Hyderabad gets a new English daily, Metro India

The 16-page coloured newspaper in the broadsheet format and has been priced at Rs 2.

English daily, Metro India, was launched rercently in Hyderabad. The daily is being circulated in the seven districts proposed for the state of Telangana. Metro India is a 16-page daily printed in the coloured broadsheet format and is priced at Rs 2 for both weekdays and weekends.

The newspaper began circulation earlier this month with a daily print run of 70,000 copies and aims to address the concerns, aspirations and ambitions of the people of the region. With seven editions, the daily currently covers Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar. In the next two months, the newspaper plans to introduce editions in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and New Delhi. Also, in the next one year, it aims to roll out editions from Vizag and Tirupati.

Intercontinental Publication is printing the daily and the editorial operations are overseen by C L Rajam, who is also the editor for Namasthe Telangana, a two-year-old daily published in Telugu.

Metro India initially has 35-40 per cent advertising.

Speaking on how the paper plans to differentiate itself from the other English dailies circulated in these markets, A Srinivas Rao, executive editor, Metro India, says, "Most of the English dailies present here are national dailies and they present a national picture, which in turn reduces their focus on Hyderabad. We aim to fill that gap and deliver the Hyderabadi flavoured news to our readers. We will completely focus on the news in our region along with other news and that will be our differentiating aspect."

Metro India will face tough competition from already established dailies such as The Hindu, TOI, Sakshi, Deccan Chronicle and others. Rao adds that the daily is not competing with any of these giants, and wants to establish itself in the market.

On the marketing front, Metro India has taken the OOH route for promotion. It has booked over 300 OOH spots in all these seven districts to announce the launch.

The proposed state of Telangana will comprise of 10 districts and have a population of 35.38 million, with an area of 1.14 lakh square km. Telangana is the biggest amongst the three regions of the state of Andhra Pradesh.