Dainik Bhaskar

History

Dainik Bhaskar was launched in 1956 to fulfill the need for a Hindi language daily newspaper. It launched under the name Subah Savere in Bhopal and Good Morning India in Gwalior. In 1957, the paper was renamed Bhaskar Samachar.

In 1958, it was renamed Dainik Bhaskar, meaning "This, along with its rising sun graphic, was meant to represent a bright future.

Expansion

By 1995, Dainik Bhaskar had emerged as the number 1 newspaper in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and was declared the fastest-growing daily in India by a readership survey. The newspaper decided to expand outside MP, and identified Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, as the market with the highest potential.

In 1996, Dainik Bhaskar's goal was to enter Jaipur as the No. 2 newspaper (in terms of circulation) on its first day, with 50,000 copies. To achieve this target, an in-house team of 700 surveyors surveyed 200,000 potential newspaper households in Jaipur. Based on survey feedback, they went back to each of the households surveyed to show them a prototype of the newspaper and gave them the option of an advance subscription. The customers were offered a subscription price of ₹1.50 (a discount compared to the newsstand price of ₹2), and a refund in case of dissatisfaction. When Dainik Bhaskar launched in Jaipur on 19 December 1996, it was the No. 1 newspaper by selling 172,347 copies. Rajasthan Patrika, the former leader had a circulation of around 100,000 copies at that time. Dainik Bhaskar successfully adopted a similar model in other cities of Rajasthan, including Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota, Udaipur, and Ajmer Sikar, becoming the No.1 urban newspaper of the entire state by 1999.

The next target was Chandigarh. It launched a customer survey in January 2000, covering 220,000 households. At that time, the English language newspapers in Chandigarh outsold the Hindi newspapers sixfold, with The Tribune as the leader with a circulation of approximately 50,000 copies. Dainik Bhaskar's survey suggested that residents of Chandigarh preferred English newspapers due to quality perceptions. As a result, the newspaper incorporated the local Chandigarh dialect in the design, mixing Hindi and English. Dainik Bhaskar launched in Chandigarh in May 2000 with 69,000 copies sold making it No.1 in the city.

In June 2000, Dainik Bhaskar entered Haryana, with 271,000 copies.

In 2006, Dainik Bhaskar launched in Punjab with the Amritsar and Jalandhar editions and became the No.1 newspaper on the first day, displacing established legacy players. Later, it increased its presence in Punjab in Ludhiana and Bhatinda.

In 2010, Dainik Bhaskar entered the Jharkhand market with a successful launch of a Ranchi edition, followed by Jamshedpur and Dhanbad editions, with the objective of capture the market of the entire state.

In January 2014, Dainik Bhaskar entered Bihar with a successful launch in Patna It followed with launch of Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya editions in 2015.

Editions

Dainik Bhaskar has 5 editions in Madhya Pradesh, 4 editions in Chhattisgarh, 12 editions in Rajasthan, 3 editions in Haryana, 4 editions in Punjab, 4 editions in Bihar, 3 editions Jharkhand and 1 edition each in Chandigarh, HP, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi.