes down to it?

As usual the devil is in the details, its not about the ways in which the Times Group or anyone else sells their advertising, the issue is the separation between advertising and content. I think that’s pretty much the only issue. Bombay Times with their Medianet, pay for publicity, model, has destroyed the Times of India’s credibility amongst many readers. And those readers see this Private Treaty business as an extension of that.

Once the slime is introduced it covers everything. Even an interesting idea is tarred with the same brush.

David Eddings is one of the more important figures in Fantasy. I started the series 12 days ago, and got done yesterday. That was a lot faster than I anticipated. I believe that fact shows both the strengths and the weakness of this series. I enjoyed reading it, but it was fundamentally unsatisfactory. It was a straight forward read, and given my immersion in the genre for the last couple of years, there was nothing here that really took me by surprise or really moved me.

There are 5 books in the series:

Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad)

Queen of Sorcery (The Belgariad, Book 2)

Magician’s Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3)

Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad, Book 4)

Enchanters’ End Game (The Belgariad, Book 5)

The basic premise of the books is a quest in which Garion, Mister Wolf, Aunt Pol, and Burnik leave Faldors farm to find the Orb of Aldur which has been stolen. The Orb is what protects the West from being overrun by the Angaraks of the East. They are joined by Barak and Silk, who are companions of Mr. Wolf. As they set out on the journey, Garion realises that Mister Wolf is Belgarath, an ancient sorceror, and his Aunt Pol is his daughter, who is thousands of years old. They are joined by other characters, some annoying, some interesting and fun. Mandorallen, was initially irritating, but he grew on me, similar to how he grew on his companions. Relg, I never liked at all. Garions love interest Ce’Nedra’s a brat, very much in the same vein as Robert Jordan’s Elayne character, or George Lucas’ Princess Leia for that matter.

I think my nephew who is just now starting to read the genre(loves Harry Potter, Eragon, and the first young adult version of Robert Jordan’s From The Two Rivers will really enjoy this. For a older audience, its lightweight fun. Ive got to say I was never bored, but I was also never really immersed in the book the way I was when reading George RR Martin or Robin Hobb or Robert Jordan

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Via India Uncut

Amt Verma’s excellent India Uncut blog pointed to the Times of India’s “Leader” Article. I have never been a big fan of the Times of India, neither the news(which I generally get from 100s of sources all over the net) or the op-ed(I like Hindustan Times and Indian Express a lot more).

Gautam Adhikari talks a great game though. Key Quote:

Strangely, in an age when you might presume it’s improbable in a modern democracy, it’s actually difficult to belong to our bandwidth in the Indian political spectrum. It isn’t only because the extremes of a fiercely Hindu nationalist right and an obtusely Neanderthal left, with the Congress party being a muddle in the middle, leave little space for reasoned debate along classically liberal lines.
In fact, a party professing market-oriented liberalism can even be termed unconstitutional. As we have argued in an editorial next to this article, you cannot under the Constitution register a party that debunks socialism or, for that matter, secularism.

 

That second paragraph is astounding. Unconstitutional. IIRC someones been making the effort to get this law changed through the courts, same way Naveen Jindal helped get us the right fly our own flag.

I thought the book was banned in India, but today got it on the road. Interesting, how I got a pirated copy of a banned book.

Update: Saw a post by Govindraj Ethiraj, on a similar subject

This is my first post. Ever.

I’ve been reading blogs for years, corresponding every now and than with a number of bloggers, but have finally decided to start on my own. Lets see how it goes. I’m going to primarily write about Technology and Books, which are the 2 things I am most interested in.

Hopefully over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be able to have the blog take shape, figure out what I want to do for a posting schedule, and come up with some ideas for interesting posts.