Viveat Susan Pinto
Media

BCCL targets 6-lakh TOI households for Mumbai Mirror

Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. is looking to provide TOI readers the option of subscribing to the Mumbai Mirror along with its flagship brand

A month after launching Mumbai Mirror, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) is contemplating a reader contact programme for the brand yet again.

The media house had initiated a pre-launch order booking, providing the paper that is normally priced at Rs 2, for Re 1 for the first month after launch with a guarantee of not exceeding the cover price till December ‘05.

This time, though, the effort will be a concerted one, targeting The Times of India’s 6-lakh-strong household base, giving them the option of subscribing to the Mumbai Mirror along with TOI. The pricing, however, is unclear.

The initiative, says Bhaskar Das, brand director, Mumbai Mirror, will be kicked off from July. “Our average net paid sales is 1.8 lakh. We are printing 2 lakh copies of the compact, with pre-booked copies being 1.5 lakh,” he claims.

Rival Mid Day Multimedia, which publishes the tabloid Mid Day, has a different take on Mumbai Mirror’s overall print order. In an interview with agencyfaqs! last week, Manojit Ghoshal, CFO, Mid-Day Multimedia, said, “Mumbai Mirror has a print run of one lakh copies. Out of which, some 60,000 are being sold as raddi (scrap), another 20,000 as free-sample copies, while 20,000 is the actual paid circulation.”

Ghoshal maintained that even the paid-for circulation of Mumbai Mirror would drop from the current 20,000 copies to 10,000 next month. “Our data shows some 10,000 homes had subscribed to BCCL's offer of clubbing Mumbai Mirror with The Times of India for an additional Re 1 for a month. Once that period is over in July, the paid circulation could even drop to 10,000.”

Market sources opine that the new reader contact programme from BCCL is aimed at preventing the entry of a third paper into TOI households. As is known, both HT and DNA, which are set for a July launch, have initiated subscription drives in a bid to penetrate the Mumbai market. HT is available at 97 paise per copy for those who opt for a year’s subscription at Rs 348. DNA, meanwhile, will be available at Rs 2 for the first six months for subscribers.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!

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