USP of a Newspaper

By Ramesh Akkineni

Murlidhar Shingote, Ambica Publications Group

And what is the USP of a newspaper? Not heavy duty stuff like breaking news, exclusives and editorials, that any other editor-publisher would spout. “Crossword and astrology are the key parts of the content in a newspaper,” says Shingote. The most absorbing bit in a newspaper is content that involves the reader — and that is crosswords and astrology, he adds. The other bit of adrenaline is pumped through crime news. “It always is exciting to read about who killed whom, where, when and why. It is as old as humanity itself and the crime news shakes up the reader,” Shingote tells you.

Challenge Shingote’s USP about a newspaper and he ripostes with, “I know it hands-on. Remember, I began selling newspapers on trains. Since 1952 to now, my experience has been that a reader skims the news and then shifts to reading the daily forecast and solving crosswords. You can change the order, of course, but the interesting sections of a newspaper remain just these.”

With Shingote’s knowledge being gleaned from close contacts with the readers at large, an editor of a Marathi daily in the 60s consulted him once before placing the print order for the day. Shingote asked him the news of the day and based on it told him to print more copies than the usual. To the editor’s glee, all his copies were sold out. And then it became a regular affair. From a meagre circulation of around 2,000 copies, the Marathi daily’s circulation spiralled to over 2 lakh in the late 80s.

This was the defining moment. For having found out that he had the skills to sell a newspaper, Shingote nurtured a dream to start one of his own. He launched Mumbai Chaupher in 1994. From a sale of 25,000 copies on the first day, the circulation today is 3.5 lakh. And this followed with many more papers that he went on to launch later.

The content of his newspapers come primarily from the wire service. “My readers are the lowest common denominator. The high society and the well educated have their own newspapers and a wide choice of reading material. It is the workers, the waiters and their spouses who also need to know what is happening in the world, but don’t have access to it. My newspapers cater to them. The success of our newspapers also depends on it being available at 6 am at all major stalls throughout the state,” says Shingote.

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