Sambad

Sambad is a regional language daily newspaper and the flagship brand of Eastern Media Limited. It is the largest circulated Odia newspaper in Odisha and is published from 8 key cities in the state, including the capital city of Bhubaneswar. Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (Founder of Eastern Media Limited) is the Editor-in-Chief of Sambad.

The first edition of this newspaper was published on October 4, 1984 in Bhubaneswar. Sambad was the first newspaper in Odisha that began with morning edition during a period where evening editions were the order of the day. Many milestones in Odia journalism can be attributed to the trends set by Sambad.

Sambad was the first to begin using the offset printing process to publish the newspaper, instead of the conventional letterpress printing. It was also the first to introduce the technology of computer composing or phototypesetting in newspaper publication business in the state in the mid-1980s. Technical defects and computer glitches could not deter publication as workers resorted to publishing handwritten copies of the newspaper, ready for circulation at daybreak. Currently, Sambad boasts of owning the largest printing press facility in the state with the newspaper consisting of 24 pages in colour.

At an age where newspapers were news-centric, Sambad set the trend of attributing full pages to feature and sports stories. Feature stories on health, economy, literature, youth, women and children, catered to interests of people in every strata of society. The avant garde 'Rabibaar' (Sunday) was the first supplement to be introduced by a broadsheet in the state in full colour.

Today, the newspaper has 8 editions in the state: Berhampur (1990), Rourkela (1989), Sambalpur (1997), Balasore (1998), Angul (2000), Cuttack (2001) and Jeypore (2000).

Sambad is also the first daily in the state to introduce supplements for all segments, such as:

Suprabhaat is a leisure reading and informative page focussing on subjects like health, science and technology, inventions, discoveries, fashion, lifestyle, agriculture, philosophy, society;

E2 (EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT) is the first-of-its-kind weekly section in the broadsheet, is published weekdays and features employment opportunities and educational information, targeting the students and job-seekers of Odisha;

Sambad Mahanagara is a section of the broadsheet that covers news, happenings, current affairs, etc in and around Bhubaneswar;

Phulajhari is the portion in the newspapers catering to children stories and

Sahitya is the literature special segment in the broadsheet, published every Sunday;

Rabibaar is the Sunday special tabloid supplement of Sambad. It features updates of Odia and Hindi movie industry, entertainment, jokes, literature, stories and leisure reading articles;

Katha is a popular monthly Odia literary magazine that carries short stories, fictions authored by eminent writers of Odia literature.

Paurusa – A household Odia digest featuring articles from science to religion, inventions to literature and caters to readers of all age groups. It also has a section called Kishor Paurusa which contains literary articles for the youth.

With www.sambad.in, a 24X7 news portal, Sambad is now available online for readers around the globe. Sambad has sister organisations under the banner of Eastern Media Limited, such as Radio Choklate 104 FM (Odisha's no.1 FM station), KANAK NEWS (one of Odisha's leading 24X7 Odia news channel), Eastern Opera (one of Odisha's popular Odia opera group) and Manjari Movies (production house).