Other than Mumbai, no Indian city has been able to truly support a tabloid. We always knew that Mumbai was different, that Mumbai was hatke. A city where the second highest circulated English daily is a tabloid — with a circulation greater than leading dailies in some mini-metros.
Now the city gets ready to welcome a new tabloid. No, change tabloid to “compact” — a size that Indian readers are unfamiliar with. The offering comes from the people who give you The Times of India and The Economic Times. From the people who made page 3 what it is with Bombay Times, who redefined the Indian Woman with Femina, and gave Bollywood respectability with Filmfare.
Say hello to Mumbai Mirror, the spanking new 48 page compact that hits the stands on Monday, May 30, 2005.
Mumbai Mirror hits not just the stands, it also hits Mid-Day. Right at the jugular. For, except for the size, the Mirror is a mirror of Mid-Day. Which is the fairer one? The Mumbaikar will decide.
So phase one of the actual war — not the strategy sessions and the board room scenarios and war games – will not be about the market share that Times of India may win or lose to and from DNA and The Hindustan Times, but about the circulation and advertising revenue Mumbai Mirror will gain at the cost of Mid-Day.
From what we have been able to fathom, Mumbai Mirror will be a daily 48 pager, and a glimpse of the proposed content makes Mumbai’s youth the core target. The paper will be considerably “younger” than The Times of India in content, layout and appeal. The operative word for the Mirror is Buzz — something that will be the very essence of the paper.
And Buzz is a youth word; clearly spelling out who the Mirror will appeal to and who it will not. And the clarity that we now have based on the information that is in our possession on the Mirror makes the battlelines clearer.
The Mirror launches at a time that DNA and The Hindustan Times projects are waiting in the wings. So, for the moment, the (serious) players in the Mumbai English newspaper space will be The Times of India, Mid-Day, Indian Express and The Mumbai Mirror. Where will the Mirror’s readers come from?
Before we get to that, let us analyse the proposed content. The Mirror will underline the fact that Mumbai is not just one city; but a number of cities rolled into one. So it will recognise that Bandra is different from Chembur is different from Breach Candy, and consequently highlight local issues. Stories will be bite sized, with no more than two per page. The paper also proposes to use visual devices to make it peppy and crisp; a ticker-tape-like border, for example, will run through the bottom of the city pages, highlighting the most important events and news of the day. Expect lots of colour, with photographs dominating the pages.
The Mirror will run distinctly tabloid-like headlines: do not be surprised to see the Mirror inform you that “Man bites Dog”. Keeping in mind the tastes of the majority of the city, the paper will extensively cover Bollywood, cricket and nightlife.
And the paper will, we have it on authority, devote more to sex. A daily column is proposed, with an agony aunt or uncle advising readers on their cares and worries.
Career options and money-making will take up significant newsprint, as will gaming, gizmos, music, CD and DVD reviews — every day.
We obviously don't know what exactly goes into the paper — but we have a fair idea from multiple conversations with multiple sources. The content below will largely be accurate, and you can see that it isn't too far away from what you get in Mid-Day. What will differ is the design, size layout and use of colour.
City: 8-10 pages
Edit, letters to the editor: 2-3 pages
Business: 3-4 pages
National News: 4-5 pages
Health and Fitness: 1 page
Diversions: comics, crossword,
etc: 2 pages
Entertainment: 8 pages
Sports: 6 pages
Classifieds and small ads: 4 pages
International: 2 pages
Features: Area centric stories, guest editors, local issues, lots of trivia, gossip, relationships, singles, fashion, automobiles, food, parties
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated May 30-June 5, 2005
