Sakshi finally launched

After being built up for more than eighteen months, Jagati Publication’s Sakshi started up on March 24 with 23 editions and 1.2 million copies. After several decades Ramoji Rao’s Eenadu has an all India audited circulation of 11,16,275 copies (ABC figures for January-June 2007) which Sakshi is claiming to have surpassed right at launch. Besides Eenadu, the fertile Andhra market has many other Telugu dailies such as Andhra Bhoomi, Andhra Jyothi, Andhra Prabha, Vaarttha and the recently launched Surya as well.

The media has commented vociferously that Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the AP chief minister an energy and cement industrialist launched Sakshi just to bring the Congress and his father back to power in the next election likely in the first quarter of 2009. The two existing Telugu circulation leaders, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, are said to be anti-Congress. The Telugu Desam president Chandrababu Naidu, turned down an invitation from the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to attend the launch of Saakshi.

Sakshi missed several launch dates including the very auspicious 29 February 2008, apparently because Reddy found some of the startup issues challenging. In the meantime another Telugu daily, Surya, leapt past to its own launch in October 2007. Surya is promoted by another Congress leader Nukarapu Suryaprakash Rao. JM Reddy had asked Suryaprakash Rao to defer the publication of Surya till after Sakshi’s. However Sakshi’s prolonged delay in spite of having expensive printing machines and CtPs and other infrastructure in 23 locations meant that Surya was first to launch.

According to its editor Satyamurthi, Surya notched up a paid circulation of one lakh copies (100,000) daily even before launch although subsequent reports suggest that the paper has met with more moderate success. “We have a young core group with innovative ideas and actionable plans. Our focus is naturally youth. We are reaching out to them. Not that we are neglecting the traditional newspaper reader, who begins the day with a look at the headlines. In a way we are re-writing the rules of the game in [the] print world,” said Satyamurthi, to the Asian Tribune web site.

Jagan Mohan Reddy has admitted that Sakshi is losing Rs. one crore (US$ 250,00) every day but his business plan of coming out simultaneously with 23 editions with a high colour page count partly is based on Eenadu’s failure in gearing up for more colour pages in all centres in a timely way. In fact Eenadu has been bogged down for the last several years in commissioning used double-width double-circumference machines. Sakshi even with all its delays has gone in for the distributed production model with brand new single circumference presses from Manugraph capable of a much higher page count in full colour. Sakshi has also invested in a large number of CtP devices from Escher-Grad and Agfa. The international newspaper designer Mario Garcia who has worked in the past for HT Media and Kasturi and Sons, has designed Sakshi.

The other interesting implication of what Jagan Mohan Reddy has told the press is that his 8,300 subscription agents (hawkers) have given a one month advance which could mean that he has collected around Rs 10 to 15 crore (US$ 2.5 to 3.8 million) from his distributors and can continue to rely on this kind of input each month to offset one-third of his losses. This would leave him with about a deficit of Rs 240 crore (US$ 60 million) that he needs to get from advertising to break even in the first year. Not easy and this figure does not take into account the capital expenses incurred thus far.

However it is clear that new Telugu dailies in Andhra Pradesh are not to be discounted as business propositions. There is talk of even the Dainik Bhaskar group entering the fray after their success in the Hindi, Gujarati and English language daily markets. It is said that the daily ad market in the state is about Rs 750 crore (approximately US$ 190 million) of which Eenadu is said to enjoy about Rs 400 crore (approximately US$ 100 million).

Times of India also finally launches in Chennai
In another case of a launch being delayed for months if not years, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday 13 April 2008 launched the Chennai edition of the Times of India, which hit the stands the next morning. Launching the edition, Karunanidhi said the Times of India founded in 1838 had brought out important newspapers and magazines like Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Femina and Filmfare besides entering the field of television and radio. “I am attracted by the name of Times of India and I hope the paper will also attract me,” he said. “The paper should remove deep darkness and kindle the light of knowledge among the people,” he added.

Kasturi and Sons immediately dropped the cover price of The Hindu from Rs. 3.25 to Rs 2.50 (US$ .06) to match TOI’s “introductory pricing” of Rs 2 on weekdays and Rs 3 on Sundays. Ironically right from the launch, the venerable Hindu was also scooped by TOI’s front page human interest story of Priyanka Gandhi visiting Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicted associates of the terrorist group that assassinated her father Rajiv Gandhi, in Vellore Prison. Nalini, married to Murugan, sentenced to death in the assassination case, was also awarded capital punishment. Her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment after Sonia Gandhi pleaded for clemency for the sake of the convict’s young daughter.

The financial press has also commented that Kasturi and Sons, publishers of the Hindu, have increased salaries across their publications from 40 to 100 per cent as of March 2008 and also increased advertising rates by 15 per cent. The management has attributed the ad rate increase to the sharp rise in newsprint prices. At the same time, the newsprint price rise has taken some of the joy out of the Chennai launch for the ambitious TOI management and their technique of predatory pricing.

DLA launches its Meerut and Jhansi editions
In the north, DLA, the March 2007 startup Hindi afternoon tabloid headquartered in Agra launched its Meerut edition on 21 February 2008. The afternoon daily’s launch print order is claimed to be 45,000 copies. This is the third edition for the daily within 11 months of its launch. DLA launched in Ghaziabad 27 January 2008 with a claimed 65,000 copies. DLA’s Jhansi edition was launched on 9 April 2008. We spoke to Hemant Anand of DLA, and he says both the Meerut and Jhansi editions have been received very well and in Jhansi their circulation is about 12,000 currently. He also told us their Delhi edition will be launched around the first week of June and sometime later in the year they will also come out with the Kanpur and Lucknow editions. The group’s English morning tabloid called DLA am launched in Agra in August 2007 currently prints about 20,000 copies.

Times Group launches the Pune Mirror
On April 6, 2006, Times Group of India launched Pune Mirror, a “compact” morning daily targeted at a younger demographic. Modeled after the popular Mumbai Mirror the Pune Mirror is 48 pages and claims to blend the content of a broadsheet with the visual look of a tabloid. The Times Group chose Pune because of its large student population.

Business Standard launches Gujarati edition and a Hindi business daily in Chandigarh BS launched its Gujarati edition on 26 February 2008. Priced at Rs 1.50, the daily is available six days a week. It is being published in Mumbai and will also be printed from Ahmedabad. The Hindi Business daily was launched on Feb 21 2008 and is also available six days a week. According to Business Standard GM-Marketing S Arun Natesh, the financial daily is doing a 360-degree marketing campaign for the Business Standard Hindi that includes print, OOH, TV, and would try to reach out to several customer touch points, along with having activities such as on-ground events.

Economic Times launches Hindi Business daily
Economic Times launched its Hindi business daily in New Delhi on 19 February 2008. The paper has 16 pages and a print run of 2,00,000 copies. The Economic Times executive editor Rahul Joshi heads the business daily's editorial team.

Deccan chronicle to launch its financial daily by May
Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, publishers of the daily Deccan Chronicle plans to launch its financial daily by May 2008, in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Sakaal Group of Publications to launch English daily
Sakaal Group of Publications, a leading media house in Maharashtra and Goa plans to come up with two television channels and another English newspaper in 2008. The group already publishes Daily Sakal and Gomantak newspapers in Marathi, and Gomantak Times and Maharashtra Herald in English, besides other publications. The English daily by the group was to be launched in Pune by this month (April 2008), and subsequently in a phased manner in major Indian cities.