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Full-fledged edition of ‘Divya Bhaskar’ launched in Rajkot

So far, Rajkot was receiving a satellite edition of the newspaper out of Ahmedabad

The Bhaskar Group has rolled out a full-fledged edition of the Gujarati daily, ‘Divya Bhaskar’, in Rajkot, starting November 1, 2006. So far, Rajkot was receiving a satellite edition of the newspaper from Ahmedabad, with two pages of local (Rajkot) content. With this move, the Bhaskar Group aims to consolidate its position in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara and also strengthen its position in the state of Gujarat as a whole.

’Divya Bhaskar’ was launched in Ahmedabad around three years ago, and soon after, in Vadodara and Surat. Around two years ago, Rajkot started receiving the Ahmedabad edition, which was printed and edited at Ahmedabad. This satellite edition generated around 35,000 copies in Rajkot.

Now that the daily has got a full-fledged edition in the city, it is reliably learnt that the Bhaskar Group has planned a print run of 1.5 lakh copies, out of which one lakh copies will cater to Rajkot city; the remaining 50,000 copies will service the surrounding areas in Rajkot district.

Commenting on the development, Bharat Kapadia, executive director, ‘Divya Bhaskar’, says, “The independent Rajkot edition has more scope in the market and is expected to grow further. Rajkot is a very ‘reading hungry’ market, if I may put it so. Despite so many morning and afternoon dailies which are so widely read, there is still scope for more dailies.”

The daily will now give more prominence to local content and will have an editorial as well as printing set-up in the city. The starting price for the newspaper is Re 1; the earlier satellite edition was priced at Rs 2.50. Apart from the Rajkot edition, all the other editions of ‘Divya Bhaskar’ carry a supplement called ‘Bhaskar City’. This will be included in the Rajkot edition as well, but at a later stage.

According to Kapadia, local advertisers in Rajkot will benefit, particularly those in the sectors of construction and retail, which are particularly blooming in the city. Apart from local ads and classifieds, Kapadia is confident that this edition will also benefit national advertisers who are looking at targeting Gujarat.

“We have a good position in Gujarat; only Rajkot was lagging behind. But we’re quite positive that we will overcome this. The Rajkot edition gives advertisers the opportunity of targeting the Gujarat pie as a whole now.”

The next destination for ‘Divya Bhaskar’, Kapadia discloses, is Kutch.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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