The Hindu : Front Page : New look, new chords of a symphony

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 14, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

New look, new chords of a symphony

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI: A large hall, its walls lined with straw mats on which hung elegant strings of jasmine, green leaves, lotus buds, white space mingled with colour in a perfect grid. In the room, where history was being created with the launch of the new look The Hindu, form matched content — perfectly.

As N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, was to say later, describing the newspaper, there was "nothing excessive, artificial, stretched out."

Late evening, slowly turning into night, saw the who's who of Chennai arriving at the party. They made their way through the corridor, drinking in the history of the evolution of The Hindu, illustrated in an exhibition. Perhaps curious about how it will look tomorrow.

This curiosity was only compounded as Mr. Ram and the architect of the new design, Dr. Mario Garcia of Garcia Media, elaborated on the key factors that characterise the new paper, with the invitees getting keen on welcoming the morrow and with it, a trendy new The Hindu. Thanks largely to his style of presentation that converted technical design concepts that became points almost every member in the audience could relate to. Especially for those who had run through the `front page' images captured in the exhibition and sat through the audio-visual presentation, history had moved on to the future.

The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, was present to wish The Hindu in its new venture. Among the audience were leaders of industry, top bankers, physicians, senior officials, academicians, sportspersons, lawyers, diplomats and artistes. Amid them was a large gathering of those who represented The Hindu's readers, business interests and advertisers. People who came from different walks of life, yet with a single thread running among them, as India's national newspaper brought them together in the season of new years.

"A newspaper is like a symphony," Dr. Garcia had said. The night was an occasion for The Hindu family to invite its readers to listen to the new chords of this symphony: classical, yet contemporary.

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