HomeNewsMedia Battle for numbers hots up among Gujarati newspapers
Battle for numbers hots up among Gujarati newspapers
2009-10-09 16:02:00
By Yogesh Sharma
With Gujarat Samachar, leading Gujarati newspaper, resuming assured gift scheme for its readers, the circulation war between Gujarati newspapers has revived. The first indication of the revival of the battle for numbers was Gujarat Samachar announcing reintroduction of the gift scheme. This had instant reaction from Divya Bhaskar. It made its gift scheme more attractive next day.
Gujarat Samachar had discontinued its scheme three months ago without any announcement. The two other players in the field in Gujarat, Divya Bhaskar and Sandesh, started extending period of the scheme which was originally started as a monthly scheme by Divya Bhaskar when it had launched its edition in Ahmedabad. At the same time the gifts have become lesser attractive.
However, Gujarat Samachar is all set to redefine the rules of battle for paid circulation in Gujarat. While both Sandesh and Divya Bhaskar are now stretching the gift period to almost three month, Gujarat Samachar has come out with a scheme of gift after 60 days. Obviously, to be in the race, others will have to reduce the period to match the period of 60 days of Gujarat Samachar.
The impact of the announcement of Gujarat Samachar was clear with the announcement of Divya Bhaskar that it will have larger gift pack as compared to its announcement a day earlier. Interestingly, Gujarat Samachar had made its announcement, the day the announcement of Divya Bhaskar was scheduled. However, the management of Divya Bhaskar got another jolt when Gujarat Samachar next day announced that the reader will get gift after sixty days. The gift period of Bhaskar was of 85 days.
Under the scheme, a reader has to collect daily coupons to fill the form which is part of the newspaper of the day, the scheme starts. For example, Gujarat Samachar form has space for 60 coupons while that of Bhaskar has 85 spaces. Sandesh also has 85 coupon spaces, but its scheme is extended for many more days because of the bonus coupons. These bonus coupons are for the coupons you may forget to cut or you may have lost.
The coupon war was basically introduced by Bhaskar to establish itself in Gujarat. The newspaper also inducted lot of staff at very high pay scales. This has in fact elevated the status of Gujarati journalists in terms of pay packets. The target of all such strategic maneuvers of Diya Bhaskar was to dislodge Gujarat Samachar from its number one monopolistic position in Gujarat.
The gift coupon system has become most unwanted burden on these three newspapers. But none is in a position to stop it fearing great loss of “circulation”. Gujarat Samachar stopped it three months back and initially there was a marginal fall of 10,000 copies. However, the number grew as the paper did not announce new scheme till recently.
The gift coupon has brought a remarkable change in the purchase pattern of newspapers. Many buy more than one newspaper. Not because of the increased passion for news, but a temptation for free gift. The business logic of readers is very simple. The market price of the gift and the money of the waste newspaper makes up for the monthly bill of the newspaper. However, extension of the gift period to three months affected the business entrepreneurial spirits of this class of readers.
There is another class of reader which decides the newspaper on the basis of the gift of the month. However, newspapers gradually going for cheaper gifts has started bringing down gift oriented loyalty of the readers.
The gift coupons have provided value added business to the newspaper agents. They collect coupons and sell it to the needy readers when they go to collect their gift. One can find people standing at the gift distribution centre selling coupons for the price ranging from Rs one to five.
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