Hindi Media

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...

Reports coming in from different sources say that Zee group is all set to take over India leading Hindi daily Amar Ujala. The deal size is said to be worth 1100 crore rupees. Zee is expected to inform BSE about the deal on Wenesday. Rajul Maheshwari will remain director till December 31 and Sunil Mutreja will act as CEO of Amar Ujala after take over by Zee. Amar Ujala is 4th largest Hindi daily in India as per Indian Readership Survey (IRS) behind Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and Hindustan and ahead of Rajasthan Patrika. It is assumed that if the take over takes place  war between leading regional players in Hindi belt will resume. In India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh Amar Ujala is in direct competition with the market leader and world's largest read daily Dainik Jagran. In western UP there is close fight between the two while Jagran has a clear edge in eastern and central UP. In Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir Amar Ujala is the market le...

Courtesy: livemint.com Anushree Chandran, anushree.m@livemint.com Living Media India Ltd, which publishes print titles such as India Today, Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar, among others, is set to launch a Hindi broadsheet Aaj Tak in the next six months. The group operates a Hindi news channel by the same name which is over 10 years old. The group has also set its sights on the southern market. It is gearing up to launch a Malayalam daily that would compete with Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi in the Kerala market. A team is already working on the project. A Gujarati news magazine (separate from India Today in Gujarati) is also on the cards. While a senior India Today executive confirmed these developments on condition of anonymity, Ashish Bagga, CEO, Living Media, said there was nothing in the offing immediately. He declined to elaborate further. The Malayalam paper and the Gujarati magazine will be published under the newly created corporate entity under Prabhu Chawla, former edit...

There is going to be major reshuffling in the Kanpur's print media space. Amar Ujala under the leadership of Dinesh Juyal its new editor is trying to reinvent itself. A number of people are on the verge being out from the organisation while others waiting to come in. Some have already left the newspaper or have been shown the door. According to reliable sources Dainik Jagran may lose some of its reporters to the rival. One of them is looking after the crime beat. While after Sanjiv Mohan Sharma moving out to Amar Ujala from Hindustan few more wickets from his earlier organisation may fall. The whole excercise is to rejunevate the newspaper which has lost a major chunk of its readership to the rival Dainik Jagran. Its tabloid Compact has also failed to make an impact and dent the readership base of i-next.

Brajendra Pratap Singh who is at present senior reporter at Hindustan Kanpur will join in as Chief Reporter of the newspaper's Allahabad edition. He has been entrusted with the responsibilty at a juncture when there is stiff competition going on between the existing players. He is known for his work on water issues and Ganga cleanliness drive. On the other hand Sunil Singh from i-next Kanpur has joined Compact Gorakhpur as Senior Sub Editor. The tabloid from Amar Ujala group is to be launched by 23 March in Gorakhpur.

Amar Ujala is said to be preparing to launch national edition. The project is ready and may be announced within a week or two.

One of the prominent players of Hindi print media space Hindustan Media Ventures Limited is all set to launch its tabloid Spark. The company already publishes Hindi daily Hindustan and is part of the HT media group. As per our sources a meeting was held recetly in Delhi in a five star hotel located at Bhikaji Cama Place to frame the strategy for the launch. The first edition is supposed to be launched by mid April. This comes in the wake of expansion drive by Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran of their tabloid newspapers Compact and i-next.

The tabloid from Amar Ujala 'Compact' is going places. Soon it will be launched from Gorakhpur and Bareli. 23 March is the tentative date for the launch of Compact from Gorakhpur. On the other hand i-next from the Jagran group is all set to launch editions from Bareli and Jamshedpur.

Yashwant Vyas has finally joined Amar Ujala as consulting editor (new projects)putting aside all the rum speculations. Our blog was the first to break the news and stood by it. Ajay Upadhyaya has already joined in as consulting editor.

i next is getting ready to launch one more edition from Jharkhand. It is already present in the capital Ranchi and will launch an edition from Jamshedpur before the end of this financial year. On the other hand the tabloid newspaper from Amar Ujala has launched Shuklaganj, Unnao edition which will cater to the needs of the growing suburb of Kanpur. It also has plans to launch edition from Gorakhpur.

