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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.