Dainik Bhaskar launches special supplement for women

Dainik Bhaskar has launched a special daily supplement for women called Woman Bhaskar. The supplement was first tested in Indore on December 5 and then launched in the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Raipur and Jodhpur. The supplement is of four pages in Indore, but only two pages in the other cities. It will be launched in Chandigarh on January 1, 2008. Woman Bhaskar will be distributed along with the main edition of Dainik Bhaskar.

Sanjeev Kotnala, associate vice-president and national head, communication, Bhaskar Group, describes it more as a newspaper than a supplement. He says, “We won’t call it a supplement at all. But it is based more on the newspaper-within-newspaper style format available every week from Monday to Friday.” There is no extra charge for Woman Bhaskar.

The Bhaskar Group decided to launch Woman Bhaskar after conducting a four month survey. The survey included 18 focus groups across 13 locations in the country. The paper is targeted at women in the age group of 24-45 years in SEC A and B.

According to Neeha Saxena, manager, Ideation Cell, Bhaskar Group, the survey identified the needs of women for news and information in two major groups. This included social identity needs such as staying updated, creating an identity, being economically independent and projecting a modern image, and personal fulfillment needs such as personality development, home-making skills, lifestyle and caring for the family. Woman Bhaskar is designed to provide certain kinds of news which are more relevant and critical to this group.

Shravan Garg, group editor, Bhaskar Group, says, “We have a specialised tool called Scanning Pentagon which will eventually filter the news and happenings for Woman Bhaskar’s content. This tool segments the content according to five parameters. These include: if the news is keeping the woman up to date, is the information good enough to guide her, is the information raising concerns and causes, is it providing solutions to her problems, and is it increasing her knowledge base.”

Kotnala points out that the paper is currently being promoted through outdoor advertising and print. However, the Bhaskar Group will soon start special brand related activities to inform advertisers about the new brand.