Chennai : The leading Publications and Broadcasting Group Daily Thanthi, which runs one of the largest circulated Tamil newspaper Daily Thanti, is set to launch a new English Newspaper ‘DT Next’.
Even though the company and its executives are tight lipped about the launch, Market sources confirmed that the development that DT Next will be launched on 1st November in Chennai and the Group has designed a moderate launch Campaign. The Chennai edition will be given free initially to Daily Thanthi’s Tamil Newspaper readers.
Besides, Daily Thanthi morning tamil paper, the Group also runs an evening Tamil newspaper Malai Malar and magazines including Rani Muthu, Rani, Gokulam Kadhir, an FM channel Hello FM and 24 hours news channel Thanthi TV, which was acquired from NDTV Hindu.
The newspaper roped in Times of India’s Ninan Thariyan to head its new division as CEO. He was with Times of India (TOI) nearly for 36 years and roped in some of the senior executives from TOI and Deccan Chronicle Group.
Daily Thanthi’s foray into English will be an interesting challenge as it will compete with TOI, The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle. The key to success is content and that would be a major challenge for Daily Thanthi and it cannot replicate the model and journalism of Tamil and it will not work. Tamil Nadu is one of the most urbanised in the country, which DT Next may leverage along with its Tamil readership.
DT Next has already created a price war as far as advertising concerned. The new paper has quoted Rs 615 per square centimetre for regular display as against Rs 1,610 of Times of India (ToI). For full page Rs 6 lakh as compared to Rs 27 lakh of TOI and Rs 35 lakh of The Hindu, Rs 3 lakh for half page as compared to Rs 13 lakh of TOI and Rs 16 lakh of The Hindu and for double spread Rs 10 lakh as against Rs 57 lakh of TOI and Rs 60 lakh of The Hindu.
The 74-year-old Group’s Tamil Newspaper Daily Thanthi is one of the largest newspapers in the country and claims to have a readership base of around 82.83 lakh. Daily Thanthi presently operates with 17 editions that includes Dubai edition too. It has a circulation of 4.95 lakh copies in Chennai (ABC July-December 2014) with a readership of 16.74 lakh readers and Daily Thanthi boasts of an all-India readership of 8.83 lakh (IRS 2013).
