“Punjab Kesari group surging ahead with ideologically and technologically sophisticated vision”
“Newspapers’ importance is incalculable and they have
adequate shelf life, no means for dissemination of
information can provide alternative; that’s why the
newspapers are becoming of greater relevance even in the
era of electronic media. So, we should not take electronic
media and magazines as the threat to newspapers, but should
deem them as complementary to newspapers, owing to their
contribution in bringing up the curiosity in populace to
know whatever is happening in their region, nation and world
over as well,” opined the triad of Punjab Kesari group (PKG), including
Vijay Kumar Chopra and his enterprising sons Avinash as well as Amit, in conversation
with S K Khurana and S M Dutt, editors at All About Newspapers, recently.
The Punjab Kesari group
(PKG) - originated from the
fertile soil of Jalandhar, the
former capital of Punjab (1947-1953),
legendarily that of the kingdom of
Lav (son of Lord Rama) and literarily
means ‘area inside the water’ that
is tract laying between the two
rivers Satluj and Beas, located at a
distance of 350 kms from New Delhi
on Delhi-Amritsar highway – is
constantly illuminating the huge
Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi speaking
belt of northern India with
knowledge and awareness through
their three bright moons, including
Punjab Kesari, Hind Samachar and
Jag Bani. The group initiated their
perpetual operation in 1948 with the
launch of the Urdu daily Hind
Samachar, and later added Hindi
daily Punjab Kesari in 1965 and
Punjabi daily Jag Bani in 1978 to
their spinning compass. Now, the
three dailies are well established
with a combined circulation of
around 9.75 lakh copies on
weekdays and 10.5 lakh copies on
Sundays.
Founded by Lala Jagat Narain and
nourished by his elder son Romesh
Chander (both were assassinated
in 1981 and 1984 respectively), the
plant of PKG has become a mature
banyan tree. Succeeding these two
icons, the leadership triad - Vijay,
Avinash and Amit – now altogether
engage in bringing the group to a
prominent platform in India’s
newspaper publishing industry.
While Padma Shri Vijay Kumar
Chopra (76) contributes the group
with his sublime ideas through
authoring a regular editorial
for the three newspapers
besides supervising the entire
group performance, being
editor-in-chief & chairman-cummanaging
director; his elder son
Avinash Chopra (46) has been
shouldering the responsibilities of
administration, distribution, and
editorial department since 1983 and
Amit Chopra (45) is responsible for
finance, moderanisation, expansion/
new projects as well as advertising
promotion, apart from editorial for
supplements since 1984.
Established precedent! Do you remember,
when in 1974, the government cut off power
to the PKG’s press, instead of cowering,
they rigged up a tractor to power the web
offset rotary press and issues rolled off
like this for ten days continuously.
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“However, the profuse cut-throat
competition is pervading all over
newspaper publishing industry and
every one involves in the race to
grow at any cost. Households are
getting direct benefits of this
situation, receiving newspaper for
only Rs 180-199 per year. So, they
have started to get more than one
newspaper. Inspite of this sort of
scenario, PKG is constantly
improving their strength, without
coming under influence of the
competitors. We have no adverse
impact of the competition yet. To
name, Dainik Jagran, Dainik
Bhaskar, The Hindustan Times, The
Tribune, Amar Ujjala, and Ajit
Samachar are our competitors in
the covering region,” they stated.
“Continuing the progress, PKG had
advanced with a growth rate of
fifteen percent in the last three
years. Last year, both ad revenues
and volumes went up; albeit this
year, they remain static. Advertisers
are receiving better response from
our publications. Owing to wide
gamut of our quality writers, we
share content with many
newspapers. The Saturday issues
of our newspapers are too good
and ply that readership to which
even magazine can’t cater,” they
said further.
“Presently, Hind Samachar is being
printed from Jalandhar, Ambala and
Jammu, with a circulation of about
thirty thousand copies. While
Punjab Kesari, a flagship
publication is being printed from
Jalandhar (since 1965), Ambala
(1991), Palampur (2004), Ludhiana
(2004), Panipat (2006), Hisar (2006),
Jammu (2007), and Mohali (2008);
and planned to be printed from
Chandigarh and Shimla in 2009. This
is the largest circulated newspaper
of the group, with a circulation of
6.4 lakh copies. Our third
newspaper, Jag Bani, being printed
from Jalandhar and Ludhiana, with
circulation of 3.1 lakh copies, is also
getting popularity enough. So, we
have planned for its Chandigarh
edition from 2009,” the triad
divulged.
At their all printing facilities, PKG
has set up Cityline web presses
from Manugraph India Ltd or Roland
presses from K K Printing Machines
Mfg Co Pvt Ltd (Faridabad). Cityline
Express presses have been installed
in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and
Mohali; while Roland presses are
operational in Ambala, Palampur,
Panipat, Hisar, and Jammu. All pull
outs are printed on heatset web
presses, including Mitsubishi
BT 280, Manroland’s Cromoman,
Manugraph’s Manuline–16, Komori
S35 at their Jalandhar facility and
sent to other locations.
“PKG was the second customer in
India for the popular Coroset offset
press in 1984. As many as 2,20,000
copies of Punjab Kesari were
printed on its first Coroset press in
a single Saturday night! And when
in late 2005, plans were being
finalised to go all colour, once again
the first preference was Manugraph
who met with the group’s
requirements and six Cityline
Express presses capable of printing
24 pages in full colour were ordered.
The first press was installed in a
record time of 35 days and in
September 2006, Punjab Kesari
came up as the first full colour Hindi
daily. In January 2007, Jag Bani,
the largest Punjabi newspaper
became the first and till now the
only Punjabi newspaper to go all
colour. These presses have helped
Punjab Kesari and Jag Bani not
only in going all colour but also in
achieving highest standard of
quality for the discerning readership
catered to. Having gone all colour
has boosted the colour
advertisement revenues of the
group since the advertisers have
greater flexibility of colour
placement and with superior
production quality and an overall
more appealing product. On the
other hand, the circulation of the
newspapers has also been
positively impacted by the quality
upgradation,” Amit illustrated.
In the post press segment, they have
IDAB WAMAC International’s
stacker, set up in 1990, besides
mailroom equipments from
Technoweb and Grammler. “In prepress
segment, majorly we are still
using CtF systems, as they look
beneficial to us. The increasing trend
towards CtP systems in the industry
has contracted the demand for CtF,
resultantly prices of films coming
down. Taking the advantage of this
pervading scenario, we had bought
two CtF systems in the recent past.
However, we are also utilizing CtP
systems and recently we have
installed two thermal platesetters
from Screen in our Jalandhar facility
and have brought ourselves to a
level of CtP ready at all locations,
whenever we wish to switch over,”
informed Amit.
On asking the reasons for opting
most of the web machines from
domestic manufacturers, Amit
replied, “Being not a very large print
run in each district, high speed
machines are hardly required. And
indigenously produced machines
are rather user-friendly. Their
handling is not complicated, be it
changing over to next folder or
speed up-gradation.”
Revealing their future plans, Amit
pointed out, “We are to cover more
territories of India with our
vernacular newspapers, and add
more titles to the group. We are
setting up two more printing facilities
in the next one-year, besides
planning to bring up an ‘afternoon
newspaper’ and SMS portal. In
Jalandhar, we have already set up
a new facility in Suranussi, where
Cityline Express with 4 towers + 2
towers to be added soon, Manuline
4-page, Mitsubishi heatset 4-page,
and Komori heatset presses are
functioning.”
Presenting the chronicle of their
initiatives, Amit mentioned with
pride the various firsts in their
operations, including monocaster
(automatic composing) in 1966, web
press (1971), photo composing
(1980), colour scanner (1989),
mailroom (1990), faximile (1991),
heatset press (1996), balloon former
(2003), and full colour hybrid
heatset/coldest press (2006). “And
with our committed staff, comprising
over 1,500 individuals, mostly
nurtured through in-house training
programmes, we are set to add some
another firsts in the years to come,”
he added.
“As our existing chronicle reveals,
we are constantly surging
ahead with ideologically and
technologically sophisticated vision.
Our business strategy, adhered to
our approach, keeps us ever in
profitable position, providing a good
share of advertising and placing us
amongst the leaders in the
newspaper publishing industry”
Amit concluded.
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