173. The Flipkart cover on Forbes India and the outcome

The Flipkart cover story created a lot of buzz on Twitter. In the end the support it generated among its fans was enormous and I’m sure had more customers purchaser things on the website than ever before. While the cover came across as negative and so did many parts of the story made heroes of the young founders it did make the heroes seem like demons in some instances.

I’m not sure in a country that lacks first generation heroes if the story featuring on the cover was a great idea.  Moreover, increasingly media houses whose parent company have stakes in or own other companies will have to take utmost care in running down the sister company of a competitor. In the case of Forbes India I can vouch for the integrity of Rohin – the author of the story and Indrajit – the editor of the magazine but an ordinary reader may think there was a vested interest in this story.

Will publications dare do stories of sister companies that are not doing well? Will media outlets continue to be owned by large corporate houses with multiple interests? Will journalism be protected from these cross ownerships? – some questions to ponder on…