‘Deshonnati’ to launch a Hindi daily from Delhi

‘Deshonnati’, the Marathi daily, is all set enter the Hindi domain with its first edition planned to be launched in Delhi by October. This will be followed by editions in Nagpur and Akola.

Simultaneously, the publication plans to bring its Marathi daily to the Capital with a separate Delhi edition. The Delhi edition will have four pages of local content, while the other 12 pages will contain matter from the main edition.

Says an industry insider: “The launch of ‘Loksatta’ in the Capital has inspired Marathi dailies to have a Delhi edition, as it easily adds 5,000-10,000 copies to the circulation.”

There are estimated to be five lakh people from the Vidarbha region in the Capital. Talks are already on with a few players for the printing of the Hindi and Marathi dailies in Delhi.

At ‘Deshonnati’, he will handle the operations of the brand across the country. Says Bhatnagar, “The scope for ‘Deshonnati’ is large in Maharashtra. There is much work to be done and this brand offers a fresh challenge, which will be fun to tackle.”

‘Deshonnati’, with 11 editions in Vidarbha, enjoys a strong presence in the north and central parts of Maharashtra. It is currently the number two daily in Vidarbha and the only Marathi daily to have added new readers in the last three rounds of the Indian Readership Survey. The group has expansion plans for the Marathwada region of Maharashtra and has imported printing machinery from South Korea for this purpose.

In Maharashtra, Bhatnagar plans to kick-start other revenue streams for the group, such as integrated marketing communications, BTL solutions, and short code services.