Deccan Chronicle hikes ad rates by 50%

Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings, publisher of English and Telugu dailies, has increased its advertisement tariffs for all its editions by about 50 per cent, the steepest in recent times. Recently, Campaign India reported that Outlook India has announced plans to increase the advertising rates for select magazines from 7% to 10%.The new rates will come into effect from October 1 this year. However, it did not revise the popular 'all editions colour' advertisement rate, which stays at Rs 2,660 per square centimetre.

Amit Shukla, chief executive officer of Sieger Solutions, which takes care of Deccan Chronicle's advertising and Internet divisions, said the tariff rise was necessitated due to higher newsprint cost and falling rupee. "The weighted average increase in the advertisement tariff will be in around 50 per cent,'' he said.

Quoting ABC figures, he said the circulation of Deccan Chronicle stood at 1.07 million. If the figures of the Bangalore edition for 36 days are considered, it will add 85,493 copies to take the total circulation to 11,57,721 copies. "Our print run has crossed 1.2 million and is inching towards 1.3 million,'' he said. Hyderabad with a 500,000-plus and Chennai with 330,000-plus circulation are the major markets. In newspaper economics, higher circulation means higher expenditure on printing, he said.

The increase in newsprint costs from $600 (Rs 27,600) a tonne to about $1,000 (Rs 46,000) has resulted in increased expenditure. Deccan Chronicle uses about 88,000 tonne newsprint per annum, it is learnt. The falling rupee has also added to the costs. "The dollar has quickly risen from Rs 42 a few months ago to Rs 46 now,'' he said.