Deccan Chronicle spreads its wings in south, launches in Kochi

Deccan Chronicle a daily with a total readership of 2,681,000 readers (IRS Q4 data) has launched its Kochi edition on the 18th of March 2011. The launch follows the daily's Coimbatore edition launch on December 28, 2010. 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.

Calling itself the English Daily Newspaper for Young Minds, Amit Shukla, Chief Executive Officer, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, tells Adgully, "We believe we deliver the most relevant content in the most readable format for people of all chronological ages, whose minds are sharp and young."

Talking about entering the new market, Shukla adds, "Deccan Chronicle has been expanding its reach in Indian Metro towns for some time, and Kochi was the logical next step for Deccan Chronicle ."

"Kochi is the business capital of Kerala, and is practically poised on the brink of breaking into the league of Indian metro towns. It has a sizeable population of young minds, who are using English in their workplace, on their computers and in their daily life, and these form the natural consumer base for Deccan Chronicle. After all, Deccan Chronicle is the largest circulated English Daily newspaper in South India, and the Newspaper for Young minds, and is the ideal newspaper to satisfy this requirement," he added.

The initial print run for the Kochi edition is 25,000 copies and the daily expects that this will grow to a much larger circulation in a short time. The newspaper is priced at Rs.2.50 for all days.

Elaborating on the pricing strategy and talking about a possibility of a price war in the future, Shukla says, "We believe that the readers will finally invest their time and money in reading an English Daily newspaper, which has the editorial and content that they find to be the most relevant and informative. Any price reduction or scheme can at best be a tactical measure, and while it sometimes may occur it is not the central issue"

He further added, "We are confident of achieving robust advertising revenues from the Kotchi market, both from Local and from National advertisers."

Deccan Chronicle's Coimbatore edition was launched last year with an initial print run of about 50,000 copies.| By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]