DLA pulls another rabbit out of hat

‘DLA’ has added another feather to its cap in the city of the Taj Mahal. ‘DLA’ has raced ahead of its competitors, including likes of ‘Amar Ujala’ and ‘Dainik Jagran’ in Agra.

As per a syndicated readership study conducted by ACNielsen and ORG MARG to estimate the readers in Agra city for various dailies, ‘DLA’ has emerged the No. 1 daily in the city with 3.69 lakh average issue readers [AIR], and 4.97 lakh claimed readers.

Buoyed by his daily’s overwhelming success in this prime city of western UP, Ajay Agarwal, managing partner of the DLA group of newspapers, expresses his immense satisfaction. “This survey will help ‘DLA’ get its due place in the media plans of nationally reputed brands in the ensuing festive season,” says Agarwal. He adds, “Although ‘DLA’ is already being used by some of the national advertising agencies in India, this survey will give the agencies full confidence in its delivery.”

‘DLA’ was launched in March 2007 as an afternoon Hindi tabloid daily from Agra, and it has achieved daily sales of more than two lakh copies. The group commissioned ACNielsen’s services in July to estimate the readership in Agra. The ACNielsen study puts ‘DLA’ ahead of its nearest competitor, ‘Amar Ujala’, by 48,000 readers and ahead of ‘Dainik Jagran’ by a margin of 1.62 lakh readers in Agra.

According to the top line findings of ACNielsen’s study, 30.7 per cent of Agra’s universe [of 12 lakh people, aged 12+] can be reached through ‘DLA’ alone. ‘Amar Ujala’ delivers a reach of 26.7 per cent and ‘Dainik Jagran’, 17.2 per cent. ‘DLA’ also measures well in other crucial readership segments. Some 40 per cent of Agra’s male and also 40 per cent of the city’s aggregate SEC ABC can be reached through ‘DLA’. 80 per cent of the readers of ‘DLA’ belong to SEC ABC, which makes the daily unique.

The daily alone reaches 26 per cent of the city’s total teenagers aged 12 to 19 years; 37 per cent of the total prime youth segments of 20 to 34 years, and 34.49 per cent of the aggregate age group of 35-44 years. ‘DLA’ reaches 30 per cent of the total student community in Agra, 64 per cent of the total shop owners and 51 per cent of the total businessmen and industrialists.

The DLA group of newspapers has plans to bring out more editions of the Hindi tabloid from other parts of western UP and Delhi. Its English morninger, called ‘DLA am’ has been launched in Agra from August 9, 2007. “The UP market lacks an English daily with a local flavour. Our own survey of the market has given us enough confidence that an English daily with a local flavour will be hugely in demand in Agra,” says Hemant Anand, director, advertising, ‘DLA’.

Currently, more than 30,000 copies of English newspapers are sold here, which come from Delhi and are mostly Dak editions, carrying stale news items.