THE CZARS OF INDIAN MEDIA

Family businesses are better sustained by inculcating a culture of continuity through team spirit, exchange of ideas, learning from each other and evolving together to achieve growth. The Dainik Bhaskar Group (or DB Corp Ltd), now helmed by brothers Sudhir, Girish and Pawan Agarwal after the demise of their father Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, have integrated these success mantras well, as becomes evident from the group's consistent success across generations.

- Joseph Rozario

The Dainik Bhaskar Group has concluded FY2023 on a robust note on the back of an impressive 27 per cent YoY growth in print advertising revenues. Consolidated EBIDTA grew at 34 per cent YoY in Q4-FY2023, while total revenue for 2022-23 stood at around ₹2,200 crore. In terms of circulation, the group has notched up higher figures with the Audit Bureau of Circulation Survey figures for July-December 2022 showing the Dainik Bhaskar Group as the largest circulated newspaper group in India and Dainik Bhaskar the country's largest circulated newspaper! Taking into account the group's presence in other sectors such as power, textiles, malls and real estate and the revenues generated thereof, the group's overall turnover stands at around ₹6,000 crore!

From baby steps to giant strides

The Dainik Bhaskar Group has traversed a long way since its inception in Bhopal in 1958, to establish itself from a littleknown Hindi newspaper to India's leading newspaper group. By 1995, Dainik Bhaskar had become the largest circulated newspaper in Madhya Pradesh, after which the growth continued as the group ventured out of Madhya Pradesh to launch newspapers in Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Haryana, Ahmedabad and so on. Today, the group is present in 12 states, publishing major newspapers which include Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi daily with 43 editions), Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati daily with 8 editions), Divya Marathi (Marathi daily with 6 editions), Saurashtra Samachar (Gujarati daily) and DB Star (Hindi compact daily). In addition to the print medium, the group has a flourishing digital medium and significant presence in the radio segment.