Battleground Mumbai: Mid Day, Express to launch joint rate card on Monday

The proposed partnership between Mid Day Multimedia Limited and The Indian Express Group, which has a 10 per cent stake in the former, sets into motion this coming Monday with the launch of their joint advertising rate card.

The “alliance rate card” primarily covers three sectors – recruitment advertising, financial advertising and tenders. More categories will be added at a later stage, and the overall offering has been “incentivised” to advertisers.

“Within appointments, for instance, the combination of The Indian Express, Loksatta, The Financial Express and Mid Day will cost an advertiser Rs 400 per square centimeter of space for a black & white ad, while colour will cost Rs 460,” says Cyriac Mathew, vice-president, sales, Mid-Day Multimedia Limited.

The combination of Loksatta and Mid-Day, on the other hand, within appointments, will

mean an outgo of Rs 350 for a black & white ad, while colour will cost Rs 400, he says.

Within financial advertising, a flat rate of Rs 165 (b&w) and Rs 220 (colour) with any Indian Express package will be charged to an advertiser, while for tender advertising, the flat rate is Rs 170.

Rates within the appointments section are applicable only for the Mumbai editions of The Indian Express group, while in the case of tender and financial advertising, it includes editions printed out of other cities too.

Apart from the advertising alliance, Express will take charge of sales & marketing for Mid Day in those small towns and cities where the latter does not have a presence. “The effort will include close to a dozen cities to begin with, which is likely to expand in the coming months,” says Mathew.

Currently, Mid Day has offices in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Goa and Pune apart from Mumbai.

Also on the anvil is Mid Day’s new rate card, which will come into effect from June 1. It will encompass 30 categories as opposed to the list of 22 categories covered at the moment.

Meanwhile, as The Indian Express and Mid Day join forces, here’s a quick update of what rivals are up to.

According to industry sources, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) will print its Hindi paper Navbharat Times from a small facility in Vashi, New Bombay instead of its regular press at Khandivali.

This has been done to accommodate the soon-to-be-launched Bombay Mirror at the Khandivali press. The Vashi press, say industry sources, has the capacity to print 1.25 lakh copies as against the Khandivali facility, which can print multiple titles. The yield per hour for The Times of India alone at Khandivali is 1.40 lakh copies, though the number of TOI copies printed at the moment is 1.25 lakhs per hour.

As reported earlier, BCCL has acquired additional land in the New Bombay region, precisely between Airoli and Mahape, though it is unclear whether another printing unit will come up there. © 2005 agencyfaqs!