Recession is over

Market is showing signs of improvement and thus media industry is also trying to get out of the slumber of past few months. Restructuring excercise in major media houses is almost over. Now's the time for expansion or finding new ways to hold on the existing territory. Patrika and Bhaskar have almost completed this excercise in Rajasthan. Sources say now Patrika may now look towards expansion in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Gwalior and Raipur editions are said to be in the pipeline. People's group has set 31 July as the launch date of its Indore edition. Jabalpur may follow afterwards. Dainik Jagran has already launched its national edition. I-next from the same group is looking towards launching Noida and Gurgaon editions. Hindustan has almost completed the recruitment for its upcoming Bareli edition and Gorakhpur will follow afterwards. Prabhat Khabar has relaunched its Patna edition and is now looking towards improving its existing editions in Jharkhand. Smaller players like Mahanagar Hindi daily published from Mumbai is also said to be contemplating launch of its Delhi and Lucknow editions. However Nai Dunia's expansion plans are not going the way as was expected. The dull show of the newspaper in the Delhi market seems to have put a spoke in the plans. Agra based media house DLA has relaunched Vikassheel Bharat. However its Noida and Meerut editions are said to be not doing well. The freeze on recruitments in Amar Ujala is said to be over. However the group does not seem to have any major expansion plans apart from saving its territory.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 circul
Read more

HT Media Q3 net at Rs 184.2 mn; demerges Hindi business

Courtsey: exchange4media.com HT Media more than doubled its net profit in the third quarter ended December 31, 2009 to Rs 184.2 million from Rs 78.2 million in Q3 FY09 due to sharp increase in circulation and advertising revenues. The company has demerged its Hindi business that includes daily ‘Hindustan’, magazines ‘Nandan’ and Kadambini’ during the quarter for Rs 1.4 billion and has temporarily shut down the loss making JV with BCCL, ‘Metro Now’. However, the company’s total revenue decreased by 3 per cent at Rs 3,289.8 million on standalone basis. On consolidated basis, the revenues of the company have increased 6 per cent to Rs 3,661 million from Rs 3,457 million on account of 30 per cent increase in circulation revenues from Rs 390 million to Rs 508 million. This has been largely due to increase in the number of copies circulated, improved realisations and increase in cover price effective Q1 FY10. The advertising revenues showed a growth of 3 per cent from Rs 2,780 million to Rs
Read more

Amar Ujala to get a strategic partner: Indian Express

Amar Ujala, the fourth largest Hindi daily in terms of readership, is set to get a strategic partner. One of India’s largest regional media groups will acquire an 18 per cent stake in Amar Ujala Publications Ltd (AUPL), the company that publishes the newspaper, it is learnt. Amar Ujala has been in the news for the past two years, ever since private equity firm DE Shaw, which had picked up an 18 per cent stake in AUPL in 2006 for Rs 117 crore, sought an exit and a return of around 25% on its investment. DE Shaw was insistent that AUPL either lists itself or sells to a buyer identified by the private equity firm. When AUPL resisted, DE Shaw dragged the company to court. After a prolonged and messy battle, AUPL agreed to pay DE Shaw for its 18 per cent stake. AUPL has ever since been looking for a strategic investor. The company valued itself at around Rs 850 crore. Subhash Chandra’s Zee Group entered the fray recently, and there were some rumours that Amar Ujala’s promoters wo
Read more