Chapter 14: An era of free sheeters
Miguel BraganzaHaving an educated father with a flair for speaking and writing helps : Miguel's is a typical case study. As a school student of St.Britto, his contributions to the school magazine were like a celebrity column — ghost written by his father! His first original contribution to the printed word was in a tabloid, bilingual 'free sheeter' of sorts called the 'Vanguard' ('O Vanguardo') in the mid 1970s. While at the University of Agricultural Sciences,Bangalore, he was a founder-member of the "Writers' Club" and one-time Editor of the FYM: the Farm Yard Manure..ooops…Magazine. Since then, Miguel has been Goa University's first and only Garden Superintendent. He took to writing more seriously after getting in touch with journos in local newsrooms. He became the first Consulting Editor of the Mapusa Plus free-sheeter in July 2001.
Just imagine a user-driven economy in which the user has to only pay attention; absolutely nothing else. This improbable scenario has arrived in an increasingly consumerist society with the birth of the 'free sheeter ', now making their presence felt in Goa too.
Unlike the mainstream broad-sheet and tabloid newspapers, the user can take home a free-sheeter free of cost and with no obligation, save the ethical one to read it. There is no fine print to this free offer. The offer does not read 'Do not pay anything for it now' nor 'Nothing free'. The reader obtains a copy of the free sheeter absolutely free of any financial consideration, present or future.
There is also a greater freedom of expression in a free sheeter since the publication is not tied to the apron strings of a business house or interest group with vested interests. The degree of freedom available to the editor is almost boundless, though within the limits of decency, propriety and libel laws. The editor cannot be allowed to declare freedom from good sense and decency. This is possible only because of the multifaceted funding base that finances the free sheeter and, often, the dedication of the editorial team. A free-sheeter does not have to toe a line that many of its bigger cousins make their way of life.
What is a free-sheeter?
A simple description of a free-sheeter is a periodical (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly) that is made available to its readers at no financial consideration whatsoever in terms of price, subscription, membership or donation. (I will attempt no further definition and I do not know is a proper definition exists for a free-sheeter.)
The lowest frequency expected of a free-sheeter is an issue a month. Frequencies less than that tend to render a free-sheeter irrelevant and it cannot sustain its readership. It is the readership that justifies the existence of a free sheeter and helps to draw funds to finance its publication. The existence of the readership is the raison d'etre of a free-sheeter.
News Content: People do not lose interest in issues just because the mainstream newspapers and tabloids do not carry them on their front-pages. There is always an interest in the 'positive' things happening around us. There is as much interest in the fisherman who saved six persons from drowning as there is in the one person that drowned while swimming at a beach side resort. The drowning hogs the headlines in the mainstream newspapers and tabloids. There is 'space' in the free-sheeter to portray the hero of the event, the humble fisherman who saved six lives. People want to read about him even if he saved them simply because of an impulse, or just because he could not bear to see them die! Bravery and courage do not need to be pre-qualified or rationalized. Brave deeds have a readership in the land of Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi and Shivaji, just as in the land of Napoleon Bonaparte or George Washington or Nelson Mandela or Winston Churchill.
Local news is another 'blind spot' in mainstream newspapers. This is often the result of the need to make the newspaper meaningful to a wider readership. You cannot focus on details when using a wide-angle lens in your camera. The same holds good for a newspaper. The free-sheeter, on the other hand, can be like the 'camera lucida' and put local issues under the microscope and draw out all the minute details.