Aurora: New Vistas at Birth, In Life, and In Farewell

Even though Aurora’s scopewas marketing, advertising,media and related aspects,its sum was always morethan its parts. The state of theworld in general and of SouthAsia in particular also influenced,openly or obliquely, its evolutionand content. Conditions specificto Pakistan were obviously themost directly relevant. But theholistic context in which the journalconducted its journey for 27 yearsremains central to how one viewsthat segment of time.

In 1998 and 1999, the internetand the dotcom age began toextend rapidly. This signalledboth the advent of entirely newcommunication technologies andthe early signs of the decline ofconventional modes. Speculativeover-investment in the West indotcom start-ups led to a crashin 2001, but basic changes inspeed and forms of connectivityand their impact kept unfolding. Afew years after the disintegrationof the USSR and of Yugoslaviain 1991-92, US intervention byPresident Clinton to stop thegenocide by Serbia of Muslims inBosnia stemmed some of the newuncertainties – an interventionmade all the more redeemingof Western apathy because thesame American president wasimpeached by Congress for theMonica Lewinsky scandal – whilecontinuing unscathed to wieldpower bolstered by sustainedpublic popularity!

When India exploded fivenuclear devices in May 1998,Pakistan went one up with sixtests a couple of weeks later.A new power dynamic was created. Indian Prime MinisterVajpayee’s visit to Lahore inFebruary 1999 was followed bythe Kargil conflict in May-July1999, and then by the exit ofthe Nawaz Sharif governmentand the inception of the GeneralMusharraf tenure of October 1999to August 2008. While that phasesaw the emergence of globalphenomena like Google andYouTube, that period had a specialsignificance for mass media inPakistan, including specialist printjournals like Aurora. Fuelled bythe government’s promotion ofeasy credit to boost consumerism,and by the post 9/11 spill-overfrom Afghanistan into our countryof American billions along withbountiful aid for Pakistan’s ownrole in the War on Terror, and mostvisibly perhaps by the military led government’s radical newmedia policy of permitting thelaunch of private TV channelsand FM radio stations in March2002, the subjects covered byAurora became fertile sources forobservation, study of new data,intense competition, analysis andsharing of experiences.

Gradually, over the next 15years, the conventional structuresof advertising witnessedfundamental alterations. With theroles of advertisers and mediabuying houses assuming a newprimacy, and the recasting of theposition of advertising agencies,and later with the emergence ofsocial media platforms there beganthe decline in print media’s useas advertising fora, and later (andstill ongoing), even of TV channelsand FM stations as new mediasteadily expanded their reach. Bythe time of Aurora’s silver jubileein 2023, even as political instabilityand economic uncertaintyprevailed (between 1998 and 2023there were about 12 changes ofgovernment – including caretakers – in 25 years), intrinsic changes inthe communications realm foretoldimminent grim closures to come.

Yet Aurora’s record over twoand-a-half decades plus – in which there has been enormousvolatility and variety in the world,the region and in Pakistan – is averitable treasure of perseveranceand achievement in specialisedjournalism. Featuring contributionsfrom a wide range of professionals,some of them veterans, many ofthem new practitioners, from thecorporate sector, from advertisingagencies and from the conventionalmedia and new media, Aurorapresented a distinctive new arrayof perspectives on virtually alldimensions pertinent to its definedareas of coverage, be they brandcompetition or state regulation orhuman resource training. Usinga graphic design style that wasalso different from conventionalapproaches – and a physicalsize that this writer always haddifficulty adjusting to! – thejournal brought forth every twomonths a refreshing assemblyof hard facts and subjectiveopinions, always informative,often educative, sometimesobscure, reassuringly accessible.

This writer has the privilegeof knowing the founding editor,Mariam Ali Baig well beforeshe assumed the mantle ofher responsibilities at Aurora.Commencing her writing in theadvertising sector, she remainedan exceptionally quiet, selfeffacing, disciplined memberof the creative team at MNJCommunications for severalmemorable years, with otherequally remarkable women suchas Zohra Yusuf and the late, muchmissed Saneeya Hussain. Withan understated demeanour andwith cool, calm capability Mariamnurtured Aurora through its earlyphases, then through its floweringand maturity, through the diversetimes of growth and success,and now into its unfortunateforthcoming closure due to factorsentirely beyond her control. Thereis comfort to be derived from thefact that print journals across theworld with once-spectacularlylarge sales and circulation, as wellas periodicals in Pakistan, notablythe Herald and Newsline, sheand others have had to concludetheir tenures due to the impact of new subversive technologiesand trends. But through thispainful climatic phase, Mariam’sable editorial leadership andher personal qualities of unduemodesty have remained consistentand unchanged.

Supporting her with unusual,undemonstrative yet verycompetent abilities have beentalented team members likeMamun M. Adil and MarylouMcCormack, and other colleagues,both in the textual and the designteams, full-time or as freelancers.In the last category, as the backpage columnist par excellence,Faraz Maqsood Hamidi hasproved to be prolifically thoughtful,provocatively outspoken andalways readable. Together,the Aurora team has made asalutary contribution to accuratelydocumenting and vividly portrayinga crucial and substantive partof the history of commercialcommunication in Pakistan.

By introducing this journal, andby sustaining its regular publicationfor over a quarter century, PakistanHerald Publications rendereda stellar role in advancing anddeveloping new frontiers inspecialised journalism. Advertisersdid provide some vital support.But, for the record, one is obligedto state that the corporate sectorof Pakistan, otherwise so helpfulto multiple worthy causes in thepublic interest and social welfare,should have/could have, in andbeyond 2025, done far more toensure the continuity of Auroraas a most deserving recipient ofregular advertising and of financialstability through the application ofCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR) resources, because Aurora’svalue as a credible critic of itscanvas should have been seen asfar more than the narrow measureof ROI because as machineintelligence and AI have opened uputterly new heights as well as darkchasms whose implications formedia Aurora would have probedso well, and finally because Aurorasincerely was, should be, and willbe, regarded as far more than onlythe sum of its parts.

Javed Jabbar is the recipient of thefirst Lifetime Achievement Awardpresented by the PakistanAdvertisers’ Society in 2017 and thefirst Pakistani advertising practitioneradmitted to the Hall of Fame of theAsian Federation of AdvertisingAssociations in 2019.
javedjabbar.2@gmail.com