The Hindu pooh-poohs Deccan Chronicle’s circulation claims

“Deccan Chronicle’s claim of having a circulation of 1.45 lakh copies is highly exaggerated and ridiculous. The newspaper may not be selling more than 15,000-20,000 copies,” says N Murali, joint managing director, The Hindu.

Welcome to battleground Chennai, where the King is in no mood to allow potential usurpers sneaking in.

Murali adds, “The publication may be having a print run of as many copies as it claims but it's certainly not reaching the readers.”

He was responding to Deccan Chronicle Holdings’ executive director PK Iyer’s recent statement in a business daily that the newspaper’s average print order is 1.45 lakh copies and the hype that the Hyderabad-based daily has created.

Murali explains the entire model of newspaper circulation business that exists in Chennai. He says, “Deccan Chronicle is sold at Re 1. Out of which, the hawker gets 50 paise, and the publication gets 40 paise. The agent, who is a link between the hawker and the publication, gets 10 paise. But when the agent sells the newspaper to a scrap dealer, he gets 70 paise for a newspaper – which is 20 paise more than what he gets from the hawker.”

Media planners support Murali’s explanation. A Mumbai-based media planner says, “This may be quite right. But Deccan Chronicle is no exception. Any newspaper, which launches in a new market, follows the same formula.”

He adds, “Publications pile up a huge print run to get high figures quoted in the ABC certificate. A part of the money invested in printing is, of course, recovered by selling the same newspapers as raddi (scrap).”

According to media planners, even a section of the readers buy a new daily for the same reasons. For instance, if a reader gets a new daily for Rs 30 a month and sells it as scrap for Rs 20 a month, the cost that he actually incurs to get a new daily is Rs 10. So, while a reader continues to read his old-favourite The Hindu, he can afford an additional publication for Rs 10. This, in turn, also helps the new publication to get high readership figures.

The Mumbai-based planner quips, “The success of the new entrant depends on how tactically the publication deals with this camouflage.” “Advertisers generally judge the response of a new daily from the response of direct-communicated ads,” he adds.

Industry sources estimate that Deccan Chronicle currently has been successful in getting 15 per cent of the total advertising revenue of all English dailies in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu still controls more than 75 per cent of the business, which is estimated to be around Rs 150- 200 crore, annually. A Delhi-based media planner says, “Deccan Chronicles' business will not affect The Hindu as mostly those advertisers, who couldn't afford The Hindu due to its high price, are taking Deccan Chronicle as a second option.”

In fact, most of the planners say that maximum advertisements on Deccan Chronicle's Chennai edition are essentially add-ons of the publication’s Hyderabad edition, as the publication is said to be offering very little discounts in the Hyderabad market.

The Hindu’s Murli refuses to even grant Deccan Chronicle an advertising share of 15 per cent. He says, “Only 12 per cent of Deccan Chronicle is advertisements. With that, they can't have 15 per cent of the total market.”

Several attempts to contact the Deccan Chronicle management went futile. © 2005 agencyfaqs!