The Indian Express
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The Indian Express is an Indian newspaper owned by Ramnath Goenka. It was started in 1931 by Chennai based Veradharajulu Naidu. After his death the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old Indian Express name was retained in the northern editions based in Mumbai with a prefix "The". It is published in all major Indian cities.
The Indian Express is owned by the Indian Express Group, which also owns other newspapers in India such as the Financial Express, a newspaper focused on the Indian economy, stock markets, and fiscal policies. The group has other publications such as Screen weekly, the Marathi-language daily Loksatta, and the Hindi daily Jansatta.
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[edit] Business Publications Division
It also runs the Business Publication Division, which publishes and prints out of its headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai a series of B2B magazines such as Express Computer, Express TravelWorld (formerly called Travel and Tourism), Express Pharma (formerly Express Pharma Pulse), Express Hospitality (formerly Express Hotelier & Caterer), the IT-focussed Network Magazine and Express Healthcare Management.
Business Publications Division (BPD) has also ventured into organising events and exhibitions such as Express World, held in 2005 in Mumbai. The event had a mix of hospitality, travel and healthcare. BPD also conducts events on IT and organises exhibitions for other parties. In September 2006, BPD's Express TravelWorld organised the exhibition for Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) 55th annual convention in Hyderabad.
The Screen Awards, initiated by Ananya Goenka, is focussed on film in India. It attempts to position itself as India's first award that is given by the film fraternity to the film fraternity by way of a Jury, as opposed to the other "popular" awards such as Filmfare and Zee Cine Awards.
[edit] History of the group
Indian Express was started by an Auyurvedic doctor and congressman, Varadarajulu Naidu in 1932 at Chennai (then Madras) published by his “Tamil Nadu” press. But soon under financial difficulties he sold it to S.Sadanand, founder of the Free Press Journal, a national news agency.
In 1933 Express opened its second office in Madurai and launched the Tamil edition Dinamani. Sadanand after introducing several innovations and reducing the price, later under financial difficulties was forced to sell some stake in form of convertible debentures to Ramanath Goenka (RNG). Later when the free press journal collapsed in 1935 Sadanand lost the ownership of Indian Express after a long controversial Court battle with RNG, where blows were exchanged between some of the partisans. Finally a year later RNG managed to buy rest of the 26% stake from Sadanand, and the Paper became under RNG control who took the already anti-incumbent tone of the paper to dizzying heights. Also at that time it had to face stiff competition from a well established THE HINDU and the MAIL and several other newspapers by prominent personalities. In late 30’s the circulation was no more than 2000.
In 1939 it also bought out Andhra Prabha, another prominent Telugu Daily. Later it gained the name three musketeers for the three dailies. In 1940 the whole premises were gutted by fire. The Hindu, its rival, helped considerably in re-launching the paper, by getting it printed temporarily at one of its Swadesimithran’s press and later offering its recently vacated premises at 2, Mount Road later to become the landmark Express Estates. This relocation also helped Express gain better high speed printing machines, while some claimed the Goenka had deliberately set fire to escape some financial embarrassments.
In later years Goenka started the Mumbai edition with the landmark Express Towers as his office when the Morning Standard was brought by him in 1944, two years later to become the Mumbai edition of INDIAN EXPRESS; also later editions were started in several cities like 1957 the Madurai edition, 1965 Bangalore, 1968 Ahmedabad. And also launching Financial Express in 1961 from Mumbai, Kannada Prabha (Kannada Daily) from Bangalore in 1965 and a Bangalore edition of the Telugu Daily Andhra Prabha, and Gujarati dailies Lok Satta and Jansatta in 1952, from Ahmedabad and Baroda.
The Delhi edition was when the Tej group's Indian News Chronicle in 1951, which from 1953 became the Delhi edition of Indian Express, after being. In 1990 it bought the Sterling group of Magazines; along with it, came the Gentleman magazine.
Later after Ramanath Goenka’s demise in 1991, two of the family members split the group into Indian Express Mumbai with all the North Indian editions, while the Southern editions were grouped as Express Madurai Ltd. with Chennai as headquarters.
[edit] Goenka's legacy
Goenka is revered by his fans for his journalistic crusades to uphold democracy, and as a tireless soldier who fought corruption in the highest circles.
Leftist columnist Praful Bidwai argues in a critique of the far-right Hindutva ideology that "(t)he Jana Sanghis (the political part which Hindutva was earlier involved had managed) piggybacking on ...media magnates like The Indian Express's Ram Nath Goenka."
The Indian Express purports to emulate the highest standards of journalism as set by Goenka, and expresses its pride through its motto: Journalism of Courage. It is seen as being soft on the present government by its critics, but at the same time it has been persistent in crusading against the Left members of Parliament on which India's current Congress-led government depends. The paper's editorial line is liberal, in both politics and economics, earning it the displeasure of those with vested political interests or in disagreement with its ideology.
[edit] Determined staff, changing policies
On its staff some of the country's most determined reporters and editors. Its investigative reports have led to changes in several areas. Its coverage of the murder of an engineer working on the national highway project got the Indian Supreme Court to force the Indian Government to commit to a whistleblower law. Its campaign also helped bring about the Right to Information Act, passed in India in 2005.
Long considered probably the most intrepid newspaper, it is also regarded as a perfect launching pad for young journalists, especially reporters, for the sheer independence they are offered by the organization. Of late, however, marketing forces combined with some poor editors at some regional editions have been criticised for undermined the values the paper formerly stood for, such as unearthing skeletons from cupboard of the powerful. Instead, critics say, at times, sensationalism now seems to overshadow investigation.
[edit] Mumbai-headquartered, another at Madurai
The Express Group has a Mumbai-headquartered division, different from its Madurai division, which brings out a South Indian chain of newspapers, titled The New Indian Express. The Indian Express is in fact considered to be much less aiming at consumerist preferences when compared to its upmarket-targeted competitor The Times of India.
Despite its anti-glamor oriented approach to journalism, and unlike its competitors, the newspaper has now established itself as neutral and unbiased publication, even while standing as a tough anti-Establishment organisaiton.
[edit] Falling profits, then a hike
Falling profits between years 2000-2002 did not force the paper to bend the quality of its journalisim and its loyalty to its newspaper's "watchdog" role has withstood the test of time. Though sales are uncomparable to other national dailies, The Indian Express, along with The Hindu newspaper headquartered in South India are the more respected newspapers in India.
With the help of its esteemed "Express Towers" office building in Nariman Point, the organisaton has posted profits of Re 45 crore (Rs 450 million) in the 2004. This financial turnaround has been case study in India's highly regarded Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
The paper is handled by group CEO Shekhar Gupta.
