The newspaper has been one of eh most common sources of information and communication in India. More than 40% of Indians above 21 years of age read the daily newspaper. There are several newspapers printed in English, Hindi, and many regional languages. Print media and its popularity is expected to increase even more in today’s times. The readership of English newspapers is also on the upward trend. Besides providing readers with information, the magazine also provides them with relevant knowledge regarding entertainment, lifestyle, finance, health, etc. India has grown significantly and is now the second-largest market for newspapers in the world, selling more than 100 million copies every day.
Assam Tribune is one of the pioneer newspapers of the northeast. It is the most popular English newspaper in the Northeast which cover Guwahati, Norheast, National, International and Silchar Local news. It is serving the nation with authentic NEWS for the past 68 years. Its head office is based in Guwahati and Dibrugarh, Assam. This newspaper has a readership of more than 3 million with 70000 current circulating copies. On 4th August 1939, Radha Govinda Baruah was in the editorship of Laxminath Phookan. There are many controversies related to The Assam Tribune as well. On 28th March 2021, right after the day of the first phase of polling for the 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election, the newspaper ran a front-page ad claiming the BJP would win all the Upper Assam constituencies along with seven other newspapers. The Congress party spoke against it and claimed the ad is used to manipulate people and to influence and deceive voters further. A violation of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and Election Commission of India’s directives. In this article, we will enlist and review the Best Alternatives for the English daily newspaper that is published in Assam.
Alternatives to Assam Tribune
- The Telegraph
The Telegraph is a prominent and heritage newspaper distributed all over the country, published from Kolkata in West Bengal. It was first started on 7 July 1982. It is published by the ABP group and is the eighth most-read English in India. Edwin Taylor from London’s Sunday times designed and edited it. It has been in Kolkata for the last 31 years. It is the eighth largest circulated English newspaper circulating in India that is published in Kolkata.
Like all modern news papers evidence of slant has been found in this paper as well. According to a report published, analyzing a variety of English language news papers published in India, it was found that during the 2014 General Elections, the reporting of the Telegraph was found less critical of the Indian National Congress and less aligned in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party when compared to their rivals like the Hindustan Times and the Times of India.
- The North East times:
With 113 thousand copies in publication daily and distributed throughout the north-east, this paper has been a prominent name in the region. It is also an English language newspaper and has been in circulation since October 2nd of 1990. The founder of this newspaper is G.L. Agrwalla and the publisher is G.L. Publication Ltd. The editor is Khiren Roy. With a readership of over 11k copies daily it is one of the most prominent newspapers in the whole of north east India. As such it has become of the most sought after destinations for print media advertising in the region.
- The Sentinel:
Known for its authentic news and reporting of Indian democracy and government. It is published in Guwahati, India, and has 4 editions for Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Shillong, and Itanagar. The major impact of the English language paper has been in championing the voices in the north eastern states like Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. With a daily circulation of over 30k in print and more online, it is a powerhouse media institution in the region. The Sentinel, along with its various siter publications, are the largest publishing house in the region.
- The Hindu
Started as a weekly newspaper, The Hindu is one of the most useful English newspapers for UPSC preparation. It is owned by the Hindu Group and started daily publication in 1889. The Hindu is present not just in the northeast but all over India. It is the second market leader in English newspapers after times of INDIA. It publishes across 21 locations in Pan India. It is around 142 years old newspaper. It is known for its wide circulation of around 1416 thousand copies a day.
- Eastern Chronicle:
Eastern Chronicle is truly a Northeastern Newspaper in Silchar. It was founded in 2009 as the English language sister publication to the Dainik Jugasankha, one of the largest Bengali language papers in the country. It has become, over time, a top-level English daily. It first started its publication in Silchar and Guwahati. It is now based in Shillong and New Delhi as well. Eastern Chronicle also has the reputation as a pioneer in the region, being the first English language newspaper to be published from the capital city of Gauhati. Being, through and through, a product of the region, it has immense connect with its readership and has been a trusted name in the region for quite some time. It is also one of the very few reliable newspapers that consistently cover the entirety of the north eastern part of the country.
