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Orissa gets a new Oriya daily - Sarbasadharana
The newspaper is the maiden venture of SLB Media & Entertainment, a unit of SLB Group of Companies.
Orissa has got a new local-language daily, Sarbasadharana. The newspaper has been launched by SLB Media & Entertainment, a new division of SLB Group of Companies.
The Oriya daily hit the newsstands on February 08, with an initial print run of 20,000 copies. Printed and published from Bhubaneshwar, the daily has two editions. Its morning edition has a print run of 15,000 copies, while its dark edition has a print run of 5,000 copies.
Talking about the new venture, Debashis Balbantray, administrative officer, SLB Media & Entertainment, says, "Sarbasadharana will serve as an authoritative media outlet that will feature the latest national news as well as other stories from across the globe, apart from the local news coverage."
To announce the launch of the newspaper, the group took up 260 hoardings across Orissa.
The daily comes with a cover price of Rs 3. It has launched a subscription drive, where the annual subscription is Rs 1,000 and some free gifts have been thrown in.
The group has also launched a unique drive to push its subscription sales. For each of its 11,000 or so employees, the group has assigned a target of getting three-yearly subscriptions for the newspaper. As of now, about 30 per cent of the circulation of Sarbasadharana is subscription-based. And, with this drive, the daily is hopeful of expanding its subscriber base.
The daily has 16 pages on an average, of which only six are in colour. It does not have any supplements. As per the company officials, the ad rates are Rs 210 per sq cm for a colour page and Rs 150 per sq cm for a black-and-white page.
The new entrant will face competition from Sambad and Dharitri, among others in the state.
For the record, the SLB Group of Companies started off in 2005 as a third-party distribution company, with six branches across Orissa. Today, it has more than 30 branches in the state. The company is involved in life and general insurance, fund management consultancy, awareness programmes for social welfare and agricultural development and construction. Another venture of the group, SLB Softech (India), is into software development, web hosting and designing, software solutions, training and skill development.