It's official: Dainik Bhaskar Group enters Ranchi today

The Dainik Bhaskar Group has made an official announcement of its launch plans for the state of Jharkhand, beginning with the Ranchi edition. The group has launched its Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, from the state capital today. afaqs! was the first to report the development.

This is the 12th state the group has its footprints in, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The Ranchi edition is the 49th edition of the group.

In an official communiqué, Manoj Agarwal, chief operating officer, Jharkhand, Dainik Bhaskar, says, "The Jharkhand advertising market is currently estimated at more than Rs 100 crore. In our experience, the collective readership and the advertising market has seen catalytic growth whenever the Dainik Bhaskar Group has entered a new territory. We do believe that this will be the case at Jharkhand, too."

Prior to the launch of the latest edition, the group indulged in an innovative launch practice of twin contact point surveys, wherein it contacted 1.35 lakh households and 10,000 commercial establishments in the city and neighbouring areas, taking readers' suggestions and identifying the need gaps.

This is a subscription led edition and on the first day itself, the group claims that it managed to achieve 1.35 lakh pre-booked, fully paid subscription copies. The Hindi daily is priced at Rs 2 from Monday to Saturday and Rs 2.5 on Sundays.