“If you don’t require me I don’t need your ads” – Sunil Mutreja
Courtsey exchange4media.com
In today’s time, small indeed is big. Hindi daily Amar Ujala, after launching a compact version of its main edition in October last year, in Agra and Kanpur, is taking the smaller-sized version to five more cities, aiming to strengthen its presence in the northern belt.
Going with the tagline ‘Compact size sampurna akhbaar. Ek rupaye mein sabki khabar’, the daily plans to communicate a change in its positioning too. Now this media organisation too, will look at being a media ‘solutions’ organisation instead of a media ‘selling’ organisation. So, garnering more ad revenues is on the agenda, but ‘not atthe cost of brand fit’.
Sunil Mutreja, President – Marketing, Amar Ujala, spoke about the growth plans of the Hindi daily and lent perspectives on the Hindi-versus- English media debate in a conversation with Ruchika Chitravanshi. Excerpts:
Last year, Amar Ujala changed its look, going for a sleeker version. The masthead was changed from black to blue, for starters. The last time the paper had changed its look was four and a half years ago. How has the response been to the new look and how do you see the progress chart of Amar Ujala?
In terms of acceptance, we have worked very well. In terms of numbers and circulation we are growing at a rate of 14 percent. And when one speaks of actual numbers, we cross UP, Uttaranchal and Punjab. The circulation has gone up to 19,90,000 from 16,45,000; a near three-lakh plus copy gains. Our revenues are growing at about 32 percent over the last year so far. When we talk of penetration, we have launched the compact newspaper in markets where we are present and are not gaining numbers.
You launched the compact version in Agra and Kanpur and I believe you are expanding it further?
We are expanding to Varanasi, Allahabad, Dehradun, Ghaziabad and Meerut by January 30. Compact has been very well accepted by the reader. It is a replica of Amar Ujala, but has a different price segment. It is for the people who could not afford a Rs 3 – Rs 3.50 newspaper. Post that, we will move to Lucknow. That is the writing on the wall. By mid- to end-March, we should have a Lucknow edition. It will be stateof- the-art in terms of equipment, a high-powered editorial team and savvy marketing team. We intend to go the whole hog to become the number one player there.
We plan to move to Ludhiana after that, which should happen in October. A fair amount of planning has been done on product differentiation and future projects to be launched in Ludhiana and other markets.
Beyond that, there are a couple of more print products in the pipeline, which are in the compact format. We have not yet frozen on the content and it is at the concept stage. It will take time for us to strengthen markets like Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal. We plan to complete our cycle by October-November next year.
In today’s time, small indeed is big. Hindi daily Amar Ujala, after launching a compact version of its main edition in October last year, in Agra and Kanpur, is taking the smaller-sized version to five more cities, aiming to strengthen its presence in the northern belt.
Going with the tagline ‘Compact size sampurna akhbaar. Ek rupaye mein sabki khabar’, the daily plans to communicate a change in its positioning too. Now this media organisation too, will look at being a media ‘solutions’ organisation instead of a media ‘selling’ organisation. So, garnering more ad revenues is on the agenda, but ‘not atthe cost of brand fit’.
Sunil Mutreja, President – Marketing, Amar Ujala, spoke about the growth plans of the Hindi daily and lent perspectives on the Hindi-versus- English media debate in a conversation with Ruchika Chitravanshi. Excerpts:
Last year, Amar Ujala changed its look, going for a sleeker version. The masthead was changed from black to blue, for starters. The last time the paper had changed its look was four and a half years ago. How has the response been to the new look and how do you see the progress chart of Amar Ujala?
In terms of acceptance, we have worked very well. In terms of numbers and circulation we are growing at a rate of 14 percent. And when one speaks of actual numbers, we cross UP, Uttaranchal and Punjab. The circulation has gone up to 19,90,000 from 16,45,000; a near three-lakh plus copy gains. Our revenues are growing at about 32 percent over the last year so far. When we talk of penetration, we have launched the compact newspaper in markets where we are present and are not gaining numbers.
You launched the compact version in Agra and Kanpur and I believe you are expanding it further?
We are expanding to Varanasi, Allahabad, Dehradun, Ghaziabad and Meerut by January 30. Compact has been very well accepted by the reader. It is a replica of Amar Ujala, but has a different price segment. It is for the people who could not afford a Rs 3 – Rs 3.50 newspaper. Post that, we will move to Lucknow. That is the writing on the wall. By mid- to end-March, we should have a Lucknow edition. It will be stateof- the-art in terms of equipment, a high-powered editorial team and savvy marketing team. We intend to go the whole hog to become the number one player there.
We plan to move to Ludhiana after that, which should happen in October. A fair amount of planning has been done on product differentiation and future projects to be launched in Ludhiana and other markets.
Beyond that, there are a couple of more print products in the pipeline, which are in the compact format. We have not yet frozen on the content and it is at the concept stage. It will take time for us to strengthen markets like Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal. We plan to complete our cycle by October-November next year.
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