Girish Agarwaal, promoter-director of the Dainik Bhaskar Group was pleased to have said, “Expanding the reach of Dainik Bhaskar to all 38 districts of Bihar has been a fulfilling process.” The DB Group has invested Rs 200 crore in print centres and editorial resources in the state. Agarwaal stated, the 20% circulation growth as pointed out by the Hansa Research to gauge readership position and strengths, have reiterated Dainik Bhaskar’s strong position in Bihar. Agarwaal said, “this is the success of our expansion strategy and the appeal of our product.”

Hansa Research Group undertook a commissioned readership research in Bihar to gauge the readership of four Hindi newspapers (Hindustan, Dainik Jagran, Prabhat Khabar and Dainik Bhaskar). The data mapping was on the basis of readership profile, product consumptions, readers’ engagement and brand satisfaction. As per the Hansa readership report, Dainik Bhaskar is at number two position with an average issue readership (AIR) of 9.11 lakhs, while the legacy player leads with AIR of 9.98 lakhs. In Patna, Dainik Bhaskar is at number one position with AIR of 5.07 lakh readers.

Prateek Dixit of Hansa Research Group

In Bihar, Dainik Bhaskar has the highest women readership with 47%. Plus the average time spent with the newspaper is in the 45-minute range, once again, highlighting the “stickiness of print with under-served readers”. Agarwaal stated, “Bihar was a media dark state. Through our outreach, akin to Rajasthan and Gujarat, we have once again demonstrated our execution capabilities through a well-planned editorial strategy to cater to underserved readers, innovative content, impactful activations and determined efforts to strengthen circulation. We will do our best to continue to maintain this growth momentum in Bihar and make all efforts in reducing the readership gap.”

Today, DB Corp Limited (DBCL) is India’s largest print media company and home to flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar. During a press briefing in Mumbai, Hansa Research Group announced that Dainik Bhaskar has emerged as the number two newspaper in Bihar. This success has been achieved within a short span of time, since it initiated its circulation expansion drive in Bihar.

Girish Agarwaal during a media interaction

During a media briefing, Girish Agarwaal repeatedly extolled “the power of print”. He said, there is a mistaken perception that ad revenue for television and online is growing at the expense of print. “This is completely wrong. The ad pie for both newspapers and print has not shrunk.” He was optimistic about newspapers because of a CAGR of 5.5%.”

The reason for his bullishness is, “In contrast to English language dailies, the language newspapers continue to do well. Be it Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu or Marathi, newspapers in regional languages continue to grow and attract more advertisers. We have been able to increase readership and ad revenue is growing despite a tough economic environment. Now, local language dailies are driving the sector.” He signed off, “I am very very optimistic about print in India.”