Vijay Kumar, Executive Editor, KBK News Graphics
The mindset of the editors and newspaper owners is also changing and they are now giving importance to news graphics.
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Published: Feb 16, 2004 12:00 AM | 6 min read
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The mindset of the editors and newspaper owners is also changing and they are now giving importance to news graphics.Content is King has a subtext which essentially says Presentation, Graphics and Visual Identity are what differentiates any kind of editorial content from another similar content apart from other parameters either in print or in television. The growth of news graphics in India is synonymous with the growth and popularity of four-decade-old KBK News Graphics, India's premier news graphic service. KBK that has revolutionized the info graphics scene in India offers the entire spectrum of news through graphics to international, national, regional and language newspapers.Founded by late Kulbhushan Kumar (nicknamed KBK), the KBK News Graphics is today run by his young and enterprising son Vijay Kumar who is the Executive Editor of the agency. An MBA, with Geography Honours and Postgraduate in Journalism, Vijay Kumar has rich knowledge and experience of Graphic Journalism. He is the only Asian News Graphics Journalist to get the coveted Next Generation Journalism Award in 1997. Tech-savvy Vijay did special study courses in Graphic Journalism at the University of Navara, Spain and was trained at the news graphics headquarters of Reuters, London.
In this interview with Vinod Behl of exchange4media, Vijay Kumar as part of our immensely popular Content is King section talks about the news graphic scene in India, the growing use of technology in info graphics, threat to news graphics from TV news and the future of news graphics and how Content cannot be king without newsgraphics in today’s competitive media scenario. Excerpts. Q. On the future plans of KBK We are going to expand our current service from print and internet and will be adding lot of animated and interactive graphics for the internet. Besides, we'll be extending our service to the TV channels.
Q. On the present status of graphic journalism in India Graphic Journalism has today become a very important stream of media. But unfortunately there is lack of trained graphic journalists in the country. The major reason for this being that there are no structured courses focusing on news graphics. It is an important branch of journalism and should be included in the university curriculum.
Q. On the role of technology in news graphics Obviously, the modern technology has given a boost to news graphics, which have undergone a dramatic change over the years. In earlier times, when manual instruments were used, drawing maps and duplication was a big hassle. And particularly in a breaking or developing story, it was difficult to not only make graphics but also to meet sharp newspaper deadlines. But the advent of desktop has revolutionised the info graphics and now one can transmit graphics to newspapers across the world and change or edit graphics within no time.
Q. On the future of news graphics In today's fast-paced life when newspaper readers have little time to go through news, graphics attract instant attention. Also in the present era of marketing and packaging, the sheer scope and power of graphics is being realised to make the paper more smarter and reader friendly in order to beat the competition. Where no camera or reporter can go, the power of graphics can be exploited. But then in television, there is constraint of time while in print, there is constraint of space. But internet transcends the problem of space and time. It can have huge interlinked and interactive frames and one can keep coming back to it. So, news graphics are being extensively used. And with convergence coming in, news graphics will play a much larger role in the days and months to come.
Q. On present day quality of news graphics It is not that we lack skill and expertise to produce world class news graphics. Many times those responsible for bringing out newspaper editions do not give very high priority to news graphics. And at other times the inadequate fund allocations are a handicap. But despite all these limitations, lot of good work is being done in India in the field of news graphics. We witnessed some world class offbeat info graphics on Afghan War and Terrorist attack on Parliament.
Q. On TV news graphics Creating news graphics for TV is lot more different from graphics for print. In TV, time available to viewer to absorb the information is very less so the TV graphics have to be very simple and crisp. Unnecessary details and texts need to be avoided. Unfortunately, there are times when TV graphics are done for the heck of it and are unnecessarily dramatised. As a result, the real information that needs to be conveyed to the viewer is lost in unnecessary flash.
Q. On threat to print news graphics from TV news I do not see any threat to the print news graphics from the 24-hour television news. On the contrary TV news and internet have made the news graphics a more potential medium.
Q. On the role and importance of news graphics In the age of instant news through internet and 24-hour TV news channels, people are finding heavy news paper text as dull and boring. On the other hand, graphics make newspaper more dynamic with readers hard pressed on time, getting news at a glance. In this scenario, the role of news graphics has assumed greater significance with newspapers covering entire spectrum of news through graphics on Budget and election news, parliament reporting, business and economy and several other serious issues. Today graphic journalism is important for correspondents, sub-editors, to report the stories in a more effective manner and to bring out the edition in a better way.
Q. On the news graphic scene in India Oflate, the news graphic scene in India has undergone a change with qualitative and quantitative use of info graphics. The mindset of the editors and newspaper owners is also changing and they are now giving importance to news graphics. There is growing awareness about info graphics among readers as well. But then many small newspapers still face genuine fund crunch to promote the use of news graphics.
Q. On the relevance of graphic news agencies with newspapers setting up Graphic news agency like ours has great relevance. Small newspapers that do not have inhouse graphic departments are completely dependent on us.They get full information package across spectrum of news at affordable rate. And all this comes handy to their correspondents to attempt stories. And as far as big newspapers with in house graphic bureaus are concerned, they also need to take graphic news agency services to supplement their own effort. So many times, agency graphics can be adapted or changed to suit newspaper style. These agency graphics serve as a backup for newspapers if they miss out on certain graphics. Also, there are times when graphic artists of newspapers are busy and then agency services which are relatively cheaper, come handy.
In this interview with Vinod Behl of exchange4media, Vijay Kumar as part of our immensely popular Content is King section talks about the news graphic scene in India, the growing use of technology in info graphics, threat to news graphics from TV news and the future of news graphics and how Content cannot be king without newsgraphics in today’s competitive media scenario. Excerpts. Q. On the future plans of KBK We are going to expand our current service from print and internet and will be adding lot of animated and interactive graphics for the internet. Besides, we'll be extending our service to the TV channels.
Q. On the present status of graphic journalism in India Graphic Journalism has today become a very important stream of media. But unfortunately there is lack of trained graphic journalists in the country. The major reason for this being that there are no structured courses focusing on news graphics. It is an important branch of journalism and should be included in the university curriculum.
Q. On the role of technology in news graphics Obviously, the modern technology has given a boost to news graphics, which have undergone a dramatic change over the years. In earlier times, when manual instruments were used, drawing maps and duplication was a big hassle. And particularly in a breaking or developing story, it was difficult to not only make graphics but also to meet sharp newspaper deadlines. But the advent of desktop has revolutionised the info graphics and now one can transmit graphics to newspapers across the world and change or edit graphics within no time.
Q. On the future of news graphics In today's fast-paced life when newspaper readers have little time to go through news, graphics attract instant attention. Also in the present era of marketing and packaging, the sheer scope and power of graphics is being realised to make the paper more smarter and reader friendly in order to beat the competition. Where no camera or reporter can go, the power of graphics can be exploited. But then in television, there is constraint of time while in print, there is constraint of space. But internet transcends the problem of space and time. It can have huge interlinked and interactive frames and one can keep coming back to it. So, news graphics are being extensively used. And with convergence coming in, news graphics will play a much larger role in the days and months to come.
Q. On present day quality of news graphics It is not that we lack skill and expertise to produce world class news graphics. Many times those responsible for bringing out newspaper editions do not give very high priority to news graphics. And at other times the inadequate fund allocations are a handicap. But despite all these limitations, lot of good work is being done in India in the field of news graphics. We witnessed some world class offbeat info graphics on Afghan War and Terrorist attack on Parliament.
Q. On TV news graphics Creating news graphics for TV is lot more different from graphics for print. In TV, time available to viewer to absorb the information is very less so the TV graphics have to be very simple and crisp. Unnecessary details and texts need to be avoided. Unfortunately, there are times when TV graphics are done for the heck of it and are unnecessarily dramatised. As a result, the real information that needs to be conveyed to the viewer is lost in unnecessary flash.
Q. On threat to print news graphics from TV news I do not see any threat to the print news graphics from the 24-hour television news. On the contrary TV news and internet have made the news graphics a more potential medium.
Q. On the role and importance of news graphics In the age of instant news through internet and 24-hour TV news channels, people are finding heavy news paper text as dull and boring. On the other hand, graphics make newspaper more dynamic with readers hard pressed on time, getting news at a glance. In this scenario, the role of news graphics has assumed greater significance with newspapers covering entire spectrum of news through graphics on Budget and election news, parliament reporting, business and economy and several other serious issues. Today graphic journalism is important for correspondents, sub-editors, to report the stories in a more effective manner and to bring out the edition in a better way.
Q. On the news graphic scene in India Oflate, the news graphic scene in India has undergone a change with qualitative and quantitative use of info graphics. The mindset of the editors and newspaper owners is also changing and they are now giving importance to news graphics. There is growing awareness about info graphics among readers as well. But then many small newspapers still face genuine fund crunch to promote the use of news graphics.
Q. On the relevance of graphic news agencies with newspapers setting up Graphic news agency like ours has great relevance. Small newspapers that do not have inhouse graphic departments are completely dependent on us.They get full information package across spectrum of news at affordable rate. And all this comes handy to their correspondents to attempt stories. And as far as big newspapers with in house graphic bureaus are concerned, they also need to take graphic news agency services to supplement their own effort. So many times, agency graphics can be adapted or changed to suit newspaper style. These agency graphics serve as a backup for newspapers if they miss out on certain graphics. Also, there are times when graphic artists of newspapers are busy and then agency services which are relatively cheaper, come handy.
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