Adgully Exclusive | Amar Ujala signifies credibility and objectivity: Amar Ujala's Sunil Mutreja

Adgully caught up with Sunil Mutreja, Executive Director, Amar Ujala Publications, to know more about the group's plans.

Talking about the daily's focus, Mutreja says, "The focus is completely centered around Uttar Pradesh (UP), with an objective to become No.1 in UP in next two years time. Presently we are very close to our competitor and we filled the gap with an astounding number of readers. We added around over 15 lakh readers within a span of three years. Secondly we are looking at extending our footprint in Haryana and we will be launching an edition for Rohtak in Haryana and it will consist of 1.5 lakh copies."

The group is also looking at building two more offerings, in August the Amar Ujala Publications launched a Hindi magazine Safalta. The magazine will cater to the needs of a large number of readers who will be appearing for various competitive exams. Priced at Rs 60, the magazine has a total of 180 pages. The circulation of the magazine is estimated to be 1 lakh copies.

Moreover the group will further strengthen it by launching two more magazines post October and around December respectively. The aforementioned to-be launched magazines will be targeted at women and children.

Along the lines of its education project, Amar Ujala also launched its weekly Hindi youth centric newspaper "Yuvan' on January 24, 2011, from Kanpur, known as the education hub of Uttar Pradesh. Priced nominally at Rs 5, "Yuvan' is available only in schools and colleges. The newspaper follows a subscription based revenue model. For the first four months, the newspaper is available for Rs 50. "Yuvan', and is available in all colour, with a total of 24 pages.

Moreover to add to the year's focused strategy Amar Ujala's tabloid Compact has given a tough competition to other publications in the same genre. "It is now No.1 in Kanpur, Banares, Allahabad and Gorakhpur. We are looking at increasing its footprint across rural and semi-urban markets and on 13th of September a Lucknow edition for Compact will be launched," Mutreja adds.

He further points out that the group has also seen a lot of activity in its recently launched BTL division called "Touch Point'. The division has so far worked with brands like HUL, Surf, Airtel and Dabur and is also chalking out to offer media planning for OOH media to the clients.

While each quarter of IRS data gets the daily a good news, Mutreja says, "IRS growth has been pretty consistent for Amar Ujala and our belief lies in the solid credibility that our editorial team has. The market reckons us as a credible brand which is not biased in any way or provides one-sided information."

He further adds that the organisation also has a strong and process driven HR machinery which is the backbone of the daily's successful working. "We are known for our HR processes. The organisation's working is totally process driven. We have atleast 20 training programmes in a year which range from being process driven, management driven, editorial driven, sales driven to branding driven," Mutreja explains.

As a leader with deep knowledge of marketing, for 25 years Mutreja as he puts it himself "has enjoyed taking on brand problems and driving a media brand to grow with complete marketing solutions".

"I am a people person and I believe in team work. I enjoy motivating my associates to think with me and think together," he humbly adds.

While the humble leader is quite satisfied with the growth in the publication's ad revenue and circulation numbers, as a sign off message, Mutreja adds, "My vision is to see Amar Ujala as one of the most profitable multi-media organisation and I want every employee within the organisation to be proud about belonging to the brand name- Amar Ujala. Brand Amar Ujala's strenght lies in the credibility and objectivity of our editorial team." | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]