The Sunday Indian A Weekly in 14 Languages – A Unique One From the Capital CIty of India

A Review on a unique weekly called “The Sunday Indian”

The Sunday Indian. A Weekly in 14 Languages By the publication of 14 different languages, this media group obtained a distinctive position of the world’s first publication comes out every week in 14 different languages.

 

Content.

• A UNIQUE WEEKLY FROM INDIA’S CAPITAL
• TSI’S EDITORIAL A MUCH TALKED ABOUT SUBJECT IN INDIAN MEDIA
• TSI’S READERS ARE LEADERS HERE
• HISTORY MAIL
• EXCLUSIVE REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS
• YouTube Video Arindam Addressing a gathering
• YouTube Video Arindam Chaudhary on Education,Business
• Post Script:- A Prize Winning Letter

The Sunday Indian newsweekly. A unique one in its splendor. A weekly stand apart from its counterparts in its vision and style of reporting. An Arindam Choudhury (An IIPM Professor and a Management Guru) initiative started this weekly on 2nd October 2006 with five language editions-English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Gujarati. Just after completing one year of publication the group launched out 8 more Indian language editions. The weekly is now available in 14 languages, Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri  Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi,  Oriya#, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and English. By the publication of 14 different languages, this media group obtained a distinctive position of the world’s first publication comes out every week in 14 different languages.

I have been a regular reader of The Sunday Indian ( TSI) since its inception. Also, a regular contributor to (in English and Malayalam) its letters to the editor column-they call it “DEAR EDITOR”. Apart from the editorial, the in-depth columns like ‘Musings’ by its Economic Affairs editor Prasoon Majumdar, ‘Typos’ column by the Features Editor Prashanto Banerji and cover features are gems that keep them above all its counterparts. The style of editing and telling the story in the bare minimum space is worth mentioning. In this busy world, this is the kind of coverage that readers generally opt for.

Every week three prominent personalities will write on the present political, social economic and environmental issues.  Thomas Friedman, Economist and New York Times Columnist is a regular columnist for this weekly,  Its last page called ‘Rear Window’ is devoted to deal with the current burning affairs on politics education etc.. prominent politicians, celebrities, and educationists deal this page every week.  Other worth mentioning pages are  Far Pavilions,  Indian Echoes,  Lifestyle, Special Feature, Special Report, Typos, Undercover.  Altogether reading this weekly is no doubt will be a lovely experience and an enjoyable reading.

It’s editor A Sandeep deserves a special pat for its developments.  TSI has achieved a lot in the field of Indian journalism in a short span of time.

TSI’S EDITORIAL A MUCH TALKED ABOUT SUBJECT IN INDIAN MEDIA

Another important edits headline on Indian democracy and politics, read, “To make India Democratic & Politics De-criminalized, Allow Election Voting Through SMS”. This is one of the editorials which received tremendous responses from the readers. The reader’s reaction to this piece continued in the following two or three issues. Apart from the usual letter page, they published a four-page column of letters from the readers.

Read here few more editorial written on Indian politics:

While launching out the new 8 editions he wrote in its editorial.

“The big issue about this expansion is not the satisfaction with the numbers, in case you are mistaken. I have no fascination with extra editions just for the heck of being different. When we started Business & Economy, we wanted to pick up issues of burning importance, which are marginalized and ignored by mainstream media; issues like the dysfunctional judiciary of India, issues relating to human development in India, issues like the true extent of poverty in India (talking about which is boring and none glamorous in today’s media). We wanted to take such issues to the masses in a sharp and incisive manner with pertinent solutions… solutions being our forte, thanks to the intellectual bent of our core group due to its academic association with The Indian Institute of Planning and Management and its Think Tank. As we succeeded in doing that, we also realized that it would be a far bigger challenge to take the same issues in a more easy-to-understand manner to the general masses, instead of just to the Economist reading business community.

The challenge always is in de-intellectualizing matters of public concern and taking them to the public and making them realize the truth in a manner that they feel compelled and motivated to become a part of the process of change themselves. That’s why we started The Sunday Indian and it’s the same reason we are now in 13 different editions – because we want to reach out to all Indians, regardless of their education, language, caste or level of income. We believe every Indian has the right to a new way of thinking. And that is our mission!”. www.thesundayindian.com Editorial head- Lucky 13! It’s never happened before in the world of global media ” [24/06/2007]

Over the months they carried out this vision through their weekly editions, and they stick to their words by reducing its price to a minimum of Rs.10. which is very much affordable to an average Indian reader. By keeping the minimum price rate they fulfilled the vision reaching out to all level of people in spite of their level of income.

