The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : The new <I>Frontline</I>: balancing the octaves

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 03, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

The new Frontline: balancing the octaves

Ramya Kannan

The new, handy magazine "seduced" loyalists all over again

DISTINGUISHED GATHERING: Some of the important guests at the relaunch of `Frontline' in a new design at a function in Chennai on Thursday. — Photo: N. Sridharan

CHENNAI: The new Frontline's attempt to "balance the octaves: the quiver, boom and bass" as chief guest West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi put it, seemed to have dulled the usual shrill of mobile phones that ring unfailingly at ever-so-solemn moments.

On Thursday evening at the ballroom of Hotel Taj Coromandel, no phones were heard at the re-launch function of Frontline, until Mr. Gandhi had completed his speech.

As if on cue, they began right after Mr. Gandhi's fiery speech, as if to applaud him in interrupted digital bursts.

In the large hall, seats filled up slowly yet steadily as loyalists of the magazine came, eager to see their favourite "progressive and critical fortnightly" morph into a more attractive, newsy, easily navigable colour version.

And they let that new, handy magazine "seduce them" all over again, as the man behind the re-design, Mario Garcia of Garcia Media, predicted it would.

An appealing black and white logo now with one dominant picture story and a `Tiffany window' embedded on top for better navigation were the changes readers got to see as they picked up fresh copies of Frontline outside the hall.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu group of publications assured the readers several times over that the magazine would indeed retain its substance, even as it changed its style.

Galaxy of guests

Among the galaxy of guests present to participate in the unveiling of the "exciting reinvention" of the magazine were S.P. Thyagarajan, Madras University Vice Chancellor, Douglas Devananda, Sri Lankan Minister, V. Shantha, chairperson, Cancer Institute, P. Murari, former Cabinet Secretary, R. Santhanam, Relief Commissioner, M. Krishnasswamy, TNCC president, members of the diplomatic corps, contributors to Frontline, industrialists, social scientists and writers.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail