Not a review about a new newspaper :P Rather, a reflection on pathetic state of degradation of one of most reputed newspapers in india, The New Indian Express!
I have been an Express loyalist due to hardhitting, no nonsense stories, minus ads and titillating pics of almost naked babes plastered allover in colour :P I had briefly subscribed to TOI-let ;) paper when they launched their bangalore edition six years ago. Times lowered their price to unbelievable 1 buck! and later to 1.50 bucks, plus they had 6 or 4 page City specific seperate add on supplement with the main newspaper. Most of their paper was in colour.
The subscription to TOI-let paper didn't last coz they lived up to their nick name of TOI-let paper! What i found was shit loads of ads plastered all over the main paper, Editiorials were a joke and heavily Pro congress, Pseudosecular and Anti BJP/Majority/Hindu in nature. The city specific supplement "Bangalore Times" was plastered with pictures of semi nude females and PAGE 3 culture was cultivated with Page 3 of Bangalore Times showing the "happening" parties and Page 3 celebs and gossips. I got sick and tired of TOI-let paper's glorification of non entities and their motto of publicising morons who were nobody or irrelevant to bangalore. Who the fuck cares which party took place where, which bitch wore what, with whom she flirted with, with whom she arrived with or who slept with whom! TOI-let paper turned out to be a glorified soft porn paper, rather an extention of filmi magazines and lifestyle magazines.
I switched back to Indian Express happily and found solace in their "to the point" stories and non existant ads. The city specific supplement "City Express" was informative and carried truely relevant stories. Thankfully Page 3 culture was not encouraged and whole paper was full of what a newspaper should have, only news and facts, Editorials were neutral and very much mature and not biased. Their scoop news and investigating news were a treat, Express broke so many new stories, carried out sting operations and sometimes ran 1 week series of articles of various burning issues of the nation.
Slowly, they transformed in to "The New Indian Express" I found no change in their content, more welcome additions like better fonts, new layout for columns and bonus supplements on fridays and wednesdays were included. I was happy and life was peaceful for all these years, until i saw Ads in hoardings and also in Express by fag end of march and beginning of April, stating that From April 11th 2008, Express will reinvent itself. I thought, like the earlier facelift, this might be loaded with add ons, but finally when the D day came, i was saddened beyond belief! April 11th 2008, must be marked as the day, when Express lost it's dignity.
Their "new" version of Indian Express shocked me. The Masthead was altered beyond belief, they screwed the capital "I" in Indian word and "E" in Express word. "I" looked like "1" and "E" was looking like "e" (Microsoft's Internet Explorer "e")
More horror awaited me, the fonts were so fucking small, it was too hard to read the articles, the entire layout of express had gone for a toss, it looked more like a webpage than a newspaper! the grand finale was "Expresso"! No, not the coffee types :P Their "City Express" had got renamed to "Expresso". Worst thing was that the City edition was no longer in conventional paper format, it was more like a mag format, shorter in size and many pages. Pages full of CRAP!
Am sure Ramnath Goenka will be turning in his grave, coz express finally managed to match up to TOI-let paper, They have Expresso PAGE 3 now! Page 3 parties, celebs, dumb fucks and bitches are all over the city edition and more specifically in Page 3 of expresso! Not to mention, all pages in Expresso are in colour and 70% of it is full of pics of semi nude chicks (Page 3 bitches, Bollywood bitches and hollywood bitches!) I was deeply disappointed by this so called "reincarnation"
Now, Express is nothing but a clone of TOI-let paper, heck, if i wanted such crappy softporn suppliements and Page3 world info, i would have bought TOI-let paper itself, why would i buy Indian Express? The very soul of Indian Express has been buried, Am sure old timers who have stuck with Express from decades will be disillusioned and feel let down, how can such a sensible and responsible National daily, which has gone through much shit earlier and with stood all kind of bullshit from so many decades, suddenly sink to the low levels of TOI-let paper? Am sure it must due to change of guard at the higher ups. Google baba gave me this link.
From that link, it is very clear that due to internal politics and back stabbing, a reputed national daily has been given an improper, untimely burial. I just hope that they stop degrading this paper and either revert back to old form with a public apology to their loyal oldtimer subscribers or stop publishing under Indian Express name! The whole "re incarnation" feels like an April fool joke gone too far.
The Various Incarnations before the demise:
Friday, April 25, 2008
Page3 Express!
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6 comments:
The NIE was losing circulation and was being pushed out of the market by DC, TOI, etc. There's no doubt in my mind that they had to modernise the layout and have more colour. However, in an attempt to appeal to 20-somethings with purchasing power, the paper has gone downmarket. High on glossy style and short on substance. You are right: it is a clone of TOI. They will alienate their traditional readers with the new layout in particular but perhaps they will achieve what they have set out to do: increase readership among younger elements and attract greater advertising revenue. In an attempt to survive in the cutthroat world of newspapers, the NIE has chosen to go downmarket. It's moved more towards the DC and TOI end of the market. When they released the "Indulge" magazine late last year, it was a sign of things to come. Indulge is glossy and stylish but the content is a joke... full of sexy babes and endless features on products and gadgets that have come onto the market.
I doubt it they will incrase their subscriber base by trying to play second fiddle to TOI-let paper. Coz TOI-let paper subscribers are content with the softporn supplements they get, why would they want to switched over the "buccha" softporn paper? :P
Express will end up loosing further ground, their old time subscribers will ditch it for marginally better papers like Deccan Herald or still dying Hindu.
TOI is a joke on the face of people who want to read news... Used to subscribe it, but then got suffocated by teh ads and page 3 bitches, so switched to the old faithful Hindu.
I too agree with you - the new incarnation of NIE was a shoker ot me - my landlord subscribes it, so i read it too at times, and when i saw the first 'new' copy, i thought it is just for a day.. now the paper looks more like a website...
Well, that's why i call TOI as TOI-let paper ;)
Yesterday's Express had a note from editor, they have changed back the fonts to old style after lot of bashings and complaints from regular readers, but the "reincarnated" masthead still remains. Expresso City Edition is reaching new lows, yesterday's main page of expresso carried a big pic of a ramp model's boobs being "touched" up with makeup brush by a make up artist! :P
Goenka will be hanging himself in his grave now! :P
Anyday I vouch for The Hindu.
These days the only newspaper which we can read for information and news is The Hindu. We should burn the entire TOI let paper. I hate TOI.
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