Jan 14, 2013
Mangalore : Makara Sankranti, an auspicious day in Indian culture, is also an unforgettable and remakable day for daijiworld.com, as the web portal, now making waves around the world, was born exactly 12 years ago, and is today celebrating its 13th anniversary.
The love, support, confidence, trust and appreciation showered by the readers on us has helped us reach thus far, enabled us to create milestones one after the other, and thereby become, and stay, the undisputed leader in online journalism in the region.
Though birthdays are happy occasions, for us it is just a reminder that we have to take up more responsibilities, more challenges and stay focused on our committment to value-based journalism, on what our readers need, and bring about social awareness on important issues.
We are delighted with the feedback from the readers and well-wishers of our website worldwide. Indeed, it gives us tremendous satisfaction. Our track record has proved that we have achieved more than what we had aimed for. Our critics are also our assets, as they spur us on to improve our standards and double our committment.
But as they say of teenage years that daijiworld is stepping into, the path ahead is getting tougher with numerous challenges, both in terms of the demands of modern journalism as well as changing trends of technology every day.
We assure you dear readers, that our head is firm on our shoulders, and we are ready and well-equipped to face all future challenges, so that we can continue to meet your expectations along with fostering new and innovative ideas in the coming days.
Social commitments - a new milestone :
Never had we imagined even in our wildest dreams that one day we would be able to reach out to the poor and needy with the help of our generous readers. In the last 12 years, we have raised Rs 6 crore through our online appeals (the amount goes directly to beneficiaries, without any middlemen).
In the year 2012 alone we reached out to as many as 40 families, which is an all-time record for us. In fact, the year marks two important milestones as far as our social committment, and more importantly, the generosity of our readers is concerned. On July 23, 2012, a record of sorts was set when readers from around the world pooled in over Rs 5 lac for Lingappa Poojary, who was suffering from renal failure, in a matter of just 8 hours. And then in September 2012, readers once again showed their immense concern for human life by contributing a whopping Rs 28 lac in less than two weeks. These two instances, along with numerous others, inspire us and reaffirm our faith in our mission.
Several readers and well-wishers have suggested that we start a trust for the needy under Daijiworld, but we feel the time has not yet come for us to take such responsibility. Meantime, we will continue to render our service in reaching out to the needy.
Progress Report :
Thanks to the revolution in social media, and recommendations by our existing readers, we have seen a 28% growth in our daily readership this year, which makes us one of the most browsed web portals in India. We are happy that our ideas and innovations as well as aggressive style of journalism have encouraged many to start their own websites and follow in our footsteps.
Our sister concern Daijiworld Publications Pvt Ltd, which publishes 'Daijiworld Weekly', the only English language weekly magazine published from Karnataka has seen unprecedented growth during the last few months. The Weekly which is in the fourth year of publication is creating its own identity in print journalism under the able leadership and editorship of Hemacharya. We are indeed grateful to all our supporters.
Our internet TV concept, which we were the first in Mangalore to start, way back in 2006, has reached a new level with many high-profile events being webcast live not only from Mangalore but from other states and countries too.
Our 'Impact' reports :
Year 2012 has been the most successful one for our team, as our investigative journalism brought about many socio-economic changes. Our reports on social concern have been heard by the administrations, governments, political parties and institutions. Greater impact has been achieved by our exclusive stories that shows the commitment of our team. Our innovative and exclusive style of journalism will continue, and so also our support to weaker sections of the society. This is our promise for the coming year !
Request to our readers :
As daijiworld is among the most viewed, watched and most noticed web portals in every aspect, by administrations, institutions, political parties, bureaucrats, religious bodies, and various other important groups, we request our readers to use the 'comment' sectionsensibly. In the last six months, on more than five occasions the state administration has asked us to furnish details pertaining to senders of some comments. As we do not take any responsibility for readers' comments and we are bound to furnish such details as required by the authorities concerned, we urge our readers to comment well within the legal boundaries. Sending comments under fake names too invites action from authority, as daijiworld tracks the IP address of such commentators and is bound by law to provide the information to the authorities on demand.
Though comments are monitored by moderators, sometimes due to the huge volume of incoming messages, we cannot guarantee cent percent moderation.
We sincerely request our readers to keep the comments column clean and facilitate healthy debates, so that people can exercise their right to freedom of speech well within the judicial limitiations and participate in the process of building a responsible society.
Thank you - Reader is our Boss, Always...
We thank all our readers, well-wishers, advertisers, advertising agencies, sponsors, contributors, columnists, representatives and correspondents all over the world, reporters, our staff, directors,and each and every one who has become an integral part of daijiworld.com right from the day of its inception.
Our special thanks to our technical team in Chennai, led by Karthik and our dedicated offices in Udupi (Kishoo Barkur and team), Dubai (Stan Agiera and team), Mumbai (Rons Bantwal and team) and all our representatives in all the Gulf countries, Canada, USA, all parts of India and the rest of the world.
With the able leadership of our resident editor Anisa Fathima, under whose guidance the portal has been reaching new heights day by day with the strong support from all our staff members and support team, we promise you many more surprises and milestones this year too.
We know, we could not make cent percent of our readers happy - that is impossible too. But we will strive to do more, put in more our efforts, and aim to make all our readers happy...we sincerely apologize if we have hurt anyone, it was never our intention. It is human nature to make mistakes, and like everyone else, we too have had our share. But importantly, we have learnt from our mistakes and emerged stronger, and look forward to serve the field of media more professionally.
We welcome your suggestions, guidance, feedback and constructive criticism...
Yours faithfully
Walter Nandalike
Editor-in-chief & Managing Director
Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd.