ABP completes its bouquet with 'Ebela'

The newly-launched Bengali tabloid targeted at the youth in Kolkata and Howrah sees strong response in its first week with paid circulation of 3 lakh copies

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | September 24, 2012

After ruling the Bengali newspaper market with Anandabaza Patrika for the last 90 years, ABP Group presented its second Bengali daily to the people of Kolkata and Howrah in tabloid format on September 17, 2012. With a cover price of Rs 2, the tabloid, Ebela, targets the young audience with a fresh format which has been designed after extensive research on what the young generation actually wants. Along with news, Ebela has a perfect blend of content that includes entertainment, health and wellness features, comedy/cartoons, etc.

“The paid circulation is more than 3 lakh copies while in the first week Ebela was distributed free with Anandabazar Patrika,” said Supriyo Sinha, Vice-President and Head of Anandabazar Patrika and Ebela. “The rise in subscription every day proves that the market is reacting positively.”

Supriyo Sinha

The marketing activities for the launch of Ebela started in middle of August and advertisers from Delhi and Mumbai have responded well, Sinha informed. “On the day of Ebela's launch, 80 per cent of our inventories was pre-booked. Ebela is a product which is sharply focused on the generation which will drive the country's economy for the next few decades. To tap those audiences, advertisers took it as an opportunity to showcase their product on Ebela,” Sinha said.

Will the two dailies complement each other or compete against each other? Replied Sinha, “Anandabazar Patrika and Ebela not only cater to different TGs but they are also different in many ways. Apart from format and visual appeal, the entire presentation of the newspapers makes them compete with each other. Anandabazar Patrika has a core loyal readership base with an average age of above 35 years while for Ebela the target age group is 20-40 years. Thus, both the newspapers tap all the generations across age groups.”

When asked if Ebela's launch was aimed as a preemptive move by ABP to counter the upcoming Bengali daily from The Times of India Group, Sinha said, “We launched Ebela because we fundamentally believe that there has been a need gap in the Bengali newspaper market as far as the young generation is concerned and it has nothing to do with The Times Group's upcoming newspaper. There will be strategies for the competition on time to time but we are reasonably confident about our products and tools we have.”

Also read: Commentary: Times Group all set to enter Kolkata market with Eyi Shomoy

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