Lokmat beefs up top management; relaunch of Kolhapur edition due

The senior management team at the Lokmat Group of Newspapers has a new member in Jwalant Swaroop, who assumes the office of director, advertising, replacing Ashok Jain, who is now director, operations. An old Lokmat hand, Swaroop was earlier group general manager in charge of all-India marketing. His current position sees an expansion of his profile and responsibilities. "My focus will now be to bring more fire to the team by motivating and enhancing it," he says. "Creating an environment where we can provide timely solutions to clients, apart from focusing on better return-on-investment for advertisers are the priorities for me," he adds.

Apart from Swaroop and Jain, the senior management at Lokmat comprises Nirmal Darda, who is director, circulation and editorial coordination, and Wing Commander RS Bora, director, technical. Rishi Darda and Deven Darda - sons of Rajan and Vijay Darda, promoters of the Lokmat Group - are executive directors on the board.

The beefing up comes in the wake of internal promotions of certain key members of the ad sales team at Lokmat last year. Ajit Nair, who was earlier deputy general manager (west), was promoted to the post of general manager (west). Anu Berry, senior advertisement manager, Delhi, became regional manager (north), while Hemant Joshi was promoted to the post of deputy general manager (Pune) from assistant general manager (Pune). Simultaneously, G Veerana became assistant general manager (south) from regional manager (south).

Alongside, the group is looking to take Lokmat's classifieds and jobs sections online in an effort to boost reach. Also on the cards is the relaunch of the Kolhapur edition of Lokmat, which was slated to hit the stands in mid-February this year. Swaroop claims that the delay was on account of some last-minute preparations, with the relaunch likely to happen in the month of May.

According to the recently released Indian Readership Survey (IRS), Lokmat achieved a readership of 74.69 lakh to rival Sakal's 49.01 lakh. Last year, in terms of readership, Lokmat stood at 68.50 lakh to Sakal's 46.02 lakh. © 2004 agencyfaqs!