MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals and Dainik Bhaskar newspaper have announced the launch of Cricket Star Rajasthan, a talent hunt programme.

Cricket Star seeks to uncover cricket talent in Rajasthan. And for Rajasthan Royals (RR), it is an opportunity to further build its brand in Rajasthan and so will travel through the state of Rajasthan to test young cricketers.

In this edition after a two-stage process, the winner of Cricket Star Rajasthan 2012 will to intern with the Rajasthan Royals. As part of the internship, the winner will get opportunities to train with the Rajasthan Royals team, be part of the practice sessions and get exclusive mentorship of Rajasthan Royals coaches. Dainik Bhaskar will also provide publicity for the winner through all their media publications.

Sanskar School Jaipur is the Associate Sponsor for Cricket Star Rajasthan.

This talent hunt is for the age group of 14 to 21 years as on 1st Sep 2012. Applicants can be from any part of Rajasthan and will have to come to one of the cities where the selection trials will take place such as Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The application process for this programme takes place from 7- 22 October.

Applicants will be required to send an SMS to a designated number (to be announced shortly), giving their name, and preference of city of trial. After sending the SMS, the applicants will receive a registration code, and date and venue of trials.

The first stage is the selection trials to be held at Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The winners at each city will be invited to the Cricket Star Academy to be run at Sanskar School Cricket Grounds. These cricketers will be tested through matches and cricket sessions by Rajasthan Royals experts and coaches. At the end of the academy, the coaches will announce the winner ? Cricket Star Rajasthan.

Emerging Media, one of the franchise owners, had introduced this talent hunt concept way back in 2006. Incidentally, it was the country?s first cricket based reality show.

MUMBAI: Continuing the trend from the preceding quarter, Dainik Jagran and The Times of India are the most read publications in the Hindi and English language dailies respectively, according to the IRS (Indian Readership Survey) first-quarter report released by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research.

Among the Hindi dailies, Dainik Jagran?s average issue readership (AIR) has surged marginally while second ranked Dainik Bhaskar has lost out on readers. Hindustan comes in on number three having increased its readership as has fourth place holder Amar Ujala.

There was no change in the pecking order of the Hindi dailies. Dainik Jagran?s AIR has grown marginally to 16.412 million in Q1 from 16.410 million in the previous quarter. Dainik Bhaskar (AIR of 14.55 million), Hindustan (12.16 million) and Amar Ujala (8.69 million) followed.

Among the English dailies, the Times of India continues to hold its numero uno position.

TOI has garnered a total AIR of 7.65 million, slightly lower than the trailing quarter report. It is followed by Hindustan Times (AIR of 3.81 million), which is maintaining its strong growth. The Hindu (AIR of 2.23 million) saw a marginal dip.

Economic Times and Mumbai Mirror swapped places from the previous quarter with AIR of 792000 and 777000 respectively.

In the regional dailies, Malayalam Manorama continues to top the chart, though it has experienced a slip in AIR from 99.37 million last quarter to 98.75 million in Q1 2012. The only change in the ranking from the previous quarter is the interchanging of ranks of Gujarat Samachar and Dinakaran with the latter slipping ground.

Mumbai: Dainik Bhaskar has tied up with Time Magazine and Harvard Business Review (management magazine) to provide their content to its readers on a regular basis.

The "exclusive" content will feature in the Sunday edition of the Hindi-language newspaper.

The daily newspaper has completely revamped its Sunday edition content with a focus on management lessons to be applied in day to day life.

"It will contain wide spectrum of topics like health, fitness, career, self help, money management, politics, education, music, lifestyle, environment, good reads through columns by experts of the respective fields," the company said.

Additionally, Dainik shall also provide a separate segment devoted to women. Also there will be a Sunday Jacket, above the regular front page of the newspaper which will carry exclusive news analysis and ground reports.

Dainik Bhaskar group VP Sanjeev Kotnala said, "Our strategy revolves around being ahead of the curve. And hence the desire to enrich the reading experience and making it that much of joy - is our focus that directs us in our newspaper design. So, in addition to above changes, we do expect that the readers will appreciate the exclusive cartoons and photographs- that will not only bring smile to their faces but also help them focus and think."
 

MUMBAI: DB Corp, the publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, has posted a consolidated net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 454.06 million for the last quarter of the fiscal ended 31 March 2012.

The company?s net profit has stayed almost flat compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal (449.97 mn).

During the quarter, the company?s total income from operations grew by 13.63 per cent to Rs 3.61 billion, from Rs 3.17 billion a year ago.

Revenues from advertising grew by 5.4 per cent to Rs 2.63 billion, from Rs 2.49 billion in the earlier year. Circulation revenues grew 16 per cent to Rs 620 million from Rs 534 million.

The company?s expenditure jumped 19.68 per cent to Rs 2.98 billion in the fourth quarter of FY?12 as against Rs 2.49 billion in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

DB Corp MD Sudhir Agarwal said, ?On an overall basis, this final quarter has been in step with the momentum we set off at the start of this fiscal - focus on strategic expansions and consolidation. Over the year, DBCL accomplished roll out in major markets of Maharashtra by launching 5 new editions from Aurangabad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar and most recently in 04 ? launch of Sholapur edition.

?With all new region expansions and launches under way, our strategic focus now is to enhance monetisation and to fully capitalise on our leadership in all markets. Innovation, market development and relentless focus on execution ? have been three important pillars of our growth strategy that have enabled us to deliver one of the most consistent and strong financial performances across the Indian print media space, in spite of 2012 being a challenging year for the industry.?

From the print business, the company?s net profit stood at Rs 448 million with Ebidta margins at 21.2 per cent with Rs 726 million.

The company?s radio business, which runs My FM, turned positive on the PAT level with a net profit of Rs 25.5 million. The Ebitda stood at Rs 52.4 million, while advertising revenues grew 10 per cent to Rs 146.4 million, from Rs 133.1 million a year ago.