inext gets a new look

The bilingual daily has added four pages for its weekend editions across all 13 cities.

inext, the bilingual daily from the Dainik Jagran group that began operations in 2006, was re-launched with a new look on January 1. The daily's latest avatar has a new logo and a racy masthead.

Alok Sanwal, chief operating officer and editor, inext, says, "Times have changed and so too have the fundamentals of our core audience, that is, people in the age group of 18-35 years. They consume more news on different subjects such as Bollywood, celebrities, technology and social media. So, we have made changes accordingly, as today's reader drives the opinion in the media, unlike earlier. The black aerodynamic symbol in our logo reflects the dynamism of the youth."

Sanwal adds that the design team of inext has given the header of the tabloid a new look, like a widget. "Instead of five full columns, from now on, we will use 10 half columns for the editorial content," he explains.

The daily that is published from 13 cities will add four extra pages to on weekends of which two pages will be dedicated to gadgets and the other two will be the opinion pages, called Calling Pages. The Calling Pages will contain letters from readers. This makes inext a 20-page tabloid during weekdays and a 24-page tabloid on weekends.

The content will have updates about the latest mobile apps and job opportunities for young professionals. The tabloid has also reduced its colour palette from nine colours to two, restricting it to specific shades of green and orange. The news content will fall under the orange colour, while the non-news will be under green.

Sanwal says, "We have tried to find the reader patterns, time of interaction and other minute aspects of their behaviour. Today, news is micro-divided into many segments that need better packaging and format, so that it can be identified easily."

The cover price for the daily has been revised in nine cities by varying degrees.

The web avatar of inext, www.inextlive.com, will have a lighter version of the youth infotainment junction. Several new features have been introduced. Sanwal adds that most of the changes in the website have been with the placement and the prioritization of content, and an attempt has been made to make the city page more prominent.

Sanwal believes that social media plays a key role in connecting to its readers. "Engaging the young audience is not a virtue anymore, it is a need. Social media, being the catalyst, is also the key tool to cultivate and measure their reading habits, pattern and behaviour."

Jagran Prakashan's inext has editions in Dehradun, Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Patna, Meerut, Ranchi, Varanasi and Indore. It claims a readership of more than 2 million and has received several awards.