The Week (Indian magazine)

Indian news magazine

For other uses, see The Week (disambiguation).

The Week

Editor| Philip Mathew
Categories| News magazine
Frequency| Weekly
Publisher| Jacob Mathew
Founder| K. M. Mathew
Founded| December 1982; 42 years ago (1982-12) [1]
First issue| 26 December 1982 (1982-12-26)
Company| The Malayala Manorama Co. Pvt. Ltd.
Country| India
Based in| Kochi
Language| English
Website| www.theweek.in

The Week is an Indian news magazine founded in the year 1982 and published by The Malayala Manorama Co. Pvt. Ltd.[2] The magazine is published from Kochi and is currently printed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kottayam. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it is the largest circulated English news magazine in India.[3]

The magazine covers politics, entertainment, social issues, trends, technology and lifestyle.[4]

## History

[edit]

### Chief editors

[edit]

The Week was launched by The Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd in December, 1982, and has had two chief editors, before the designation was discontinued.

* K. M. Mathew (Padma Bhushan, 1998),[5] the founder chief editor, remained in office until 25 December 1988. Popularly known as Mathukuttychayan, he was chairman of the Press Trust of India, president of the Indian Newspaper Society and chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. He died on 1 August 2010. The obit which appeared in The Times of India said, "The highly acclaimed English news magazine-The Week-was his brainchild."[6]
* K. M. Mathew's eldest son, Mammen Mathew,[7] (Padma Shri, 2005),[8] took over on 1 January 1989, and continued until 9 December 2007. He is currently chief editor of the Malayala Manorama daily, the group's flagship publication.

Currently, The Week does not have a chief editor. K. M. Mathew's second son, Philip Mathew, managing editor since 1 January 1989, is the highest-ranked editor.

### Publishers

[edit]

* Philip Mathew, the first publisher of the magazine, held the post until December 1988.
* Jacob Mathew: 1 January 1989 till date. K.M. Mathew's third son, he is currently president of WAN-IFRA. He is the second Asian and the first Indian to hold the post.[9]

### Editors

[edit]

The magazine has had two editors, after which the designation was discontinued.

* V. K. B. Nair: 26 December 1982 to 3 June 1984.
* T. V. R. Shenoy (Padma Bhushan, 2003):[10] 10 June 1984 to 11 December 1988.

### Editor-in-charge

[edit]

Currently, the editor-in-charge is responsible for selection of news under The Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. The present editor-in-charge, V.S. Jayaschandran, took over on 1 April 2017.

## Design and style

[edit]

The magazine was initially designed in-house, and was periodically redesigned. A major content overhaul was led by Peter Lim, author and former editor-in-chief of The Straits Times/Singapore Press Holdings. He authored the book Chronicle of Singapore: Fifty Years of Headline News.[11]

The two major redesigns were led by:

* Peter Ong[12] on 8 November 1998.
* Dr Mario Garcia[13] on 20 February 2005.

Based in Sydney, Australia, Ong[14][15] was formerly Picture & Graphics Editor of The Straits Times. He is principal consultant at Checkout Australia, and was regional director for the Society of News Design. Garcia owns the premier newspaper design firm, Garcia Media.[16] Both of them also helped redesign the Malayala Manorama.

In the early years, cartoonist Mario Miranda designed many covers for The Week. He also had a regular pocket cartoon in the magazine.

The Week does not have published stylebook, but generally follows the down style for capitalisation.[17] Its dateline carries the pull date, not the date of issue.

## Columnists

[edit]

The Week has these regular guest columns:

* Ivory Tour by Sanjaya Baru
* DeTour by Shobhaa De[18]
* Forthwrite by Meenakshi Lekhi.
* Mani-festo by Mani Shankar Aiyar
* Last Word by Shashi Tharoor, Barkha Dutt, Navtej Sarna and Bibek Debroy
* Schizo-Nation by Anuja Chauhan.
* Sound Bite by Anita Pratap.

In addition to the guests, there are two staff columns.

* Power Point by K. S. Sachidananda Murthy,[19] resident editor in New Delhi.
* PMO Beat by R. Prasannan, chief of bureau, New Delhi.

