Amar Ujala goes hyper-local on digital

The Hindi daily recently launched a Chandigarh-specific portal that will cater to all the news of the region.

Starting January 17, Hindi daily Amar Ujala has launched a news portal from Chandigarh that will cater mainly to the news of the region and target people of Chandigarh, Punchkula and Mohali. This is the third endeavour from the brand in its attempt to go hyper-local after entering Dehradun and Lucknow.

A separate editorial team under the leadership of Udai Kumar, resident editor, will handle this venture. The content on the portal will be a mix of hard news (political, crime and others), campus, cultural and sports activities and bureaucracy, along with photo galleries and blogs. In its section titled 'City Club', the publication will have influencers from the region writing on various topics of interest such as hobbies or reflections on life.

Another important content aspect is 'Get Published', where people can send news and photographs for publishing (to be done after verification), thus empowering all to report events, activities, cultural and social causes. Photographs of these will be incorporated in individual photo galleries.

The brand claims that the portal will also be useful to the people who belong to the tri-city but are no longer living there.

The target audience for the initiative includes everyone who has access to internet via mobile and has an interest in the happenings of tri-city. For the purpose, the brand has also launched a mobile site.

Speaking on the idea of going hyper-local, Vinod Verma, editor, converging, Amar Ujala, says, "All the major newspapers and television channels focus on national and international news but due to paucity of time and space, none focus on hyper-locals per se. We are now in an era where news comes to us, as opposed to earlier times when we would go to get news. In such times, amarujala.com is playing a critical role in the lives of its readers by bringing to them news and happenings of their cities, as they happen."

According to the brand, the USP of the venture is its campus section, Tri-city Life that will provide comprehensive coverage of campus life, and social and cultural life; and the Get Published section that will give an opportunity to everyone to get published.

Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar already has a presence in the genre in Chandigarh. Amar Ujala aims to launch such portals in Delhi NCR and another half a dozen areas.

The brand has launched a marketing campaign for the launch of this portal with promotions on print, digital, outdoor and on-ground media. It has taken outdoor hoardings and banners along with editorial coverage in print and digital. The portal was launched at MCM DAV College for Women.

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