Neighbourhood Papers
He currently edits three free English community newspapers in Chennai: Adyar Times, Mylapore Times and Arcot Road Times. In 1999 he started the internet website KutcheriBuzz.com, focused on south Indian classical music and dance. Along with the website, he also brings out a monthly 8-12 page Kutcheribuzz newsletter. During the fortnight long December Music Season in Chennai, Kutcheribuzz morphs into a single-sheet eveninger, distributed for free outside concert halls. Over the last couple of years, Kutcheribuzz.com has added audio and video news reports of popular classical music and dance events such as the Tiruvaiyyaru Thyagaraja Aradhana, and the Chidambaram dance festival that takes place at the Nataraja Temple during Shivaratri.
D'Souza's experiment with a free community newspaper in the former French enclave of Puducherry was a short lived one. He pulled the shutter on the paper, the Pondicherry Times, in 2001.
He also promotes two other major events in Chennai - the Mylapore Festival, held in Mylapore on Pongal eve, and the Madras Day celebrations held to celebrate the city.
Besides fulfilling the unique communication needs of specific neighbourhoods, D'Souza's publications have been a training ground for aspiring journalists. Unlike several other community papers, Mylapore Times, Arcot Road Times and Adyar Times are professionally run papers with reasonably good production standards. Despite being small publications, D'Souza's papers have steadfastly tried to keep the wall between news and advertising intact.
Read more about this topic: Vincent D'Souza
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