The Sangai Express completes 14 years : Looking forward with the past
- Sangai Express Editorial :: September 11, 2013 -
The Sangai Express completes 14 years today.
In the absence of any scientifically worked out theory on the life span of an entity like a newspaper house, it is difficult to say how far we have moved, calendrically, but yes we would like to believe that we have not remained stagnant.
We have evolved with the passage of time, in our bid to cater to the changing tastes and needs of our readers, subscribers, patrons and advertisers.
On September 10, 1999, Team Sangai Express went to work till early in the morning to ensure that the first edition of the paper hit the news stand on time the next day.
From a four paged, black and white newspaper today we are a 12 paged, multi-coloured newspaper.
In keeping pace with the changing times, we have also upgraded our web site, which draws over 10,000 visitors each day and over 500 comments from our readers each day again.
The Sangai Express joined Facebook in October 2012 and at the last count the number of ‘Likes’ stood at 17,600.
On the flip side, we would like to take this opportunity to inform our readers that so far we have not been able to appoint a moderator to minutely go through all the comments on our website and for this we will not hesitate to apologise.
Rest assured, efforts are being made to rope in an able and dedicated moderator to sieve the comments.
This we would like to believe is evolvement, an evolution of a product, which would not have been possible without the support and patronage of our readers.
At the risk of repeating what has been said at this occasion for the last 14 years, The Sangai Express came at that point of time when the print media in Manipur was ready for a changeover, technically, professionally and of course with a market ready to make the day’s paper a staple diet.
Today this has manifested in the culture, a culture where the morning cuppa tastes different without the day’s paper at hand. It has not been smooth sailing neither has it been a rough and rocky ride, during the last 14 years.
It has not always been hits, but misses too. Not only bouquets but also brickbats. Yet the fact that we have weathered all the storm these last 14 years should be more than indicative that we will continue to face the challenges of the time in the future too, with equal resilience.
Team work is the script that The Sangai Express follows to the T. There are no super stars in our establishment and yet at the same time all are stars in their own rights.
From the Editors (English and Manipuri editions) conducting the day’s paper, to the Sub-Editors (English and Manipuri), to the reporters out there in the field, to the district correspondents, to the advertisement section which supplies the oxygen of running the paper, to the DTP operators, to the technical staff, including those manning the printing machine, to the circulation section, to the management, to all our regular columnists and contributors, all are inextricably linked in the production process of the day’s paper.
A snap in any of the sections mentioned could derail the day’s paper. A question of collective responsibility, each dispensing with the duty assigned to them.
The day’s paper which greets our readers and subscribers every morning is a product of the joint efforts of all the sections mentioned. Yet this is not to say that we have scaled the pinnacles.
Far from it, there are more peaks to be scaled and it is with this vision that Team Sangai Express gets down to work every day, unfailingly.
Tiring, stressful, it certainly is, but at the end of the day, the sense of fulfilment, the sense of having done something creative and constructive is overwhelming.
An aspect which few professions can boast of and journalism, certainly at The Sangai Express, can be an awesome experience.
This is what has kept us going strong for the last 14 years and there is nothing to suggest that it would not be so in the next 28 years.
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