While the national newspapers are facing stagnation in terms of circulation, regional dailies continue to grow. Pradeep Unny, assistant vice president- production at Amar Ujala, India’s fourth largest Hindi daily, says, “All the regional newspapers are showing substantial growth in terms of readership and revenues. Advertisement revenues of regional newspapers are growing at around 15 to 20% annually and there are virgin markets yet to be tapped.”
A lustrous presence
Amar Ujala’s pressrooms have traversed the path from letterpress to the most recent installation of a single circumference single width shaftless web offset press. Initially, the offset prepress was dominated by laser printers that were gradually replaced by imagesetters and today all 18 locations are equipped with CtPs.
Started from Agra in 1948, Amar Ujala produces 118 editions from its 18 plants daily.
“We are the undisputed market leaders in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and in certain pockets of western Uttar Pradesh like Bareilly, Meerut, Agra and Ghaziabad. Areas where we need improvement are Noida and Faridabad,” says Unny.
“Currently around 2.2 million copies of Amar Ujala are printed and circulated everyday around the country
in addition to about half a million copies of the tabloid – Amar Ujala Compact. Off late, we have also diversified to commercial printing and do a modest business of around `20 crore a year in this segment and expect it to be a significant revenue grosser in the next four to five years reaching around `100 crores,” says Unny.
This division prints broadsheet newspapers, tabloids, magazines and books for UPSC, civil services, Bank PO, NET-JRF, for employment and competitive exams for publishers and government bodies.
Amar Ujala’s book division publishes 120 titles for the education sector and also several niche magazines.
Apart from its numerous web offset newspaper presses, for commercial printing the company has two Heidelberg multi-colour sheetfed presses and two double- colour presses along with a comprehensive and fully equipped postpress and binding department.
The company is looking to extend its commercial print capacity with heatset web offset presses.
Expansion plans
While Dainik Jagran remains its biggest competitor in the northern markets, Amar Ujala continues to compete. Its new Rohtak plant in Haryana will come into production in February 2014 with a TPH Orient X-Cel shaftless 2 x 1 web offset press that can produce 24 broadsheet pages including 20 pages in full colour at 36,000 copies an hour.
The press includes five 4-Hi towers and a mono unit with brush dampening. Automation features on the new press include Megtec auto reel changers and QI Press Controls’ colour registration systems.
According to Unny, extension to the Rajasthan market requires investments in excess of `300 crore to produce a minimum eleven editions with around 1.4 million circulation. Only this level of investment could generate the revenue needed for a viable presence.
“We plan to first consolidate our existing markets as our established competitors already have dominance in other markets. Also, ePapers are an area where we expect significant improvement in coming years.
Our website is one of the best and most viewed ones in the country and is constantly updated with the latest news both domestic and international. We come out with almost 2,500 pages of our ePaper everyday, a volume that no other publication can currently match,” says Unny.
Hindi News channel
The company plans to launch a Hindi news channel this year in the Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal markets.
“We intend to encash our brand credibility across these states. We remain the most unbiased and uncorrupted newspaper in the country and our news channel will be a reflection of these high ethical values.
These is genuine scope for a news channel which offers credible news without sensationalizing in markets where information remains a top priority,” says Unny.
Localization has become the buzzword for national newspapers and the biggest names in the industry have started regional supplements to cater to area-specific news. “People are looking for credible news more than anything else today.
As the boom of sensationalization has finally ended, the need for genuine unbiased news has come around again. As agents of change across the country, I believe we must catch our readers young and help them grow,” says Unny.
