Dangerous to those who trade in lies.
The Thursday Times is a digital newspaper from Pakistan, published in English and Urdu since December 2020. We lead with the argument; the news sits beneath it.
00 Why we began
We started on one idea: that the media lies, and so does everyone talking to it.
The Thursday Times began as a startup in 2020, built on that single conviction. Not only the people making the news, but the people reporting it, were getting away with lying.
We wanted to be dangerous to those who trade in lies. That is exactly what we set out to be, and it is still the only promise the paper makes.
01 The mark
A clock writes the time with a colon. A headline uses one to make its point. Ours does both.
Our mark is two Ts with a colon between them, the way a clock shows the time. The dots are squares, three-quarters of a stem wide, and the gaps around them are equal, so the colon sits exactly under the arms of the two Ts. The Ts stand a hair apart and never touch.
The colon is orange wherever orange can be seen. It is the one part of the logo that never travels: it blinks, it drops into place, or it stays still.
In Islamabad it is
Wednesday 4 November
02 The label
A T, a colon, then the subject.
Every story carries a label above its headline: the T, the colon and one word in capitals. You know whether you are reading the news, an argument or an analysis before you read a word of it.
03 Pictures
News gets a photograph. Argument gets an illustration.
The news is shown with photographs: real, unposed and credited to whoever took them.
Argument is shown with illustration, built only from the shapes of our mark: squares, bars and circles, in ink, with exactly one orange element. That element is the point of the picture.
We will never run a picture made by a machine that could pass for a news photograph.
04 In numbers
Since December 2020.
- 2020
- Our first story went out on 24 December 2020.
- 3,754
- Stories published: 1,783 in English and 1,971 in Urdu.
- 50
- Writers, desks and bureaus with a byline on the site.
- 2
- Editions, English and اردو, one the mirror of the other.
05 Where we report
From Pakistan, to the world.
We have desks in every major Pakistani city and reporters in the smaller ones. Beyond them, our bureaus reach from the Gulf to the Pacific coast: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh; New Delhi and Bombay; London, Brussels, Paris and every major city of the European Union; Washington, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.
Pakistan
Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad, and reporters in the smaller cities.
The Gulf
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh.
India
New Delhi and Bombay.
Europe
London, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid and the other major cities of the European Union.
The United States
Washington, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.
06 The family
Thursday, a colon, then the product.
Everything we make takes the paper’s form. In a sentence we write the names the ordinary way: The Thursday Times, Thursday AI.
- The Thursday Times The paper in English: news, analysis and argument from Pakistan and the world.
- اردو The Urdu edition: the same paper, the English page mirrored.
- Thursday AI Ask a question about Pakistan. Every answer comes from our reporting and the official record, with the proof.
- Westline Our publication on how markets and wars dictate society, with its own desks in Washington, London and Brussels.
- The morning briefing One email each morning. The day in five minutes.
- Listen The Thursday Times, read aloud.
- Running stories The stories still unfolding, each with a page of its own and a way to follow it.