06. G plus
It is published in Guwahati, India. It is a tabloid English language newspaper. G plus is published weekly. It is also known as Guwahati Plus and is published every weekend. It is known to know the pulse of the area and keeps the English reading population informed and entertained. The English Weekly of Guwahati, G Plus, aims to provide the city’s exclusive needs through Print and Digital media. Using insightful stories and features, G plus brings Guwahati and its unique aura to life, making reading always an enjoyable experience. ‘G Plus’ offers readers a local perspective while presenting a global perspective on stories in the Guwahati context. Readers can keep up to date with the stories in the Guwahati context while getting a local viewpoint in ‘G Plus’
- Indian express
Indian Express was first founded before independence in 1932, It is one of the oldest English Indian Newspapers. It is based in Mumbai, Maharastra. Now known as New Indian Express the paper had changed the design and editorial style better. A newspaper that has scaled down its operations has been competing for top readership recently, but recently held top honors. India’s Indian Express is currently printed from 22 cities including Assam. A reader can also obtain insurance benefits through this newspaper because it was one of the first in the country to do so. The magazine ranked third in the Indian Readership Survey in 2014, even though it was among the top three English publications.
- The Pioneer
A heritage, broadsheet type publication, the Pioneer has been a known entity for over two centuries no. It presence in the Indian subcontinent was brought about by its founder, James Augustus Hicky. The initial intent of the publication had been to counter the growing nuisance of information dissemination through the metropolis of Calcutta through the use of peons and hand bills only. Currently, this paper is distributed daily. It is a Broadsheet format. The paper is owned by joint ownership of Sanchar Holdings and Rainbow Production and Starlink Group of Chennai. The publisher of this newspaper is CMYK Printech Ltd in the editorship of Chandan Mitra. It is available in both English and Hindi Language and it is now a leading daily newspaper.
- Deccan herald
Another important newspaper with a pan national appeal and a significant readership among the urban population is the Deccan Herald. It is an English language news paper that is published from Karnataka but has several different editions from various other towns and cities. It has seven different editions from Bengaluru, Hubballi, Davanagere, Hosapete, Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Kalaburagi. Lanched in, 1948, it is a broadsheet format Newspaper. Its founder is, K. N. Guruswamy. It is a 73-year-old newspaper with independent political alignment and 160 news writing staff.
- DailyExcelsior
It was founded 56 years ago in 1965. It is available in both printed and online format. It is a Jammu-based Newspaper. The founder of the daily is S.D. Rohmetra and is published by Excelsior under the editorship of Kamal Rohmetra and Neeraj Rohmetra. The paper has a wide readership pan India with a circulation of 375000 copies daily.
- Afternoon Voice
One of the youngest voices in the list here, Afternoon voice is a English language newspaper and digital web portal that is published from Mumbai, Maharashtra. Irrespective of the region, the digital space has turned out to be a great equalizer and readership for the paper has in some cases tackled those of the more established names as well. The news paper, established in 2009, was then launched and inaugurated by the then Union Minister Prakash Javedkar along with the former Commissioner of Police Dhanushkodi Sivanandan and the former Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai, R.A. Rajeev. The founder and editor in chief for the newspaper was Mr. Vaidehi Taman.
- The Asian Age
Founded in Feb 1994, around 27 years ago, the founder of this paper is M.J. Akbar. It is on print as well as a digital media platform. It is published by Deccan chronicle holdings limited Its editor-in-chief is Aditya Sinha and the editor is Aditya Singh. It has central political alignment Its sister newspaper is Deccan Chronicle. The circulation copies are 1000000 copies daily. It is published in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata.
- Business standard
Owned by the Business Standard Private Limited, the Business Standard has been a prominent English language newspaper. It was founded in the year 1975. The paper is published in Hindi language as well giving it a much broader appeal. The key areas where the reporting of the paper excels include, international business and trade, corporate governance, Indian economy, infrastructure, stock and currency markets along with several other topics related to the financial market. It has distributorship across the nation in over 1000 towns and cities with 12 different editions being published daily. One of the editions is published from Kolkata as well.
