The Big Goan - Goa Holiday Blog

The media in Goa has indeed come of age in recent years. For a long time it was ruled by mainly newspapers which were the lifeline of the Goan news bringing to Goans every daily happening occurring in the state of Goa. However nowadays the television media has also taken over and Goa has its share of news in different mediums and various languages which include English, Konkani and Marathi and has a wide readership among the masses of Goa. Here in this post, I am only detailing the Goan newspapers which have served Goa impressively since the liberation of Goa.

Goan newspapers in English
Broadly there are currently four newspapers in Goa serving the English palate. They are the Navhind Times, The Herald ,The Gomantak times and the recently launched Goa edition of the Times of India launched in Goa on 7 May 2008.

The Navhind Times is widely regarded as the newspaper with the highest circulation and is equally concentrated in north Goa as well as South Goa. As a result the Navhind times gets the major share of advertisements and its classified advertisement category is considered to be very populated compared to other English newspapers and has a wider range of subjects which helps its circulation permeate to all markets in Goa with the Goan news. The Navhind times is owned by the Dempo Group of companies, one of Goa’s major industrial houses and is one of the foremost newspapers from Goa and began its operations of covering Goa news since the year 1963.

The Herald goa,  the voice of Goa since the year 1900 and is a fierce traditional competitor to the Navhind times. It has a wide readership which is more prominent in South Goa where the Herald is a leader in circulation with almost every Goan household opting for the Herald Goan newspaper to make up their day. Herald has an edge over its competitors in terms of obituary advertisements and can be easily considered as a leader in this segment. Its classifieds segment is also fast catching up with some innovative schemes being launched to woo advertisers to the table. The Herald also specializes in compiling a lot of detailed local news from Goa which makes it endearing to Goans as the newspaper to look forward to every morning to get a bite of what’s happening in Goa on a daily basis to get the much awaited Goan news. The Herald is arguably the oldest newspaper to originate from Goa and was originally known as oHeraldo Goan newspaper in Goaduring the Portuguese rule , having established itself in the year 1900. It is owned by Mr R.F Fernandes and was made exceptionally famous during the stint of its former editor Mr Rajan Narayan who is known to have had a penchant for sensational news, humour and the “tehelka” factor. Mr Rajan Narayan has since left the newspaper to launch his own publication. The Goan herald newspaper has a nostalgic following among Goans worldwide to herald Goan news to them wherever they are

The Gomantak times is the English cousin of its Marathi sibling and was introduced in the last decade. It has much lower readership in compartison to the navhind Times and the Herald and its circulation is considered to be low. However it attracts a lot of public service advertsiemnts as well as personal advertiosemtns, court notices, legal notices, etc. Its classified section is almost non-existent but it has its own readership base and continues to serve Goan readers. Its weekend edition is known as “weekender” and has had a catchy readership due to its sensational headlines.

The Times Of India launched its Goa edition on May 7 2008 with a catchy Mario Miranda cartoon on its main page. It was marketed in goa under a very innovative marketing concept which was first credited to some major newspaper in southern India. It offered readers an option to subscribe to their newspaper by paying an annual fee of Rs 350/- odd for a 12 month subscription. Added to this was a token gift of a shoulder bag. the delivery was initially believed to be free at the doorstep but later was mired in controversies with local paper distributors. However the newspaper continued to offer such schemes every year offering gifts of clocks and umbrella in 2009 ad 2010.

The Times of India on the whole is a country specific newspaper but has adapted well to the Goan psyche.It focusses on pan-India news but ensures that Goa has its major share on its first few pages. It has a magazine called Goa times which often features various happenings in Goa with photographs of many prominent faces of Goa being splashed across its party pages. Its classified segment is slowly but surely catching up and advertising costs are a fraction of similar advertisements in its metro editions. Its quality of the English language is incomparable to any other newspaper in Goa and it has set a trend in Goan newspaper photography which is being quickly lapped up by its competitors. Its print quality and newsprint feel is absolutely outstanding and justifies its position as India’s premier news paper. The Times of India is a paper owned by Bennett, Coleman & co. ltd and its Goa edition is printed at Thivim in Goa

The other English publications include the weekly Observer, a news edition published by the former editor of Herald Mr. Rajan Narayan and strives to give Goans an insight into various notorious happenings in Goa. It is ably supported by many prominent Goans who contribute to its columns on a regular basis.

Marathi and Konkani Newspapers in Goa include the Devnagrai Konknni newspaper “Sunaparant” which is Goa’s only daily konkani edition to hit the stands. The Tarun Bharat, Gomantak, Sanatan Prabhat, Govadoot and the Navprabha are Goas’ marathi editions catering to the marathi speaking population of Goa

Other Goan publications in the state include the monthly English magazine “Goa Today” , Vavraddeancho Ixtt which is the oldest Roman script Konkani weekly newspaper, the Goa Messenger, Gulab – a konkani magazine and Bimb (Devanagari-script Konkani) .

Besides these newpapers, Goa also receives the editions of “The economic times Mumbai, The Business Line, the Financial times, The Indian Express and many other vernacular editions catering to the Gujarati, tamil, malayalam and kannada communities.