house
backing this effort nor did one have any savings to run
it without any expected returns for the initial period.
Most importantly, I did not have any other source of
income since this was my full time activity.

One had to run the show all alone, which meant which
meant facing demands of 12 hours or so of time each
day. One must put it on record here that without the
financial and moral support of my wife, Sangeeta, it
would not have been possible for me to take this major
risk.

It could be argued that most of the magazines which
were closed down did not have a professional approach,
consistency and utility value. These are critical
factors for any publication's success. More so in a
place like Goa. You need to study the mind of the
reader, and his or her likes and dislikes. How a story
is displayed is as important as the choice of the story
itself. Readers should get something refreshing to
read, and not just a rehash of stories already appeared
in the daily newspapers.

For a product to succeed, it should also have some
utility value to the readers. People are bombarded from
all sides with knowledge and information in this
information era. The job of the media is to screen and
customize this information for the benefit of their
readers. This is the role especially of the niche
magazines, and it is the secret behind Digital Goa. The
first issue of Digital Goa rolled out in the first week
of April after a three months of running around. But
very soon the initial enthusiasm was over and I had to
face the stalk reality. Publication is the
capital-intensive business. You have to go on pumping
money for years before the product starts yielding
fruits. So you need tremendous sustaining power.

Many times, one was confronted with existentialist
dilemmas -- whether or not to continue to invest money
without any signs of returns. The returns were almost
commensurate to the investments, and one point of time
my investing power was almost exhausted. But I did not
give up and the result is before the reader to judge.

It was only after a year that things started changing.
The IT businesses who had earlier adopted a cautious
wait-and-watch policy, realized that this was not a
fly-by-night kind of venture, but a serious
publication. Though one had some kind of a hi-and-bye
relationship with a few players in the IT circuit, most
of the people were unknown to me.

Secondly, this was my maiden experience of condu