Deccan Chronicle's entry into Coimbatore, will attract young minds

Deccan Chronicle a daily with a total readership of 2,707,000 readers (IRS Q3 data) launched on December 28, 2010 in the Coimbatore market. Entering a space where The Hindu has over years held the leader position it will be interesting to see how the daily will break into the market and acquire its readers.

The daily will be trying to attract more young readers as it does in other markets and recognises itself as - "The newspaper for young minds."

While the daily has had a strong position in most of the southern markets, Adgully caught up with Amit Shukla, Chief Executive Officer, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, to know more about the paper's plan in the new market.

On the latest expansion, Shukla says, " Deccan Chronicle has been growing robustly for decades and also in the last 5 years, winning good number of readers and advertisers in our earlier launches (Chennai and Bangalore), and we expect to do the same in Coimbatore as well, which is strengthening and consolidating our reach amongst English readers of Tamil Nadu."

The daily will be looking at attracting more young English speaking readers. "Like other large Indian cities, Coimbatore has a large base of people who work in English, use computers in their office and interact at home in English and use the language for most of their quality work. Presented with a vibrant English newspaper designed for young minds, we are sure these people will take to Deccan Chronicle in good numbers," he adds.

When asked if there could be another price war in the Coimbatore market, Shukla says, "Cover Price is not a strategic tool, it is a tactical tool in the newspaper industry in India. The key factor is the connect and appeal of the content to the reader, and not cover price. In other markets where we have launched, there hasn't been a price war really, so there is no need of any war in Coimbatore either."