Twenty-five years ago, Jang Media Group launched Pakistan’s premiere coloured English daily – The News. Today, after 25 years, The News celebrates its Silver Jubilee of unwavering journalism and honest reporting.

To mark this auspicious occasion, Jang Media Group launched an all-encompassing campaign that allowed both the valued readers and all contributors to participate. On the print side, we launched four different print ads, all of which commemorated The News’ 25th Anniversary while at the same time celebrating the newspaper’s stellar record of unbiased investigative journalism; 10-second promos of the 25th Anniversary Campaign were also aired on Geo.

Another remarkable memento of the campaign included the extensive 112-page Supplement, highlighting the highs and lows of the past 25 years in Pakistan. It included the collaborative efforts of various different contributors and included political commentaries and social critiques of the developments over the last 25 years in Pakistan.

In addition to this, different marketing collaterals, in the form of gifts and souvenirs like calendars, mugs, t-shirts, cushions, card holders etc were distributed amongst the staff as well as valued clients and associate agencies who have been with The News for more than two decades now.

The newspaper readership in Pakistan might be quite low and the English newspaper readership is even lower but we cannot ignore the fact that this fraction consists of opinion leaders and policy makers. For the past 25 years, The News is successful in catering to this particular section of influential people.

Launched in 1991 with an interactive layout and insightful content, The News immediately became the favored choice of the opinion makers of the country. It’s investigative reports, on time entertainment stories, focus on women and youth issues attracted attention of all. Within a span of 25 years, The News has revived the newspaper reading in Pakistan and has increased its scope by engaging the youth with its content and layout.

This year, The News turned 25 and to mark the celebration of successful Silver Jubilee, Jang Media Group organized a Contemporary Art Exhibition at Frere Hall, Karachi with contributions from young artists who focused their work on headlines of The News and Pakistan in these 25 years. The theme of the exhibition was “Witness to History” and the artists did justice to the theme through their creative masterpieces.

The exhibition had a successful opening by Sharmila Faruqi, Special Assistant to Chief Minister/ Minister for Culture and Tourism, who not just congratulated The News on completing its 25 years of providing accurate news and information to the masses but also commended the work of artists from different fields of discipline.

The exhibition has a variety of art forms from paintings to sculptures and from photography to instillations. Some of the interesting depictions of Pakistan and current situation came from Nasir Ansari who had illuminated faces depicting our society, which identifies people on the basis of their caste or sect rather than their personalities and characters. This categorization gives rise to turmoil in the country.

Similarly, Waseem Ahmed based his work on the current social and political issues faced by the Muslim world that we come across every now and then in real life or through the media.

Anum Jamal came out with the idea of how one may be directed to read or witness history froma certain point of view. To her, it’s like the flow of traffic within a city; how it is guided by directions and symbols. She believes it is important to view the course of events with an open dialogue to make evolution a more progressive process in Pakistan.

Some other artists who had interesting pieces to showcase were Munawar Ali Syed, Abid Aslam, Sajid Khan, Hira Zubair, Hasnain Ali, Arif Ansari, Nabeel Majeed Sheikh, Gul Noori, Faraz Mateen, etc.

Witness to History through Art turned out to be an interesting idea as we experienced different political and social issues surrounding us in a very subtle yet touching way. The art pieces made us think about what we have done as an individual in these 25 years to shape our country and where it stands right now. And if a number of art pieces have the power to make you think and question your conscience then The News managed to do its job well.

Congratulations on The News’ Silver Jubilee and let’s wish it sticks to its standard of integrity and honesty for years to come.