The Hindu in a new look… colour in its masthead, horizontal index with colour pics, overall lighter feel (visually)…
Classic, yet contemporary; contemporary, yet classic — that is what The Hindu has continually sought to be in the world of Indian and international newspapers.
Says designer Mario Garcia: the new design will make this newspaper “easy not only on the soul and the brain, but also on the eyes.”
(As an aside, a couple of questions I have been thinking about –
1. can any newspaper in India be truly called a national newspaper?
2. why do newspapers in the US, have their city of origin in their name – say, the Boston Globe, New York Times, for instance?)
There are very few ‘National’ newspapers in the US. USA Today is one of them, Wall Street Journal could be considered another. The ones that you mentioned are mostly specific to their metro regions. The big ones are the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and LA Times. These are read beyond their geographical regions.
In the San Francisco Bay Area (about 6 million popn), we have three big newspapers – San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and Oakland Tribune. Pretty much every town has ots own newspaper. This way it provides for more local content, different editorials and the like. But it could also explain why Americans in general betray a stunning lack of international affairs. Most US newspapers do not cover international news in depth and in fact do not even cover news in other US states very well.
Of course there are exceptions. New York Times and Washington Post have excellent international coverage, but the smaller ones cannot afford (or may be don’t care).
that is my point – the NY Times / Boston globe originated in those places but are read all over the US… and I agree, local-news heavy content is also what American readers expect from their newspapers and even American channels seem to do this – shaping the American ‘world view’ – which is confined to the readers’ town alone…
btw, do I know you, kartik – your blog / website?
NYT could be called the national newspaper of record as far as the US is concerned, even though it is NY centric. I would agree, however, that USA today is the only truly national newspaper. Wall Street Journal, with a circulation of about 2 million, could also be called a national newspaper. Christian Science Monitor is an example of a paper which does not have name of the city in its title. WaPo has made a concious decision to be a Washington DC area newspaper, unlike the NYT which has more comprehensive national coverage.