Hari Bhoomi’s investment in ten 4-Hi towers and ink-saving, color-enhancement and editorial software coupled with its plan to go web-first gives a clear indication of the kind of growth it is looking at. Its plans to go web-first, simultaneous to its significant investment in new print assets, indicate the importance of rapid adaptation and evolution for the entire newspaper industry.
We work at the grass-root level and keep ourselves updated to the requirements and taste of our readers. Be it po- litical or entertainment news, we pro- vide our readers what they want. This is a simple thumb rule, if you follow it there is no reason why you should not be successful,” says Kulbir Chhikara, chief editor of Hindi daily Hari Bhoomi. Hari Bhoomi has come a long way from its first edition in 1996 to seven editions now across a wide geography. The news- paper is present in four major markets today — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. “In Chhat- tisgarh we are the number one Hindi daily,” says Chhikara. The newspaper prints a minimum of 16 color pages while for some editions, it prints all 24 pages in full color.
At a time when the newspaper industry is lamenting the sluggishness of the economy and is going through a rough patch, Hari Bhoomi has shown sig- nificant growth. In the past year, it bought ten TPH Orient 36000 towers for its plants in several locations in Chat- tisgarh and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. The newspaper has also installed auto reel changers at one of its plants and will introduce more auto reel changers at its
other plants soon. “We have also bought a couple of editorial-related software as well as color-enhancement and ink-sav- ing software,” says Chhikara. “In the pre- press section, we have bought new CtPs for various locations.” Hari Bhoomi has also introduced Smartjet and Greenjet inkjet printers.
Speaking about the Orient 36000 towers, Chhikara says, “We have put the order for ten towers because the print order was increasing in various loca- tions.” The present circulation of the newspaper is over 7,000,00 with an IRS [readership] figure of 27,000,00. “The Orient 36000 is a medium speed ma- chine than can produced a fair num- ber of copies in an hour — good enough to fulfil our needs. Also, what- ever manpower we have for our Orient 30000 can easily handle 36000 because of the similar technology. In terms of spare parts also, the cost is not very high,” he says.
Hari Bhoomi is also serious about op- timum capacity utilization. “We have got so many good color facilities and ma- chines that we always feel the tempta- tion to put these machines to use for maximum capacity utilization. So far, we have not been doing any job work and we only print our own newspaper; but
now in select markets, we plan to do commercial printing work as well,” Chhikara says.
Chhikara is quite optimistic about the growth of the newspaper and says, “Thus far we have grown at a good pace, and we are making our digital arm strong. We are also planning to go web- first. There are huge challenges but we have been able to grow in double digits which is much more than the industry
average.”
