DB Group launches Divya Marathi from Solapur

This is the fifth edition of the Marathi daily. With this, Divya Marathi completes its foray in central Maharashtra.

The Dainik Bhaskar Group (DB Group) launched the fifth edition of its Marathi daily, Divya Marathi, from Solapur (Maharashtra) on April 1.

The newspaper has been launched with a cover price of Rs 3. This is the newspaper's fifth edition in Maharashtra, after Jalgaon, Nashik, Aurangabad and Ahmednagar. With this, the group has completed the foray of Divya Marathi in central Maharashtra. The Solapur edition is also the group's 65th edition.

The new edition will also cover Osmanabad and Latur, apart from Solapur. Earlier, Solapur was not being catered by Divya Marathi. As per market estimates, Solapur has a retail advertising market of approximately Rs 25 crore. The first edition of Divya Marathi from Aurangabad started in May, 2011.

In an official communication, Sudhir Agarwal, managing director, DB Corp, says, 'Through the Solapur launch of Divya Marathi, we continue to steadily enhance our footprint in Maharashtra.'

The Solapur edition of Divya Marathi will have three weekly supplements. Rasik, to be published every Sunday, will focus on entertainment and fun; Divya Education, an education pullout, will be published every Friday; and Madurima will be available every Wednesday.

The new entrant will face competition from several other Marathi players in the city, including Lokmat, Sakal, Pudhari and Sanchar. Solapur has an urban population of about 14.7 lakh, with per-capita income of Rs 61,700, making it an important city of Southwestern Maharashtra.

In a separate development, Dainik Bhaskar, as part of its CSR activity, recently concluded a month-long educative and participative drive against female foeticide and abandoning the girl child at birth, titled 'Beti Bachao Muhim' (Save the girl child) initiative across Punjab and Haryana. The campaign was given editorial push for 23 days, apart from local-level focus group discussions. The activity also involved a signature campaign to enhance awareness among residential areas across 40 centres in the two cities. The company claims that about 4 lakh people signed and took oath against the social menace.

For the record, the DB Group owns Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and DNA and is present across 13 states. It also publishes three other newspaper titles - Business Bhaskar, DB Gold and DB Star. In the magazine segment, the group publishes Aha! Zindagi (a magazine devoted to positivity in life), Bal Bhaskar (Hindi), Young Bhaskar (English publication for young readers) and Lakshay (career grooming magazine). The other media businesses of the group include My FM, a radio network present across 17 cities.