The presentation is about Abhi News, a regional news organisation based in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. The presentation focuses on the organsation, finances, working, management, structure, ownership and logistics that keep the organisation running.
A Detailed Analysis of a Regional News Organization - Abhi News Mathura
1. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
1
ABHI NEWS
MATHURA
M E D I A G E N D E R H U M A N R I G H T S P R O J E C T
B Y A N I K E T S I N G H C H A U H A N ( 1 9 / 5 6 4 ) &
H A R S H I TA V E R M A ( 1 9 / 7 6 3 )
2. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
2
WHAT IS ABHI
NEWS?
ABHI NEWS is a grassroots media
organisation located in the city of Mathura,
Uttar Pradesh that was started in
September of 2020. The news organisation
primarily focuses on the issues and news
particularly in the Mathura district apart
from a wider focus on the Braj and Kannauj
dialect belts. The towns of Vrindavan,
Mathura, Gokul and Govardhan form the
core area of the organisation.
3. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
3
ORIGINS AND
ROOTS
H O W W A S T H E I D E A O F A B H I
N E W S C O N C I E V E D ?
The Director and Editor-in-Chief of the
organisation, Maheshwar Chaturvedi, was
associated with media since his early 20s and
had started a grassroots media organisation
in 2003 with his friend and colleague.
However, by 2020 he decided to go alone and
started Abhi News. The driving force behind
the idea of this organisation stands on the
pedestal of Citizen Journalism and the lack of
regional coverage in mainstream media
houses.
6. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
6
PHASE 1
In the first phase, the organisation came up
with a 24-hour news website along with a
mobile application. For the development of
these platforms, the organisation partnered
up with a Mathura-based IT firm, PhoneNox
owned by Ashutosh Dikshit; who also is the
CEO of Abhi News. The logo and tagline,
‘आप से जुड़ी हर खबर’ were designed by CEO
Dikshit and Managing Editor Abhishek
Chaturvedi respectively.
Additionally this phase saw the organisation
establishing a social media presence across
platforms like Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube. The focus here was more on
Facebook and YouTube, due to their
immense popularity in the region. The news
stories in this phase were restricted to
Mathura.
PHASE 11
The second phase started with the opening
of a 24-hour news channel on Net Vision
cable tv. This phase saw the news channel
take a significant leap in terms of studio
equipment and coverage.
Another monumental development of this
phase was the opening regional bureaus
and expanding the coverage to Aligarh,
Firozabad, Rae Bareilly, Delhi NCR and
Kasganj. These bureaus were modelled to
rely primarily on citizen journalism. This
also led the organisation to come up
another tagline, ’24x7 आपक
े साथ’, for their
citizen journalism appeals.
Recently, the organisation has also started
a religious channel, complementing the 24-
hour YT and cable TV channels.
7. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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ON THE
WEB
Clockwise from top
Abhi News Instagram public
account
The Abhi News android app
Abhi News Facebook community
page
Abhi News website, as viewed on
Google Chrome
T H E A B H I N E W S W E B S I T E ,
S O C I A L M E D I A A N D M O B I L E
A P P L I C AT I O N
8. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
8
EQUIPMENTS AND FACILITIES
T O O L S U S E D B Y T H E A B H I N E W S T E A M
The organisation has four Dell
desktops along with Dell laptops for
editing purposes. The primary
software used for editing is
Wondershare Filmora and Adobe
Premiere Pro.
The studio has a single camera set up. The
primary studio camera is the Sony HXR-
NX100 while most on-field reporters either
use mobile phones or Sony DSLRs.
Laptops are used in the place of
teleprompters.
The studio is a green screen set up with four overhead
and standing LED lights each. The Abhi News team
wasn’t ready to disclose the broadcast software used
by them. The primary mode of commuting for in-house
reporters is via scooty. The team owns three Kinetic
Honda scooties.
10. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
10
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
• T h e o r g a n i s a t i o n i s
l a r g e l y s t e e r e d b y
M a h e s h wa r C h a t u r v e d i
a t i t s h e l m . D u e t o h i s
s e n i o r i t y, e x p e r i e n c e a n d
s o u r c e s , h e c o m m a n d s
g r e a t r e s p e c t a m o n g t h e
e m p l o y e e s .
• W h i l e t h e o r g a n i s a t i o n
d o e s h a v e i n d e p e n d e n c e
i n i d e a g e n e r a t i o n a s
we l l i n t h e f i n a l
r e p o r t i n g o f t h e s a m e ;
M a h e s h wa r C h a t u r v e d i
a l wa y s h a s t h e f i n a l s a y
i n t h e s a m e .
