The journey of Prothom Alo is based on five basic values – good journalism, public orientation, partner in change, creativity, and solidarity. Prothom Alo has always maintained these values throughout its journey of 23 years.
This was not hampered even during the Covid-19 pandemic. When the entire world was shaken by the pandemic two years back, Prothom Alo found creative ways to remain engaged with its readers. Some new initiatives were taken up then, in addition to providing accurate information to the readers. And now Prothom Alo has received international recognition for these initiatives.
Prothom Alo has won awards in two categories at the ‘Global Media Awards-2022’ facilitated by the International News Media Association (INMA). These creative initiatives are behind this achievement.
'Print never breaks' is such an initiative of creative strategy jointly taken by the content and advertisement departments. This initiative secured the top place in the National Brand section of INMA's Best Use of Print category.
This is the first time a Bangladeshi media won the first place in any category in the global competition of INMA, the largest global media organisation.
The second and third prizes in this category went to Gloria Glam of Croatia and Irish Examiner of Ireland respectively. In the same category, Arab News from the United Arab Emirates, The New York Times from the United States, and Torstar from Canada received honorable recognition.
Three aspects of 'Print Never Breaks'
1. Special arrangements on national and international days: from supplements to special features, reports, discussions or video-related online programmes. There were special arrangements to mark different days, like World Heart Day, World Tourism Day, and World Video Games Day. These events attracted new readers and also created new sources of revenue for the newspaper.
2. Prothom Alo laid extra emphasis on regional news coverage. Special supplements were published on different regions of the country. There was a variety of content about the history, heritage and culture of the concerned regions. In addition to attracting new readers to the print version, the initiative enabled regional businesses and brands to promote regional advertisements.
3. Special attention was paid to new initiatives to work more deeply with brands, advertisers and advertising agencies. Events like webinars, roundtables, video branding on various topics further enriched the new initiative of Prothom Alo.
The newspaper industry, like many other businesses, stumbled a bit during the Covid-19 pandemic. But Prothom Alo took new initiatives, instead of following the conventional trends of content, business and different aspects of technology.
However, the task was not easy during a multidimensional crisis inflicted by the pandemic.
Prothom Alo goes ahead on the strength of teamwork and cooperation, instead of relying on any individual initiative. And finally the largest media of Bangladesh has won international recognition for its initiative – 'Print never breaks'.