The market for Hindi eveningers in Jaipur

BY Arvind Kalia and Shipra Mathur| IN Books | 10/08/2005

Scope of Hindi Evening Dailies in the mini-metro cities of India

A case study of Jaipur city

Arvind Kalia and Shipra Mathur

Abstract

The article purports to explore the prospects of evening newspapers in mini-metro cities of India. The study focuses on the five major evening dailies of Jaipur city to critically examine their product profile and revenue sources. The product analysis is based on the study of 5 day issues of the selected papers of the month of June, 2005.

Introduction

Beginning of newspapers in Rajasthan is to the credit of zealous generation of the pre-independent India, who used the forum of newspapers to launch social and political crusades. Rajashtan became the hub of social and political activities and a wide range of weeklies and dailies were brought out in 17th and 18th century and they reflected the public sentiments and fought against the colonial tendencies, and injustice.The post independence period witnessed paradigm shift in the content and flavour, and missionary zeal was soon overpowered by the business propositions in journalism. Till this period, there were either dailies or weeklies, but no evening papers in the state. The 7th of March, 1956 is the milestone year in the history of eveningers of Rajasthan, when Rajasthan Patrika took the lead in venturing into the yet unexplored market of evening papers. Rajasthan Patrika began as "a single broadoheet... evening newspaper in 1956-61, became a six-page morning daily in 1966, and by the mid - 1990¿s was one of the largest and best-designed Hindi dailies in the country, confident enough to quarrel and break with the audit bureau in 1995." (Jeffrey, Robin, India¿s Newspaper Revolution, Ed. 2000, Oxford University Press.p. 121)Karpur Chand Kulish started this paper borrowing a sum of Rs. 500. He sustained it for five years but the paper was incurring heavy losses and he finally decided to convert it into morning daily and rest is a history of towering success of the paper.

The reason, attributed to difficulty in sustenance of evening Rajasthan Patrika, was lack of advertising revenue and earnings from cover price. Rajasthan Patrika¿s shift to morning paper, dissuaded the coming generation of newspaper entrepreneurs to jump into the non-profitable business of eveningers. This was the reason of virtual eclipse of evening papers in Jaipur city for more than two decades after Rajasthan Patrika.

After a long span, another ambitious project was initiated by ¿Samachar Jagat¿ in 1980s. Launching of Samachar Jagat could not prove to be profitable. On the verge of crisis, it planned to sail in two boats simultaneously. The right opportunity soon approached with the closure of Jaipur editions of Nav Bharat Times and the Times of India of Bannet and Coleman Co. Ltd. (BCCL) in 1995. Samachar Jagat grabbed the BCCL talents, rendered jobless. Taking the BCCL team into confidence, Samachar Jagat strategised to bring out its morning avatar in 1996.

Samachar Jagat had carved a niche for itself as eveninger, but the editorial team of repute and rich intellectual resource could not guarantee success of its morning edition. The decision was soon reverted to maintain the status quo. In the later half of 90s and beginning of 21st century a number of newspapers including Mahanagar Times (23rd Nov, 1997), Dainik Current Jwala (10th Feb, 1999), Evening Plus (27th Sept, 2003) and Evening Post (26th Oct, 2003) entered the scene.This sudden eruption of eveningers can be traced to the expansion of Jaipur city and better connectivity through improved roads and transport. Also, the increase in income from other businesses, motivated the entrepreneurs to invest into the newspaper sector to acquire more power and prestige.

Yet it is paradoxical that evening newspapers are not flourishing in Jaipur market. This article aims to analyse viability factors of the eveningers in this city.

Research Methodology

This is an exploratory research based on primary sources of data. The data have been collected from top management (General Manager or any post above it). Methods of data collection included structured interview, observation and content analysis. Through the observation method the reported data were verified by way of personal visits at the newspaper offices. Content analysis initially reviewed all the newspapers of 5 days of the month of June, 2005.

Limitation of the study

The data reported could be exaggeration of the actual status. It¿s quite probable that the bias at top management would interfere into real assessment of the situation. The management has the tendency to project their respective organisations in positive light, and hence tall claims.

The five days newspaper analysis might be insufficient to provide exact picture of the paper contents.

Fact file of Evening Newspapers of Jaipur City

The five eveningers selected for study include one of the oldest-Samachar Jagat; Mahanagar Times and Dainik Current Jwala of 90s; and the rest two Evening Plus and Evening Post of the 21st century.

All these papers are in direct competition and therefore, have been priced One Rupee. It is interesting that while the four of them come out in regular (516 × 330 mm) sizes, the Evening Post has chosen to build its brand in Tabloid (320 × 245 mm) size. Most newspapers consider business places and public places as their potential targets. All have cash readers and 70-80% of the readers are from business community.

Name of the Paper	Price	Pages C b/w Total	Size of the paper	Circu lation   City outside total	Time of dis tribut ion	Dead line	Office Space Sq yards	Print ing Mach ine Type
Samachar Jagat	Re. 1	0 8 8	Reg.	50,000 50,000 1,00,000	4PM	2:30 PM	1000	Web
Web offset	Re. 1	2 4 6	Do Full scape	70,000 15,000 85,000	3PM	1PM	2200
Dainik Current Jwala	Re. 1	0 8 08	Reg.	22,00 24,000  46,000	12 to 1PM	11:30-12:00	300	23-36 offset
Evening Plus	Re. 1	2 4 6	--> TAGS eveningers Subscribe To The Newsletter Media Watch Briefs Amazon resisting voluntary censorship The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.                    Let the games begin Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.                  View More