Dainik Jagran to launch its Muzaffarpur edition

Media release, April 18, 2005

New Delhi

With the encouraging response of readers and market of Bihar, Dainik Jagran country’s No1 Hindi daily has decided to launch its third edition from Muzaffarpur, the intellectual hub of the state, on April 18, 2005. The upcoming edition will print seven sub-editions viz; Betiah edition, Mothihari editions, Sitamarhi edition, Samastipur edition, Darbhanga edition, Madhubani edition & City edition to cover the important districts of Bihar. The Muzaffarpur edition will start with initial print run of 60,000 and cater to the districts such as such as Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur, East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Seohar districts.

Mr. Sanjay Gupta, CEO Dainik Jagran, says; “Our remarkable success in this market where within a year we have grown up as a strong contender of No 1 position has encouraged us to launch our third edition from Muzaffarpur in north Bihar. Moreover the state is a huge market place to be covered from single city edition in Patna. Hence Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur editions have come into play”.

It is significant to mention that in Bihar all newspapers sell at the best cover price. In spite of that Jagran is the fastest growing Hindi daily in the country and achieved highest record growth rate of 22.5 % according to Jan- June 2004 ABC figures available. It has achieved more than 100 per cent growth between ABC July-December 2000 and Jan-June 2004.

According to current IRS R1 2005 figures Dainik Jagran enjoys a readership of 19,85,000 readers and achieved a growth of 26% over IRS R1 03.

Muzaffarpur edition will publish supplements similar to Patna and Bhagalpur editions. There are eight sub-brands that are being given to readers. However in a week a reader will get seven supplement along with the main paper such as Jagran City (For City edition) & Apna Pradesh (For Other districts) on Tuesday, Josh on Wednesday, Tarang on Thursday, Jhankar & Shahnai on Sunday, Kasauti on Friday, and Sangini on Saturday. A monthly travel supplement called Yatra is being circulated on the last Sunday of the month.

Muzaffarpur edition is the 26th edition of the group. Patna (established in 2000) and Bhagalpur (established in Year 2003) are the other two editions of Bihar. Overall the Jagran group publishes 26 editions and 187 Sub-editions from 8 states (UP, Uttranchal, Punjab, MP, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand & Bihar) and has footprints in 13 states (Viz; Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan & Orissa, West Bengal). The Patna edition with 13 sub-editions caters to the entire central and west Bihar. The Bhagalpur edition with 10 sub-editions reaches out to north-east districts of the state also caters the neighbouring districts of north Bengal such as Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbihar, North Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Sikkim. Infact Dainik Jagran is the only Hindi newspaper available in Sikkim. Al together Dainik Jagran will be publishing 30 sub-editions from Bihar.

For the promotion on the content side no major changes been adopted as Jagran always work closer to readers and would continue it in Muzaffarpur as well but these sub- editions will cover closely the need of each socio culture region. The group will burst three different ad campaigns for outdoors. Followed by Mobile Van publicity, road shows and Personal Contact Campaign to reach out people directly. The group is expecting that the Muzaffarpur editions will fetch approx 4 lakh more readers in the state.

For further Information, please contact:

Anamika Nath

0120-2425961-65

Fax: 0120-2425203