Times Group to launch ‘The Economic Times’ in Gujarati pre-budget

The Times Group is all set to roll out a Gujarati language edition of ‘The Economic Times’ (‘ET’). The edition will be rolled out next week, just in time for the budget. The publication house is tight-lipped about the details of the venture. The spokesperson for ‘ET’ said that matters still had to be validated and concretised.

At present, the only business daily to be available in a vernacular edition is ‘The Financial Express’ (‘FE’) from the Express Group; it’s been around since 1991. ‘FE’ is priced at Rs 3.And now with ‘ET’ in Gujarati, this space can be expected to heat up. ‘ET’ has good backing from the Gujarati daily, ‘Sandesh’, with which ‘TOI’ has signed a business cooperation and arrangement agreement; the Times Group has a 12 per cent preferential equity stake in it.

Industry experts give the thumbs up to this venture by the Times Group in Gujarat because of the abundance of business and trade-minded people in that area. Gujarat is popularly being hailed as an investor-friendly market by industry observers. Venturing beyond the main markets seems a wise strategy. In fact, both ‘ET’ and ‘FE’ have their English editions in Gujarat.

Some media buyers such as Kajal Malik, regional director, OMS, consider it the most obvious step for a business publication. “There is a movement towards expansion in the financial daily market,” she says. Citing ‘Mint’ as an example, she says going regional would be a smart move since the business daily market is more or less reaching saturation.

Talking about Gujarat as a lucrative market, Basabdutta Chowdhury, COO, Madison Media Plus, says, “It was required, considering it is one of the largest communities involved in business and trade, and English is not the right language to reach them.”

However, Malik cautions that the English and Hindi business channels are also expanding, which is contradictory to the earlier trend. “Though there is a gap, there is stiff competition for ‘ET’, from not just ‘FE’ or other Hindi dailies, but also from Hindi business channels,” she says.

‘ET’ in Gujarati may rest easy about the distribution and initial trials for the paper, thanks to ‘Sandesh’, which is a key player in the Gujarat market. So, it can be inferred that with the right marketing and promotions, ‘ET’ will be a hit in Gujarati.

Prior to ‘Sandesh’, the Times Group acquired the Bangalore-based publishing house, Vijayanand Printer, in mid-2006. Recently, the group launched ‘The Times of India Kannada’.

© 2007 agencyfaqs!