For a lot of years, the paper remained as the second best business publication in the country, in terms of the total number of papers in circulation. That was in 2017. Its rank fell slightly after that but has managed to bounce back to some extent. By January 2019, it had been adjudged by the Indian Readership Survey as the “fourth largest financial news daily” nationally. It had a reported average issue readership of 1,07,000 copies. It has managed to recover some lost groud though with over 1,89,000 copies in circulation daily by January of 2020.
- The Economic Times
It is a business news-focused newspaper. Readers who have an interest in economic and business activities can enjoy reading it. It is a Times group publication. It was started in 1961. It is the second-largest paper in terms of readership of over 800000. It is published from 14 cities PAN India. The major locations include Mumbai, Banglore, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur. It is published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. It’s a Broadsheet format paper. Its sister publication is The Times of India. It has around 3,60,000 publications daily. Over the years, ever since its inception, it has remained as one of the top most financial dailies in the country with one of the largest readerships for any English language paper in the country.
- Hindustan Times
Founded in 1924, this is an English Language daily newspaper. The founder of the publication was Shri Sunder Singh Lyallpuri who also went on to found the Shiromani Akali Dal in the pre-independent Punjab province of India. The paper has a unique pedigree given its contributions in the colonial India as a propagator of the Indian independence movement. The paper initiated as a nationalist daily in the pre independence era, and has been able to grow itself to the point of being the crown jewel for the HT Media group, which is an entity controlled by the Birla family.
It has remained for quite some time now, one of the largest newspapers in the country, in terms of readership. It circulates over 990 thousand copies daily. Although mainly focused in the north of India, its digital presence can be felt across the nations with regularly increasing readership online.
- The Statesman
Founded in 1875, is a broadsheet-style daily English Newspaper. It is published in four locations in India including Kolkata and Siliguri. A publication of Kolkata, West Bengal, the Statesman is an entity owned by the Statesmen Ltd. The Statesmen Ltd. is headquartered in Kolkata at the Statesmen House in Chworinghee Square. It also has a national editorial office in New Delhi. The publication is also a part and member of the Asia News Network. In the West Bengal and the North East, it is a leading newspaper. Nationally, it boasts of a 1.5 lac week day circulation and a 2.3 lac weekend circulation.
Ideologically, understood to be on the right of center, it maintains a terse style of reporting. Further, it also has an extensive repertoire in terms of the Asia news as well as a result of the founding membership of the ANN. The ANN is a group of 22 newspapers from across the continent that have agreed on daily news sharing and exchange programs.
- The Times of India
The times of India are present on both daily newspaper print media and digital platforms. It is managed by the time’s group. It is a daily newspaper. It is one of the authoritative newspapers in India. It was founded in 1838, around 180 years ago. It has a daily circulation of 2,880,144 daily.
By circulation, the TOI remains the third largest newspaper publication in the country while being the largest English language news paper not only in the country but in the world, in terms of total readership. Even in India, the news paper has a rich heritage, being the oldest English language newspaper of the country and the second oldest paper in the country to be in circulation still. The TOI is also among the most trusted names in news in the country. According to the Brand Trust Report India, it came out as the most trusted English daily in the country while the brand was rated the most trusted brand in the news industry.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned newspaper is the most renowned name in North East Print Media. These are the household names in the newspaper industry. The industry has very high competition. Apart from Assam Tribune, these are the English daily newspapers that can give the mass the information, knowledge, and entertainment they expect from it. In addition, there are some firms whose concise writing style and concise nature also make them industry leaders. The country’s top newspapers are, however, dominated by newspapers in English.
Even after digitalization and e-newspaper, people in India prefer print medium when it comes to daily newspaper reading. However, the mass prefers local or regional newspaper editions to get a better understanding and updated news about their surroundings.