Lokmat launches Goa edition

Marathi newspaper Lokmat has launched its Goa edition on 21 April with an initial print run of 50,000.

Speaking about the launch of the new edition, Devendra Darda (pictured), executive director, Lokmat Group said, "Despite many players, we have found that this market is underserviced. The Goan population has a good spending power."

The newspaper is targeting the sizeable Marathi speaking population in Goa. Said Bharat Kapadia, director, Lokmat Group “After successfully covering Maharashtra with 16 editions with 10 printing locations and a total readership of 1.23 crore (IRS), it is the right time to launch it in Goa which has a sizeable Marathi speaking population. Out of 15 lakh population, about 24% is Catholic population which hardly reads local language. 65% Hindus mostly read Marathi newspapers.”

There are currently five Marathi papers and four English papers in Goa with a combined circulation of 2 lakh+. The main competitors for Lokmat will be Tarun Bharat (which has a circulation of 41,733 as per Audit Bureau of Circulation) and Gomantak (28,315(ABC)).

In terms of advertising, what is the size of the market that Lokmat is targeting? “Ad revenues wise, Goa is around 50 crore market. Surprisingly, there is no significant effect of the economic slowdown in Goa. It has ad potential from many categories like pharma, mining, medical tourism, real estate, wineries, educational institutes. Personal and political ads also form a large chunk. We will not be dependent on advertorial support as there is a good potential in this under serviced market,” said Kapadia.

Lokmat has set up its own printing facility and has claimed to offer more colour pages than any other Marathi paper.