T

o those who know of him, four alphabets

preceded by a symbol @sree, a Twitter
handle should suffice, but to others, it
is rather tedious to introduce Sreenath
Sreenivasan. The most convenient way of
doing this could be to state his current job, the
first ever chief digital officer at New Yorks
Columbia University, and to mention that
Newsweekonce named him among the 20 most
influential South Asians in America.
Yet, the problem with that description is
that it does little to cover Sreenivasans begin-
nings as a greenhorn journalist in Fiji, where
his father served as an Indian diplomat. It
wont reveal that he spent two decades teach-
ing at the Columbia Journalism School; or his
swift rise as a technology journalist and social
media guru before Twitter became a new-age
newswire. Or, for that matter, the time he spent
moonlighting as a proof reader for the now-
defunct The Sunday Observer in old Delhis
Daryaganj while reading history at Delhis St
Stephens College, writes Devjyot Ghoshal.
It is not as if the story of Sreenivasan, or
Sree, hasnt been told before, which is why
when I sit down with him at the Taj Mahal
Hotels Emperor Lounge for coffee, there are
two specific things I want to understand: how
he got where he did, and how he views the
future of journalism. Curiously, the very mag-
azine that once featured him (Newsweek) has
just brought out its final print issue.
When I was 12, I told my parents that I
wanted to be a journalist and they started cry-
ing immediately, Sreenivasan starts jokingly.
They werent excited about journalism as a
career. Eventually, many decades later, my
revenge has been that my dad is very much a
media person himself. His father now writes
for a couple of news publications and appears
on television in Kerala, he says.
But some two decades ago, for a tradition-
al Malyalee family, a career in journalism was-
nt exactly the norm. That was partly why he
left Fiji for St Stephens College. I couldnt
have done that if I was too close to my parents.
So, I came here and was able to start exploring
journalism fairly soon, he says.
That included proof-reading for The Sunday
Observer, then owned by Jaico Publishing.
Despite being a really ratty situation in the
grubby by-lanes of Daryaganj, Sreenivasan
found himself sitting over men typing out text in
English, though they didnt know a word of the
language. I loved it. I wouldve done it for free.
By the end of college, Sreenivasan had a
job there. The real change, however,
came when Reliance bought the publi-
cation and the money came rushing in.
We went from Daryaganj to
Barakhamba Road, overnight, he
recalls. And thats where I discovered
email for the first time. But there was
nobody to send it to; it was only internal
email.
That introduction to email came
handy when Sreenivasan attended the
Columbia Journalism School he was
among the few in his class who knew
the technology but on the way, he
spent a year in Indian journalism, work-
ing with R Jagannathan (then Business
Todays editor), Chandan Mitra (The
Pioneer) and Tarun Tejpal (Tehelka)
among others.
It tells you how small Indian jour-
nalism is, he says, when I ask if he was
surprised to have worked with so many
recognised editors in such a short time.
Even today, what is unusual about
Indian journalism is that, in TV (for
example) you could be right out of col-
lege and get a job at NDTV. Or you could
write for The Times of India or Business
Standard. The minimum work experi-
ence for a job at TheNew York Times, he
offers as an example, is about five years.
The bigger difference, he explains, is
how the industry is structured. Every
town has, maybe, one newspaper and
three TV channels, and they end up
covering city government in a very
strong way. So, if a traffic light is bro-
ken, it cant be broken for very long. The
mayor cant get up to a lot of mischief
because there are these journalists with
nothing to do, he reasons. Indian jour-
nalism remains big-city-based and so
much of it is national news.
Our coffees an Iced Cafe Mocha for
him and a Cappucino for me have arrived, and
Sreenivasan is going for the cookies that accom-
panied them with some enthusiasm. Almost
helplessly, he tells me, Please eat them, but
Im more interested in talking to him.
When Sreenivasan graduated from
Columbia University, the profession was on
the cusp of the digital revolution. In the fall of
1994, the universitys journalism school offered
its first class in digital media. Two years later,
in 1996, We went through a boom and bust in
1996, he recollects, and then the 2000 bubble
and bust. Did he see the bubble
coming? Not quite, is the answer.
All this is relevant because theres another
massive change sweeping through journalism
today. In mature markets, print is dying even as
digital news platforms strive for financial suc-
cess. Social media is challenging the monopoly
over information and its distribution, while
tablet and smartphone penetration grows.
Having spent time as dean of student affairs at
the Columbia Journalism School, Sreenivasan
knows what news organisations want.
I think the future of journalism is digitised
but itll also be a lot more specialised because
that will make you stand out at a time when
everybody is a journalist, he says.
I ask him to focus on India and what the
rise of the internet, alongside the growing
influence of social networking means
for the countrys news industry. He
takes the second question first. You
see a tendency in the government of
India to overreact and shut down
communication and free speech.
That is terrible, and should be unac-
ceptable, Sreenivasan says bluntly,
though he recognises the dangers of
an unrestrained online social net-
work. He mentions the recent
rumour-fuelled exodus from
Bangalore of those from the North-
eastern states, and the arrest of a
young woman for a Facebook post
after Bal Thackerays death.
Journalists, however, need to use
social media to listen, rather than to
push out information.
For the business of journalism, that
sense of the unknown is more alarming.
(Although) there are exceptions, the web-
sites of most Indian newspapers are kind of
stuck in about 2010, 2008 or 2009, because
there is no incentive for innovation,
Sreenivasan says, In America, most news-
papers and journalists in newspapers have
an enormous fear of whats going to hap-
pen. Fear leads to innovation. But here,
because youre so comfortable, theres no
incentive to try new things. Instead, you
just coast along.
The biggest problem for American news-
papers, he continues, was that they were so
enormously profitable and so successful in
the last quarter century that they didnt pre-
pare. And although Indias growing literacy
and (relatively) buoyant economy is making it
easier for Indian (English-language) newspa-
pers, evolution will catch up with the industry
eventually. India has four or five English busi-
ness dailies. In America, theres one English
business daily and no one is starting another
one, he adds.
There is a storm (coming) but you cannot
see it, he predicts, adding a tad ominously,
It may be five years from now, but if youre
smart, youll be preparing today and Indian
newspapers havent done that.
The disruption that has come to media
and everything else is about to come to educa-
tion. American education has not changed in
350 years, he says, This word MOOCS (mas-
sive open online course) didnt exist till
September 2011 and now, suddenly, its all over
the place.
Yet, how does this fit in with his profile and
training as a journalist, I ask? Ive been a
teacher for 20 years, so its in my education
background, counters Sreenivasan quickly.
And that is precisely why it isnt to describe
who exactly Sreenivasan is. Columbia
Universitys CDO would be accurate but bare-
ly comprehensive.
COFFEE WITH BS
>
SREENATH SREENIVASAN, CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Indian newspapers arent adjusting to the information
revolution quickly enough, says the social media guru
Storm warning
ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA