Few newspapers successfully graduated into digital age: Aveek Sarkar

Kolkata: A mere 5-6 newspapers have successfully overcome challenges and graduated into the digital age, said Aveek Sarkar, chairman of the PTI board of directors on Friday.

In such a scenario, despite constraints, Anandabazar online attracted some 250 crore visitors to its website, said Sarkar also the Editor Emeritus of the ABP group at a glittering awards ceremony here celebrating the “Year’s Best” in various fields ranging from academics, sports, business to arts and entertainment.

More than breaking news, the website has focused on creating its own unique reports in order to stand out, he explained.

“We believe in creating a holistic reading environment. For this, we want our readers to come and read our writings. Not just the headlines,” Sarkar said.

In an era of short-form news, Anandabazar online was encouraging readers to try out `long reads’ which in Bengali, the media baron termed as, “dirgha path”, adding that this has resulted in readers spending “more than 300 crore minutes over the past year reading our work”.

Ten persons, achievers in different fields of society, were conferred the `Year’s Best’ award on the occasion.

The galaxy of winners included Timir Mullick, the headmaster of a rural school who started a fast food shop to keep his institution running during the Covid-19 pandemic, scientist Debashree Ghosh, recognised for her remarkable contribution to quantum chemistry and Titas Sadhu, player of the match at the final of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023.

Other winners included Shaunak Sen, director of the documentary 'All that Breathes' that was nominated for this year’s Oscars, New York-based restaurateur Roni Mazumdar, whose South Indian restaurant Semma received a Michelin star last year, Ravi Modi, founder and managing director of the apparel brand and chain Manyavar and Swati Ganguly, professor of English literature at Visva Bharati University, and author of 'Tagore’s University'.

Also making it to the awards list was Bangladeshi actress Pori Moni, a rising heroine in South Asia.

A galaxy of stars including actors Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta and Nusrat Jahan, besides leaders cutting across party lines including CPI(M) Bengal unit chief Md Salim, state eductaion minister Bratya Basu and economist-turned BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri, theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta and artist Jogen Chowdhury were among those who attended the function at a city five star hotel.