DLA Media has expanded the reach of its compact Hindi afternooner, DLA, to cover Noida and the whole of Delhi. Previously the publication was only available in East Delhi.
The group will also bring out a fortnightly ‘magpaper’, called Vikassheel Bharat (VB), targeting rural and semi-urban areas.
DLA is a splinter group of Amar Ujala which was first launched in Agra in March 2007. It was named after Amar Ujala’s founder, Dori Lal Agarwal. DLA also stands for Daily Life Assistance.
Ajay Agarwal, chief editor, DLA, Noida, promises that Noida will soon have a separate edition of DLA. The Ghaziabad printing centre, in addition to catering to that town, is also catering to East Delhi. The rest of Delhi will be catered to by the Noida printing centre.
Agarwal reveals that prior to the Delhi and Noida launch, around 30,000 copies of DLA were being printed. That number is now expected to increase to 70,000 copies. Agarwal also claims that the publication is targeting one lakh copies in the region in the next couple of months.
DLA currently has sixteen pages and is priced at Rs 2. Sales will be mainly subscription-driven with about 30 per cent sold through cash sales points and directly to Delhi Metro commuters. Agarwal says that “Our target audience consists of businessmen, commuters, women and the youth”.
DLA is currently printed from six cities – Agra, Ghaziabad, New Delhi, Noida, Meerut and Jhansi. Agarwal says that it will soon cover Moradabad, Lucknow and Bareilly, too. Agarwal claims that the total print run from all the printing centres of DLA is more than three lakh copies.
VB, the 32-page, all-colour, compact sized fortnightly ‘magpaper’ will soon be launched in the Hindi belt – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and, later, Bihar. It will be a rural-based magazine, covering issues relating to rural and semi-urban life and the rural economy. Agarwal has dubbed the publication a ‘magpaper’ “because it is a magazine printed in a newspaper format”.