Media in Goa - Languages

Languages

Widest read papers in Goa tend to be published currently in the English and Marathi languages, with the widely-spoken local language of Konkani presently have just a single daily newspaper, called Sunaparant. It also needs to be noted that Konkani-versus-Marathi linguistic battles have led to some rivalry between these two language camps. (As of 2006, there is also some friction between the users of the official Devanagiri script and the Roman, or Romi, script users of Konkani.)

English-language papers in Goa comprise the Navhind Times, published by the mining house of the Dempos since 1963 and currently (as of February 2006) edited by Arun Sinha, the former Portuguese-language daily now an English-language broadsheet called Herald or, more formally going by the name it is registered under, O Heraldo. This paper is owned by Fernandes Publications, a local group involved in printing enterprises that grew out of an earlier stationery shop. The third English-language daily publication is Gomantak Times, which changed hands recently from its earlier owners from the mining house of the Chowgules to the politically linked Pawar family, based in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra.

In February 2006, the editors of the Herald and Gomantak Times were Robin Abreu, a journalist earlier based in Mumbai and Sujay Gupta, who worked for The Telegraph of Kolkata and other newspapers.

The lone English-monthly is the Goa Today, edited by Vinayak Naik and owned by the Goa Publications, a firm controlled by the Salgaocars mining house. Other publications in the English-language include the Goa Messenger, Goan Observer, etc.

In the field of Marathi, some of the popular newspapers are the Tarun Bharat (which was earlier published from the neighbouring city of Belgaum but now has its presses in Porvorim); Also important newspaper is Daily Pudhari.(which was earlier published from the Karaswada Mapusa.) the Gomantak (a sister publication of the Gomantak Times, and much more influential in the past); Navprabha of the Navhind Times/Dempos group, and other publications which mostly come out with "Goa editions" published through presses and offices run from outside Goa.

One recent development was the launch of the Gova Doot.Another nearly three-decade old newspaper, the Marathi daily Rashtramath from the South Goa city of Margao suspended publications at the early part of this decade.A new HindiDaily paper Nitya Samay starts from Margao

In the 1980s, a Roman-script Konkani paper called Novem Goem folded up in large part due to financial difficulties and alleged mismanagement, in spite of being set up with much enthusiasm and even a drive to collect funds for it through a 'padyatra' (foot-march) across Goa.Sunaprant Konkani daily published from Panaji.