Gaon Connection –
of the people…by the people…for the people
India’s one-of-its-kind rural newspaper
With a mission to strengthen democracy in villages, Gaon Connection, a weekly newspaper in Hindi for
rural population was started two years ago. It is India’s one-of-its-kind professionally managed rural weekly
newspaper, which has been established by the villagers for Uttar Pradesh (UP) region. It is backed and
mentored by some of India’s top journalists and professionals to bridge the urban-rural divide. Here Neelesh
Misra, editorial director, Gaon Connection (GC) in conversation with Smita Dwivedi shares his unflinching
faith in the concept and journey so far…being connected to gaon (villages) again.
Neelesh Misra
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Neelesh Misra, an award winning
journalist, occupies a unique place
on the Indian creative landscape,
probably one of the creative professionals
who work across so many diverse genres.
He writes Bollywood lyrics and scripts,
narrates stories every night on radio to a
nationwide audience of 31 million people.
He served his last job as deputy executive
editor of Hindustan Times. He moved on
to pursue his love for writing and creating
content that connects him with more and
more people by means of books, stories,
songs, scripts and his voice, and now ventured
into running this newspaper successfully.
Chase your dreams…
follow your roots!
Here, we divulged more about his role
as founder of India’s one-of-its-kind
professionally run rural newspaper,
Gaon Connection. On asking how it
all started, he shared, “To bring out
this newspaper the first thing we did
was ignoring the convention. For us,
believing is inking, which is why,
when we first thought of launching
Gaon Connection neither aimed at
bringing news to the heart of India,
nor did it prophesise to change the way
media view its rural markets. The mission
is simple. We aim at bringing their world,
the things that matter, the subjects that
count closer to them. While doing that,
provide a view of the changing landscape of
villages to urban India. We strive to create
a tool for India’s heartland that someday
will give birth to a movement that propels
changes. Our dream is fierce; the ways to
accomplish it, even more challenging, but
the heart is an optimist. And the mind an
eternal adventurer.”
Why Lucknow!
As a radio storyteller, his programme Yaadon
Ka Idiot Box with Neelesh Misra on 92.7
BIG FM has been a huge success. In this
programme, he tells stories of Yaad Sheher,
an imaginary city that he has created. So,
the reason behind choosing Lucknow to
launch the newspaper he explained, “I
belong to a small village near Lucknow, UP.
I could relate very well with the people of
this area and their needs. So, it was started
as a pilot project for Lucknow, Barabanki
and Sitapur in UP. Currently published
from Lucknow, the newspaper prints 15,000
copies and is distributed in 45 out of 75
districts in UP. One copy of the paper is
read on an average by ten individuals, thus
the paper commands readership of more
than 1,50,000 individuals.”
Giving a voice to rural India
Although 70 percent of India's population
still live in villages, there is no platform
or medium entirely focused on them.
This newspaper discusses about the
problems faced by ordinary people such
as unemployment and scarcity of inputs
for agricultural growth. Gaon Connection
publishes success stories, best practices in
farming and other rural business innovations
and interventions. In an era when India’s
media is booming but increasingly reflecting
only urban concerns, Neelesh strived to give
rural citizens a voice of their own. Further
adding to this, he asked and shared, “Did
you know, the purchase of DVD players and
washing machines in villages has increased
by 200 percent year on year. Or that rural
India accounts for 49 percent of motorcycle
sales? Where the next wave of growth is
expected to come from India’s villages, Gaon
Connection aspires to provide rural market
intelligence to urban businesses that will
help them understand the changing trends
and needs of rural India. We will educate
and train rural population, especially
females, to make them self reliant. We
will create white-collar employment in
villages, so that the educated folks do not
flock to cities for just low-paying jobs.”
Getting connected!
This Hindi weekly newspaper in 12 pages
of broadsheet has all colour pages carrying
news and features from villages across the
country. Printed on imported newsprint it
boasts of state-of-the-art technology from the
leading newsrooms of the world to be used
in page-making and printing. The newspaper
has a three-pronged strategy—one there is
a physical version of the newspaper, two,
a news wire service that will supply news
stories from the villages to the mainstream
newspapers across the country and third,
the latest digital adoption of the newspaper
which makes it available online. Asking
about the distribution pattern, Neelesh
explained, “The newspaper has a unique
distribution strategy to sell its physical
version in the rural areas, that otherwise
do not have a very robust distribution
network. We have tied up with pan shops,
fertiliser shops, schools and cart pullers
to stock the newspaper. Apart from this,
we also have a travelling library, a jeep
converted into a library, which travels on
fixed routes, allowing people to read and
buy the newspaper.”
Talking business!
“It’s been two years now, since inception,”
on asking about the profitability of this
venture, Neelesh urged for support and
added, “The investment in the newspaper
so far has come in the form of private
funding by the founder. I actually sold my
house in Noida, to start this. Thankfully,
my family supported me in this venture.
We started with minimal expenses; my
journalist friends supported me a lot.
Finally, conversations have now started
with investors to raise funding to be able
to expand across different states as this is
crucial to carry forward its growth plan,"
he concluded.
