Meenal Baghel is the editor of Mumbai Mirror. Ms Baghel has been a journalist in India for 15 years, reporting for Asian Age and Times of India, among others. The 38 year-old has been at the helm for three years. Mumbai Mirror enjoys a big circulation because it is complimentary with a copy of Times of India but it can be bought separately. Readership of nearly 800,000.

Why are newspapers so popular in Mumbai when the circulations of newspapers in London continue to fall?
An English language newspaper is treated as an aspirational product here. There are huge numbers of young people in India who are upgrading to English language newspapers. We have editions in Puna and Bangalore now.

Mumbai is a happening place. It was always a city that offered a lot to young people. There are a lot of infrastructure projects at work in the city, so we will have to put up with a bit of pain for the next three or four years before we see the benefits.

How is Mumbai Mirror trying to capture its market? What makes a good front page for your newspaper?
We have a goal to be the number two newspaper in Mumbai [after Times of India].

I try to keep it very newsy. We simplify news for people ­­but we are not simplistic. It is about making the newspaper accessible to everyone.

We use our front pages to define clearly that we are a city-orientated newspaper. We cover news to do with this city, we have a lot of Bollywood coverage, there is a What’s On section, a section for national news, a section for world news and a supplement covering sport.

A lot of readers call up with stories, which shows that my newspaper addresses their concerns. Ideally a good front page should become a talking point for people in the city. It should set the news agenda for that day. There is so much competition in the media, that it is important to surprise the readers.

What challenges do you face in your position as an editor of a tabloid newspaper in India?
The whole spin-doctor culture is growing in India, in politics and show business.

What has been a highlight of your tenure as editor?
The amount of feedback we get here because my newspaper goes to such a wide range of people.

We highlighted the story of three poor farmers in rural Maharashtra whose crops had failed and had threatened to commit suicide within days unless the state government helped them. A journalist went to the village and did a big story about their lives. Within 24 hours, we were flooded with people who wanted to offer help to the farmers. The state government reacted to the story. A lot of middle-class people want to help those less fortunate than themselves here.
Another story we covered was to do with a legislator in the state. We learnt that one of the legislators in Maharashtra had been in a coma for two years. We then discovered that a unqualified legislator was attending the state assembly in his place.

Any regrets?
The Mumbai Mirror ran an interview with Malaika Arora in which she claimed that her husband Arbaaz was to remarry. The following day, the newspaper discovered that the remarriage was false. The paper suspected it was a media stunt by the married couple.

As the newspaper wrote: "Both husband and wife had been contracted by a cosmetics company to launch a skin-care product, and the campaign, unveiled on Thursday night, revolved around Arbaaz playing Adonis to his wife's Aphrodite. They used the myth to renew their vows on stage, thus the sham of remarriage."

A culture of spin is growing in India and that is why I decided to run a story that exposed how we had been lied to.

People wrote letters claiming that the original story should not have been on the front page because it was celebrity gossip. My view was that she was a big pin-up star who has a high-profile marriage. We are a tabloid newspaper and it was tabloid story.

I ran as many critical letters as possible in the newspaper to show that we are not scared of criticism.

What is the status of women in Indian media?
I have never faced any gender bias. There are a lot of women working in the media industry in key positions. It is a great time to be a woman in India.

Are you worried about competition from TV news?
At the moment we are concentrating on the day-to-day challenges. To be honest, the standard of Hindi news channels is not that high here.

Interview by Hamant Verma, editor of Eastern Eye for BizAsia.co.uk