Hindi Media

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.

Hindustan will launch its Bareli edition on September 1 thus extending its reach to Rohilkhand region of UP and Kumayun of Uttarakhand. Anil Bhaskar is going to be the Resident Editor of the said edition who was earlier with Rashtriya Sahara. On the other hand Dainik Bhaskar is all set to relaunch its Delhi edition. Some senior hands from other media organisations have joined the group.

Agra based group DLA has suspended the publication of its English daily DLA AM. Sources in the know say that it is only for the time being and very soon it may be launched in a new avataar. The fate of the employees is still undeciede however some of them may be adjusted into sister publications.

Sources in the Hindustan say recruitment for its proposed Gorakhpur edition will begin in the month of September. Thus paving the way for many more faces changing their loyalty from one group to another in search of a better opportunity. Bareli edition of the newspaper will be launched somewhere in between September 15 to first week of October. while launch of seperate Ghaziabad edition has been put on hold as the newspaper is in search of space for its proposed unit.

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

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...

© exchange4media 2008 Close on the heels of an intensive ad campaign, HT Media Ltd has announced the launch of its revamped Hindi daily, Hindustan. The fastest growing Hindi daily, as per the latest IRS data, the revamped Hindustan is eyeing a bigger share of the Hindi daily market. The daily offers its readers all the vital information and news delivering its brand promise of ‘Hindustan gets you prepared’. The price of the revamped Hindustan remains unchanged at Rs 3 and Rs 3.50, depending on the market it is selling in. Nilanjan Shome, Chief Marketing Officer, HT Media Ltd, said, “With the recent market surveys of the Indian media suggesting that Hindi is the medium of instruction for more than 50 per cent of the Indian population, Hindustan decided to re-work its positioning and target this extensive market. To be able to cater to the growing young global Indian population, the newspaper has undergone a complete re-engineering in the terms of its content, design and presentation, th...

© exchange4media 2008 After Agra, Ghaziabad and Meerut, Hindi afternoon tabloid DLA, has launched its fourth edition in Jhansi. In the absence of any daily in the afternoon slot, the paper has claimed that it has been received well by readers in Jhansi with a print order of over 12,000 copies in the city in the first week of its launch on April 9, 2008. Priced at Rs 1.50, the 16-page all-colour tabloid is published in two editions – city and up-country, encompassing nearby towns. At present, the sale of the copies is restricted to the city limits, but it would soon be made available in the catchment areas. Hemant Anand, Director-Marketing, DLA Media, said, “Jhansi is a Hindi-speaking belt and we hope the paper will do well here. From the business side, Jhansi is an upcoming city. In the next 5-6 years it is going to be a major hub for industries and transportation connecting Kolkata and Mumbai.” He further said, “We are also coming up with the Delhi edition in the last week of May or b...

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...

DLA will be hitting newsstands in Meerut very soon. The preparations are in full swing. Editor of Haribhoomi's Rohtak edition Omkar Chaudhary is all set to take over there as editor. Meerut has been witness to heightened media activity in the year gone by with the launch of Hindustan and Inext from the city. This year will see more launches. DLA promoted by Ajay Agarwal has editions from Agra and Ghaziabad.

The two states which are going to witness action in the new year as far as Hindi print meia is concerned are Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh . Dehradun the capital of Uttarakhand will see the launch of three newspapers including two tabloids. While the Delhi bases Hindi daily Hindustan from the HT media limited will see the light of day in another two or three months. Dainik Jagran will launch Inext and Amar Ujala will follow in the footsteps with Compact. Uttarakhand will be the first state after Uttar Pradesh to see the launch the of tabloids from these two major Hindi newspapers. Last year Rashtriya Sahara has made an entry to the hill state by launching am edtion from Dehradun. The media fraternity as well as readers are enjoying the ensuing war between major Hindi newspapers and are waiting for more to come. In the new year there will also be more action seen in Madhya Pradesh . While Rajasthan Patrika has already firmed up its plans of launching editions of Daily...

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.

The Noida office of Amar Ujala these days is witnessing hectic activity as the newspaper gears to launch new editions and is in the race for acquiring stake in Ranchi based newspaper group Prabhat Khabar. Group editor Shashishekhar has been on a foregin visit a month ago. The visit as indiers claim was to garner foregin direct investment (FDI) to fund its aggressive expansion plans. It is said that there will be infusion of fresh capital in the group through foregin direct investment by January.

Press Trust Of India / Mumbai December 06, 2006 Jagran Prakashan Ltd, publishers of Dainik Jagran, today said it is going to launch a compact daily under the name "I-next" by middle of December in the mini metros of Kanpur and Lucknow. Targeted at the young generation in the age group of 18-34 years, I-next would be primarily in Hindi, though a combination of English and Hindi words shall be used keeping in mind the lingo of the young generation, a statement from Jagran Prakashan informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The daily will cover local, national as well as international issues apart from sports, lifestyle, career, and health related ones. Last month, Jagran Prakashan had appointed Pawan R Chawla as the Editor of its compact multi-edition daily to head the editorial team.

Ajay Agarwal after losing out the legal battle over control of Amar Ujala to Atul Maheshwari is busy planning his foray back into the print media. According to the rumour mills going around in the Agra, he is planning to launch a new daily from the city. Subhash Rai's name is being touted as the editor. The city of Taj is already seeing a lot of churning in the print media with the entry of Hindustan. Although it has been unable to make a considerable dent in the fortunes of existing players like Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran, the heat is being felt. If the rumour mills are true and Ajay Agarwal moves ahead with his plan the city may see a price war couples with cut throat competition.