Anandabazar Patrika - Timeline

Timeline

  • 1922 – Anandabazar Patrika comes out as a four-page evening daily. A cartoon strip appears. Printer’s line appears (1 June) — an amendment of the Press Act makes it mandatory. Becomes a six-pager.
  • 1923 – Anandabazar Patrika becomes a morning daily. Ties up with Reuters, Associated Press and the Free Press of India. A bi-weekly Anandabazar starts for suburban readers.
  • 1925 – First byline appears: Our special correspondent. Anandabazar Patrika becomes a 16-page wonder. A new Saturday section, Shanibarer Chithi, starts. It evolves into Rabibashoriyo. First 120-page special supplement on Calcutta Congress — sold out within two hours. Second edition printed on demand.
  • 1926 – Anandabazar Patrika kicks off its first Puja special issue, Sharadiya shankhya.
  • 1930 – Birth of Ananda Press. Faced with a draconian Press Ordinance, goes out of circulation for a few months (May 2 – October 31).
  • 1931 – Closed so long on Sundays, Anandabazar Patrika starts coming out every day of the week.
  • 1932 – Office shifts to 1 Burman Street, near Burrabazar. Circulation soars. The company invests in a fast-paced rotary machine. Crabtree machine is installed to print 25,000 copies in an hour.
  • 1940 – Anandamela, the children’s section appears in Anandabazar Patrika.
  • 1941 – Anandabazar Patrika was the first to inform about Subhas Chandra Bose’s dramatic escape. No ads carried on the front page, the day after Rabindranath Tagore’s demise.
  • 1942 – Dailies not printed to protest against regulations imposed on newspapers (August 21 – September 5). Lack of newsprint during World War II results in abridged dailies (June 1 – March 30, 1943).
  • 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination rocks the nation. Anandabazar Patrika echoes the sentiment with its landmark coverage. Lord Mountbatten calls it the greatest homage to the Mahatma.
  • 1951 – Delhi edition of Hindusthan Standard published.
  • 1954 – Anandabazar Patrika becomes the largest circulated newspaper in the country published from one location, according to the Press Commission report.
  • 1955 – Anandabazar Patrika has a separate chief reporter now. The ABP Group has a new home — a new building at Sooterkin Street. Ananda Press begins publishing Anandabazar Patrika from 6 Sooterkin Street. An automatic rotary machine is installed with a capacity to print 40,000 copies of the newspaper in an hour. The double-plate technique is used to print Anandabazar Patrika.
  • 1958 – First Ananda Purashkar. Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay and Samaresh Basu felicitated. A new and improved rotary machine installed.
  • 1960 – Anandabazar Patrika publishes the serial countdown of the successful Nanda Ghunti expedition patronised by ABP. It was the first publishing house to undertake such an enterprise. The team for the mission included a journalist and a photographer who provided first-hand reports of the expedition. Entertainment gets a fillip with the Anandalok section introduced in Anandabazar Patrika.
  • 1963 – Anandabazar Patrika and Desh jointly publish the first large-scale readership survey in India — nine years before the first NRS survey. The Plamog machine is brought from Germany with the double plate white technology.
  • 1965 – Colloquial Bengali in narrative prose begins. Formal Bengali only in the editorials now.
  • 1968 – Sooterkin Street renamed Prafulla Sarkar Street by the Calcutta Corporation.
  • 1973 – Birth of Sunday, an English magazine.
  • 1975 – Phototypesetting introduced. Anandalok magazine is born. Business Standard, the business daily, is born. Popular section Anandamela, is now a magazine.
  • 1978 – Sportsworld is launched.
  • 1979 – The ABP Group celebrates 200 years of printing and publishing in Bengal with a grand exhibition at the Maidan.
  • 1981 – Phototypesetting starts in Bengali. Businessworld, a fortnightly business magazine enters the fray.
  • 1982 – Printing takes a giant leap forward with the first full offset printing of Anandabazar Patrika. The Telegraph is born. The first in India to have a modular layout. The last issue of Hindusthan Standard is printed.
  • 1983 – The first colour printing — the features section of Anandabazar Patrika.
  • 1984 – News comes to a standstill as ABP faces a 51-day strike
  • 1992 – Anandabazar Patrika does not carry a single advertisement as a mark of tribute to Satyajit Ray, who had died the previous day.
  • 1993 – The district pages of the Anandabazar Patrika are launched.
  • 1995 – Weekly Knowhow supplement comes out with The Telegraph.
  • 1996 – Weekly Telekids and ETC supplements come out. ABP creates a programme to run Bengali with all its conjuncts on Windows 95.
  • 2000 – Anandabazar Patrika’s internet edition is launched. The Telegraph in Schools (TTIS) is born.
  • 2001 – Prestige software introduced to upgrade page production. Kolkata section appears in Anandabazar Patrika. The beginning of customised split editions.
  • 2002 – The first INFOCOM — an IT exposition organised jointly by NASSCOM and Businessworld, takes an initial step towards becoming a giant annual event.
  • 2003 – A new-look Anandabazar Patrika hits the stands. Unish Kuri magazine is launched. ABP enters electronic space. Adds STAR News to its bouquet. The Telegraph wins the SNAP certificate — the first non-US newspaper to do so.
  • 2004 – The Telegraph appears in a new international look. Prastuti comes out with Anandabazar Patrika. Launch of Unish Kuri Career. ABP claims a place in the highly acclaimed IFRA-International Newspaper Colour Quality Club (INCQC) for The Telegraph for 2004–2006. Computer to plate technology (CTP) introduced in printing.
  • 2005 – Boier Desh hits the stands. The Telegraph wins the SNAP certificate again. STAR Ananda, the 24-hour national news channel in Bengali, begins broadcasting. Anandabazar Patrika reaches the one-million circulation benchmark. Anandabazar Patrika wins the SNAP certificate. The Telegraph wins the Bronze award for the Best in Print at the Asia Media Awards. Hey Ya is launched.
  • 2010 -In September 2010, Time Inc. entered into a license aggrement with ABP Group, one of India’s largest media conglomerate to publish Fortune India magazine.This magazine is publishing the famous Fortune India 500 list every year.

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