Redesigned 'Frontline' hits stands

Chennai, mar 3 (UNI) ''Frontline,'' the 21-year-old fortnightly news magazine from ''The Hindu'' group of publications, has been re-launched with designer Mario Garcia, John Miller and German Art Director Gunter Zwerina providing a ''new look and feel.'' Releasing the first copies of the ''new look'' Frontline, last night West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the chief guest, said the fortnightly should continue its efforts to highlight the urban-rural divide.

''It must, in its redesigned role, not only not alter the role but make it more pronounced.'' Despite the redesigned new look, he hoped that the ''remarkable journal'' would stick to its core value. It must retain its self-identity and self-perception as an instrument on the frontline of the country's regeneration, an instrument for understanding, for warning and for correcting.

Hoping that the journal's circulation figures should not really be a matter of concern, Mr Gandhi said ''65,000 readers are a much stronger reality than a million flippers of the glossy page in random waiting rooms.'' He also lauded the magazine's style of ''reaching facts, of sharing them with its readers and leaving no toxins in the system.'' 'The Hindu' Editor-in-chief N Ram, in his address, said the redesign would strive to offer readers a ''more modern, disciplined, structured, accessible, newsy, interesting and elegant'' magazine.

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