Sound Business Sense
Dhaleta Surender Kumar
dhaleta.surender@thebrandreporter.com
© The Brand Reporter
If Ajay Chacko, director, TV18 Business Media, is to be believed, the circulation of English business dailies in India is a mere 12 lakh. He discounts some regional-language business dailies, saying that the numbers are minuscule, so they hardly make a dent in the total circulation. Take for instance, the print run of Nafa Nuksan, the Hindi business daily in Rajasthan. It’s a mere 20,000. Ask Financial Express (FE), which has a Gujarati version; the print run may be far less as it is not ready to reveal the figures, but claims that it has a readership of about 25,000. Economic Times (ET) too has a Gujarati version. However, there is a need in the regional space for business dailies and media houses have woken up to it. ET and Business Standard (BS), both are believed to be coming up with a Hindi version of their respective papers in the near future. Jagran Prakashan and Network18 have announced a 50:50 joint venture. They plan to launch a Hindi business daily in 2008. Sources in Jagran, however, reveal that it is not just looking at the Hindi space. The idea is to traverse the gamut of regional languages, including Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada and Punjabi as well. AGA Publications, which brings out Vaartha, a Telugu daily from Hyderabad, has also planned a Telugu business daily for the Andhra Pradesh market.
Gireesh Kumar Sanghi, CMD, AGA Publications, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, reveals that while Vaartha is published from 19 centres, the business daily is slated for launch in mid-2008 from seven centres – Tirupathi, Vishakhapatnam, Rajamundhri, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Hyderabad and Warangal. “The business daily is targeted at the Telugu-speaking people. Andhra Pradesh is a vibrant state and there is a lot of investment happening; even the rural economy is good. There is a need to cater to this segment, which may not be comfortable with English,” he says. His primary targets are the traders and farmers, “every shop and even a transport-wala.” Sanghi expects an initial print run of four lakh copies. However, the cover price has not been decided as yet, as feedback is being sought from readers on what kind of package they would be interested in. The industry buzz is that the Jagran Group may back the paper, because of recently formed family ties through a marriage. Chacko isn’t sure as yet about the prospective markets for the Jagran-Network18 venture. “There is no matrix to decide that as yet. The only matrix we had was Karobar, which Amar Ujala started in 1994 and closed down within five years. But that was some 10 years ago; the dynamics of the industry and readership have changed since then,” he says, adding, “The only parallel we have today are CNBC Awaaz and Zee Business (both in Hindi), and that too in the television space.” He says that when CNBC Awaaz was launched in January 2005, the officials feared that the channel would cannibalise the viewership of CNBC. However, monthly tune-ins in the Hindi business space have gone up from one crore to 3.2 crore since then, of which 60 per cent is with CNBC Awaaz. “There is a need to expand the market, and it has to be different and it surely is in the regional space,” states Chacko. He is also of the opinion that the content for regional business dailies has to be different from what is covered in English business dailies. “CNBC is targeted at corporate India, while CNBC Awaaz has content that is more info-based. It has varied content, like on self-development,commodities, mutual funds, and is slightly more retail-focused and aspiration-led. Even the language is easy to understand and is relatable. The trend has to be similar in the print space, and the potential is far more than television,” he explains. FEs Gujarati version was launched in 1991 and is also circulated on six days (Monday-Saturday). The target audience is anybody who wants to invest and is interested in stock markets. “The paper is extremely popular across segments and derives its readership equally from the small investor and trader communities,” says Aditya Tandon, senior brand manager, FE. The content for the Gujarati version, however, is not very different from the English version. “Our focus is on stock markets, though our endeavour is to include critical local news. We also carry columns by local opinion leaders,” he adds. The paper competes with ETs Gujarati version, which was launched in July last year. While FE has a cover price of Rs 3, ET Gujarati is being retailed at Re 1. FE is planning to take its Gujarati version to Mumbai as well, which, according to Tandon, “has a good number of people from Gujarat.”
Officials at ET refused to comment on the developments on the Hindi version - CEO, Ravi Dhariwal, could not be contacted. Meanwhile, Amar Ujala is also planning to come up with a Hindi business daily by the end of this year, though under a different brand name, which Sunil Mutreja, president – marketing, Amar Ujala refused to divulge. Its earlier business paper, Karobar, was published from Indore, Kanpur and Delhi, while the new one will be published from Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Dehradun and Delhi. “We’ll probably be the last one to launch the Hindi business daily. We’d like to see what others are coming out with and try and differentiate the product,” says Mutreja. Amar Ujala also will be printing BS’ Hindi version at its Noida printing facility. There are other small players in the regional-business-daily market. Vyapar Kesari, published by New Delhi-based National News Service Online, caters to people interested in commodities. Vyaapar is another such paper, published in Gujarati and Hindi by Janmabhoomi Group of Newspapers, that primarily caters to readers in Rajkot (Gujarat) and Mumbai. As per Lintas Media estimates, advertising revenue for 2007, in the print media stands at about Rs 8,588 crore. The share of English-language publications is around 35 per cent, while Hindi publications command around 20-25 per cent. The rest goes into regional-language publications. Tandon of FE feels that there is still somewhat of a skew towards English-language publications in terms of ad share. This is likely to change as the market for regional publications evolves. So, there is headroom in this space, considering that only 0.4 per cent of the country’s population reads business papers of any kind. “There is a need. The real challenge is to try and fit that need into a business proposition and see what works best for which newspaper – whether subsidise on retailing and depend on ad revenue or vice versa. It’ll depend on the play out between demand and advertising,” he says. Media houses have shown their intent to foray into the regional-language business daily space. Yet, they are either unsure or tight-lipped about how this move would work for them. Currently, all are busy gauging the market and seeking feedback from readers.
