Zee group to take on rivals with newspaper in Delhi

Mumbai: Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra is planning a big splash in the print media with a newspaper in New Delhi next year. The Zee Group's entry into the print advertising market in the capital, the country's biggest after Mumbai, is expected to bring down the cost of advertisements.

The Daily News & Analysis, or DNA, may also start editions in the South with a war chest of Rs 700 crore ($154 million) put together by the Zee founder and his partners in the newspaper venture, reports quoting Ashish Kaul, senior vice president of Chandra's Essel Group, said.

DNA will take on the combined forces of Hindustan Times and The Times of India, who are putting aside an eight-decade-long rivalry to start a joint paper.

The Essel group has a stake in Diligent Media Corporation, which in turn owns DNA. It has as its partner Diligent Media, whose Dainik Bhaskar is India's second-largest selling Hindi language newspaper.

DNA's plans mark the opening of a new battleground for the English-language readership, after Mumbai last year. DNA and Hindustan Times both started editions in Mumbai in 2005 to challenge the 168-year-old The Times of India.

Despite their earlier rivalry in New Delhi, the war almost ended with The Times of India and the Hindustan Times joining hands to launch a new newspaper in Delhi.