DNA vs HT: Will the advertisers speak up?
The new newspapers on the block - Hindustan Times, HT, and DNA have hit the ground running and both are claiming to have reeled in 2 lakh subscribers each. This is not independently verifiable. But will this claim be really backed by readership and advertisement?
DNA did not deliver its paper on the day of the launch - July 30. But it claims to have letters of intent to purchase from around 3,50,000 households. Meanwhile Times of India's tabloid format, Mumbai Mirror is riding on ToI's 5.5 lakh circulation. ToI believes it works well as a second paper for advertisers as well as readers.
Editor, DNA, Gautam Adhikari explains, "We are printing around 3,00,000 copies everyday and we are selling around 2,80,000. Its been a rough time for Mumbai - that affects not only the editorial content but also the ability to distribute and print."
The important question now is, how is Times of India taking this invasion? Executive President, Times of India, Bhaskar Das told CNCB-TV18, "Ultimately English newspaper homes in Bombay are getting Times of India. We thought while we will access the same home, in fact all the newspapers that have been launched are accessing the same household, so the ToI is a reach medium, all the other publications will be an OTS medium. So Mumbai Mirror is servicing the objective of OTS though we are also marketing it as an independent product. In fact, we are selling around 60,000 from the cash-sell points."
Adhikari turns up the heat a notch, and comments that he sees Mumbai Mirror merely as an insert and says "I don't think that's a serious newspaper."
While this war of words and circulation figures heats up between the old and the new, advertisers will enter the fray only later.
Mumbai ad rates (per sq cm) Mumbai Mirror: Rs 180
Hindustan Times: Rs 350
DNA: Rs 350-Rs 450
Times of India: Rs 1,700 (post Aug 15, it will be Rs 1,900)
ToI & Mumbai Mirror: Rs 1,830
Managing Director, Starcom, Ravi Kiran said, "While there are figures like 2,20,000 and 3,50,000 that has been discussed, I think most of the advertisers will stick to the tried and tested Times of India for some time to come. They will experiment with one of these two papers in the next 3-4 months, find their own mechanism of how to know if the experiment is succeeding or not. If it works, they can repeat, if it doesn't they can
always go back to ToI."
Its early days yet but can this war be won by the marketing team or the content team is the next big question. Adhikari admits that because the marketing came way before the product, he now has to fit his product to the marketing. On the other hand, Editor, Hindustan Times, Vir Sanghvi does not feel the same compulsions because they didn't go on an ad binge except for the TV campaign created by Piyush Pandey.
Sanghvi explains the rationale, he said that "either you did a splashy, good page 1 story that dominated television for the next four days or you spend Rs 25 crore on hoardings. We chose the former option."
The Hindustan Times's tagline 'Let there be light' was also the motto of Vir Sanghvi's school, Mayo College! Though, adman Piyush Pandey claimed he didn't know that.
Adhikari says that his paper is targeted at a certain section of the population. He elaborates, "They are more likely to take to a new habit than an old one. Also we are trying to enter a section of the population which doesn't have much of a newspaper reading habit. These days people between the ages of 25-35 are watching programmes than reading newspapers. So, this is a competitive environment, not just with other newspapers but also with television and increasingly with the web."
Sanghvi claims that HT didn't come to Mumbai with the intention of knocking ToI off its perch but because they believed that Mumbaikars wanted an "alternative to the Times of India kind of journalism." Also, when they decided to make this move, DNA wasn't anywhere on the scene. In a lighter vein, he quips that DNA should have been called VRS because so many people quit from Times of India to join DNA!
So, in terms of segmentation, they could only "produce an elegant and insightful paper that seemed like an alternative to this approach. It's possible we haven't succeeded. It's possible it's the wrong strategy but for what's it worth, that's the strategy." He also highlights the fact that the only 'deal' that HT and ToI have struck pertains only to "accepting our advertising and to us printing the ToI."
Now after the marketing blitz is over, ultimately, how are the two newspapers going to be differentiated? Adhikari says, "Like any other product being launched in a particular category. For instance, if you launch a car, as things stand, it has to have four wheels, an engine, a boot at the back and seats inside, a sterring wheel etc. So, a newspaper has to have a front page, a sports section etc."
Vir Sanghvi has an interesting way of describing DNA, it feels like he's looking at Times of India through its history - he says "it's really a collection of ToI's greatest hits of yesteryears, repackaged with USA Today layout!" Adhikari's light-hearted repartee is that "HT looks exactly like HT does, in Delhi. It's an easy job for them to design something that doesn't require designing anymore!"
But he acknowledges that both papers will need time to prove themselves and for readership to pick up. He explains, "The Telegraph launched in Calcutta in 1982 and took them almost 10 years to displace The Statesman. Both Vir and I are up against a very strong oponent here. The TOI had started evolving long before we came here."
Vir Sanghvi has experience of ToI trying to undercut competition, when ToI moved to Delhi and practically started giving away its English paper at such a throwaway price with its Hindi language paper. He recalls then, that advertisers had waited and watched and realised that HT's paid circulation was higher and they had stuck with him.
In the end, what may happen is that the merits of each paper will start to appeal to advertisers, anyway.
Manali Rohinesh
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