Looking back and ahead in another difficult year

As 2023 is ushered in, it is time to look back and ahead. The past year has been a tough one for us in this magazine in financial terms. Why so, you might well ask when there would appear to be money enough all around us.

The answer lies in the changing perception of what the purpose of media is and the ends it must serve. We all seem to be caught up in the gross hurly burly of an emerging economy. Changes in technology and the bewildering torrent of information in their wake has also skewed the role of media, altered how stories are consumed and, alarmingly, made it difficult to distinguish between real and fake.   

Everyone’s affected and we think it is a sad thing to happen because India is at a juncture when journalists are needed to go out and discover a zillion changes taking place in the country and the world at large and make sense of them for readers. Skills, credibility and inquisitiveness are needed, not curated offerings that by serving certain interests conceal more than they reveal.

At Civil Society we continue to do stories and interviews that we feel will surprise our readers and make them better informed. We see this as our role — to surprise readers with information they never imagined they would need to know. We cast our net far and wide and each month put together an editorial offering that to us has some intrinsic merit. It isn’t dictated by anyone. So, over the past year you would have found coverage of health, education, energy, cities, conservation, wildlife, medicinal plants and more. All this coverage is unique to Civil Society and we like to believe that we have taken real value to our readers. Our coverage invariably gets picked up and carried forward — it makes us happy that we are influencers of a higher quality of information.

Going ahead we propose to keep our journalistic goals firmly in sight. We will continue to do stories that make sense to us and apply the rigour and creative standards that we are happy to own. The civil society space is one of growing importance. Inclusion is the hallmark of a successful economy. A strong and resilient India needs everyone on board. Good journalism is as much the need of the hour as better governance and corporations with conscience.

This month’s cover story on cinema is an example of the range we explore as a magazine. We bring you books, music, cooking, Ayurveda and travel with as much dedication as we do stories on water harvesting, pollution, human rights and poverty. For us best journalism will always be a dappled landscape and particularly exciting in a country with as much variety as ours.

We wish our readers and advertisers a very happy New Year. Thank you for reading us and supporting Civil Society. We wouldn’t be around without your faith in us.