Four people have joined Hindustan, Kanpur of which three are from Amar Ujala, Lucknow and one is from Dainik Jagran Dinesh Mishra Amar Ujala, Lucknow Sachin Mishra Amar Ujala, Lucknow Mansi, Amar ujala, Lucknow Rakesh Pal, Dainik Jagran, Meerut

Excecutive editor of Amar Ujala Govind Singh has put in his papers. Singh is moving to Hindustan where he will be add to the long list of editros who have moved on to from Amar Ujala after the exit of Shashisekhar. They include Pratap Somvanshi, Sudhansu Srivastava, Rajendra Tiwari, KK Upadhyaya and Ashok Pandey. This development comes in the wake of Narendrapal Singh joining as excecutive editor at Amar Ujala. Yashwant Vyas who is at present with Dainik Bhaskar name is doing the rounds in Jaipur and Noida as new group editor of Amar Ujala, however Bhaskar management is said to be in talks with him so as to convince him about remaining with the group and take on new responsibilites. On the other hand Ajay Upadhyaya who was till now denying any association with Amar Ujala is said to have joined in as consulting editor.

Reports coming in from Jaipur say Yashwant Vyas editor of Aha Zindagi, magazine from the house of Dainik Bhaskar is quitting the group. While sources in Amar Ujala, Nodia say that he will be joining the newspaper as Group Editor on Feb 8. If you have any other information can mail it to us at hindimedia1@gmail.com

The Times of India (TOI) continues to be the leading daily of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), followed by its foe-turned-friend, Hindustan Times (HT), with total readerships of 32.66 lakh and 32.44 lakh respectively. In fact, the gap between the two dailies has narrowed down from about 5 lakh readers in R1, 2008 to only 22,000 in the current round of IRS (R2, 2009). However, like most leading dailies in this market, both the English dailies have lost readers in the current round of IRS. While TOI has lost 1.35 lakh readers, HT is down by 86,000 readers. For TOI, it's about 4.15 lakh readers less than R1, 2008. The country's leading English daily had lost close to 3 lakh readers in the city a year ago, which it still hasn't managed to compensate for. Though it had managed to maintain a status quo by adding a marginal 4,000 readers, the current loss of readers has increased the gap. TOI's biggest loss has been in West Delhi (60,000) and South Delhi (53,00...

The compact size newspaper from the Jagran group i-next is said to be making plans for inroads into the heart of India ie, Madhya Pradesh. Plans are already afoot and preparations have begun. However its still unclear from where it plans to enter MP. Feasibility studies are underway for Bhopal, Indore and Gwalior. Sources say Gwalior may be first on the list as it is near to Agra and desk operations may be handled by the team there. On the other hand Amar Ujala is still in a fix over its proposed expansion plans for tabloid Compact. After Shashisekhar left the first one was said to be coming from Gorakhpur. Sumant Pandey left i-next to join the group as NE for the proposed launch. Compact's Lucknow edition is also in pipeline. Recently four people have left i-next to join Amar Ujala, another four to join Prabhat Khabar and one to join Dainik Bhaskar.

In one of the major developments of saturday Hindi print media was shaken whose after effects will be seen in coming months. While one of the most reverred editors of Hindi print media space Mrinal Pandey resigned from tbe post of editor of Hindustan. Shashishekhar has resigned from Amar Ujala and will be joining Hindustan on September 1. The industry is shaken with this development. Hindustan which is on a major expansion drive in the Hindi heartland is sure to witness few more exits. On the other hand Amar Ujala may also see some of the people moving to other destinations probably Hindustan.

Pramod is quitting Amar Ujala Dehradun to join Hindustans' soon to be launched Bareli edition as DNE upcountry.

Amar Ujala is said to be planning launch of its tabloid newspaper Compact from Gorakhpur in next 5-6 months. Preparations are said to be underway. Dainik Jagran is also looking at expanding presence of its tabloid i-next to NCR.

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 l...

hindimedia1@gmail.com Hindi print media space will very soon be witness to tabloid war among the major newspaper groups. Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala are already in the fray with i-next and compact. Dainik Bhaskar after the launch of Patrika from Bhopal has started publication of DB Gold. Ajay Agarwal who broke away from Amar Ujala is now spearheding the assault in the western Uttar Pradesh with his own tabloid DLA. He is all set to enter newer territories including editions from Lucknow and Kanpur. Hindustan and Rajasthan Patrika are the two major groups who have kept away from this war and were busy expanding into newer areas with their broadsheet products. However Hindustan after the launch of i-next from Patna and the proposed launch from Ranchi is mulling over the idea of launching a tabloid, which may be named, Spark. Dainik Jagran’s tabloid i-next has made its presence felt in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar. At present it is being published simultaneously from Kanpur, Luck...