Lokmat
| Indian Presidential Elections (15-06-2007) Indian Presidential Elections (15-06-2007) | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Rajendra Darda, Ramesh Bora |
| Publisher | Lokmat Newspaper Limited |
| Editor-in-chief | Bora, Ramesh |
| Staff writers | (Technical support /Ads) CyberShoppee |
| Founded | Jawaharlal Darda |
| Language | Marathi - Lokmat, Hindi - Lokmat Samachar, English - Lokmat Times |
| Headquarters | Lokmat Bhavan Pandit Nehru Marg, Lokmat Square, Sitabuldi, Nagpur, 440012 Maharashtra, India |
| Circulation | 10,856,000 Daily |
| Website | Lokmat.com - official site |
Lokmat ( Marathi (मराठी) - लोकमत ) is a popular Marathi language newspaper. It is the fourth largest Indian daily and in Marathi, it is the largest selling daily [1]with 1.2 million copies a day.[2] Its readership (NRS 2006) is 10,856,000.[3] Its main corporate office is located in Nagpur City in Maharashtra (India).
Editions
Lokmat has 13 Marathi editions in Maharashtra.
1. Nagpur (including Wardha, Gondia, Amravati and Gadchiroli supplements)
2. Aurangabad (including Separate Hello Lokmat Supplement For 8 Distticts in Marathwada)
3. Mumbai
4. Pune
5. Ahmednagar (including Shirdi and Beed)
6. Solapur
7. Kolhapur
8. Satara
9. Sangli
10. Nashik
11. Jalgaon (inclusive of Dhule and Nandurbar)
12. Akola (including Buldhana, Washim and Yavatmal supplements)
13. Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg
Lokmat also caters to the Marathi speaking population outside Maharashtra. It has editions in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Belgaum (Karnataka). On 21st April 2009, Lokmat launched its Goa edition (Marathi) primarily for the Marathi-speaking population of north and north-east Goa.
Lokmat Group
Chairman and Managing Director: Vijay Darda.
He is a Rajya Sabha member and part of the Executive Committee of the Indian Newspaper Society. He was one of the 30-member delegation, visiting Pakistan on June 20 2008 on a five-day visit for an intense interaction with senior journalists on various issues related to free flow of information and media between India and Pakistan.
Editor-in-Chief: Dinkar Raikar
Dinkar Raikar is a veteran Marathi journalist, who was appointed Editor-in-Chief for the Lokmat Group of publications on July 30 2009. He was previously Lokmat’s Editor for its Mumbai and Aurangabad editions.
Raikar, a 45-year industry veteran, started off with the Indian Express Group in Nagpur in 1963. He later moved to Mumbai in 1970 and continued to remain with the Express Group for the next 16 years, where he reported on political affairs for all editions of the newspaper. In 1992, he was made the City Editor of the Mumbai edition of The Indian Express. In 1994, Raikar made a move from English to Marathi journalism when he joined Loksatta, a sister publication from the same group, as Deputy Editor (Corporate). He retired from the Express Group in 2002 to take a brief sabbatical before joining the Lokmat Group, where he edited its Aurangabad edition. In 2006, he was given the additional charge of the Mumbai edition.
Sections and Features
Main sections: Local, Maharashtra, National, International, Agriculture, Sports. These sections are covered in every day all editions of Lokmat.
Besides the above, there are some special sections, which only appear in certain editions or on certain days. They are:
1. Lokmat Appointments (every Wednesday and Saturday for Mumbai)
2. Bruhan-Maharashtra
3. Oxygen- for youth
4. Urja- for adolescent children
5. Health and Fitness
6. Travel and Tourism News
7. Sakhi- for women
8. Manthan- literature
9. Almanac and Horoscope
10. Culture and Society
11. Business and Finance
12. Lokmat Shopping
13. Lokmat Birthday Wishes
The Mumbai Edition
On weekdays, Lokmat’s Mumbai edition has 12 pages, of which pages 1, 2, 11 and 12 are in four colour printing. Pages 3,5,8 and 10 have spot colour printing for colour advertisements. The remaining pages are black and white. The paper is priced at Rs 2 and can be read online (through subscription) at www.epaper.lokmat.com.
The content is divided as follows:
Page 1- Top stories of the day across all sections.
Page 2- Mumbai
Page 3- Desh-Videsh (National and International)
Page 4- Sampadaakiya (Editorial)
Page 5- Arthachakra (Financial)
Page 6,8,10- Maharashtra
Page 7 & 9- Konkan regional news
Page 11 & 12- Sports.
It is interesting that the sports section is headed by an English header ‘Sports’ instead of the Marathi word ‘Kreeda’, unlike the practice in the other sections.
The high coverage given to regional and state level news over national and international news indicates that Lokmat is catering to an audience who are more concerned with local issues than national or global causes. Even the Mumbai section does not confine itself to the island city and suburbs, but contains stories from Dahanu, Panvel, Pen and Roha.
Lokmat has begun covering the swine flu outbreak through a special feature ‘Swineche Sakat’.