### Former columnists

[edit]

Former columnists of the magazine include Priyanka Chopra, Khushwant Singh, Saurav Ganguly, General Bikram Singh (retd),[20] P. C. Alexander, Binayak Sen, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, Swara Bhasker, Sanjay Manjrekar, R. N. Malhotra, Sanjana Kapoor, A. P. Venkateswaran, Harsha Bhogle, Sreenivasan Jain, Mallika Sarabhai, Nandita Das, Manjula Padmanabhan, Amjad Ali Khan, Santosh Desai[21] and Antara Dev Sen,[22] among others.

## Supplements and stand-alones

[edit]

Two supplements go free with The Week:

* Health, a fortnightly on health and fitness.
* The Wallet, a monthly guide to personal finance and investment.

The standalone magazines are:

* The Man:[23] The Man, a monthly lifestyle magazine for men
* WatchTime India: A quarterly magazine on luxury watches
* Smartlife: A monthly magazine on wellness and lifestyle
* Livingetc: A monthly magazine on home and interiors

## The Week Hay Festival

[edit]

Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy (in purple shirt) at The Week Hay Festival 2010

### Hay Kerala 2010

[edit]

The Week was the title sponsor,[24] of the inaugural Hay Festival[25] in India. Held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, from 12 to 14 November 2010, the festival was held at Kanakakunnu Palace, the former summer retreat of the Travancore royal family.

Writers and speakers for the event included Mani Shankar Aiyar, Rosie Boycott, Gillian Clarke, William Dalrymple, Tishani Doshi, Sonia Faleiro, Sebastian Faulks, Nik Gowing, Manu Joseph, N. S. Madhavan, Jaishree Misra, Vivek Narayanan, Michelle Paver, Basharat Peer, Hannah Rothschild, K. Satchidanandan, Marcus du Sautoy, Simon Schama, Vikram Seth, C. P. Surendran, Miguel Syjuco, Shashi Tharoor, Amrita Tripathi, Pavan Varma and Paul Zacharia.

The event closed with a concert by Bob Geldof, where Sting made a surprise appearance.

## Awards

[edit]

Year | Awardee | Award | Agency | Story

|
|
|
|

2000 | Jayant Mammen Mathew & Maria Abraham | SAJA Journalism Award | South Asian Journalists Association (U.S.) | Rural reporting
2002 | Deepak Tiwari | The Sarojini Naidu Prize | The Hunger Project (India) | Women in panchayati raj
2007 | The Week | Media Excellence Award | Amity (India) | Business reporting
2007 | Dnyanesh V. Jathar | Excellence in Journalism Award | Ramnath Goenka Foundation (India) | Life of AIDS orphans
2008 | Bidisha Ghosal | The Statesman Award for Rural Reporting | The Statesman Ltd (India) | Sexual exploitation of widows in Vidarbha
2009 | Bidisha Ghosal | IPI-India Award (Shared) | International Press Institute,[26] India Chapter (India) | Sexual exploitation of widows in Vidarbha
2009 | Kavitha Muralidharan | PII-ICRC Award | Press Institute of India & International Committee of the Red Cross (India) | Abduction of Tamil rebels by the Sri Lankan Army
2010 | Mathew T. George | Excellence in Journalism (International) | Union Catholique Internationale de la Presse[27] (Burkina Faso) | Robertsonian translocation among Bhopal gas tragedy victims
2010 | Syed Nazakat | Finalist for Daniel Pearl International Award | Daniel Pearl Foundation[28] (Switzerland) | Multiple investigative stories
2010 | The Week | Gold (Magazine cover design) | WAN-IFRA[29] (Malaysia) | Cover for Health
2010 | The Week | Gold (Special issue) | WAN-IFRA (Malaysia) | On 25 years after Indira Gandhi
2011 | Bhanu Prakash Chandra | Gold (Feature photography) | WAN-IFRA (Thailand) | Biking through the Himalayas
2011 | The Week | IPI India award for excellence in journalism (shared) | International Press Institute (India) | Fake medical and dental colleges
2021  | Bhanu Prakash Chandra, Lakshmi Subramanian  | IPI India Award for Excellence in Journalism-2021 (shared)  | International Press Institute[30] (India)  | Refugee camps in Syria, Iraq

In 2001, Special Cover Designer Ajay Pingle entered the Limca Book of Records for designing the most number of covers for an Indian newsmagazine.[citation needed]

## Man of the Year

[edit]

* 2009 – Brother Christudas, for Little Flower Leprosy Welfare Association[31]
* 2010 – Satinath Sarangi, for voicing Bhopal disaster victims[32]
* 2011 – Ajeet Singh, for Guria[33]
* 2018 – Nilesh Desai, Lighting up the Darkness[34]
* 2019 – Madhav Gadgil, for his work in ecology
* 2020 – Sonu Sood, for his humanitarian efforts during the pandemic
* 2021 – Balram Bhargava, ICMR Director-General
* 2022 – Neeraj Chopra, Olympics athlete, Javelin thrower
* 2023 – S. Somanath, Chairman ISRO

## Couple of the Year

[edit]

* 2017 – Ramesh Awasthi and Manisha Gupte[35]

## Controversies

[edit]

The magazine was mired in controversy for an article on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. In response to a defamation suit filed by Ranjit Savarkar, the magazine publicly apologised for the publication of the article.[36][37]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "English News". Manorama Online. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
2. ^ "Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd - Company Profile and Analysis". G2Mi. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
3. ^ "Audit Bureau of Circulations". Auditbureau.org. 26 September 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
4. ^ "THE WEEK Magazine - Get your Digital Subscription". Magzter. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
5. ^ "Padma Bhushan Awardees - Padma Awards - My India, My Pride - Know India: National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
6. ^ "Media mogul K M Mathew dies, thousands pay respects". The Times of India. 1 August 2010. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013.
7. ^ "Mammen Mathew". thomsonreuters.com. Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
8. ^ "Padma Shri Awardees - Padma Awards - My India, My Pride - Know India: National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
9. ^ "Jacob Mathew elected WAN-IFRA president". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 10 April 2011. Archived from the original on 16 April 2011.
10. ^ "Dorji, Sonal Mansingh, Parasaran among Padma awardees". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 26 January 2003. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012.
11. ^ "Books Kinokuniya Singapore". Kinokuniya.com.sg. 9 January 2010. Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
12. ^ "WAN-IFRA - Trends in Newsrooms 2012". Trends-in-newsrooms.org. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
13. ^ "García Media | Bios". Garciamedia.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
14. ^ "www.ifra.com". ifra.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
15. ^ "peterong.com". peterong.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
16. ^ "Newspaper Design, Newspaper Redesign, Web Design & iPad App Design". Garciamedia.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
17. ^ Einsohn, Amy (7 December 2005). The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing And Corporate ... - Amy Einsohn - Google Books. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520932562. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
18. ^ "Authors". The Week. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
19. ^ "The Press Club Mumbai". The Press Club Mumbai. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
20. ^ "Authors". The Week.
21. ^ "About". Santosh Desai. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
22. ^ "The Little Magazine - About TLM". Littlemag.com. 1 July 2001. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
23. ^ "E The Man | Manorama Online". Etheman.manoramaonline.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
24. ^ "Hay Festival Kerala". Hayfestival.com. 25 October 2011. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
25. ^ "Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts". Hayfestival.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
26. ^ "IPI International Press Institute: The Global Network for a free media". Freemedia.at. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
27. ^ "icom". Ucip.ch. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
28. ^ "Daniel Pearl Foundation". Danielpearl.org. 10 October 2002. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
29. ^ "WAN-IFRA - World Association of News Publishers". Retrieved 2 November 2023.
30. ^ "IPI India journalism award to Tehelka, The Week". The Hindu. 28 November 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
31. ^ "Ashok Chavan felicitates Brother Christudas with The Week Man of the Year Award". indiainfoline.com. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
32. ^ "The Week | The man, the moment". manoramaonline.com. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
33. ^ "The Week | Hope in the holy city". week.manoramaonline.com. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
34. ^ "The Week | Lighting up the Darkness". www.theweek.in/theweek/specials/2018/12/14/lighting-up-the-darkness.html. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
35. ^ "A Gentle Transition". The Week. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
36. ^ "Engage on democratic terms". The Week. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
37. ^ David, Supriti. "The Week says it holds Savarkar in 'high esteem', apologises for a 2016 article". Newslaundry. Retrieved 17 May 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website