As a part of the curriculum, students of the “Newspaper Design, Make-Up & Desktop Publishing” course, from Department of Media and Mass Communication (MMC) at AIUB, undertook a study tour to Beximco Media, a concern of the Beximco Group, the largest conglomerate of Bangladesh.

Beximco Media houses 'The Daily Independent', a leading English-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh, ‘Independent Television’, an upcoming 24-hour TV news channel, and ‘Akash DTH’, the first “Direct-to-Home” (DTH) service in Bangladesh. 

Facilitated by Mr. Mohammad Niaz Majumdar, the course instructor and a senior assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at AIUB, the students visited the company and its operations on the 21st. of November 2019. They were given an informative guide to the various functions a newspaper publication, especially the work related to the newspaper make-up, graphic designing, and desktop publishing.

The tour began with the office of ‘The Daily Independent’, where Mr. Shamim Abdullah Zahedi, the Executive Editor, Mr. Md. Sazzad Hossain, the News Editor, and Mr. Abdul Mannan, the Production In-Charge at Beximco Media welcomed the students, interacting with them during the visit, and answering the different queries they had. The students observed the overall process of the color, layout, model, planning, visualization, graphic design, typography etc., all of which gets finalized digitally on the computer. It helped the students understand the practical application of the theoretical frameworks they had been studying of desktop publication in class.

Mr. Promit Ghosh, the Manager of Human Resources, guided the students from department to department, leading them to the ‘Independent Television’ studio, where Mr. Ashish Ghosh, the Chief News Editor and Ms. Nayla Pervin Peya, the Executive Producer, discussed the present and future of Bangladesh electronic journalism and the art of reporting with the avid students. The students visited the channel’s various sections and witnessed their flow of work. 

The experience enlightened and enriched the knowledge-base of the students, showcasing the diverse procedures and real-life implementations in the media industry. The students expressed their gratitude for all the representatives of Beximco Media for their valuable time and effort, along with that of Mr. O. K. Chowdhury, the Group Director and CEP of Beximco Power & Energy, without whom the trip would not have been possible. Mr. Majumdar presented the representatives of Beximco Media with a token of appreciation, on behalf of the university. AIUB looks forward to such collaborative opportunities with such a versatile corporation as Beximco in the near future.