Hindi Media

BS Reporter / New Delhi June 29, 2007 Riding high on increased advertisement revenue, Jagran Prakashan (JPL), publishers of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran has reported 140.45% increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 76.22 crore for the financial year 2007 (FY07) when compared with Rs 31.70 crore in the corresponding previous period.The company's consolidated revenue increased by 27.95% to Rs 622.98 crore for FY07 as compared to Rs 486.88 crore in FY06. The EPS for the year was Rs 12.65 as against Rs 6.23 at the end of FY06.Commenting on the performance of the company in the last fiscal, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, chairman & MD, JPL, said: "In the last fiscal, we have taken steps to expand our product and services portfolio and now JPL has presence in all media genres viz print media, out of home advertising and event management and the new emerging media."

Leading Hindi daily Punjab Kesari is getting ready to mark its foray into Hisar. The new edition will be launched in March. So far the paper used to cater to this market through its Ambala edition. Explaining the reason for the launch, Punjab Kesari Group Director Amit Chopra said, “We have been serving Hisar through our Ambala edition. Having a separate edition in Hisar will help us serve the readers well. We will directly cater to them now providing them with the latest news. Henceforth the delivery time would also be reduced.” The content of the new offering will have a judicious mix of national, international, state news, among others. While 25 percent of coverage will be given to local news, 75 percent would constitute the state, national and other news. The price of the paper is going to be the same as the other editions of the Punjab Kesari. At present, Hisar has two Hindi dailies-- Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar. With a full-fledged edition coming in from Punjab Kesari soon, ...

Ranchi, Feb. 14: Putting all speculation to rest, the Usha Martin Group, owner of Jharkhand’s leading Hindi daily, Prabhat Khabar, has finally decided not to sell the paper. The decision was taken on Tuesday after Rajeev Jhawar, the managing director, apprised the group chairman of “strong sentiments of the employees against acquisition of the paper by Dainik Jagran”. Yesterday Jhawar had met key people from Prabhat Khabar. “After meeting them and going by their sentiments, the family has decided not to sell the paper,” he told The Telegraph. “Earlier we had decided to divest a portion of our stakes but now we have taken a final decision against selling and will continue to run the business,” he added. K.K. Goenka, vice-president, Prabhat Khabar, expressing his happiness, said: “The management has taken a bold decision. They interacted with locals and realised that Prabhat Khabar is a strong brand,” he said. Goenka said the employees are now rejuvenated and geared up to take all steps ...

Ranchi, Feb. 11: With news of the impending sale of Prabhat Khabar, the state’s leading Hindi newspaper, doing the rounds, politicians have jumped into the arena to condemn the “sell-out”. A pamphlet circulated in the state capital over the weekend exhorted people to resist the sale. The newspaper, declared the Jharkhand Jansangharsh Morcha, has been the voice of Jharkhand and is closely identified with the movement for the creation and thereafter reconstruction of the new state. The sale for profit-motive, therefore, was not acceptable, it stated. An agitated Ajay Kumar Kachchap of the Morcha states that the sale is a cons-piracy to suppress the voice of the people and “the deal must be stopped”. Even employees and journalists at Neutral Publishing House at Kokar, appear restive and question the wisdom of Usha Martin Ltd. in selling out at this juncture. “Usha Martin is not a sick company and is in no dire need to justify selling of family silver,” said a worried employee on Sunday wh...

Ranchi/Calcutta, Feb. 9: “Negotiations are in an advanced stage” is the only comment that stakeholders were willing to make today. But the buzz is that Jharkhand’s leading newspaper, Prabhat Khabar, is all set to change hands. Unconfirmed reports put the UP-based Jagran group and MP-based Dainik Bhaskar group, the latter also the publishers of the English daily DNA (Daily News & Analysis) in Mumbai, as front-runners to buy Neutral Publishing, the firm that publishes Prabhat Khabar and is about to launch FM radio stations in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. While Dainik Bhaskar does not have a presence in the east, Jagran has editions in Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur and also Bhagalpur. It is not clear at this point whether the group, if it manages to buy Prabhat Khabar, will opt to retain both the brands and all the editions. Usha Martin Industries Ltd (UMIL) bought Prabhat Khabar, which was launched in 1984, from Congress leader Gyan Ranjan in 1989 for Rs 2.5 crore. Usha Martin, a company regis...

Sumita Patra Rashtriya Sahara has Kanpur edition on February 10. This is the fifth edition of the paper from the diversified Sahara Group. The group has identified Dehradoon as its next destination, but no final date has been fixed for this foray. With a cover price of Rs 3, the paper comes out with 16 pages and a four-page supplement, with ten pages being in colour. Explaining the reason for launching the Kanpur edition, Rashtriya Sahara Unit Manager Amar Singh said, “Kanpur has a lot of potential both in terms of readership as well as in terms advertising revenue.” Rashtriya Sahara will be facing stiff competition from the existing players lijke Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, Hindustan and Aaj. But Singh hopes to counter the entrenched players by laying stress on strong editorial content--40 percent being local content and the rest being a healthy mix of national news, international news, business, sports, entertainment, and others. Singh hopes to garner around Rs 50 lakh a month in ad r...

ALOKE THAKORE The India Today issue of 5 February and the India Today (Hindi) of 7 February, 2007 presents a rather unique case of journalistic mimesis. Suggesting anything otherwise would be impertinent. Mr Aroon Purie’s signed editorial on page 5 of the English edition and Mr Prabhu Chawla’s signed editorial on page 4 of the Hindi edition read the same with very minor changes. Granting that the substance of both the pieces deals with the same story, the mirroring of ideas, the flow of sentences, even the placement of quotes, would all lead one to believe that at least one of them was plagiarising or both were affixing signatures to ghost written editorials; especially, since both these esteemed gentlemen choose to end the pieces with a signature flourish. Or may be it is just the mode of operations that the Hindi edition is accustomed to since the magazine that has a different registration number than the English one chooses to do nothing more than translate all the pieces that make...