Dainik Jagran launches 8 city-centric supplements in Punjab

India's highest read publication Dainik Jagran is out to conquer Punjabi hearts. The Hindi daily is launching eight city-centric supplements across the state as part of its initiative to localise its news content.

The eight editions include towns such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Gurudaspur and socio-economic regions such as Malwa and Doaba.

The supplements are four-page pullouts which will carry only city-related news. It will be called Jagran City and will cover important events, personalities, soft news and also feature-based articles such as lifestyle, fashion and trends of each city.

Apart from these, the city-based publications will also cover public issues of respective cities including crime reports..

Talking about the strategy behind launching these supplements, Sanjay Gupta, CEO, Dainik Jagran, says, "It is our constant endeavour to offer customised soft news and information to our readers. Above all, we have always favoured localisation of news and practiced it successfully."

"Dainik Jagran is doing extremely well in the Punjab region after its inception five years back. Our aim is to increase our readers' participation and interest about the place where they live. I believe that the customised Jagran City supplements for every city will help to achieve our objective," he adds.

Just last month, the publication had launched 'Junior Jagran', a fortnightly tabloid for teenagers in important cities of Punjab.

These city-based publications also has immense advertising potential as the publication hopes to target the retail advertising segment in the state.

As per the recent IRS 2003-04 and ABC figures, Jagran has established that it has grown both in readership and in circulation in Punjab region. At present, Dainik Jagran has a readership of 8,39,000 (source: IRS R2 2003-04) and a circulation of 1,93,623 copies everyday (ABC Jan-June 2004).

As per IRS Round 2, 2003-04, Dainik Jagran also continues to be the leading publication in the country, with an all-India readership (both urban and rural) of 1.64 crores.

As per its promotional strategy, the Jagran group has launched a multimedia assault in Punjab, extensively using both outdoor and print media. The publication has already painted 400 koisks red in the state. Ground-level activities are also part of the campaign.

The company recently organised - Jasn Paanch Ka...Jasn Punjab Ka - where it brought in famous Punjabi singers such as Gurdas Mann and Hansraj Hans to perform and regale the audience.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!