‘Eenadu’ which means ‘Today’ is the most popular and also the most powerful paper in the southern India. It is published in Telugu, the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is a part of the Ramoji Business Group and the centre of this business group. The other industries in this group were built around Eenadu and so is the Eenadu network, which comprises of many other television news channels and news websites.
Eenadu was founded by Mr. Ramoji Rao who is the current chairman of the Ramoji Group of companies. It was founded in the year 1974 in the city of Visakhapatnam and had a rather modest beginning with a circulation that never crossed more than 3000 copies per week. Ramoji was then the chief editor of the newspaper and was totally responsible for the newspaper with a very limited staff to support him. Even now he continues to be thechief editor of the paper. Ramoji knew that he had to deliver the news in a different way if he had to make his way to the public and sustain in the severe competition offered by some pre-independence newspapers, to which the people were addicted. So, he started delivering the news in ‘common man’ language. Prior to Eenadu, all the news was published in a rather embellished and flowery Telugu, while Eenadu chose to use the commonly used language among public. This brought the newspaper close to the hearts of the inmates of the Andhra who found the paper to be quite easy to understand.
As the years passed by, Eenadu became more and more popular in Visakhapatnam and achieved a high circulation. Ramoji then decided to shift the head quarters to Hyderabad, the capital city of Visakhapatnam. After establishing his office in Hyderabad, he started circulating the paper all over the state and very quickly Eenadu turned out to be very popular in the state. It quickly rose to the position of the highest circulated paper in the state surpassing other majors like Andhra Jyothi, Andhra Bhoomi etc. It had remained in this position since then with a huge circulation of 11 lakh (1.4 million), the closest competitors being way behind this figure. From its modest beginning in 1974 in Visakhapatnam, Eenadu has now expanded all over the country and is published from 23 different centres, which include the major metros in the country. However, Eenadu is published only in Telugu and the centres outside Andhra Pradesh are meant to cater to the Telugu people residing outside Andhra.
Eenadu became especially popular for its role during the emergency period in the country. In the 1980s’, the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi had declared an Emergency in the country and Eenadu was among the few newspapers in the country to openly fight against this decision. It had criticized the government openly and gained reputation as a fearless and an open news paper. It is at this time that Eenadu developed a close relation with a national and pre-Independence paper ‘The Hindu’ which finally ended between a tie-up between these newspapers both in news as well as advertising.
However, after emergency, Eenadu remained as an Anti-Congress paper in the minds of the people and even Ramoji did not try to clear this image. He himself said a few times that his paper is and will be against the Congress party. This received some criticism as a news paper is supposed to remain unbiased. Particularly in the year 1982, Eenadu played a key role in getting Telugu Desam Party to power and pulling down Congress which had been ruling the state since Independence. This was seen by many to be against the principles of journalism. However, Eenadu continued its stand and supports the TDP over Congress till date. Eenadu almost acts like the mouth piece of the Telugu Desam Party.
Since 2004, after Congress party has come to power, there is an open battle between the Government and Eenadu. The newspaper had been throwing light on various corrupt practices in the Government and this obviously irked the Government which started deliberately causing troubles to the Ramoji group as a whole. Ramoji even filed a case against the Government in the high court for harassing him and his business house. The Government had to finally launch its own newspaper named ‘Sakshi’ which was intended to ‘correct the false stories’ propagated by Eenadu, according to the Government.
Though Eenadu is clearly anti-congress it never hesitated to pan TDP when this party was in power. Eenadu described itself as the ‘true opposition party’ in the state, irrespective of the party in the Government.
Over the years, Eenadu has become the ‘heart and soul of Andhra Pradesh’ which is the tag line of this newspaper. It has become an integral part of the culture of the state and is almost synonymous to the word newspaper, given that its has no potential competitors in the state. Unlike its counterparts, Eenadu had always focused on the content rather than looks. Very few pages in Eenadu come in color. Eenadu is published in two parts – a main edition common all over the state and twenty three different district additions, specific to the district. It also has a separate page named ‘Vasundhara’ for women, ‘Eenadu Cinema’ to cover movie related news and a page for Business. The last page of the paper is devoted to sports. Eenadu subscription comes with a weekly magazine which has various engaging stories, cartoons, facts etc. Eenadu Pellipandiri’ is another famous feature of Eenadu, where people looking for a bride or groom can advertise themselves with their credentials. ‘Eenadu cartoon’ in the bottom left corner by Sridhar is quite famous and had remained in its place through the history of the paper.
A decade back, Eenadu went online especially for the Non-Resident Indians who do not stay in the country. This website is not a replica of the paper but covers the most important news including the editorial. Two years back, Eenadu also launched an e-paper which is an exact replica of the paper published in the state in pdf format. Eenadu online site (www.eenadu.net) has also become very popular and is the most visited telugu news website.
