Nai Dunia team launches National Duniya in Delhi and NCR

The Hindi daily has been launched by the same team that had worked with the Nai Dunia Delhi-NCR edition.

Soon after the closure of Nai Dunia Delhi edition, after the acquisition of the company by Jagran Prakashan, the entire team of Nai Dunia, Delhi has come together for the launch of a new Hindi daily, National Duniya. National Duniya was launched from Delhi and NCR on March 30.

Alok Mehta has joined National Duniya as its printer, publisher and editor-in-chief. Till recently, he was the editor-in-chief of Nai Dunia newspaper. Also, Debu Mishra, erstwhile president, sales and marketing of Nai Dunia, has joined National Dunia as head, sales marketing and product development.

Mehta is a former president of the Editors Guild of India. During his 40-year career in journalism, he has worked with The Times of India (TOI) group, Hindustan Times Group (HT), Outlook and Deutsche Welle (Germany).

Mishra began his career with the TOI group in the results and market development division. He worked with TOI for 13 years before moving to HT as regional head, sales, in 2002. After working with HT for three years, he joined Amar Ujala as national head, sales. He worked at Amar Ujala for four years before joining Nai Dunia.

From vice-president, sales and marketing, Nai Dunia, Mishra was promoted as president, sales and marketing in May, 2011. He holds a post graduate degree in Applied and Analytical Economics from Utkal University and has been in sales throughout his career, spanning two decades.

National Duniya has been launched with a cover price of Rs 3.50 per copy. The company claims to have an initial circulation of about 1 lakh copies. The daily is distributed in Delhi and NCR, including Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon. It plans to bring out more editions in various states of the Hindi heartland.

The newspaper is created and marketed by the same team of about 200 employees that was working with Nai Dunia in Delhi and NCR. The project is backed by Shailendra Bhadauria, secretary, Maharana Pratap Group Institution.

National Duniya is an all-colour 16-page daily and has a metro-centric four-page supplement called Metro Color that comes three days a week (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday). On Wednesdays, the daily has a tabloid titled Humsafar for women, while on Fridays there is a health and wellness magazine supplement called Kaya Kalp. On Saturdays, the Hindi daily comes with a four-page Bollywood and glamour pullout called Rangoli, and on Sundays, it is accompanied by a 48-page leisure and lifestyle magazine.

Talking to afaqs! about the new daily, Mehta says, "There will be a lot of value additions to the product, keeping in mind the ever-changing tastes of the readers."

To promote the newly launched title, the company has initiated an ad campaign that is currently on air on news channels such as IBN7, and on radio. Soon, the company plans to launch an outdoor and BTL (below-the-line) campaign spread across Delhi.

For the record, Maharana Pratap Group Institution was established in 1995. Today, the group has six schools, nine colleges and a university, spread across Kanpur, Lucknow, New Delhi and Jaipur.