Amar Ujala, India’s one of the largest Hindi-language daily newspaper with around 19 editions in seven states and one union territory covering more than 160 districts, has recently placed an order for two brand-new presses for its Noida and Lucknow plants. “We have ordered two Orient X-press 533-cut off shaftless with 5 towers with one folder and one mono/stack from TPH with auto reel changer from Megtec with auto registration and auto cut-off systems from QI Press Controls,” says Pradeep A Unny, AVP — production at Amar Ujala Publications.
The Orient X-press can produce 24 broadsheet pages including 20 pages in full color at 45,000 copies an hour. At its Noida plant, Amar Ujala already has one shafted Orient X- press, which is up and running. With the commissioning of the new Orient X-press in October 2014, it will be the second of the class at the Noida location. “We have been with TPH for a long time and most of our machines are from TPH,” Unny says.
The new presses will be put to meet the increased circulations of Noida and Lucknow editions. While the circulation of the newspaper has gone up 25% in Noida, it is a whopping 40%
increase in Lucknow. “The increase in circulation in the two locations has made us take the decision to buy the presses,” says Unny. “Before settling on the Orient X-press from TPH, we had met couple of other manufacturers to assess the feasibility, and we finally placed the order with TPH because we found it reasonably priced with all the features we were looking for. However, the major deciding factor was the price difference,” adds Unny.
Faster makeready and power saving
Speaking about the advantages of the new machine, Unny says, “With this machine, we will be able to have faster makeready with each independent unit operating independently. All the units have independent motors.
Unlike in a shafted machine, in this press you can mount plates to each unit separately whenever you feel like. The wastages is also much lesser. The biggest advantage is power saving, which is almost 35% to 40% compared to a shafted machine.”
Strong brand reputation
Amar Ujala has a strong brand reputation and has been successfully carving out a niche for itself in the Indian regional newspaper market.
“Integrity and unbiased news keep our brand reputation so strong. We don’t speculate and treat news as a news without getting influenced by any political sway,” says Unny. “Being a regional newspaper, for us the main challenge is to reach the far-fetched villages. We consistently try that our newspaper reaches even the remotest corner of India in time. For example, we have one reader at a innermost village in Nainital who gets his Amar Ujala everyday at 11 am — even though it is a single copy, we make sure that he gets the newspaper regularly and in time.”
Challenges from the media
Like any other newspapers, rising competition within the industry and threat from new media have impacted the advertising revenue of Amar Ujala too. “Although internet has not affected us in a major way, TV has,” says Unny. And the respite from the internet is mainly due to the regional markets that Amar Ujala operates in — these markets have either poor internet presence or sluggish connectivity. However, TV has been able to make a dent in the ad revenue only but not in the sales numbers. “The sales numbers are good and copies are increasing,” says Unny.
Because of good internet connectivity and higher level of education, the growth has become stagnant in metros. “We are not able to attract the new generation to the newspaper — they want instant and latest news and that they are getting on their iPads, smartphones and more. So, the growth is now in the tier-2, tier-3
cities.” concludes Unny.
