Hindustan launches 6th UP edition in Allahabad

The Hindi daily, Hindustan, has launched its sixth edition in Uttar Pradesh – in Allahabad. The daily will now have four localised versions for the Allahabad city, Allahabad upcountry, Kausambi and Pratapgarh regions.

With this, Hindustan has six printing centres in Uttar Pradesh – in Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Agra and Kanpur. It also has editions in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Delhi and Chandigarh.

With a cover price of Rs 3.50, the daily is targeted at SEC A and B. According to Amit Chopra, head, Hindi business, HT Media Ltd, the initial print run for the daily is 50,000, which “is a healthy mix of subscriptions and cash sales”.

Prior to setting up a printing centre in Allahabad, Hindustan, too, circulated its Varanasi edition in the city, which, as per ABC figures (January-June 2008), had a circulation of 3,777 copies. All these newspapers are priced at Rs 3.50 in the city.

The Hindi print segment hasn't seen much growth in Allahabad in the past two years. The total circulation of the four Hindi newspapers taken together was 1,12,869 in the January-June 2006 period; this went up to 1,35,212 in the July-December 2007 period. It toppled in the subsequent round to 1,276,866 copies, a loss of 7,346 copies.

The total readership of Allahabad for all Hindi dailies stands at 5,90,000 (IRS 2008, Round 2), a gain of 22,000 readers since Round 1. Interestingly, English dailies lost around 5,000 readers in R2 in the city, down from 65,000 (total readership) in R1.

Hindustan launched a marketing campaign one month prior to the launch of the edition with the tagline, ‘Ab Hindustan Ki Baari Hai. Kya Puri Tayyari Hai?’ Before that, it had launched a consumer contact programme to reach out to about 25,000 households. The account is being handled by Ogilvy Delhi.

The daily will come with two supplements – Nai Dishayein (education) on Wednesday and Remix (lifestyle) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

According to Chopra, the next destination for Hindustan in Uttar Pradesh is Bareilly, which “will be launched in the next four-five months”.