The Hindu Business Line : <I>The Hindu </I>rolls out with new look

THE Hindu sports a new look from Thursday. A design whose purpose, in the words of the paper's Editor-in-Chief, Mr N. Ram, is to offer a "more contemporary, elegant and functional newspaper".

Addressing a large gathering of some of its committed readers, advertisers and who's who of Chennai this evening, Mr Ram said the redesign — piloted by Dr Mario Garcia and his team from Garcia Media, which has designed more than 450 newspapers round the world — gave pre-eminence to text, but also by enabling photographs, graphics and white space to have an enhanced role on the pages.

The redesigned newspaper offered readers more legible typography, an efficient indexing or "navigation" system, a clear hierarchy of stories, a new and sophisticated colour palette; and provided advertisers better value and new opportunities.

Mr Ram pointed out that 126-year-old The Hindu had continually sought to be classic, yet contemporary; contemporary, yet classic.

According to Dr Garcia, The Hindu's new design is all about purity and functionalism of design at work: the typography is based on two main fonts, Interstate and Chronicle, which render an elegance and clarity to the product. The colour palette mixes soft pastel colours to go with the content of a newspaper for which credibility, sobriety and intelligent reporting are the key. Overall, pure design implies no decorations, no artificial motifs, everything that is utilised has a purpose.

As far as advertisers are concerned, a regulated editorial colour palette, the systematic use of white space and a typography limited to two fonts will allow for the variety of advertising shades, types and colours to become more visually exciting. Also, the innovative use of silent advertisements and other creative utilisations of publicity will help get the advertiser's message across.

Redesigning The Hindu, according to Dr Garcia, presented challenges as one was dealing with a newspaper with so much history. The challenge also was to make the paper interesting to readers who were changing. Mr N. Murali, Joint Managing Director, The Hindu group, said the media landscape in India had witnessed far-reaching changes over the last 10 years with the explosion of print and non-print media alike resulting in ever intensifying competition. A major challenge for a newspaper like The Hindu in the future would be to continuously and successfully balance the two seemingly conflicting objectives of the practice of serious journalism as part of the larger purpose and role in a democracy and the commercial aspects of sustaining a viable and profitable undertaking. He said the paper was alive to the winds of competition that were blowing across Chennai, "our stronghold."

"But with our sound fundamentals and the continuous improvements like the current re-design that have become our hallmark, we are confident of not only meeting any major challenges but also converting them into opportunities."

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