Bharat Kapadia joins Divya Bhaskar as executive director

Bharat Kapadia, editor and associate publisher, Chitralekha Group has quit. He is joining the Bhaskar group as executive director, Divya Bhaskar.

Confirming this development to agencyfaqs!, senior executives at Bhaskar group say that the development coincides with the ongoing process towards growth and consolidation within the Bhaskar Group.

Kapadia will be based in Mumbai and will be in complete charge of the brand. “Editorial, marketing, circulation and production will all come under my purview,” he says.

Apart from Divya Bhaskar, Kapadia will also be responsible for the group’s recent acquisition Saurashtra Samachar, which is published from Bhavnagar in Gujarat.

Currently, flagship Divya Bhaskar has three full-fledged editions in Ahmedabad, Surat and Baroda. Two others, in Mumbai and Rajkot, were softlaunched a few months ago, and Kapadia will look to push these two editions in his new role.

He describes his new assignment as a “challenge” that gives him a “broader canvas” owing to the daily nature of the publications. “I am moving from a weekly magazine to a daily and clearly my tasks will be manifold,” he says.

Despite having resigned from his post at Chitralekha, his association with the group continues owing to a partnership in two group companies.

Kapadia, for the uninitiated, is the son-in-law of the founder of Chitralekha, the late Vaju Kotak, and his departure is being viewed as a big blow to the group. Though it is unclear why he opted out of Chitralekha, industry sources cite a “family feud” for the same.

Chitralekha grew to be a strong regional brand under Kapadia’s leadership with editions in both Gujarati and Marathi. The other weekly from the group is the film magazine ‘g’, published in English, Marathi and Gujarati. The group had recently forayed into the area of special issues, publishing Watch World and Chitralekha Travel in Gujarati.

Kapadia has been a prominent personality in the Indian print media space and has been featured twice by Mid Day, the afternoon tabloid as one of the 'Top 50 Power Points in Media'. He is the winner of the coveted Ad Club Media Innovation Award twice and EMVIES Media Marketer of the Year award in 2001.

Girish Agarwal, director marketing, Bhaskar group says, “Bharat brings with him a rich marketing expertise and editorial experience. In addition, his knowledge and expertise about Gujarati publications will certainly add value to the Bhaskar group both in terms of editorial and marketing.”

Kapadia has held important posts in various industrial bodies such as chairman, project press committee of the Indian Newspaper Society; board member and ex-chairman, Advertising Standards Council of India; vice-chairman, finance and administration committee; and ex-chairman Media Research User's Council; founder member, Association of Indian Magazines.

As the chairman of the project press committee of the Indian Newspaper Society, he spearheaded Project Press, an endeavour to highlight the strengths of the print media. The ‘Think Print Award’, instituted under this project, are presented at the Abbies.

He was also responsible for 'Impact Multiplier Research Programme’, which ‘demonstrated the role of print in FMCG marketing. The second and decisive phase of the research is currently on.

Last year, Kapadia presented this research paper at the ‘World Readership Research Symposium’ at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and this year at ‘WAN Conference at Amsterdam’, Holland.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!