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Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Deccan Chronicle conquers Chennai, heads for Tiruchi and B'lore

Looks like Deccan Chronicle has been going great guns in Chennai. According to Exchange4Media, DC has a print run of 255K during weekdays and 290K during weekend. Few months ago this figure was pegged at a little over 100K. Looks like their prime time ads on SUN TV are really working. Not sure how long they can continue with their introductory price of Re. 1. Once they have a captive audience, they should be looking at increasing the price. This should definitely be causing some jitters in The Hindu camp. I am curious to know whether the entry of DC has expanded the print market or whether DC has wrested some market share from The Hindu.

The success of DC in Chennai would have given the confidence to launch Trichy and Bangalore editions. The Hindu has a Madurai edition and this is the one that is currently available to Tiruchi residents. Readers in the Southern metros never had it so good.

SUN Network's foray into the newspaper segment

In the Tamil print market, SUN Network acquired Dinakaran newspaper sometime ago. Dinakaran was earlier owned by a DMK sympathizer / former minister. Since SUN Network was eyeing a foray into the Tamil newspaper segment, acquiring an established newspaper made more sense rather than starting something afresh. SUN TV can reap some synergies by using the Dinakaran network for newsgathering for the SUN News Channel. Kalanidhi Maran should be hoping that his astute marketing (a la Kungumam magazine style) and aggressive distribution should do the magic. With this Kalanidhi Maran becomes the undisputed king of the regional media scene. His empire spans Cable TV, Cable TV distribution, Newspapers, Magazines and FM radio.

Exclusive Magazine Store in Bangalore

Jayan had talked about the exclusive Magazine Store in Bangalore (Brigade Road) sometime ago. With so much written about this shop, I definitely want to visit this place in the near future. A magazine junkie like me will definitely find a treasure trove in this shop.

posted by Kaps at 12:11 AM

7 Comments:

  • Wonder why DC would want to launch in Bangalore when there is already Asian Age. Apart from the masthead, I find the two papers indistinguishable.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:29 PM  

  • Maran seems unstoppable as the "Media king" in the south. But how about working on some good content ? The less said about the Kungumam content the better.

    By Blogger Cogito, at 5:01 PM  

  • @Anon,
    Even I have the same doubt

    @Cogito,
    I dunno how the customers are getting carried away by smart marketing and lot of freebies. this can't guarantee long term success.

    @Veda,
    DC is tapping the college crowd and seems to be succeeding in that. it might not have created a big dent in Hindu's market. but the official figures are not avlbl.

    By Blogger Kaps, at 12:30 AM  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Saravan, at 9:23 AM  

  • >> The Hindu has a Madurai edition and this is the one that is currently available to Tiruchi residents.

    Hindu launched its Trichy edition in late 2004.

    By Blogger Saravan, at 9:25 AM  

  • Kaps,
    This is an unfortunate trend.... consumers aren't kings, they are just suckers :)

    By Blogger Bala (Karthik), at 10:51 PM  

  • rite now DC has reached nearly 1.5 lakh :) ... Hindu, IE were never any competition...it has overtaken Herald and (hopefully) will beat TOI too in the years to come.. :)

    By Blogger Max, at 5:32 PM  

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