Forget the allegation of Andhra Jyothy that the Jagan government had shown blatant favouritism towards his own newspaper Sakshi in granting government advertisements, as it is quite common that any government favours its own media.
But, in general, there appears to be no rationale in giving advertisements to various other newspapers, which are being run by other political parties and having a very insignificant circulation.
Take for example, Praja Sakthi, the mouth piece of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Visalandhra Telugu daily, a party paper of CPI. Both these newspapers have got massive advertisements from the Jagan government in the last one and a half years.
While Praja Sakthi got government advertisements worth Rs 6.96 crore, while Visalandhra got Rs 1.53 crore.
Even Andhra Prabha, which has very little circulation and is seen mostly in the government departments, got ads worth Rs 4.27 crore.
Of course, Namasthe Telangana, which is not in circulation in Andhra also got Rs 38 lakh worth government ads.
On the other hand, English newspapers like The Hindu and Times of India which are largely circulated dailies, got ads worth Rs 15 cr and Rs 7 crore respectively. This is very less compared to Sakshi and Eenadu.
But surprisingly, Deccan Chronicle, whose circulation has come down drastically in the recent past, too, got Rs 12 crore worth of ads.
And surprisingly, newspapers like Pioneer and Indian Express, whose circulation doesn’t cross even 3-4,000 also got ads worth Rs 2.33 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.
The irony is that many of these newspapers, getting high ad revenues, do not pay salaries to their journalists on time and even if they pay, it is very less.
For example, it has been several months since reporters of Deccan Chronicle have got their monthly salaries properly!