Sambhaav to hit city stands in tabloid avataar on March 12

Deciding to discontinue publishing of its morning newspaper Sambhaav, the Sambhaav Group of Newspapers, has decided to relaunch the broadsheet newspaper as a tabloid. Named Sambhaav Metro, the new tabloid, will hit the stands in Ahmedabad on March 12.

The decision to discontinue the Sambhaav broadsheet newspaper has been taken because two morning newspaper of the group, Jansatta and Sambhaav were actually in competition with each other, Bhupat Vadodaria, editor in chief of Sambhaav, told Business Standard.

He added that the lack of an afternoon newspaper in Ahmedabad city too has been one of the rationale behind launching of the afternoon daily.

"The Sambhaav Metro will be a tabloid sized newspaper with 24 pages, which can be raised to 48. To begin with, the newspaper will be launched with a circulation of between 50,000 and one lakh copies," Vadodaria disclosed.

The paper will be published six days a week barring Sunday, but if the need be, it will be published on Sunday as well, he said.

"March 12 was the day, 18 years ago, that Sambhaav was launched in Ahmedabad. Close to two decades since, we thought that there is a need to give a new direction to the daily. The new newspaper will have the latest news, will cover a variety of subjects, special stories and the likes. The new newspaper will not depend on agency reports," said Vadodaria, outlining the direction of the new venture.

Vadodaria stated that the two leading Gujarati newspapers of the state - Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh - had afternoon dailies, but these mainly accommodated those news items that did not fit into the morning newspaper.

"Both Lok Samachar, the afternoon daily of Gujarat Samachar, and Sevak, the afternoon daily of Sandesh, have shut down and there is a vacuum in the afternoon daily segment in Ahmedabad," Vadodaria said.

The new venture is also expected to have a lot of city news and have features such as book review, lighter reading material and an interactive session where noted personalities reply to queries of readers.

Asked about the pricing strategy, Vadodaria said that the cover price of newspaper will be lower than the frontline Gujarati dailies.

"To begin with, the newspaper will be launched in Ahmedabad, but it will reach other surrounding districts as well, especially those places that are within 100 or 150 km of Ahmedabad," said Vadodaria.

Two vernacular eveningers in the form of broadsheet, Western Times and Aajkal are already existing in the Ahmedabad market and Aajkal reportedly has a wider circulation than Western Times. But with Sambhaav making foray into the eveningers' market in Ahmedabad, definitely the market is hotting up.