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Dainik Bhaskar Group to launch Marathi daily, Divya Marathi
The media company has informed BSE of its intentions to expand its presence in Maharashtra and launch a local language daily in the state.
The Dainik Bhaskar Group has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about its plan to expand operations in Maharashtra in the Marathi language domain. The group plans to launch a Marathi daily from the state. As per the website of the Registrar for Newspapers of India, the title suggested by the group for its Marathi daily, Divya Marathi, has been accepted.
Dainik Bhaskar Group has a Gujarati daily with the same prefix, Divya, and is called Divya Bhaskar. The group publishes seven newspapers from 52 centres across the country in three different languages - Hindi, English and Gujarati. Apart from Divya Bhaskar, the group publishes the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and the English daily DNA, the latter through a joint venture with the Subhash Chandra promoted Zee group. It also owns My FM radio station.
According to sources, in all likelihood, the new product will be priced at Re 1. The new entrant in the market will face competition from Lokmat, Sakal, Maharashtra Times, Pudhari, Loksatta, Sandhyanand, Tarun Bharat and Punyanagiri.
The local language newspaper market in the state is pegged at Rs 1,000 crore and is growing at a rate of about 20 per cent.