Launches and Strategies

India’s leading publisher Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL) has reached an understanding with the US major Dow Jones to launch an Indian edition of the well-known financial daily, The Wall Street Journal. Top sources in BCCL confirmed that the memorandum of understanding was signed a few days ago. The agreement states that a joint venture company, WSJ India, will be set up in which Dow Jones...

Clocking 1.4 crore daily readers, Dainik Jagran is eyeing the Punjab pie. The Jagran group is launching an edition in Ludhiana on January 18, 2004. "The new edition will help Dainik Jagran consolidate its position in Punjab," says Shailesh Gupta, Director, Dainik Jagran. What was the purpose behind launching an edition in Ludhiana? "We had plans of setting up a second plant in Punjab and it made...

The Times group, owner of English daily The Times of India (TOI) besides a slew of other newspapers and magazines, has launched another full-fledged English newspaper in the Delhi market. Priced the same as the TOI, that is, at Rs 1.50 for all weekdays, Speednews is a short and snappy version of the group's flagship brand TOI - "a paper for time-pressed individuals", informs Rahul Kansal, brand...

The Rs 1,002-crore Dainik Bhaskar group has its heart set on Gujarat. Buoyed by the success of Divya Bhaskar - an AC Nielsen ORG-Marg study in Ahmedabad in August showed Divya Bhaskar is the largest read newspaper with 11.83 lakh readers, followed by Gujarat Samachar (9.79 lakh readers) and Sandesh (8.12 lakh readers) - the media group has decided to launch three more editions in the state. To...

Come September and Media Transasia, publisher of the Indian Airlines in-flight magazine Swagat, will launch two new monthly magazines - Golf Style, which, as the name suggests, is a golf magazine, and National Review, a magazine on political news. While the cover price of Golf Style will be Rs 150, that of National Review will be Rs 50. To begin with, Media Transasia is looking at a print run of...

With a circulation of 16.5 lakh copies (according to ABC for the period of January to June 2002) and a readership of 1.3 crore as indicated by the latest round of the Indian Readership Survey, Dainik Bhaskar seems to be a comfortable leader. But resting on its laurels is not a trait one can associate with the Hindi daily that recently forayed into the eight state, namely Maharashtra, adding one...

Business Standard has finally fallen in line with national and international norms in terms of size. After months of holding on to its original height of 56 cm and width of 38 cm per page (full area), Business Standard, the flagship brand from the company with the same name, will reduce its size. Starting today (Monday, October 28, 2002), it will be slimmer with its width at 35 cm (height remains...

The average Mumbaikar has a lot of time to read. The city is the financial capital of India, and millions of people are on the move every hour. It is a city with a life that no other Indian city has - hectic, even frenzied. Yet, ironically, it is a city where a lot of people have a lot of time to read. In the Colaba cafes sipping strawberry- or mango-flavoured iced teas, or swilling generous jugs...

As part of the publications' plans to consolidate its position in eastern India, The Statesman is planning to launch its edition in Orissa very soon. Currently, the 126-year-old newspaper is available in Delhi, Kolkata and Siliguri. Though the date for the Orissa launch has not been decided yet, it should hit the newsstands in the state in the next two to three months. While the editorial mix of...

Aaj Tak in Punjabi. Well, that's how the STV Enterprises brass would like to describe its 24-hour Punjabi news channel, which debuted on January 14. The channel, branded Punjab Today, aims to bring "news about people to the people" (Lokan dian khabran lokan tak). A free-to-air channel, Punjab Today beams via Thaicom 3 satellite. Promoted by Delhi-based broadcast equipment service provider Jugal K...