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The Bhaskar Group owned Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, launched its Patiala edition a day after the Dainik Jagran launch its edition in the city
The battle between Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar for Punjab has now moved to Patiala, where the two Hindi national dailies have launched new editions within a day of each other.
The country’s largest selling daily, Dainik Jagran, took its edition count up to four in Punjab with the launch of its Patiala edition on Friday, December 21. Dainik Bhaskar, the number two daily in the country, launched its Patiala edition a day later; this is its fourth edition, too, in Punjab.
This isn’t the first time the two newspapers are having a face-off in Punjab – last year, they launched their Amritsar editions within a month of each other. The Jagran Group has had a presence in Punjab since 1999, when it launched its first edition in Jalandhar. The second edition – in Ludhiana – was launched in 2004. Bhaskar entered Punjab only in late 2006, when it launched its Jalandhar and Amritsar editions, followed by Ludhiana and now Patiala.
“We were nine editions strong in PCH (Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana) last year, and this is our 10th edition in the region, which is very important for us. So, it is Jagran which is trailing us in the region and not the other way round,” says a senior Bhaskar Group executive on condition of anonymity.