Singapore's Tamil daily, Tamil Murasu , turned 75 on Tuesday, and celebrated the event by issuing a special edition.
Besides a news feature on the feat, the front page of the day's edition was in sync with the paper's tradition of reporting on different aspects of the Indian scene. A topical event of local interest to all Singaporeans in this multi-racial and multi-ethnic City-State was also prominently carried on the first page.
The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which bought Tamil Murasu in 1996, said Tuesday's bumper issue of the paper was sponsored by Mini Environment Services, “a company which builds worker dormitories”.
The paper, founded in 1935 by a Singaporean-Indian business leader G. Sarangapany, would be re-launched with “a fresh, modern, new look” on September 4, the SPH said. A cultural show and the release of a book on the contributions of ethnic Tamils to the progress of Singapore are on the calendar for that day.
Singapore President S.R. Nathan would launch the book, it was announced.
In a media release, the SPH said the circulation base of the paper rose from about 200 copies in its early years to a current average of 13,000 on weekdays and nearly 20,000 on Sundays. Serving as “a voice for the Tamil-speaking community in Singapore,” the paper “has been profitable for several years now.”
To cater to the larger Indian Diaspora of diverse language groups in Singapore, the paper introduced a free English weekly in October 2008. The English weekly, named tabla! , is said to have a circulation of 30,000 copies on Fridays.
