HT Media refreshes its flagship Hindi brand; launches the all-new, digitally enhanced Hindustan

HT Media’s Hindi daily Hindustan Wednesday unveiled a new brand identity and launched with a new brand positioning, engaging editorial sections, and a host of digital navigators to enable a seamless journey from the newspaper to the website and mobile app for readers.

The refresh comes in as the 85-year-old Hindi daily’s reader base surges beyond 130 million Hindi readers across its print & digital platforms, positioning Hindustan amongst the top 3 multi-channel Hindi news brands in the country. (Source: Print: TR (Main) IRS Q4 2019 | Digital: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform Unique Visitors, Geo: India, Nov' 2021)

“As an instrument of change in the Hindi Heartland, at Hindustan, our endeavor has always been to understand the evolving news consumption habits of our audience, give them what they are seeking, and how they are seeking it. “Bharosa Naye Hindustan Ka” is a reaffirmation of our continued commitment to deliver credible and progressive journalism through this refreshed, digitally enhanced product to satiate the fast-paced, yet, in-depth media consumption habits of the millennials without alienating the older generation who are also fast adapting to the new ways of news consumption,” said Shashi Shekhar, Editor in Chief, Hindustan.

The demand for content in Hindi language on the internet is increasing at an exponential rate, a Google-KPMG report predicted that Hindi internet users would have outnumbered those accessing the web in English by 2021; fueling a never seen before transformation in the media landscape in Hindi Heartland.

Hindustan’s refreshed product portfolio is re-imagined with a digital-first approach enabling print and digital synergies to sync the platform’s offerings with the accelerated change in consumer habits.

To re-imagine the design elements across brand and product, the Hindustan team partnered with Mario Garcia, a stalwart in the media industry and a newsroom transformation expert with successful projects across The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post under his belt. On the design front, Hindustan’s new masthead is classic yet contemporary, evoking the legacy that the brand brings to its modern-day readers, the new Hindustan crest symbolizes the values of trust and credibility Hindustan has embodied since its inception in 1936.

The refreshed Hindustan product portfolio is replete with elements that offer seamless print to digital integrations, giving the readers more than what is available on just the print medium via QR Codes, social cards and photo galleries that direct the readers to Hindustan’s digital platforms to experience, engage and share the content. Destinations like ‘Pramukh Paanch’ and “30 seconds” have been created to give the pressed-for-time readers a quick snapshot of everything they need to know at a glance.

“Many of the refreshed Hindustan brand and product enhancements are in response to intensive research studies, user data, and feedback from our readers and partners. Our marketing, insights, and editorial teams have worked tirelessly over the last few months and have completely revamped the content architecture to offer credible news and meaningful content to each of our key reader cohorts like millennials, working professionals, women, and families. As an instance, the addition of destinations like “The Naya Hindustan” is a result of the growing preference for content around career, lifestyle, and health amongst the readers of Hindi Hindustan. We are extremely excited about this new offering and are certain that this will raise the bar for the news industry in our country,” said Samudra Bhattacharya, CEO – Print, HT Media Group.

“Hindustan offers an unparalleled integrated print reach of 50 million readers to our advertisers in the Hindi Heartland; that, combined with the addition of close to 80 million LiveHindustan.com visitors provides them with all-India access to Hindi Speakers. This Hindi belt is also the new epicenter of India’s rapidly growing consumption story, leading the growth and stealing a march away from the ‘saturated’ metro cities, making it imperative for marketers to address these consumers. Hindi Heartland has always been the center of culture, transformation, and discourse on the matters of national importance, and in its revamped avatar, Hindustan is committed to scaling up its key thought leadership and education focused platforms like Shikhar Samagam, Purvoday, Olympiad, and many more, engaging our readers and partners,” said Rajeev Beotra, Executive Director, Revenue, Advertising and Distribution, HT Media Group.

Hindustan partnered with Dentsu Aegis Network to work on the print and digital communication campaign of the relaunch. The campaign is themed around “Naya Hindustan padh bhi raha hoon, dekh bhi raha hoon” and showcases the various dimensions of the new India.

Click here to watch Bharosa Naye Hindustan Ka launch films.

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