Hindi Media

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...

Preparations for the launch of i next's Jamshedpur and Compact's Gorakhpur edition have reached the last stage. Both had their dummy out a day before on March 19.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jagran Prakashan Ltd has launched the eighth edition of I-next in Patna on May 27. The ninth edition of I-next is slated to hit Ranchi newsstands in the third week of June. The bilingual compact daily is already present in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Commenting on the new editions, Shailesh Gupta, Director, Jagran Prakashan Ltd, said, “Like most of the mini-metros of India, Patna and Ranchi are also experiencing a major change and a feel-good factor, thanks to the developmental activities in this part of the world. There is a new found confidence and urge among people to live the good life with players like MS Dhoni being so successful at the highest level. All this further fuels the urge to spend more, thus catalysing the economic activities. So, the time is ripe for publishing a daily like I-next, which caters to the segment that is youthful in their approach towards life and is ready to experiment – be it news, lifestyle, trends, fashion, housing or food.” Alok Sanwal, Project He...

Sunil Mutreja, President – Marketing, Amar Ujala, in an interview to Impact has said the tabloid from Amar Ujala will have editions from Varanasi, Allahabad, Dehradun, Ghaziabad and Meerut by January 30. Compact is already getting published from Kanpur and Agra. Mutreja says it 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. We plan to move to Ludhiana after that, which should happen in October. 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.

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 start...

Amar Ujala is on its way to launch two more editions of its tabloid Compact from Allahabad and Dehradun in the new year. Recently the rival Dainik Jagran has launched its tabloid Inext from Allahabad and will very soon be adding one more edition to its kitty ie. Dehradun. Amar Ujala already has two editions of its tabloid from Kanpur and Agra.

DLA the Agra based afternoon Hindi tabloid is gearing up for a Ghaziabad launch. However the date of is unknown. Since its launch the tabloid has been gaining circulation in and around Agra riding on aggressive marketing and publicity. It also launched a morning daily tabloid AM within few months of its entering the market. However with the launch of Dainik Jagran's tabloid newspaper i-next from the city and the ensuing launch of Amar Ujala's tabloid Compact, DLA will have to face stiff competition. As both the newspaper groups are well entrenched in the already crowded market. After Hindustan two more morning newspapers Rashtriya Sahara and Dainik Bhaskar are also said to be eyeing the market. On the other hand one more Hindi daily Aaj Samaj has already entered the Delhi market with a strong focus on National Capital Region comprising of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad etc. Keeping this in mind the present market leader Navbharat Times has also beefed up its team and l...