Leading From The Front: Sudhir Agarwal

The year was 1984 and Madhya Pradesh was beset by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives overnight. Braving threats by the then state government, Dainik Bhaskar, run by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal, ensured that no account of the tragedy goes unreported.

The paper's proprietor and Dwarka Prasad's son Ramesh Agarwal was asked by vested forces to choose between the coverage of the gas leak and the future of the newspaper. Dainik Bhaskar chose to be on the right side of history and soldiered on with fearless coverage.

Decades later in 2021, Dwarka Prasad's grandson and Ramesh Agarwal's son Sudhir Agarwal repeated the feat with Dainik Bhaskar's undeterred coverage of the pandemic.

When much of the mainstream media was soft-pedaling the impact of the devastating COVID-19 delta wave, the publication was at the forefront, delivering blow-by-blow accounts of the developments.

Detailed news reports by the publication would also fly in the face of the information relayed by the government and contradict some of its claims.

Soon, Dainik Bhaskar was accused of tax evasion and raids were conducted in the Bhopal office premises. Many firmly believed that the publication's coverage of the pandemic realities was conflicting with the image of control that the government wanted to project, and hence, the raids were motivated by sheer vendetta.

In today's edition of Leading From the Front, we talk about Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director of DB Corp Ltd, who has been carrying forward the legacy of fearless journalism at Dainik Bhaskar.

Agarwal has been on the board of the company since the inception of DB Corp. With 30 years of experience in newspaper printing and publishing, he, along with his brothers Girish Agarwal and Pawan Agarwal, has been a driving force of the organisation. He runs the media company from its headquarters in Bhopal.

Originally named Subah Savere, Dainik Bhaskar was launched in 1948 by Dwarka Prasad to plug the need for a Hindi newspaper in Madhya Pradesh. In 1958, it was renamed Dainik Bhaskar.

Buoyed by its spectacular coverage of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the newspaper pipped the top publications in Madhya Pradesh and also started expanding out of the state.

By 1995, it was the number-one newspaper in the state and the fastest-growing daily in India. Today, the publication has a pan-India presence with 5 newspapers and 61 editions. It has a readership of over 6 crore. The DB Group also has a strong presence in the radio business across 30 cities.

The digital arm of the group, DB Digital has 4 portals and 3 apps in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.

A lion's share of the credit for the company's success and expansion goes to Agarwal and his unique brand of leadership. 

"He is responsible for our long-term vision and monitoring our Company's performance and devising the overall business plans. His dynamic leadership & with clear future vision, the company has progressed to become the largest-read newspaper in the country," says DB Corp's official website.

A prime example of Agarwal's firebrand leadership is the 2005 coup against a leading publication, which was ruling as the single-largest print advertiser, guarding an ad market worth Rs 1,000 crore.

After joining forces with media baron Subhash Chandra, Agarwal launched a gutsy move to claim the ad market dominated by the rival publication.

With senior journalists, the best marketers, salespeople and distribution experts at their side, Agarwal and Chandra launched Daily News and Analysis or DNA under Diligent Media Corp.

While his aggressive strategies have played a big role in Dainik Bhaskar's meteoric rise, Agarwal believes that the growth of the publication is solely attributed to its excellent quality of journalism.

Under him, the publication also took steps towards responsible journalism in 2015 by launching the "No Negative Monday" campaign.

By taking a counterintuitive approach in news publishing where "good news is no news," Dainik Bhaskar pledged to highlight positive news in every Monday edition by placing good news first, relegating negative news to a box and highlighting stories of hope.

In an interview with exchange4media in 2004, Agarwal said, "That Dainik Bhaskar is a pure marketing success is a gross misconception. To the contrary, our newspaper has attained the current levels because of the strong focus we maintain on content development. Marketing can bring potential readers to sample what is on offer, but a loyal readership is built only with relevant content. We meet the total needs of our readers and we pay a great deal of attention on the localization of news. These efforts sum up the success of the group."

Agarwal also runs a tight ship at Dainik Bhaskar as far as editorial ethics are concerned: "Our newspapers are run by professionals. No family member holds any editorial posts. And we maintain neutrality in news and are wholly reader-centric. We don’t owe allegiance to any political party. They come and go. Our allegiance is to the household."

Under his aggressive leadership qualities, the company is considered one of the fastest-growing media groups by analysts and the investor community.