Mumbai Mirror ducks elections, sticks to positioning

There are a number of aspects of the Mirror (whichever the edition) that one doesn’t like, but the positioning – and the adherence to the positioning – is not one of them. This morning, as all the newspapers see their front pages dominated by the exit polls and the likelihood of Modi becoming prime minister in an NDA-led government, Mirror steadfastly sticks to the positioning and definition as a city paper. [caption id=“attachment_1520983” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Front page of today’s Mumbai Mirror.[/caption] In Mumbai, we see three stories on the front page: the death of 80 migratory birds in a housing society, a story on the 2006 serial train blasts and a pointer to an inside page story on an attack by a TB patient. The front page, however, does have a strip ad for Times Now, featuring Arnab Goswami. Bangalore Mirror has two stories on the front page, one pertaining to a proposal that the Bangalore corporation be split into boroughs and the other a pointer to inside stories. The Times Now ad is there as well. Pune Mirror has a story on the University of Pune and two ads, including what is looking like a mandatory ad: the Times Now – Arnab Goswami one. Mandatory? No. Ahmedabad Mirror leads with a study by MICA, has a pointer to a George Clooney story and a single ad – not one for Times Now. In Mumbai Mirror, the Lok Sabha elections are allotted just two pages, pages 13 and 14, in a 38 page edition. The reference to Modi is in a story headlined “Exit polls show BJP scraping majority.” The story is accompanied by a photo of Modi. Bangalore Mirror also allots two pages to the elections, pages 9 and 10, with no Modi photo. Pune Mirror has the same on pages 10 and 11. And Ahmedabad Mirror? This one will go to town, you think. It doesn’t. The election stories are on pages 11 and 12 – with no photograph of Modi and no mention of him in the headlines. That’s consistent positioning. All the city paper remain city papers, with local issues dominating the front pages. The pagination is consistent as well, with the city pages in the front of the newspapers and the national pages, which house the election content, in the middle pages. One can be sure that, once the results are out on 16 May, we will see politics on the front pages of all these Mirror editions, in the context of winners from each city that they publish from. It must be tempting for the editor and the editorial team to break from the positioning and ride the popularity wave and cover Modi and the BJP on the front pages; that they haven’t is a testament to their belief in what the title stands for.