• I n o t h e r w o r d s , t h e
c r e a t i v e , f i n a n c i a l a n d
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n d u t i e s
v i r t u a l l y r e s t s o l e l y o n
M a h e s h wa r C h a t u r v e d i .
11. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
11
GENERAL
MANAGEMENT
• The Abhi News management team consists
of its founder and editor-in-chief
Maheshwar Chaturvedi, his son Abhishek
Chaturvedi, Ashutosh Dikshit and Diksha
Chaturvedi.
• While Ashutosh Dikshit take care of all
financial, managerial and executive
operations, Abhishek Chaturvedi widely
works as the second-in-command of the
organisation. Diksha Chaturvedi, besides
T H E G E N E R A L M A N A G E M E N T
A N D A D M I N I S T R AT I O N
S T R U C T U R E
Maheshwar
Chaturvedi
Founder, Editor-in-Chief,
COO and CFO
Ashutosh Dikshit
CEO and CTO
Abhishek Chaturvedi
Managing Editor,
CMO and Co-Founder
Diksha Chaturvedi
Production Head and
Lead Anchor
13. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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EDITORIAL
DEPARTMENT
• As Abhi News depends majorly on Citizen
Journalism as well as freelance writers, the
editor-in-chief is the one who takes care of
them.
• Even though Maheshwar Chaturvedi
oversees the freelance reports, Abhishek
Chaturvedi assigns the reports to various
copy editors or bureau desk editors;
thereby taking care of the initial editing.
• As has been mentioned earlier, Maheshwar
Chaturvedi is at the helm of the
organisation and gives the final approval.
S T R U C T U R E O F T H E E D I T O R I A L
D E PA R T M E N T O F A B H I N E W S
Freelance
Reports & Leads
Maheshwar
Chaturvedi
(Editor-in-Chief)
Abhishek
Chaturvedi
(Managing
Editor)
Diksha
Chaturvedi
(Production Head)
Editors and
Copyeditors
Anchors
In-
House
Reporter
s
14. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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THE
NEWS
T H E S O U R C E , C Y C L E , P U B L I S H I N G ,
F O C U S A N D N AT U R E O F N E W S
R E P O RT E D B Y T H E O R G A N I S AT I O N
15. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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THE BASIC NEWS CYCLE OF
THE ABHI NEWS TEAM
NEWS CYCLE
Broadcast
Freelance
Writers and
Reporters
Citizen Journalists’
Reports
In-House-Anchors
In-House-Reporters
Maheshwar
Chaturvedi
(Editor-in-Chief)
Abhishek
Chaturvedi
(Managing
Editor) Diksha
Chaturvedi
(Production Head)
Raw Reports (Videos and
Articles)
Video Editors and Cop
Editors
Packaged Reports (Videos and
Articles)
16. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
16
CITIZEN JOURNALISTS
The organisation is heavily dependent on
citizen journalists and their reports. Abhi
News, therefore, has come up with
dedicated WhatsApp phone numbers for
people to submit their reports on. People
are encouraged to send on-ground
problems rather than opinions.
As soon as a report is submitted, its
verification and news value evaluation is
done by the team, after which it is either
published on their website or broadcast
on their cable tv or YouTube channel. Abhi
News does all the editing and contributors
aren’t a part of the process hereafter.
Compensation along with due credits are
given to the contributors whose reports /
videos / photos are used by the
IN-HOUSE REPORTERS
Abhi news has three on-ground
reporters. These reporters have
their primary beats and are
subsequently used to cover other
stories in and out of Mathura, as
and when deemed necessary by
the team.
The primary beats include the
Mathura District Collectorate
(Reporter Gopal); Crime, Police and
Hospital (Reporter Dhaniram
Khandelwal); Miscellaneous beats
(Reporter Kalicharan).
When people send in stories via
WhatsApp and the news value of it
is high, the editor sends in one of
these reporters to cover the story
first hand, as and when needed.
SOUCES OF NEWS
17. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
17
The promotional flyer used by Abhi News to encourage people to send in their stories along with the WhatsApp number.
The emphasis here is on making the common people realise the importance of Citizen Journalism and making them
18. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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PUBLISHING &
BROADCASTING
ISSUES THAT WERE GIVEN EXTENSIVE
COVERGAE BY ABHI NEWS
The organisation houses three full time video
editors – Gwala Chaturvedi, Sunil Kumar and
Pawan Kumar. All the videos – whether via
reporters or citizen journalists – pass through
them. All the videos are color-graded and edited
before being aired.
The editing of web articles is done by the Editor-
in-Chief Maheshwar Chaturvedi and his son. The
articles itself come in either from reporters, the
editor-in-chief or freelance contributors.
