Readers woke up to a new and refreshed The Hindu on Friday morning, as the national newspaper was relaunched with a contemporary design.
With yellow panels on its front pages, the daily headquartered in Chennai announced its relaunch with an Editor’s note from Mukund Padmanabhan reading, “Today, we re-introduce The Hindu – refreshed, reinvigorated, revitalised. This is not merely a cosmetic change, but a substantive makeover in terms of content as well.”
Significantly, the paper will now circulate a single, comprehensive All-India edition of The Hindu in the north, with supplements such as Mumbai Local, Delhi Metro, carrying local content in the respective cities. The southern cities of Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad will see the MetroPlus carry a theme every day. While sports fans can look forward to two extra pages on Saturday, The Hindu on Sunday promises a substantive and relaxed read.
Emphasising the strength and relevance of print journalism in the face of the “unpredictable digital future”, Padmanabhan writes, “We have chosen to swim against the tide and strengthen our commitment to print, which we believe remains relevant and full of potential. From today, we bulk up by giving you more pages every week. We do this by increasing the number of base pages – dramatically on Sundays and fairly significantly on other days.”
The Hindu’s new look has been created by designer Aurobind Patel. Its masthead has returned to the classic black font from the previously blue, reflecting “a no-frills approach to design.”
“…We have taken a steadfastly content-driven approach. In other words, the design has been used to communicate content rather than compete with it for attention. The effort has been to marry the two seamlessly and produce a look that favours cleanliness over clutter, an easy elegance over exaggerated effect,” reads the Editor’s note.