Kasturi & Sons Ltd. (KSL) launched the Mumbai edition of its flagship publication The Hindu on Friday.
“We enter Mumbai with a lot of hope and optimism,” Dr. Malini Parthasarathy, Editor of The Hindu , said at a press conference here.
“We realise our core brand strength is the credibility and integrity of our reporting. This brings authenticity to our perspective. At the same time, we acknowledge Mumbai’s great transformation into an upwardly rising global city. Our edition has eight pages uniquely catering to Mumbai. We hope to capture both the buoyant and the poignant stories emanating from here.” The Mumbai edition will add to the 40 editions of The Hindu , which are published from 17 major cities across India.
This edition will have special pages covering every aspect — finance, corporate, film and fashion — of the ‘Maximum City.’
KSL Chairman N. Ram said: “It is certainly a very ambitious project. We have goodwill in Mumbai. We are not just aiming at a particular segment. A complete newspaper has to target everybody. We have no particular number in mind. We don’t want to overstate or understate our ambition. I think there is space in Mumbai for all of us. We hope you will welcome us, including those organisations that are competing in this market, because there is place for our kind of journalism.”
He said The Hindu has one clear principle. “We maintain our line between our editorial and business operations of our company. The reputation of The Hindu , 137 years old now, is built on honouring this line from the start, practising independent journalism that wants to be free, that recognises a sense of social responsibility that is credible, trustworthy and relevant.”
Mr. Ram also said the company, which went through a couple of challenging years, has seen a turnaround. “We are clearly on the path of growth in every sense.”
N. Ravi, Director of KSL, said: “The editorial offering we hope would be excellent and mark a change from what people in Mumbai are used to reading. We are quite optimistic that readers will receive it well.”
Rajiv Lochan, MD and CEO, of KSL, said that the Mumbai edition launch is a historic moment. A healthy proportion of young readers have subscribed for it, he added and was confident the edition would break even in three to four years.
The Hindu’s net paid daily circulation is approaching 1.5 million copies. Along with The Hindu , Kasturi & Sons Ltd. publishes the business daily Business Line , the fortnightly Frontline , the sports weekly Sportstar and The Hindu (Tamil) daily.