The 24-hour cable news channel, during majority
of the time, runs headline and bytes while
anchored shows are aired when adjudged
important or are available. The rest of the time
19. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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A screen grab of a YouTube video uploaded by the Abhi
News team. The reporter in the video is Diksha Chaturvedi.
20. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
20
REGIONAL
ISSUES
Being a grassroots news organisation,
regional issues are of supreme importance
to Abhi News. The following are some
stories that according to the AN’s Editor-in-
Chief are extremely important to them: -
I S S U E S T H AT W E R E G I V E N
E X T E N S I V E C O V E R G A E B Y A B H I
N E W S
• Monkey Menace
• Yamuna Pollution
• Narcotics
• Women Safety
• Transgenders
Community
• Adoption Laws
• Orphanages in
Mathura
• Bar Association
Intimidation
Instances
• Local Corruption
Issues
22. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
22
EFFECTS AND
NATURE
OF REPORTING
N AT U R E
• T h e E d i t o r - i n -
C h i e f ’s v a r i o u s
s t a t e m e n t s m a d e i t
a p p a r e n t t h a t t h e
o r g a n i s a t i o n
b e l i e v e d i n
n a t i o n a l i s t i c s c h o o l
o f r e p o r t i n g .
• H e a l s o s t a t e d t h a t ,
“ I wo u l d n e v e r
r e p o r t a n y t h i n g
a g a i n s t m y c o u n t r y.
A n d I a m c l e a r o n
t h a t . ”
E F F E C T S
• The organisation reported critically on the uncontrolled
population of monkeys, particularly Vrindavan. Their prompt
reporting has forced the local authorities to issue fresh
tenders for monkey catching. The issue came to light with the
help of Citizen Journalism.
• Abhi News started various SMS and call campaigns to bring
in focus on Yamuna rover pollution. The overwhelming
response and furthur lobbying led to the UP’s Energy
Minister Shrikanth Sharma to publicly commit to act against
the pollution.
• AN regularly reports on narcotics that flows into the region
25. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
25
ADS &
SPONSORS
• At the time of this presentation, the
principal sponsor of Abhi News was
Ashok Inverter batteries.
• The bulk of AN’s revenue comes from
Advertorials due to the absence of any
paywall across the its platforms
• Abhi News also creates advertisements
for local shops and businesses and
subsequently air them on their cable TV
and social media channels. The
organisation calls these services as
‘packages’ and these packages form a
Anti-clockwise
from top –
Advertorials
for local
businesses;
Principal
sponsor placing
on the anchor's
laptop;
Instagram page
advertisement.
26. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
26
An advertorial that aired on the Abhi News cable TV (NetVision) and
YouTube channel. The advertorial was produced by the Abhi News
27. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
27
INTERNET
REVENUE
• Due to a well established presence on social
media, another major chunk of revenue comes in
through the online ad revenues. The organisation
has also recently joined Facebook Supporter
program that allows subscribers to buy
‘memberships’ for ₹199.00 per month and access
special content in return
• The Abhi News YouTube channel sports more
than four thousand subscribe and therefor it is
monetised. The organisation gets ₹199 to ₹465
per 1000 video views, depending on the
engagement (The time a person watches the
video, the likes, etc.) on every video.
• Google Ads or Adwords and Facebook Ads are
other major sources of online revenue. All the ads
that pop up on AN’s websites and FB page. The
payments are calculated on the number of clicks
Top – Abhi News website with advertisement on the top
right corner. These ads are generated by Google Ads;
Bottom – The Facebook ‘Become a Supporter’ option in
(blue button) the bottom left corner .
31. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
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RECRUITMENT
• Abhi News makes use of various
methods of recruitment:-
• Freelancers – This method is used as
per requirement and availability of
vacancies. As the organisation is majorly
dependent on freelancers, this accounts
for a major part of the staff; though not
the majority.
• Direct Interviews – Are used for
permanent jobs roles. The team does
visit campuses and also consider job
applications.
• Apart from the above, Abhi News uses
T H E M E T H O D S O F
R E C R U I T M E N T U S E D B Y A B H I
N E W S
From left, Diksha Chaturvedi (Lead Anchor and Production
Head); Ashutosh Dikshit (CEO and CTO); Maheshwar
Chaturvedi (Director and Editor-in-Chief)
32. ABHI
NEWS,
MATHURA
32
COMMUNITY
TRAINING
• Being a tier 2 city, Mathura does not have a
lot of opportunities for aspiring journalists,
graphic designers and editors.
• Realizing this, the Abhi News team started
training internships especially for aspiring
students.
• Under this internship, trainees undergo
three months of free training in their chosen
field. After the completion of the three
months, Abhi News then gives the trainees
an option to either join the organisation or
move on to other companies.
• The team informed us that till now (starting
from 2020), around 30 students have taken