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Lokmat

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Lokmat
लोकमत
Lokmat Brand Logo
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Founder(s)Jawaharlal Darda, presently managed by Vijay J. Darda and Rajendra Darda
PublisherLokmat Media Limited
Editor-in-chiefVijay J. Darda
FoundedDecember 15, 1971 (1971-12-15)
LanguageMarathi
HeadquartersLokmat Media Ltd, 2nd Floor, Nirlon House, Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai, 400030
CountryIndia
Circulation1,476,900 Daily[1] (as of December 2013)
Websitewww.lokmat.com

Lokmat ( Marathi (मराठी:लोकमत, literally 'People's Opinion') is a Marathi language newspaper published from Mumbai, and several other cities in Maharashtra state. Founded in 1971 by Jawaharlal Darda, in 2014, as per Indian Readership Survey (IRS 2014) it was the tenth largest Indian daily with 5.887 million readers,[2] and in Marathi, it is the largest selling daily [3] with 1.4 million copies a day.[4] As per IRS 2010 Q3, Lokmat has a total readership of 23.67 million, Lokmat has a total readership of 23.67 million.[5] Its registered and corporate offices are located in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India) and its main administrative center is located at Lokmat Building, Lokmat Square, Nagpur (India).

Editions

Lokmat has 11 Marathi editions in Maharashtra.

  1. Nagpur (including Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Gondia, Amravati and Gadchiroli supplements)
  2. Aurangabad (including Separate Hello Lokmat Supplement For 8 Distticts in Marathwada)
  3. Mumbai (including Ratnagiri & Sindhudurg)
  4. Pune
  5. Ahmednagar (including Shirdi and Beed)
  6. Solapur
  7. Kolhapur (including Sangli & Satara)
  8. Nashik
  9. Jalgaon (inclusive of Dhule and Nandurbar)
  10. Akola (including Buldhana, Washim and supplements)
  11. Goa

Lokmat also caters to the Marathi speaking population outside Maharashtra. It has editions in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Belgaum (Karnataka). On 21 April 2009, Lokmat launched its Goa edition (Marathi) primarily for the Marathi-speaking population of north and north-east Goa.

Lokmat Group

Mr. Darda is the Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulation (India) for the year 2010-11. He is a former President of the Indian Newspaper Society, Founder President of South Asian Editors Forum formed by the editors of dailies in South Asia, an ex-member of the Press Council of India and Managing Trustee of the Press Institute of Maharashtra. Currently, he is a member of the World Association of Newspaper, Paris, the Commonwealth Press Union, London, the International Advertising Association Inc., New York, the Indian Language Newspaper Association, the National Readership Studies Council and the Advertising Club of India.

In addition to being a journalist and an entrepreneur, Mr. Darda is also active in the political arena. He is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (upper house) since 1998, having been elected for three consecutive terms. Additionally, he is a member of numerous standing and consultative committees of the parliament such as Finance, Information and Technology, Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Railways.

Mr. Darda holds a bachelor's degree in arts and a diploma in journalism and printing technology from Bhavan’s College, Mumbai.

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

Entry into the Magazine Sector

In 2006, Lokmat formed Cymbal Media, their magazine division in Mumbai.

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 writers like Bacchi Karkaria, health specialist Naini Setalwad and others.

Entry into the Broadcast Sector

Lokmat extended its media business to television through a 50-50 joint venture with IBN18 Broadcast Limited (“ibn18”). The joint venture company, IBN-Lokmat Private Limited (“IBNL”), operates IBN-Lokmat, a 24 x 7 Marathi news and current affairs television channel which went on air on April 6, 2008.[4] The channel’s editorial team is led by multimedia journalists Nikhil Wagle, editor of IBN-Lokmat and Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of IBN Network.

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 Aurangabad (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.123456

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.

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 every day. 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.”

Lokmat Group promoted this initiative through TV, radio and hoardings. Lokmat is considered among the leading newspapers of Maharashtra state in India.

Controversy

Lokmat came into limelight in the end of year 2009 in a Paid news scam for covering 47 full page report on then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan placing it as news coverage.[6][7]

2015 ISIS cartoon controversy

In 2015, a cartoon published alongside the article "ISIS cha Paisa" (ISIS' money), regarding the funding pattern of terrorist group ISIS, led to violent protests from Muslim groups and attacks on the newspaper's offices in Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar, Malegaon and other locations across Maharashtra. Protestors deemed the cartoon to be "blasphemous". Several complaints were filed with the police regarding the cartoon, and subsequently, an FIR was lodged against the owners, the cartoonist and the editor. The newspaper later published an apology.[8][9][10] One of the protests was led by Congress MLA from Malegaon Shaikh Asif Shaikh Rashid.[11][12] Police stated that they had increased security at all Lokmat offices across Maharashtra following the attacks.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Details of language wise most circulated dailies for the audit period July-December 2013". Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  2. ^ "Indian Readership Survey 2014" (PDF).
  3. ^ MAGINDIA - How media planners can exploit the Marathi dailies
  4. ^ a b "Marathi news channel to be JV with Lokmat: GBN". Moneycontrol.com. Jun 14, 2007. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  5. ^ National Readership Survey (NRS) 2006
  6. ^ P. Sainath (November 30, 2009). "Mass media: masses of money?". The Hindu. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  7. ^ "'Paid news would finish off journalism unless...'". Rediff.com India News. December 3, 2010. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  8. ^ Saurabh Gupta (December 1, 2015). "Offices of Lokmat Newspaper Attacked Over Piggy Bank Cartoon". NDTV. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  9. ^ "FIR against Marathi daily". The Hindu. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  10. ^ "Marathi daily attacked for publishing 'derogatory' cartoon". Daily News & Analysis. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  11. ^ http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/11/30/lokmat-having-to-apologise-for-a-cartoon-on-isis-shows-the-sorry-state-of-press-freedom-in-india/#
  12. ^ http://www.ibtimes.co.in/maharashtra-muslim-groups-led-by-congress-mla-attack-lokmat-offices-over-isis-pig-cartoon-657477
  13. ^ http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-marathi-daily-attacked-for-pubishing-blasphemous-cartoon-2150325
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