Major newspapers form alliance for better ad reach

Three large newspaper publishing houses — The Hindu, Hindustan Times and The Telegraph — are pooling their advertising might in their respective regions to form One India.

One India is a common platform for advertisers to reach a larger audience through six newspapers — three English dailies The Hindu, Hindustan Times and The Telegraph and three language dailies The Hindu (Tamil), Hindustan (Hindi) and Ananda Bazar Patrika (Bengali).

Suresh Srinivasan, Vice-President (Advertising),

The Hindu , said this will give advertisers a wider audience and cost advantage. This will also attract ‘print shy’ advertisers.

Of the total advertising market size of ₹30,000 crore, television and print media are neck-to-neck. A chunk of the print medium’s ad revenue comes from the non-FMCG segment, which includes automobile, real estate and banking and finance.

According to industry sources, in general, FMCG advertisers spend more than 84 per cent of their annual advertising budget on TV commercials and spend only the remaining portion on the print medium, while non-FMCG advertisers spend roughly 62 per cent on the print medium and 38 per cent on electronic medium.

Kavitha Srinivasan, Partner, Mindshare (a media buying agency), says One India is a welcome move as the combined reach of these papers will benefit clients who seek a national-level reach.