A review of NL Hafta by Pramod, Naman & others

A recent subscriber here, wishing you on the success of Media Rumble. (I know it was weeks ago) I’m a huge fan of your work and had a few suggestions I thought I’d share.

I’ve heard time and again about the mediocre reportage in LEGAL and PARLIAMENT reporting. Given your excellent credibility, why don’t you include that in the Hafta or perhaps have it in a different podcast? Madhu, Manisha and Meghnad would be killer choices. 

And I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest a weekly FINANCIAL news roundup in the podcast as well and I don’t mean the boring Bloomberg/CNBC type reporting. Your real strength lies in simplifying the news. By that, I don’t mean dumbing it down. I sincerely mean it as a compliment. 

I’m a Supply Chain Manager for a Pharmaceutical company and I teach civil service classes on the weekends. With this schedule, I somehow binge-listen NL HAFTA and thanks to your book recommendations, I’ve purchased close to 35 books in the last month alone. Keep marching on legends!! 

Cheers,

Pramod JC

PS: I love Niku’s rants and related/unrelated anecdotes. DON’T EVER CHANGE, SKIPPER.

*****

Hi Team,

I am a subscriber and listen to NL Hafta religiously every hafta. Few comments:

• Your interview with Vivek Agnihotri seemed to have made quite a buzz on social media. I see you are cashing in on that. That’s good. That took me to some of the older ‘I Agree’ interviews that Abhinandan used to do. I must say, his sarcastic way of interviewing is really unique and the audience will like it. Abhinandan must restart the ‘I Agree’ series. See, you guys need more subscribers to make your model sustain itself. While you may believe in fact-based and honest journalism covering relevant topics, to attract more subscribers, you need stuff that sells. Your ‘I Agree’ series, TV Newsance, NL Hafta etc. are a way to do that. 
• In my view, I Agree and NL Hafta are your Cash Cows. Milk them. 
• TV Newsance is the rising star. Don’t compromise on the quality and it is a winner. 
• Your App surely sucks. I don’t know how much money it would cost to get a better app, but it will surely help you grow your base. 
• I use many other apps (news based and otherwise). I feel you must apply some Design Thinking principles to design your new app. 
• I still wonder why Ranga uncle left NL. He was surely an asset and I used to enjoy listening to his perspective on issues. 

Rest all is good. Keep up the good work and thanks for all the work that you do. 

Thanks,

Naman Mishra 

*****

Hi All and Naaniji,

Like many others, I depend on NL for unbiased reportage, which it definitely does. It is very gratifying to forward NL reportage in a WhatsApp Group war to shut both sides.

But …. Yes, there is a But! The Hafta like a subscriber said has been one-sided for a while not because Anand is not the forceful person. But because the rest of you go into “SELECTIVE AMNESIA” when he comes out with the COLD STORAGE preserved FACTS. Guess he is the only cold-blooded person in the room, the rest are HOT Blooded!

If you can, listen to Cyrus Broacha – Cyrus Says and Cock & Bull, Cyrus Says does not have award-winning journalists to make a point. You might get some pointers on improving Hafta.

Coming to your Vivek Agnihotri Interview, the first 10 minutes were cringe-worthy since it felt like Abhinandan was into a wrestling match. Until Vivek pointed out that you have called me for the interview without researching my book! Condescension is not the NL way is what I thought. I could understand Madhu’s condescension with Karan, there is a history of sorts, but …..

But I would like to point out that the entire team sit and watch Madhu’s Yakub Memon interview whenever they find the time. Great interviews are about getting the confidence of the interviewee and ensure he/she is not defensive. This was missing in both Madhu’s and Abhinandan’s interview.

I read the NL Mails before listening to HAFTA, I was convinced Abhinandan would have a lot to say on the last week’s HAFTA email. And surprise Manisha reads it instead. Guess what you guys should listen to her reading it again. You will get what I am saying.

A question to end: Does Reporting end with publishing the facts? Or does it continue until the “logical” end to the story?
Two points of references to my question-
1) Everything that Kafeel Ahmed’s plea of sorts to the media for help in the Media Rumble
2) Maria Ressa – Haritosh Bal conversation; Maria’s fantastic number crunching ppt and work which Haritosh wondered as to why nobody’s been done in India.

Best Regards,
Dhiraj Bhandary

*****

Hi Abhinandan/NL Team,

A few requests:

1. Please start listing Hafta and Chota Hafta as two different Podcasts. Many a time, I end up listening to Chota Hafta, later to realize that I am not on Hafta.
2. I listen to Hafta in my car while commuting. In between, if I get a call, it all gets messed up. Please address this experience.
3. If I subscribe to NL on iTunes, I get all the podcasts downloaded. All I am interested there is – Reporters without orders. Can’t you list them separately? (See IVN podcasts and Simplified for example)
4. Can you provide details of recommendations etc. in the app as well?
5. Would appreciate if someone like Cherry run RWO. Amit etc. needs some more maturity/experience.
6. Can you start a weekly podcast covering the important news of the week? (no analysis, something like the world this week of the 80’s). There are many like me who stopped watching news channels and stopped newspaper subscriptions.
7. Reduce the rants and spend more time on additional topics. 5-6 hours collective hours of yours and 100’s of hours of the listeners should be well used.
8. Keep up the good work. 
9. One of the recent comedies I watched recently was your interview with Agnihotri. 
10. Can someone do an investigation on how the Petrol/Diesel price is ensured to be “per direction of the OMCs ” on a daily basis? I would be surprised if that’s not completely a scam.

Regards,
Abhilash John