THE SUNDAY INDIAN READERS ARE LEADERS 

Another important thing to say about this unique publication is that they respect its reader’s views and gives them a prominent place in its pages and three pages are allotted to the readers to air their views. Generally, publications give one or maximum two pages to its readers. In most publications, this space will be given after the editorial, and some keep them into the last page or some other corner of the publication, but here in this weekly, we can notice a special thing that the readers are given the first priority and are given them the first place.

There is a general tendency in journalism, especially in the print media that the editors always take the First seat (or the Mukhyasanam)–or the prominent place and give the readers a second seat (or the ardhasanam (A Half Seat).  This weekly is an exception to this general norm in the press.  Here the chief editor took an initiative to be in the second seat, or after the readers, that is his editorials comes only after the reader’s letters (opinion) page.
But there are still miles to go. They must rethink and give some more space to its readers to air their view in a little more elaborate way. By shifting the “history mail” to some other page, that space can accommodate some more reader views. Also, the size of the cartoon strip should be increased to a minimum of one-fourth of the page as the writings in the strips are very difficult to read and sometimes I need to use a magnifying glass.

PRIZE MONEY FOR READERS 

One more encouraging thing to note in connection with the readers is that every week the weekly offer a prize money of Rs. 3,000.00 to its three readers.

They offer this prize money to three best letters of the week.

This is continuing since its inception.

I am a five-time recipient of this honor.  You can read some of such letters here in this link.   My Writeups in Weeklies and News Papers

This is an encouraging trend towards the readers by the weekly. Unfortunately, many of its counterparts lag behind in such encouragements to its readers, of course, there are few exceptions to this some of them are started encouraging its readers by offering some kind of gifts to their readers.

The Sunday Indian History Mail

Here is an example to this from the current edition of the weekly: Another interesting thing is that every week they publish a special column with a special format and font; this is called “History mail. :

“English journalist, novelist, and critic, perhaps best-known for her reports on the Nuremberg trials, Rebecca West started her career as a columnist for the suffragist weekly the Freewoman in the 1910s. Kenneth Tynan described her in 1954 as “the best journalist alive”. The following letter was written to Allen W. Dulles, an American diplomat and author of several books on foreign affairs. He was an early head of the Central Intelligence Agency (1953–1961). West’s mixed review of his “bland” book The Craft of Intelligence is being discussed here.” Read More here

Here are few suggestions to the editors: 

To make this newsweekly little more home friendly, they must include one or two pages for women and children and their participation in the weekly, then it will be a perfect home friendly magazine. While writing this I am not forgetting the fact that it’s a news magazine. Also, I am not forgetting the special editions comes out every now and then with more pages and articles for everyone. TSI has already published many such special issues.  Here are few links on such special issues, one on FAMILY.  And another noted special issue is on Indian history: 100 Most controversial Indians in the last 100years.  An interesting issue on Indian politicians and others the most controversial ones, this includes many famous personalities of India.  They include Rebels & Renegades, Social Engineers, Lightning Rods, Manipulators, Mavericks, Trail Blazers and much more. This issue is a collector’s item and an interesting history of past India.

Yet another noted special issue is on India’s transformation in sixty years.  This issue carried yet another thrilling history of India and its leaders under the title “60 Moments of Change”  A The Sunday Indian exclusive on 60 anniversaries that changed India! This too is no doubt a collector’s item.But there are still miles to go. The Publisher/editors must rethink and give some more space to its readers to air their views in a little more elaborate way, if not by shifting the “history mail” to some other page that space can accommodate some more readers’ views. Also, the size of the cartoon strip should be increased to a minimum of one fourth of the page as the writings in the strips are very difficult to read and sometimes one needs to use a magnifying glass.

EXCLUSIVE REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS

In short, The Sunday Indian Weekly has achieved a lot in the field of journalism in a very short span of time., Especially in the field of investigative reporting.   The TSI team brought out a number of ugly faces of the corrupt politicians and many Scamsters to the general public.  The latest in this category is the one on the media itself. Read and watch an exclusive video the TSI team captured  Also read the editorial B-School Ranking Scamsters Exposed!

Few more words about Its Chief Editor, Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri: A well-known economist & management guru., an eminent author, an authoritative speaker a transformational leader and an entrepreneur. who runs the prestigious Institute called, Indian Institute of Planning & Management, and Planman media  Read more Here.