‘Print Media Not Ready To Quit The Race Yet'

CALL THEM OLD SCHOOL, or simply a stubborn streak, but there is a section of media industry captains who believe that the narrative of a print-past or a digital-future is as misplaced as the Kindle taking over print copies. Dainik Bhaskar, among the largest print groups in India, is putting its money where its mouth is and has set aside an investment of Rs 200 crore to augment its print play which included a massive brand relaunch, entering new markets and increasing its printing facilities. Girish Agarwaal, Promoter Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, says, “In the metros, the English newspapers are not growing as much but due to that, it has become fashionable to say that print in India is going the same way that it has in the US. There is a misconception around print and it is only our fault that we have not presented the facts and corrected it.” In this interview with Noor Fathima Warsia, Agarwaal details the expansion plans that Bhaskar Group has earmarked for itself including going all aggressive in Bihar – one of the largest print markets in India. Edited Excerpts:

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You have set aside Rs 200 crore to be invested in the next two years. What are some of the plans? 

We embarked on an aggressive growth plan in June, largely motivated by a talk our late father (Ramesh Chandra Agarwal) gave earlier in the year when he all but said that we had slowed down in our ambition. We knew we had to correct this and we took a call in June to add 10 lakh more copies by June 2018. As Bhaskar, we are in 12 States, and in June, we were at 52 lakh copies.

We began by relaunching the brand in our existing markets and expanding our reach in Bihar. We had launched in Bihar a couple of years ago in limited territories but we now want to grow in 38 districts of the State. In all these markets, we earmarked Rs 100-plus crore capex and we estimate another Rs 100 crore in a wide array of requirements. We are happy to report that in September, we gained 3.5 lakh copies – we have 80,000 copies in Gujarat, in Rajasthan over 1 lakh and Punjab at 30,000 copies. In Bihar, we expected 4 lakh copies that began coming in November, and will continue to come in till March – with this, the internal target will come through.

And it is not just 10 lakh copies. We have to see this from the perspective of the market perception that print is not growing. This is 20 per cent circulation growth on a very high base. More importantly, almost 12 per cent growth is coming from same store sales - only 4 lakh copies, which is 8 per cent is coming from a new market. The fact that we are still growing in markets like Gujarat and Punjab is indicative of the huge potential in these markets.

Was the impact of the increase in cover price and the relaunch as per expectations?