Mid-Day’s new owners to expand Inquilab’s reach

Having taken over Mid-Day Multimedia's print business, Jagran Prakashan, publisher of the country's largest read Hindi daily, Dainik Jagran, plans to extend the reach of the Mid-Day group's Urdu newspaper, Inquilab, beyond Mumbai across 11 states to tap the growing market.

R K Agarwal, chief financial officer, Jagran Prakashan, said, ''We have a sizeable Muslim populace across all the 11 states we distribute our publications in. Initially, we are looking at coming out with one or two editions of Inquilab, apart from the one published from Mumbai. Over time, we are considering extending it to all the 11 states we circulate our publications in.''

As regards business plans for the English tabloid Mid-Day and for Mid-Day in Gujarati, Agarwal informed, ''Our strategy would be to consolidate the brands in existing markets at present. We are not looking at capacity enhancement programmes or extending the reach of Mid-Day beyond the four cities it is published from, as of now.''

Mid-Day, which is published from Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore, holds the third position in the Mumbai market in terms of circulation, after The Times of India and Mumbai Mirror. It has a readership of 1.37 million.

While admitting the proposed merger would offer Jagran opportunities to increase share considerably in existing markets, Agarwal said, ''We are assessing the prospects. How the market will actually pan out will be clearer after the high court approval in six to eight months time.''

He said that the printing presses owned by Mid-Day have also been taken over as part of the deal.