Lokmat separately lists out what letters to the editor come in through post, email and SMS. While the posted letters are arranged in the traditional ‘Pratibimb’ section, SMSs are published under the section head ‘Hello EDITOR!’ (title in English) and so are the emails. While on any given day, Lokmat publishes at least 4 letters sent via post and 4 SMS messages, the email section has just 1-2 letters and is sometimes skipped. This is another indicator of the kind of readership Lokmat has in Mumbai.
Hello Mumbai
A daily supplement for the Mumbai issue is Lokmat Hello Mumbai a 4 page colour supplement. Here again, the masthead is partly in Marathi and partly in English, given the cosmopolitan nature of Mumbai. Hello Mumbai covers local human interest stories, rather than issues. For instance, between August 23 and August 30 2009, Hello Mumbai ran a series of front page feature articles on the Ganeshutsav. It covered the visarjan, Gauripuja in detail, with large colourful photographs.
Unlike the main paper, Hello Mumbai attempts to connect with the youth of Mumbai, as well as the more cosmopolitan older people. It has sections on lifestyle, fashion, health, weight-loss. It tends to cover sensational tabloid-type stories such as ‘4,000 babies are born in lifts and toilets’ , ‘Mother dog adopts baby monkey’.
On page 2, Hello Mumbai also carries classified advertisements under the heading ‘Chhotya Jaahiraathi’.
Other Lokmat Initiatives
Lokmatwall
In August 2009, Lokmat announced a new online graffiti portal to encourage people to use the web to express their views and voice their opinions through scribbling messages, scrawling names or painting abstract caricatures. The Marathi daily has decided to call the new portal Lokmatwall. More details on this are awaited.
Tie-up with Journalism Colleges
In April 1999, Lokmat entered into collaboration with the Horniman College of Journalism and Mass Communication run by the Maulana Azad Education Trust (MAET). Lokmat agreed to offer theoretical education and practical training in different disciplines of journalism as well as provide on-the-spot training in different departments of newspaper production.
Jawaharlal Darda Fellowships for Marathi Journalism students
The group selects five students (undergraduate) and three (post graduate) students, who are awarded the Jawaharlal Darda fellowships of Rs 1,000 per month. These students are also provided intensive training in the Lokmat office at Aurangabad and are involved in the day-to-day production of the newspapers.
Jawaharlal Darda Excellence Awards
Lokmat has also instituted two prizes of Rs 2,500 each to be known as the Jawaharlal Darda Excellence Awards to be given to the best male and female student on the basis of merit in the university examination, each year, in the Marathi journalism course through ought Maharashtra.
Entry into the Magazine Sector
In 2006, Lokmat formed Cymbal Media, their magazine division in Mumbai. Cymbal Media will create a series of world-class publications to satisfy the readers' changing expectations from the print media. The magazine division is intended to create up-scale lifestyle brands to showcase the ultimate insider experience - an original approach to fashion, beauty, society, art, culture, travel and entertainment.
The first magazine launched is G2- The Global Gujarati (in English) in a large international size. It is distributed in several national and international markets including Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Singapore, Sydney, New York and London. The division intends to target several niche segments. It is edited by Pritti Kumar, and contains columns from top writers like Bacchi Karkaria, health specialist Naini Setalwad and others.
MyIndiaMyWay Pre-Election Campaign
During the 2009 General Elections, Lokmat launched a special campaign ‘MyIndiaMyWay’ in all its editions across the 3 languages.
The ‘Lokmat MyIndiaMyWay’ commenced from January 25, 2009. Lokmat dedicated two pages every day with separate format and design, taking up all kinds of issues for the debate.
The US Presidential elections were very keenly observed as well as the financial meltdown and the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks.
An extract from Lokmat Times says “While the majority is very clear that democracy is one of India’s key sustainable and competitive advantages, there are questions as to whether democracy in the current format is relevant and sufficient in addressing the issues confronting the nation. As a responsible media player, Lokmat Group has created a platform for conducting a discussion on these issues.”
Speaking on the initiative, Bharat Kapadia, Director, Lokmat, said, “The voice of the common people, who are actually owners of this country, are unheard on various occasions. So, we thought of empowering the common people’s voice through our initiative. In this, readers can participate in three ways – first, there is a question of the day, which can be answered by them; secondly, they can raise a question, which is basically getting answered by the Maharashtra Home Minister or Chief Minister; and thirdly, the reader can post their feedbacks on experts’ articles everyday. All three ways of communication can be done through SMSes, emails, and letters, or directly through phone calls. We hope to provide a positive angle to the developments and empower the citizens by providing them a platform like this for debate.”
Throughout the entire period of this exercise, the readership was highly interactive, intensive and also vibrant. Readers, who were not subscribers also participated. Readership and circulation went up during this period.
Lokmat Group promoted this initiative through TV, radio and hoardings.
References
External links
- Lokmat.in
- Lokmat.com - Official Site
- onlinenews.lokmat.com - Online News
- epaper.lokmat.com - Online News Paper
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