Mint is the new financial daily from HT

With a circulation of 75,000 and a price tag of Rs 2, HT Media has already started claiming that ‘Mint’ will be the undisputed number two business daily

Sometimes it helps to keep things under wraps. Probably, this keeps the buzz alive for a while. That’s precisely what has been HT Media’s strategy as far as its business daily is concerned.

In a rather dramatic way, following a much hush-hush affair to keep the title of the newspaper a very closely guarded secret (it’s a different ballgame altogether that many already knew about the title), HT Media finally unveiled its English business daily, ‘Mint’, the fifth player in the segment after ‘The Economic Times’ (‘ET’), ‘Business Standard’ (‘BS’), ‘Financial Express’ (‘FE’) and ‘Hindu Businessline (‘HBL’).

However, HT Media is already claiming to be capturing the No. 2 slot with a circulation of 75,000.

‘ET’ is certainly way ahead at number one with a circulation figure of 5,90,246 copies (as per Audit Bureau of Circulation, on December 26, 2006, period January–June, 2006).

In fact, the ABC figures for the same period certify that ‘Business Standard’ has an all-India circulation of 96,150, which is also more than HT’s claims. Besides, it has also increased its circulation by 23 per cent over the last six months.

As per ABC, HBL’s circulation figures also stands at 1,17,047. Meanwhile, ‘HT’ has also claimed that Mint’s circulation will reach the 1 lakh mark within one month of its launch. So, the number two position even in terms of circulation wouldn’t be an easy walk for the daily. Readership figures will give a better picture.

The new financial daily will come out in a compact-berliner format. It will be a six-day-a-week paper from Monday to Saturday, priced at Rs 2. In fact on Saturdays, the newspaper will be called ‘Mint Lounge’ and ‘Mint B’, and will be in a magazine format. Besides, it will have a weekly supplement, ‘Campaign’, on marketing, strategy, and management. As of now, the newspaper will have two editions – Delhi and Mumbai.

The price tag is at par with the number one business daily, ‘ET’ which is also priced at Rs 2 in Mumbai and Delhi. However, in comparison to other business dailies, the new financial daily competitively priced.

On weekdays, ‘Business Standard’ is priced at Rs 5 in Delhi and Rs 3 in Mumbai, and on Saturdays, it’s priced at Rs 3 and Rs 6, for the two cities, respectively. Similarly, ‘FE’ is priced at Rs 4 on weekdays and Rs 6 on Saturdays. The ‘Hindu Business Line’ is also priced at Rs 4 between Monday to Saturday.

‘Wall Street Journal’ is the exclusive partner for HT’s this financial daily, which will also have a few pages of international content.

The new daily has been designed by Mario Garcia, a world renowned newspaper designer, having 500 publications designed globally to his credit. In fact, he had also designed ‘Hindustan Times’ Delhi edition in the past.

At the launch event, the television commercial for ‘Mint’ was also unveiled. The TVC completely tried to dig on the other business dailies indicating that the current business dailies do not use a simple language for the common man to understand the nitty–gritty of business, which will be Mint’s forte.

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