tabloid newspaper
A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.
Etymology
The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...
or
newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
published and edited by
Russi Karanjia
Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia (15 September 1912 – 1 February 2008) was an Indian journalist and editor. He typically signed his reports as "R. K. Karanjia". He founded the ''Blitz'', a weekly tabloid with focus on investigative journalism in 194 ...
from Bombay. Started in 1941, it was India's first weekly tabloid and focussed on investigative journalism and political news. It was published in English, and with editions in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
languages.
History
First published on 1 February 1941, it was a pioneer in
investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
in India
Sudheendra Kulkarni, an Indian politician and journalist who worked with Blitz, said that the decision to launch ''Blitz'' had been taken over a cup of tea. Three patriotic journalists — B. V. Nadkarni,
Benjamin Horniman
Benjamin Guy Horniman (17 July 1873 – 16 October 1948) was a British journalist and editor of ''The Bombay Chronicle'', particularly notable for his support of Indian independence.
Early life
Horniman was born in Dove Court, Sussex, England ...
and Karanjia himself — sat at Wayside Inn, a restaurant located near the historical
Kala Ghoda
Kala Ghoda (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA:Kāḷā Ghōḍā,(काला घोडा)') is a crescent-shaped art district in Mumbai, India. It hosts several of the city's heritage buildings including museums, art galleries and educ ...
area in Mumbai to conceptualise the paper.
The paper was launched from an old Apollo Street building in the Fort locality of Mumbai, then known as
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
.
Its inaugural issue introduced the tabloid as ''Our BLITZ, India's BLITZ against Hitler.'' It claimed a circulation of 20,000 within four months of launch, and later said it had a readership of one million some 25 years later.
Prominent journalists and associates
Cartoonist
R. K. Laxman
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman ''Pg. 11 in the source says that Laxman & his brother Narayan were Tamil Iyer Brahmins.'' (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is best known for his creation ...
's early cartoons would be published in Blitz, and so would
Abu Abraham
Attupurathu Mathew Abraham (11 June 1924 – 1 December 2002), pen name ''Abu'', was an Indian cartoonist, journalist, and author. In a career spanning 40 years, Abu Abraham worked for various national and international newspapers including ''T ...
's. Cartoonist–cum–architect Cecil Lancelot Dawes contributed heavily to Blitz. His daughter Shirley Dawes also worked for Karanjia for many years before migrating to the West. Noted writer
K. A. Abbas
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (7 June 1914 – 1 June 1987) was an Indian film directors, Indian film director, screenwriter, novelist, and journalist in Urdu, Hindi and English. He won four National Film Awards in India. Internationally, his films won t ...
wrote the popular column "Last Page" for Blitz, which ran for over 40 years. Journalist P. Sainath worked as deputy editor with ''Blitz'' for over a decade before he started writing about rural poverty and winning the
Magsaysay Award
The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealis ...
.
Blitz was founded Karanjia, who had entered journalism with the then British-owned ''The Times of India'', had then briefly edited ''The Sunday Standard'' and the short-lived ''Morning Standard''. On his four-man team besides himself were "Dinkar V. Nadkarni, who had earned a reputation in journalism by penning sensational crime stories in the ''Bombay Sentinel'', edited by the veteran B.G. Horniman; Zahir Babar Kureishi, who wrote a popular column under the pen-name of ''ZABAK''; and Nadir Boman-Behram, who was to look after the advertising and business side of things."
Among the prominent leftwing columnists of ''Blitz'' were Ramesh Sanghvi, A. Raghavan, and K.A. Abbas.
Reputation
''Blitz'' has been described as featuring "sensational accounts of national and international skulduggery" and a "spunky tabloid’s loud and screaming captions and telling photographs". Part of its "self-representation as a radical, people's paper was its tabloid form" and this weekly newsmagazine "revelled in its self-proclaimed role as a racket-buster, exposing truths concealed by the powerful." Blitz called itself Asia’s foremost news magazine. It is seen as having had a "brash tone... set to orchestrate a relentlessly nationalist line strongly inflected by leftist themes."
''Blitz'' has also been described as " unapologetic supporter of Nehru, it vigorously championed secularism, supported socialism and planning, denounced capitalism, and poured scorn on right wing and communal politicians." It supported "leftist internationalism... lauded Afro-Asian solidarity against the capitalist West – the Egyptian President Nasser was its hero – and it loudly and regularly unveiled dark, CIA plots against India and Third World leaders." It was seen as indulging inm "muckraking, over-the top stories calculated to provoke and enrage. It thrived on controversy, and Karanjia was frequently embroiled in defamation suits".
Gyan Prakash writes:
The embezzlement of public funds, prostitution rackets, sordid stories of seduction and sex in the name of spiritualism, dark political designs behind high-sounding rhetoric, and the fleecing of the poor by rich industrialists and property developers were staples in the weekly. Even the sports column, called ‘Knock Out’, took on the racket-busting posture. It was written by A.F.S. Talyarkhan, whose bearded, pipe-in-mouth, face on the page appeared to lend gravity to the charges of malfeasance he made against sports authorities. The poor performance of Indian athletes in international competitions, it turned out, could be explained by petty squabbles and power-grabbing by officials behind the scenes.
The ''Blitz'' is credited with doing more than all "to make a routine murder trial into a classic story of Bombay’s bourgeois life" in the Nanavati murder case of 1959.
Events organised
''Blitz'' was associated with organising India's longest cycle race on the occasion of Nehru's 100th birth anniversary—called the ''Blitz''-Nehru Integration Tour of India—which was meant to be done on the lines of the Tour de France or Giro or La Vuelta. It had a top prize of Rs 100,000—then a substantial amount. The 10-day nine-stage 1,442 km held in 1989 from Mumbai-New Delhi, it has been claimed, "still remains India's greatest, longest and toughest stage cycle."
Film magazine
Later in 1975, Blitz also started a film magazine, ''
Cine Blitz
''Cine Blitz'' is a Hindi and English film magazine published every month from Mumbai about Bollywood, Hindi cinema. Started in December 1974, as of 2006, it was one of the top three film magazines in India.
''Cine Blitz'' belongs to E.N. Commu ...
'', with, Karanjia's daughter Rita Mehta as its editor. In 1983, criminal-politicians Gopal Rajwani and
Pappu Kalani
Pappu Kalani (born c. 1951) is an Indian criminal-politician from Ulhasnagar. After emerging as the leader of an organized crime
syndicate in the 1980s,Quote: Suresh "Pappu" Kalani: a man who is seen as the personification of this lawlessness i ...
executed the brutal knife murder of A V Narayan, sub-editor of Blitz.
Morning tabloid
Karanjia founded a morning tabloid called ''The Daily'' for some years. After reaching its zenith in the 1980s sales declined in the 1990s. In 1996, Karl Mehta, then managing director and publisher, and Karanajia's son-in-law reached an agreement with the
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
to publish news from the
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
,
Sunday Mirror
The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...
,
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
and ''People'' magazine. At the time, chairman of
United Spirits
United Spirits Limited, abbreviated to USL, is an Indian alcoholic beverages company, and the world's second-largest spirits company by volume. It is a subsidiary of Diageo, and headquartered at UB Tower in Bangalore, Karnataka. USL exports i ...
Vijay Mallya
Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman, former politician and fugitive. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India.
T ...
owned 8% stake in Blitz.
Ceases publication
It ceased publication several years before Karanjia's death in mid-1990s, although there were some attempts to revive it. Karanjia died on 1 February 2008, on the same day he started his newspaper 67 years earlier.
The Bangladesh-based tabloid with the same name is unrelated to this publication.