Dear readers, advertisers & well-wishers, Yes, you read it right. Today is our birthday. As News Today completes 40 eventful years and steps into the 41st, we are aware that times, media and technology etc., have changed in these four decades. While we are equipping ourselves for the future, we are also aware that the one thing that has been constant is your support. And, this fuels us to travel more in this never-ending news journey, or News Today journey, with you as our trusted co-passenger.
All these years, despite seeing many ups and downs, News Today has always marched forward on the path of its father and doyen of Indian journalism T R Ramaswamy (TRR).
It is a commitment we owe our Founder-Editor TRR, whose zeal for public-spirited journalism and unremitting adherence to the greater common good continues to be our source of inspiration.
Above all, it is a fidelity we owe ourselves because of the pride that we have for the profession, which even in these times of media churn, has still a lot to offer to the public.
While existential issues stare at all forms of media all over the world of late, for us our very existence has been a challenge from Day 1. Particularly after Covid, at last small fishes are in the same league as the sharks who thought themselves unshakable. But we will still blow the trumpet and say our extinction, if it befalls us or the industry itself, was with distinction – the distinct factor being we were not supposed to last this long – something that TRR was always aware of and drilled into us.
Just as we see disruptions in media space on one side, on the obverse what is more than apparent is hope. Hope, as it were, is everywhere. And for everyone.
So we take it, in the echo of the words of Bharathi, ‘indru puthithai pirandhom’. We are starting anew. With a trusted companion (you) at hand, we are sure the journey ahead is going to be meaningful.
In these tough times for the media industry, ‘NT’ is sincerely exploring all opportunities to keep itself relevant as per the changing trends and move ahead by overcoming the hurdles on its way. It is our motto to make News Today, ‘New Today’ everyday.
In the first issue of the newspaper 7 December, 1982, TRR opened his editorial with the words, ‘We are here’.
Forty years later, I am proud to say: ‘We are still here’. Looking back with pride and looking forward with hope.
T R Jawahar, Editor & Publisher