Amar Ujala’s Lucknow edition by June end; hopes to be No. 1

This news appeared first at www.afaqs.com

Hindi daily Amar Ujala is all set to launch its 18th edition overall and its 11th edition in Uttar Pradesh (UP) in Lucknow in the last week of June.

According to market sources, the edition will cover eight other districts of UP in addition to Lucknow: Raibareli, Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda, Sitapur, Barabanki, Bahraich, Faizabad and Sultanpur.


In Lucknow, Amar Ujala will fight it out with the current market leader, Dainik Jagran, which has a circulation of 200,789 copies as per the ABC figures for July-December 2007. According to company insiders in Lucknow, Amar Ujala hopes to be No. 1 in Lucknow from day one – it has more than 210,000 confirmed subscriptions already.

The daily will have a cover price of Rs 3.50, at par with Dainik Jagran.

HT Media’s Hindustan (with a cover price of Rs 3/ 3.50) is also a strong competitor. As per ABC figures for July-December 2007, Hindustan’s Lucknow edition – also printed from Varanasi and Kanpur – has a circulation of 309,921 copies. The figure includes 103,133 copies printed in Varanasi and 47,017 copies printed in Kanpur, which started on August 30, 2007.

Other competitors include Aj (priced at Rs 2) and Rashtriya Sahara (priced at Rs 3/ 3.50), which, as per ABC (July-December 2007) figures, have a circulation of 62,135 and 54,652 copies, respectively.

Amar Ujala has hired around 450 men for a personal contact programme (PCC), which has been going on for the last two months. The PCC consists of a subscription drive, which includes a promotional line-up of Super Sixer and Double Sixer schemes. The Super Sixer is a six month subscription scheme, the Double Sixer is a 12 month one.

Under the Super Sixer scheme, the daily is offering subscribers a Yera juice set for an initial membership fee of Rs 150. The subscribers will have to pay only half the amount of the monthly bill during the first, third and fifth months of the subscription period. In the second and fourth months, on full payment of the bill, the company is offering a set of six glasses from Yera and a Premier non-stick tawa, respectively.

Similarly, under the Double Sixer scheme, for an initial membership fee of Rs 300, the daily is offering subscribers a Premier non-stick tawa. Subscribers pay only half the monthly bill in the odd number months and get gifts in the even number months if they pay the full monthly bill. Under both schemes, subscribers are entitled to participate in a lucky draw in the sixth month, which offers prizes worth lakhs of rupees.

“We’ll speak closer to the launch,” was all Sunil Mutreja, president, marketing, Amar Ujala, was ready to say when asked about the company’s future plans.