India

Ananda Vikatan has emerged as the largest-selling Tamil weekly. The average circulation of the weekly now stands at 4,30,534 copies for the period July-December 2004, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. This represents a 22 per cent growth over the previous half-year period. Founded and nurtured by the legendary S.S. Vasan, Ananda Vikatan displaces Kumudam as the largest-selling Tamil...

For the second time in a row, the mighty Times of India's readership has declined. As per IRS Round 1, 2005, the newspaper's readership has marginally dropped by 0.66 per cent. Even in the IRS Round 2, 2004, its readership had declined by 1.89 per cent. That apart, the newspaper continues to maintain its leadership position among the Urban SEC A readers. In this category, the paper continues to be...

The Indian Express Senior Reporter Stavan Desai has won the PoleStar Award 2004 in the Best Breaking News category for his exclusive report, ‘Three Years Later, When Cellphones ring: Who Spoke to Whom When Gujarat was Burning.’ Desai, 27, investigated over 5 lakh entries of cellphone calls in two compact discs to write one of the most chilling post-riot stories in Gujarat. The two CDs, which have...

Hindi dailies Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar have retained the top two slots among the urban and rural markets in India as per the IRS 2005 Round 1 reports. Dainik Jagran had the maximum growth at 6.03 per cent with an addition of 10.71 lakh readers. In terms of absolute numbers, Dainik Jagran's readership now stands at 1.75 crores. The number two publication Dainik Bhaskar grew by 2.89 per cent...

In a stunning upset, India's voters surprised the media and the world by rejecting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalism in favor of the secular Indian National Congress party in general elections in May. However, despite the general disavowal of extremism at the polls, ethnic and religious tensions persisted in the world's largest democracy, posing onerous threats to...

The International Federation of Journalists condemns the termination of services of 362 permanent employees of the Hindustan Times in Delhi and supports the Hindustan Times Employees Union struggle for the withdrawal of the arbitrary and illegal dismissal order of 3 October 2004. The IFJ takes a dim view of the employer´s tactics in justifying the termination of services on grounds of change in...

The K.K. Birla-promoted Hindustan Times has terminated the services of 362 printing press workers. The workers, who were given the marching orders on October 3, have moved the Delhi High Court against the decision. Hindustan Times has paid a compensation of nearly Rs 7 crore to these workers, according to a company official. The workers had been resisting their transfer from Hindustan Times Ltd to...

The sheer flood of news channels on Indian television prompts one to speculate whether there is scope for any more players in the news broadcast space. Popular news anchor and broadcaster Rajat Sharma, who recently threw his hat into the ring by launching news channel India TV, thinks there is. "Though there is no space for just another news channel, there is certainly a market for a responsible...

A group of eight Indian newspapers are participating in an 18-month project aimed at creating common printing standards among them. Ifra, the worldwide publishers’ association, is conducting the project. The goal is to help the newspapers in India improve their color quality while harmonizing their printing profiles, which are what the page designers use to tell the printers what to print. The...

A color management seminar is scheduled for September 16 in Bangalore, India, a day before the main conference of Ifra India 2003. Ifra, an international association for media publishing, has scheduled its 11th annual conference, Infra India 2003, on September 17 to 18 in Bangalore. The pre-conference seminar on Color Management Systems is aimed at providing a comprehensive view of the current...