Mid Day


Mid Day is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages were published in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. In 2011 the Delhi and Bangalore editions were closed down. In 2014 Jagran Prakashan shut down the mid-day Pune edition as well.

Establishment

It was established in Mumbai in 1979 as a family-owned newspaper by Khalid Ansari. Later, his son, Tariq Ansari led the paper, before it was sold to Jagran Prakashan in 2010. A Sunday edition, Sunday Mid-Day, began in 1981.
The Newspaper underwent an overhaul, both of its print editions and the website, in early 2014, creating several new sections in the daily newspaper, the Sunday edition and the website.

Relaunch of the newspaper and website in 2014

Originally, the newspaper published two editions in Mumbai: an early-morning and a noon edition. Since April 2009, only the morning editions have been published and the company has dropped printing a noon newspaper, citing positioning issues. During the overhaul and relaunch of the newspaper and the website in 2014, the paper's slogan was also changed to Made in Mumbai. The newspaper's relaunch was led editorially by Editor Sachin Kalbag with support from Sports editor Clayton Murzello, Hitlist editor Shubha Shetty Saha, features editor Fiona Fernandez and some others. The relaunch of Sunday Mid-Day and the website mid-day.com was editorially led by Kalbag along with erstwhile Sunday mid-day and online editor Dhiman Chattopadhyay. The Tabloid today has an estimated readership base of 5,00,000 for MiD Day in Mumbai and broke into the list of top 10 Indian newspapers by readership in the 2013 Indian Readership Survey list. The new look Mid-Day has received both positive and negative reactions. Currently the Entertainment section is headed by Mayank Shekhar and the crime editor is Bhupen Patel.
In October 2019, the Sunday Mid-Day was relaunched with a new look and feel led by Tinaz Nooshian. The launch was backed by the campaign, Hey Mumbai, we have a Sunday for you.
Synonymous with the campaign’s tagline — 70 per cent features, 30 per cent news, 100 per cent Mumbai — the all-new Sunday Mid-Day kept the focus on the city and its residents, moving away from the din of breaking news and routine reports to offer leisure.

Marketing activity

Mid Days Marketing campaigns are considered to be effective. The Mid Days Bollywood Lunch Contest won at the IFRA award 2008 and at the Asia Multimedia Publishing Media Awards 2009. It is a contest driven promotion in which the winning person/reader and the entire office of the same gets to meet a star over a lunch date.

Journalists jailed for reports on chief justice

On 20 September 2007, four journalists of Mid Day, including Resident Editor Vitusha Oberoi and City Editor MK Tayal, were sentenced to four months jail on contempt of court charges, because of a report they had filed on the ex-Chief Justice of India, Y. K. Sabharwal.
Many in the legal community feel that in the 2006 Delhi sealing drive, Justice Sabharwal may have had a conflict of interest since his sons own a firm with relations to the Delhi real estate. Former Solicitor General KK Sud had called this behaviour "the height of indiscretion."
The High Court, however, sentenced the journalists without considering the veracity of the reports, and this led to considerable controversy. Ex-law minister Shanti Bhushan stated that the Parliament had in 2006 amended the Contempt of Courts Act to say that "if the allegations against a judge were found to be true, then they would not be considered contemptuous." In view of this, the judgment, he said, may be "only aimed at terrifying the media and an attempt to curb truthfulness."

Awards and other achievements

, the Special Investigations Editor of Mid Day was shot dead on 11 June 2011 in Mumbai by unknown assailants. Since then Bhupen Patel has taken over as the special investigations editor.