Malayala Manorama wakes up to Times of India

Malayala Manorama, who was in a deep slumber finally wakes up to Times of India. Manorama, the daily, is being re-designed by the Spanish design journalist Javier Errea. The re-designing is happening after 7 years and coincides with the entry of Times of India to Kerala.

Manorama accepted Mathrubhumi as their only competitor. That is going to change now. Even though Manorama puts advertisements to suggest youth as their readers, I do not see anybody less than 25 years reading Manorama voraciously with out missing it every day. Manorama lost them long back. It is not that Manorama didn't put their efforts. It is just that youth are not inclined to read any Malayalam daily or rather their parents are not instilling that habit in next generation. Parents prefer their kids to read English dailies and moreover the number of kids able to read Malayalam comfortably is reducing at a fast pace.

Manorama understands this well more than me or anybody else in this world. There is more white space now in the daily and a new colour palette. This is to attract more young readers, finding Times at the other end of the spectrum chasing the same segment. As discussed earlier, Times is fighting Manorama in Kerala not any other English paper. Mathrubhumi said game over before it started. At the end of the day, Mathrubhumi would have done the smartest thing.

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