Freebies fly in Mumbai slugfest

Newspapers go on marketing overdrive to lure readers.

Newspaper readers in Mumbai are being pampered like never before. With three major newspapers set for launch in the next few months, the marketing war has reached a feverish pitch.

Consider Hindustan Times, which is planning a Mumbai edition shortly. Nearly 50,000 Airtel subscribers in Mumbai will receive a copy of the newspaper free. Sources close to Bharti Tele-Ventures, owners of the Airtel brand, said the company would purchase nearly 50,000 copies of the paper at a discounted rate of 80 paise a piece.

Or, take Bennett, Coleman & Co, which publishes The Times of India and The Economic Times. The company, which is planning to launch a tabloid "" Bombay Mirror "" shortly, is formulating several options.

One of these is that readers of The Economic Times will get Bombay Mirror either for a minimal price or free of cost. Bennett, Coleman executives refused to comment on the issue. The company is already giving free health insurance to the thousands of street hawkers who sell The Times of India.

DNA, the general newspaper from the Zee-Dainik Jagran combine, will send a lucky winner to a "space adventure zero gravity experience in Florida, US". The winner will be selected from among the 1.1 million people, who have spoken with its representatives "to help create their own newspaper".

Airtel sources said the deal with Hindustan Times was a win-win situation for both. Airtel will give Hindustan Times an assured circulation by distributing it among its high-end customers (based on monthly billing amount) free. They added that Hindustan Times would carry Airtel ads at a discounted rate.

Mumbai's share of the Rs 3,500 crore national print media advertising market is Rs 900 crore, of which Rs 800 crore goes into English-language media.

An Airtel spokesperson declined comment, while Hindustan Times executives said it was against the company's policy to speak on the Mumbai project.

Sources in DNA said the paper would come out with even more exciting marketing initiative in the next month. "The first phase, which promises a free trip to Florida, is nothing compared to what we are planning for our next marketing campaign," a source added.

MG Parameswaran, executive director of advertising agency FCB Ulka, told Business Standard: "For a city where the English reading population is fairly low, there has to be a fair stimulation for people to buy English newspapers. To that extent, the strategies employed by the newspapers seem interesting."

Commenting on the Airtel- Hindustan Times deal, he said there was also the danger of the paper being perceived as free. The media company should be careful about this, Parameswaran said.

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Ground Zero

HINDUSTAN TIMES Nearly 50,000 Airtel subscribers in Mumbai will receive a copy of the newspaper free

TIMES GROUP May distribute Bombay Mirror either free or at nominal cost with the Economic Times

ZEE-BHASKAR Their paper, DNA, will send a lucky winner to a "space adventure zero- gravity experience in Florida"