As the voice of people, the credibility of The Tribune remained unquestionable. Its readers would vouch for its stories. Unlike many other media organizations, The Tribune continued to distinguish itself with its editorial supremacy. While the management generally thrived upon its past laurels, members of the editorial staff took the challenges, including threats not only to their lives but also their families, in their stride to uphold the professional values.

I am really saddened by an unsavory controversy in social media about The Tribune, an organization with which I have remained associated for more than 40 years. I strongly believe that institutions are much bigger than individuals. Individual come and go but institutions stay. It is not to undermine the contributions of individuals that help in building the institutions. But when individuals, or even some groups or associations,  try to run down credible institutions, it becomes  immense painful.

Before I joined The Tribune as a Staff Correspondent at Chandigarh, 41 years ago, my association with this great institution was already three years old. Before moving to Chandigarh I worked as a Sports Reporter at Ludhiana. I had the privilege of starting my career with The Tribune under the watchful eyes of a professional giant, Mr Prem Bhatia

My years with The Tribune were eventful. After more than four decades most of these incidents are still fresh in my memory. Bordering an emotional or traumatic angle, many of these events have been a part of my indelible memory. From trying circumstances of covering militancy in the trouble-torn State, the Tribune group continued to serve its dedicated readership in North India in a  true professional manner. Pressures from both the State and the militants notwithstanding, it stood by its avowed principle of staying apolitical. Curfews and censorships failed to deter from its path of reporting  the developments.

As the voice of people, the credibility of The Tribune remained unquestionable. Its readers would vouch for its stories. Unlike many other media organizations, The Tribune continued to distinguish itself with its editorial supremacy. While the management generally thrived upon its past laurels, members of the editorial staff took the challenges, including threats not only to their lives but also their families, in their stride to uphold the professional values.

Besides the professional challenges, The Tribune also had to compete with market forces as some of the leading national media houses also started their editions from Chandigarh. While editorially The Tribune was ahead of its impending challenges, the management was still basking in the glory of monopoly era.

While the professional competitions were trying  to make dents in  strongholds of The Tribune, the management  was slow to react. Issues about limited visibility of The Tribune publications at popular public spots like Railways Stations, Bus Stands, Airports, Hotels and Libraries were  overlooked.

While everyone has a right to criticize any individual or a group, but an attempt to tarnish the image of this great institution, The Tribune, and its editorial team, is both unwarranted and deplorable.

It is pertinent to mention that The Tribune not only faced challenges from strong rival national publications but also had to support two of its sister publications that even after more than 40 years are still dependent upon the mother publication for their survival. While the Punjabi and the Dainik Tribune have struggled throughout, many other vernacular newspapers that came to the region much later have scripted success stories. Some blame must go to the trade unions that have generally been dominated by the loss bearing sister publications.

It may sound strange but is true that while the employees of The Tribune were required to work and support for the Dainik and Punjabi editions  as well, wage structures of the new publications , though in much lower category under the Wage Board guidelines, were brought at par with the mother publication.

Incidentally, the City pull outs started in late 90s became self-supporting within a couple of years of their launch. I had the distinction of leading the launch of Chandigarh Tribune that became number one among all City pull outs. And all members of the City team, including its desk staff, worked in total unison to make this experiment successful even after the usual management impediments.

For any newspaper to grow, editions are launched to expand the paper’s base in the region. Therefore, it was only logical that The Tribune launched its J&K and Uttarakhand editions.

While doing so, The Tribune Trust left it to the editorial section to decide on the number of pages/paginations.  Historically, The Tribune has been a big paper in J&K even when it was published from Lahore.  So the Trust rightly decided to bring out an edition for the people of J&K. Unfortunately, the edition has had to be closed owing to the failure of the business side, especially the circulation and advertisement departments.  While HT and TOI are viable in Uttarakhand and Daily Excelsior and Greater Kashmir in J&K, The Tribune was rendered non- viable because of the declining advertisement and circulation revenue from the main edition in the past 6-7 years.  The paper was unable  to subsidize the J & K edition and had to close it.

Handpicked associates of  a former GM , who are now on important positions,  have been using the employees’ union and the website to attack the editorial section and the Trust to divert attention from their own failures and to deflect blame.

While everyone has a right to criticize any individual or a group, but an attempt to tarnish the image of this great institution, The Tribune, and its editorial team, is both unwarranted and deplorable.

(The author is a former editor of The Tribune)