A reader comment on a popular Indian newspaper’s online edition report about my entry into the 2010 Book of Records read: “NRI Pulse and several others like it are freebie junk mail you also find lying around in cartons outside stores Indians frequent. Surprising Limca recognized this "achievement".”

 This comment, which I do not think was posted by an Atlanta resident, stood out bold, audacious, taunting, amongst a bunch of congratulatory notes on that particular news website, and is the only negative comment I’ve received so far. What’s worse, each time I google ‘freebie junk newspaper’ (try it), the report “US-based Veena Rao enters Limca Book of Records’ comes right up on the first page without fail.

 The comment begged the question: Is a ‘freebie’ publication ‘junk’ just because it is free? Or is it content quality, journalistic values and reach within the community that sets the standards for a publication? Would a community continue to pick up, read, and come back for more ‘junk’ year after year? Would ‘junk’ material not have met its end soon?

 Maybe there are businessmen out there who run ‘freebie’ publications with the only objective of filling it end to end with advertisements. There is no focus on maintaining journalistic standards, simply because there is no journalism involved. But even these publications must surely provide some useful material to the reader, or they wouldn’t survive.

 Setting up a newspaper has never been easier than it is today. All you need is computer software and Internet, and you can have an entire newspaper office online. But keeping a newspaper alive year after year is harder than it has ever been, because of the shrinking advertiser market. Our printer tells me that over 40 publications that used to print with him closed down in the past two years!

 Mainstream US newspapers have had it worse. Dwindling circulation figures, shrinking revenue, massive job cuts... Some big names have closed down during the height of the current recession. People don’t subscribe to newspapers any more. We get all the news online. Us desis too. Reading the day’s newspaper with the morning cuppa is a habit long dead. We fall back into the habit during our trips o India, then fall into our online obsession when we come back home.

 Ultimately, I think it is the ‘freebie junk’ nature of our newspaper that has helped us survive four years. People will always pick up a publication with plenty of good reading material if it is offered free of cost. It helps that our paper has news and features that are not all found online. It helps that we make news of Atlanta happenings. It also helps that our set up is small, and our overheads low. That, according to a recent survey, is the key to survival in these difficult times.

 It also helps that we serve a community that is appreciative of our sincere efforts at providing a stronger platform for all of us- even if that platform is in ‘freebie junk’ format.