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Tentatively titled Amaar Shomaay (My Times), the daily will be launched later this year.
Bennett Coleman and Co (BCCL) is gearing up to launch a Bengali newspaper from West Bengal. The daily is tentatively titled Amaar Shomaay (My Times) and is expected to be launched in the second half of September, according to the sources close to the development.
It is expected that BCCL will resort to price slash strategy and come up with a low priced variant. It is believed that the paper will be priced somewhere between Rs 2 and Rs 3, similar to that of Aaj Kal and Pratidin, as against ABP's cover price of Rs 5 per copy.
Amaar Shomaay will be an all-colour newspaper, whose content mix will be on the lines of The Times of India, different from ABP's approach - which has a tilt towards opinion-based coverage.
As per the sources, "The latest entrant will aim to give Kolkata a new experience in the newspaper industry here. There is a lot of scope for the loyalty of the readers towards a particular paper to be challenged in this market."
This is not the first time that TOI has launched a local language offering in West Bengal; the group already has two Bengali magazines titled Aamar Somoy, a general interest magazine and Ami Udita, a women's monthly magazine.