Rajasthan Patrika gets younger

Three months of planning, research and market feedback resulted in a total makeover of the newspaper's look and feel, with the youth as its new target readership.

Rajasthan Patrika, the Rajasthan-based Hindi daily, has undergone cosmetic changes to attract young readers. The design change has been done to re-position the daily as per the tastes and preferences of Sec A and B. The change is being carried out across all editions of the newspaper.

Following three months of planning, research and market feedback, Patrika's look and feel has been overhauled to give it a youthful look. To emphasise the change, the new look of the daily has been introduced with a teaser ad, with a colour photograph of Priyanka Gandhi, juxtaposed against a black-and-white picture of Indira Gandhi.

According to a company official, several closed room discussions were held with various advertisers to accommodate their perspective. "Right before the festive season, Patrika has strategically re-launched the product," says the official.

The new layout has an urban, youthful feel, and is contemporary in design. The official adds that the news pages have been re-designed, keeping in mind eye movement, essential elements have been highlighted using a news hierarchy, and non-priority items have been eliminated. The format has been kept such that it is reader-friendly, easily navigable, and strengthens product differentiation.

As far as the advertisers are concerned, the new layout will offer options for innovations including the front page solus, which has been re-positioned from the bottom right hand column towards the centre, making it look like an island, wrapped with news all around, rather than just occupying a corner of the newspaper. "The new solus position will give a better edge to advertisers, as it will ensure more eyeballs than the classical solus position," says the official.

The news features will have more visual support, including boxes and visual illustrations, to make it more navigable in order to ensure more reader time per page. The newspaper will have more focus on local news to establish a reader connect.

As for the pagination, it will be such that all pages will have pre-designated features appearing on specific pages as per readership habit profiling, and will enable advertisers to position their ads as per the target group. Advertisers will have more advertising options in the new avatar, as several news properties have been designed that will facilitate better mileage and visibility of advertisements.

Sumant Verma, national creative head, newsroom design cell, says, "The design has been done with a view to support and supplement the content, the classical ad spaces have been re-located to move away from the blind spots."

Apart from this, Patrika has re-designed circulation drives to increase its penetration amongst its target group.

In an official communique, Saurabh Bhandari, assistant general manager, marketing, says, "The interactive new format will provide Patrika a reach in the crucial season time. The advertiser will benefit from the effort put in by Patrika to provide not just the penetration, but to create a greater impact with its enhanced response power and better visibility."