LOKSATTA : A CASE STUDY - ANINDITA GANGULY (9405) - ARCHANA MORE (9414)

The Express Group The Express Group is one of the nation's largest media conglomerates. The Indian Express Group publications include the Indian Express, Financial Express, Loksatta and the highly respected Bollywood weekly – Screen. The Express Group boasts an extensive newsgathering and marketing infrastructure as well as a state-of-the-art communications network within the Indian publishing industry.

Loksatta The Loksatta is 5th largest selling Marathi newspaper in Maharashtra. Lok means people in Marathi/Hindi. Established in 1948, today it has branches in Mumbai (Bombay), Nagpur, Pune, Ahmednagar and Delhi.

History & Evolution On January 14, 1948, The Express Group started Loksatta. The newly launched daily was unique as it was one of the first Marathi dailies in the format of an English newspaper. Vishnu Parvate, who was the first editor, gave the newspaper it’s identity. From the very beginning, Loksatta covered political issues extensively; this immediately became the USP of the newspaper. Loksatta from its inception proved to be stiff competition to the other Marathi dailies.

Loksatta was the only newspaper that was on par with English news dailies, because along with its great new look, the newspaper covered wide-ranging news reports and news analysis. It had remained the largest circulated standard Marathi daily for many years, but later the 1990s saw competition from newer dailies like Mahatrastra Times and Navkal. However things turned around in the 2000s when it underwent a major revamp, this included addition of various supplements, and adding several new cities for local editions.

About Loksatta From the very beginning, editorials on various issues were presented in the paper. There is a daily feature everyday on the front page and the paper also has National/International pages. The Masthead is very classy with the pneumonic of a pen with a web-link to their online edition on the upper left side. They do not have a consistent colour scheme, but generally make the paper very colourful. There is an abundant use of graphics and photographs which give the newspaper a very appealing look.

Agencies Input: Hardly 10 to 15% of the news comes from agencies – mainly it’s from PTI. It has editions from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and Ahmednagar and is the only Marathi daily with a wide variety of weekly and weekend supplements. Known for its impartial coverage and nonconformist and liberal viewpoint, Loksatta is both a forum and the voice of democracy. Loksatta believes in creating thought leaders, change leaders and empowering its readers through knowledge, information and thus stands for leadership through empowerment.

Market Strategy & Challenges The management and staff of Loksatta did everything in their power to gain and maintain stability in the market. The paper had availability to all the modern amenities for production, printing and circulation under The Express Group. Loksatta’s avatar was a welcome change – photographs, crosswords and other new innovations would be included with stories to attract readers. Loksatta has also been launched in the national capital recently.

The edition available in Delhi carries all the 12 supplements of the paper and also features a local page, Marathi Vishwa, covering Maharashtrians in Delhi. The main problem faced by Loksatta in the market is the competition by other regional newspapers and the English newspapers. Preferance of English over Marathi by the cosmopolitan reader is the real problem right now.

Current Status & Future Plans Recently, the newspaper embarked on a series of initiatives to capture the minds and hearts of young Maharashtrians. Loksatta has revamped many of it’s departments to get better outputs through exhaustive workshops, seminars and initiatives. The Loksatta office has also been shifted to Mahape in Navi Mumbai from it’s original location at Express Towers in Nariman Point, for better productivity and a complete revamp and outlook change. Ultimate aim is to increase the sales and attain the number one position in the city.

Editor & Award Recognition Mr.Kumar Ketkar is currently the Chief Editor of Loksatta. He is an outstanding journalist and has been in the field for the past 35 years. He has numerous, prestigious awards to his credit and has contributed enormously to the field of journalism and to Loksatta. Loksatta has received many awards for excellence in reporting under the guidance of Mr.Ketkar like the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, Ramnath Goenka India Press Photo Awards, Screen Awards, FE Women in Business Awards, Intelligent Enterprise Awards, etc.

Advertisers The Express Group had package deals for all it’s newspapers with the advertisers. The main problem faced by Loksatta is the lack of big brands since it’s a regional language newspaper and not an English one. They are trying to rope in the big players in the field by revamping their image and the newspaper’s image. Vicco Turmeric Cream, Chevrolet, Kotomac Torex Cough Syrup, Sachin Travels, Vaman Hari Pethe, Vijaya Bank, etc are some of it’s main advertisers.

Conclusion Loksatta is an extremely important Marathi newspaper and growing every day. It has created a name for itself for reporting correct, factual and impartial news stories. It’s main plan for the future is increasing it’s readership, revenues and sales. The main aim of Loksatta is to become the No.1 Marathi newspaper in Maharashtra in the near future.

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