Editor-in-Chief’s Desk

Dear Friend,

It has been our dream to venture into something which, though not profitable, might certainly add value to our society. We have continuously been in pursuit of such an idea. Being journalists, the best possible way for us to do this is through media.

We found the existing forms of media lacking an important point—optimism. We found them to be too negative in their approach. To our surprise, a lot of people agreed with this view. They were also saddened on seeing the media. “Is this world so bad?” they were forced to ask.

That further made us wonder why it was so. This led us to think of a media with a positive approach to life.

The negativity comes from the politics. In our part of the world, there isn’t any need for a political magazine because every journalist aligns his work with politics and almost nothing else. Innovation in content is missing and we believe there are millions of others who would love to have a sound and positive media. Thus, the idea of ‘Folks’ took shape.

Having once thought of the concept, it was very difficult to decide on the contents. It was soon abundantly clear that there was no contemporary role model to look up to.

Thus, our team spent several months in research and planning. By the time we decided to launch the magazine, the global economy was faltering and any investment could prove a fatal error.

We decided to wait it out hoping the economy would soon revive. But we found that this was not happening. Hence, we had to take a tough decision—we had to either proceed with the magazine or forget about it for good. Having spent hours giving shape to FOLKS, it was immensely difficult for us to even envision the latter.

With Manipal Digital Systems offering us their expertise and expressing an interest in partnering with us, we agreed that it was indeed viable for us to have an online edition first.

Meanwhile, Prabal Publishing also came forward offering their goodwill in helping find writers which will enable us to build quality content. Prabal Media & Marketing Group will provide the advertising support to help compensate our team members. Thus, we begin our journey.

Ours is a very distinct initiative which has no prior example. We aren’t sure of what the future holds for us; we don’t know if we will be profitable. All that we know is that we are doing something unique which has the potential of putting forth goodness before the society—something which is badly needed.

Success will truly be delightful, but even otherwise we shall derive satisfaction from the fact that we tried our best to do some good!

It’s tough sailing ahead. But we know it is an enriching voyage.

Sincerely,
On behalf of Editorial Board

U. Mahesh Prabhu,
Editor-in-chief, FOLKS