Dainik Bhaskar Group Launches Divya Marathi from Aurangabad

The group's 4th Language Newspaper and 60th edition hit the newsstands yesterday; Nasik edition to follow.

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | May 30, 2011

Dainik Bhaskar Group, India's largest newspaper group makes another big leap by launching its 4^th language daily and 60^th edition – Divya Marathi from Auranagabd. The newspaper hit the newsstands on yesterday, 29^th May. Although, the officials at Dainik Bhaskar Group denied commenting on the number of copies circulated on first day, it is learnt from the sources that it had a print run of 85,000 copies on the day 1. Following this, an edition from Nasik will be launched shortly.

The Launch was announced at a function held on 28th May, 2011 where P Chidambaram (Union Home Minister) was the chief guest. The function was presided over by Prithiviraj Chouhan (Chief Minster Maharashtra).

Dainik Bhaskar group now publishes 60 editions in 4 languages; Hindi, Gujarati, English & Marathi covering 13 states- which translates to 41% of Indian geographical mass.  Through this launch Dainik Bhaskar Group will be successfully covering 41% of the Indian geographical spread.

Commenting on the successful launch of Dainik Divya Marathi, Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp Limited said, “Undoubtedly, the response to Dainik Divya Marathi has been overwhelming from our readers and advertisers in Aurangabad city. The pre-launch surveys were one of the largest conducted in Aurangabad region and were an exciting challenge. Once again the results have reiterated our execution capabilities to meticulously plan and execute the pre-launch stages and launch the final product most successfully. The need for an unbiased and fearless news daily with the sole primary interest of social and economic development of Aurangabad has emerged as the foremost observation by respondents through an intensive door-to-door survey. We are delighted that Dainik Divya Marathi has emerged as a product with very strong content appealing to diverse readership categories and we are committed to making it a superlative vehicle to participate in and promote Aurangabad city's socio-economic progress.”

In Aurangabad prior to launch of Divya Marathi, the group covered over 1,40,000  household and commercial establishments in  robust Twin Contact Program, which helped map an in-depth understanding of the readership patterns in the city.

Contact 1 : covering intensive door-to-door survey where readers were requested to share their views of 'their ideal news paper'.  In Contact 2; households in the city were visited to book orders and generate subscriptions

The pre-launch exercise was well supported by a powerful branding campaign to announce the initiation of the survey at every stage – “Tumchi Marji Janoon Ghyayla Yetoye” (We are coming to know your opinion/wishes!) and “Na Galli Chi, Na Dilli Chi, Aata Chalel Tumchi Marji” (Now no wishes of any other City or Delhi, only your wish will prevail)

It has been one of the largest surveys conducted in Aurangabad region, to know the opinion of readers revealed most interesting observations:. 97% people of Aurangabad want an unbiased newspaper, not affiliated to any political party or an influential category. Unbiased courageous journalism is a strength of the Dainik Bhaskar group across its newspapers. Divya Marathi being launched now promises to provide the readers just that- UNBIASED reporting.

Vinay Maheshwari,  Vice President- Sales & Market Development says, “Dainik Bhaskar group is one of the most progressive media superpower of the country. The editorial-distribution combine masters the science of connecting with the readers. We ensure sticking to the basic values of transparency and credibility. Be it a new state or a new language, while it's a big feat for most, it has almost become a habit at Bhaskar. We are sure that our dedication and determination towards delivering the best to our readers will bring in a paradigm shift in Maharashtra as well.”

In business terms, Maharashtra is actually two states in one.  Mumbai – Pune and ROM (Rest-of-Maharashtra). Rest of Maharashtra is a market with very high potential; in fact its MPV (Market Potential Value- as per RK Swamy Guide) is more than a whole state like Andhra Pradesh. Additionally there existed a huge gap people who can read Marathi (88%) and those who read any Marathi daily (44%). The opportunity magnifies with the development taking place in rest of Maharashtra and the increase in literacy rates. Also the per capita income of Maharashtra is more than that of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Commenting on the success, Hemant Arora, Chief Officer - Marketing and Corporate Sales, said, “Dainik Bhaskar Group said, Maharashtra Launch is one of the most important launches for us. It is one of the priority market for the advertisers  and our business associates knows the leadership thought process that Dainik Bhaskar group  follows rigorously while entering any market. It is great to share that we have received an equally overwhelming response from the market. This time also we have created high degree of awareness of our efforts for the Divya Marathi launch process, including some innovative communication – like sharing of the subscriber data base in a very transparent fashion- these have definitely helped us in strengthening everyone else's belief in our success.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com