One had to run the show all alone, which meant which meant facing demands of 12 hours or so of time each day. One must put it on record here that without the financial and moral support of my wife, Sangeeta, it would not have been possible for me to take this major risk.
It could be argued that most of the magazines which were closed down did not have a professional approach, consistency and utility value. These are critical factors for any publication's success. More so in a place like Goa. You need to study the mind of the reader, and his or her likes and dislikes. How a story is displayed is as important as the choice of the story itself. Readers should get something refreshing to read, and not just a rehash of stories already appeared in the daily newspapers.
For a product to succeed, it should also have some utility value to the readers. People are bombarded from all sides with knowledge and information in this information era. The job of the media is to screen and customize this information for the benefit of their readers. This is the role especially of the niche magazines, and it is the secret behind Digital Goa. The first issue of Digital Goa rolled out in the first week of April after a three months of running around. But very soon the initial enthusiasm was over and I had to face the stalk reality. Publication is the capital-intensive business. You have to go on pumping money for years before the product starts yielding fruits. So you need tremendous sustaining power.
Many times, one was confronted with existentialist dilemmas — whether or not to continue to invest money without any signs of returns. The returns were almost commensurate to the investments, and one point of time my investing power was almost exhausted. But I did not give up and the result is before the reader to judge.
It was only after a year that things started changing. The IT businesses who had earlier adopted a cautious wait-and-watch policy, realized that this was not a fly-by-night kind of venture, but a serious publication. Though one had some kind of a hi-and-bye relationship with a few players in the IT circuit, most of the people were unknown to me.
Secondly, this was my maiden experience of conducting business deals with the business class, being a journalist for all of my earlier years. It was a different experience altogether dealing with all types of people, including some who could be safely classified as crooks of the first degree.. But one passed this agni-pariksha (test by fire).
Being behind a small time publication, one had to be an all-rounder — looking after all areas of publication — editorial, circulation, advertising, printing, accounts, and whatever work was left to be done. One could obviously not appoint professionals and sufficient staff to look after all these departments, simply because overheads had to remain in check.
To prevent this venture going into the red, I managed the show mostly with one staff-member, and by deploying my Merces flat as the office. The first one year was really tough, as one could hardly recover the printing charges leave alone my salary.
It was a great eye opener; before starting, I had set a target of some 1000 subscribers within a couple of months at a subscription-fee of a fairly reasonable Rs 120 per year. But it did not take me long to come in terms with the harsh reality. Even my close friends did not bother to pay subscription as a support to my efforts. Those in the thick of IT sector of Goa also did not care to subscribe it too. One got the feeling that people were scared that with their single subscription I may get rich or Digital Goa could overnight grow into a big publication.
I experienced the much spoken-of Goan crab mentality very closely during this time. One thing that can be said with certainty is that Goans are very hostile towards those who make a new beginning. They would waste lots of their energies to discourage you from aiming higher, or pull you down, instead of supporting enterprising people. It is only when they feel that one has survived their onslaught and have made a mark, that they would be sympathetic to you.