'Hindustan' dons a new Interesting look

Sameer Rana - Televisionpoint.com
New avatar will have six new supplements, more coverage, all colour pages, consumer-friendly design, improved layout and print quality.

Revolutionising the Hindi news industry, HT Media Ltd. today unveiled the new avatar of Hindustan – one of India's earliest Hindi dailies, renowned for its role in the Independence struggle. The revamped Hindustan brings to readers India's first Hindi daily to have all pages in colour, offering six exciting new supplements, ramped up modern design, improved layout and state-of-the-art print quality, while maintaining its existing high standards of excellence, dedication to unbiased news, impartial and fair reporting and secular editorial style.

The first edition of the new streamlined version of Hindustan will hit the stands on December 9. The printing of the new Hindustan is being undertaken at HT Media's new facility at Greater Noida, which has installed state-of-the-art technology at par with international print standards and has a capacity of printing 85000 copies every hour.

Commenting on the new-look Hindustan, Benoy Roy Chowdhary, Head, Media Marketing and Vernacular Business at HT Media Ltd., said, "Today's Hindi reader seeks superior content in a trendy, reader-friendly format from his daily newspaper. To meet this demand, we have introduced a number of changes in our Hindi daily, Hindustan. The new Hindustan has something for everyone, from an executive looking for business news, a trader looking for a weather bulletin, a spirited youth or a fashion-smitten teen. It's a complete package!"

The Hindustan will now have a special page on international news, increased space for sports and business news, including an exhaustive commodity listing in a new reader-friendly format. On six days of the week it will have special supplements ¾ FEST – an 8 page Saturday supplement on food, entertainment, shopping and travel which doubles up as a weekend planner; the 6 page Hum Tum, for Sunday reading, with articles on health, fitness, astrology, celebrity interviews, a page dedicated to kids, snippets on lifestyle and a special page on paranormal news; Metro Remix a 6 page supplement on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays representing the changing times, with a dedicated page for women, a focus page on auto on Wednesdays, travel on Thursdays and entertainment on Fridays; and Nayi Dishayen, a comprehensive career and Education supplement. In addition, on Sundays the usual classified ads have been pulled out as a separate supplement called Search Engine.

HT Media Ltd. decided on the revamp on the grounds that it is unreasonable that, while the Hindi daily newspaper segment has a readership that is four times the size of the English print media segment, Hindi media has been lagging behind the latter in packaging and design. Breaking the mould of 50 years, the new Hindustan is the result of an extensive research focusing on understanding the aspirations of Hindi readers, which revealed a strong wish for a less crowded layout to facilitate easy navigation and greater emphasis on International, business and sports news.

The changes, marking the coming-of-age of the Hindi print media in terms of packaging, content and reporting, brought about in Hindustan are expected to heat up the competition in the market. The launch of the new Hindustan will be supported by an extensive promotional campaign.