Thursday 4 November 2010

Stet 'Stet'

'Stet' is Latin for 'let it stand.' In publishing, when an editor, writer or proofreader uses it on a copy sheet, it refers to a change already marked, and instructs those reading the copy to disregard or discard that marked change.

It also is the name of the blog (tagline: "life, unedited"), that Mitali Saran uses to archive her popular Business Standard column of the same name. Make that her erstwhile column.

Because, you see, she is no longer writing it. It happened because:
This week, for the first time since its inception in August 2006, Stet was not published in Business Standard's weekend edition (October 30, 2010) . You'll find the likely reason for that in the second-last paragraph of the spiked column, reproduced below.

And a later update:
Business Standard's view that the post below was too dated to run is utterly unpersuasive, and I'm afraid I don't believe it. They also say that since this post was put up on the blog, along with comments about BS, the question of carrying it in the paper does not arise. We shall have to agree to disagree on this whole thing, and I will write a post about that in a few days; but meanwhile, I have terminated my arrangement with them with immediate effect. As of this week, Stet will no longer appear in Business Standard.

The column in question, incidentally, is about the product of Aroon Purie's jet lag, and you can read it in the post on Stet (the blog) where Mitali also posted the extracts above. (You should also read the comments on that post.)


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And while on the subject of jet lag, here's Mitali's poem on the topic, also from the column (but the link is to her blog.)

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(Some more links to the tiger-nado incident. Nilanjana, Sridala, and via both of them, Abinandanan, Niranjana Iyer (who says that India Today has ripped her stuff off in the past), Rahul Siddharthan, and NITK Numbskulls Page.)

Monday 1 November 2010

O tempora! O mores!

Got this as a tip-off for a writers' listings newsletter I run (Caferati Listings, here and here).

Here's the key bit (the whole thing is here.):

Since the magazines caters to luxury and life style readers, a lot of brands would rather have us create something in the Vogue/GQ/Conde Nast Traveller style for their brand than simply placing an ad, because no one in India understands this set of Audience better than we do. The advertorials follow the editorial style to ensure that the promotional article looks like an editorial point of view and not a paid promotion.

They're actually proudly proclaiming that they will help their advertisers make their ads look like editorial.