dhaleta.surender@thebrandreporter.com
© The Brand Reporter
If Ajay Chacko, director, TV18 Business Media, is to be believed, the circulation of English business dailies in India is a mere 12 lakh. He discounts some regional-language business dailies, saying that the numbers are minuscule, so they hardly make a dent in the total circulation. Take for instance, the print run of Nafa Nuksan, the Hindi business daily in Rajasthan. It’s a mere 20,000. Ask Financial Express (FE), which has a Gujarati version; the print run may be far less as it is not ready to reveal the figures, but claims that it has a readership of about 25,000. Economic Times (ET) too has a Gujarati version. However, there is a need in the regional space for business dailies and media houses have woken up to it. ET and Business Standard (BS), both are believed to be coming up with a Hindi version of their respective papers in the near future. Jagran Prakashan and Network18 have announced a 50:50 joint venture. They plan to launch a Hindi business daily in 2008. Sources in Jagran, however, reveal that it is not just looking at the Hindi space. The idea is to traverse the gamut of regional languages, including Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada and Punjabi as well. AGA Publications, which brings out Vaartha, a Telugu daily from Hyderabad, has also planned a Telugu business daily for the Andhra Pradesh market.
Gireesh Kumar Sanghi, CMD, AGA Publications, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, reveals that while Vaartha is published from 19 centres, the business daily is slated for launch in mid-2008 from seven centres – Tirupathi, Vishakhapatnam, Rajamundhri, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Hyderabad and Warangal. “The business daily is targeted at the Telugu-speaking people. Andhra Pradesh is a vibrant state and there is a lot of investment happening; even the rural economy is good. There is a need to cater to this segment, which may not be comfortable with English,” he says. His primary targets are the traders and farmers, “every shop and even a transport-wala.” Sanghi expects an initial print run of four lakh copies. However, the cover price has not been decided as yet, as feedback is being sought from readers on what kind of package they would be interested in. The industry buzz is that the Jagran Group may back the paper, because of recently formed family ties through a marriage. Chacko isn’t sure as yet about the prospective markets for the Jagran-Network18 venture. “There is no matrix to decide that as yet. The only matrix we had was Karobar, which Amar Ujala started in 1994 and closed down within five years. But that was some 10 years ago; the dynamics of the industry and readership have changed since then,” he says, adding, “The only parallel we have today are CNBC Awaaz and Zee Business (both in Hindi), and that too in the television space.” He says that when CNBC Awaaz was launched in January 2005, the officials feared that the channel would cannibalise the viewership of CNBC. However, monthly tune-ins in the Hindi business space have gone up from one crore to 3.2 crore since then, of which 60 per cent is with CNBC Awaaz. “There is a need to expand the market, and it has to be different and it surely is in the regional space,” states Chacko. He is also of the opinion that the content for regional business dailies has to be different from what is covered in English business dailies. “CNBC is targeted at corporate India, while CNBC Awaaz has content that is more info-based. It has varied content, like on self-development,commodities, mutual funds, and is slightly more retail-focused and aspiration-led. Even the language is easy to understand and is relatable. The trend has to be similar in the print space, and the potential is far more than television,” he explains. FEs Gujarati version was launched in 1991 and is also circulated on six days (Monday-Saturday). The target audience is anybody who wants to invest and is interested in stock markets. “The paper is extremely popular across segments and derives its readership equally from the small investor and trader communities,” says Aditya Tandon, senior brand manager, FE. The content for the Gujarati version, however, is not very different from the English version. “Our focus is on stock markets, though our endeavour is to include critical local news. We also carry columns by local opinion leaders,” he adds. The paper competes with ETs Gujarati version, which was launched in July last year. While FE has a cover price of Rs 3, ET Gujarati is being retailed at Re 1. FE is planning to take its Gujarati version to Mumbai as well, which, according to Tandon, “has a good number of people from Gujarat.”
Officials at ET refused to comment on the developments on the Hindi version - CEO, Ravi Dhariwal, could not be contacted. Meanwhile, Amar Ujala is also planning to come up with a Hindi business daily by the end of this year, though under a different brand name, which Sunil Mutreja, president – marketing, Amar Ujala refused to divulge. Its earlier business paper, Karobar, was published from Indore, Kanpur and Delhi, while the new one will be published from Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Dehradun and Delhi. “We’ll probably be the last one to launch the Hindi business daily. We’d like to see what others are coming out with and try and differentiate the product,” says Mutreja. Amar Ujala also will be printing BS’ Hindi version at its Noida printing facility. There are other small players in the regional-business-daily market. Vyapar Kesari, published by New Delhi-based National News Service Online, caters to people interested in commodities. Vyaapar is another such paper, published in Gujarati and Hindi by Janmabhoomi Group of Newspapers, that primarily caters to readers in Rajkot (Gujarat) and Mumbai. As per Lintas Media estimates, advertising revenue for 2007, in the print media stands at about Rs 8,588 crore. The share of English-language publications is around 35 per cent, while Hindi publications command around 20-25 per cent. The rest goes into regional-language publications. Tandon of FE feels that there is still somewhat of a skew towards English-language publications in terms of ad share. This is likely to change as the market for regional publications evolves. So, there is headroom in this space, considering that only 0.4 per cent of the country’s population reads business papers of any kind. “There is a need. The real challenge is to try and fit that need into a business proposition and see what works best for which newspaper – whether subsidise on retailing and depend on ad revenue or vice versa. It’ll depend on the play out between demand and advertising,” he says. Media houses have shown their intent to foray into the regional-language business daily space. Yet, they are either unsure or tight-lipped about how this move would work for them. Currently, all are busy gauging the market and seeking feedback from readers.
Comments