Dainik Bhaskar: live no negative

Chandan Parsad, Sanjeev Prashar and Vinita Sahay

#livenonegative, a campaign urging people to chop all negativity in them and pledge to be Chandan Parsad is FPM
positive, was launched by Dainik Bhaskar. The largest media company in India had Scholar, Sanjeev Prashar
endeavored to position itself with a new differentiator – no negative news on Mondays. All is Professor and
the news that was negative was to be clubbed into one segment and discretely put under Vinita Sahay is Professor,
all at the Department of
the headline “Negative News”. On January 19, 2015, the newspaper pioneered “No
Marketing, Indian Institute
Negative News” campaign in all of its 58 editions.
of Management (IIM)
This was contrary to the popular dictum in the newspaper industry “If it bleeds, it leads”. Raipur, Raipur, India.
According to Professor Soroka (2015), Michigan University:
Humans may neurologically or physiologically predisposed towards focusing on negative
information because the potential costs of negative information far outweigh the potential
benefits of positive information.

In the battle to grab eyeballs and increase viewership/television rating point (TRP) in a very
competitive market, the media had been accused of sensationalizing news. Almost all news
channels sensationalized the negative news, for simply creating hype to attract readers
and viewers to increase the TRP and to get more publicity. However, the company wanted
to do away with the perception that newspapers focused only on “negative news”. The
questions writ large were – “Does the reader really find it attractive?”, “Is it a good idea to
go forward with No Negative?”, “Was it compromising the role and responsibilities of press
in presenting the truth to the world?” In its effort to add value to its brand, the company was
committed and went ahead to sustain this positive marketing strategy. Leveraging and
institutionalizing this strategy were the key issues.

D B CORP LTD (DBCL)

Founded by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal, India’s largest print media company, D B Corp Ltd The authors extend sincere
(DBCL) launched its first Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh thanks to Dainik Bhaskar for
their support for the
India in 1958. Besides Dainik Bhaskar, the flagship newspaper, DBCL, also published five development of this case
other newspapers – Divya Bhaskar (seven editions), Divya Marathi (seven editions), Daily study. The authors express
sincere gratitude to Mr Shiv
News and Analysis (DNA, two editions), DB Star and Saurashtra Samachar. These six Dubey, Editor, Dainik Bhaskar,
different newspapers were available in four different languages. Covering 49 per cent of Raipur, Dainik Bhaskar, for his
guidance. The authors would
Indian urban population, the group was one of the largest print media company in the like to thank the Editor and
country. By 2015, the group had 58 editions and 191 sub-editions/district editions (Table I). reviewers’ for their enriching
comments during the review
Besides newspapers, DBCL also published two magazines targeted at children – Bal process.
Bhaskar (Hindi) and Young Bhaskar (English), one magazine for positivity in life (Zindagi)
Disclaimer. This case is written
and one for career grooming (Lakshya). DBCL had 51 state-of-the-art printing plants solely for educational
spread across 14 Indian states. More than 3,500 journalists worked for the group (DB Corp purposes and is not intended
to represent successful or
Ltd, Annual Report, 2014/2015). unsuccessful managerial
decision-making. The authors
DBCL also had businesses in radio and digital (Figure 1). Targeting 17 non-metro cities, the may have disguised names;
financial and other
company 94.3 MY FM radio channel broadcasted across seven states. The fourth largest recognizable information to
radio broadcaster in the country, MY FM had nearly 7.5 million fans on social media protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-06-2016-0106 VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017, pp. 1-22, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
Table I DBCL in 14 Indian states
Serial no. Newspaper State name Editions

1 Dainik Bhaskar Madhya Pradesh Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Sagar and Ratlam
2 Chhattisgarh Raipur, Jagdalpur, Bhiali and Bilaspur
3 Rajasthan Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Alwar, Sikar, Bhilwara, Sriganganagar,
Pali, Udaipur, Kota and Nagour
4 Chandigarh Chandigarh
5 Haryana Panipat, Hissar and Faridabad
6 Punjab Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bhatinda
7 New Delhi National Ed. Delhi
8 Himachal Pradesh Shimla
9 Uttrakhand Dehradun
10 Jharkhand Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad
11 Jammu & Kashmir Jammu
12 Bihar Patna, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Muzaffarpur
13 Divya Bhaskar Gujarat Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Mehsana and Bhuj
14 Saurashtra Samachar Gujarat Bhavnagar and Junagadh
15 Divya Marathi Maharashtra Aurangabad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Akola, Solapur and
Amravati
Source: DBCL website, Compiled by Author

Figure 1 DBCL – Business segments

platform and was a pioneer in most of the markets it operated. In digital space, DB Digital
had nine portals across different languages (Table II). With the advent of smartphones, the
company had launched its mobile applications in three different languages – Hindi, Gujarati
and English – covering varied information and entertainment perspectives. Tailoring the
news according to the non-metro city, the company aptly connected the local people with
its digital platform. As on March 2015, all of its nine portals attracted more than 554 million
viewers per month (DB Corp Ltd, Annual Report, 2014/2015).
By consolidating itself in the present market and expanding into new markets, DBCL had
managed to grow its revenues and profitability consistently. The group was registering

Table II DBCL–DB digital

Hindi English Marathi Gujarati

dainikbhaskar.com bollywoodbhaskar.com divyamarathi.com divyabhaskar.com

moneybhaskar.com fashion101.in dbcric.com moneybhaskar.com
dbcric.com jeevanmantra.in dbcric.com
jeevanmantra.in dailybhaskar.com bollywoodbhaskar.com jeevanmantra.in
bollywoodbhaskar.com bollywoodbhaskar.com
fashion101.in fashion101.in
Source: DBCL website, Compiled by Author

PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017

incessant growth over the years. From INR 18.83bn (US$300.84m) in 2014, the company’s
revenues grew by 8 per cent to touch INR 20.35bn (US$325.12m) in 2015 (1US$ ⫽
62.5908, 2015). Over the corresponding period, the group posted net profit of INR 3.16bn
(US$50.48m) by registering the growth of 8.45 per cent. The group’s advertising revenues
had increased to INR 15.17bn (US$242.36m) in 2015.

Dainik Bhaskar newspaper

The group launched its first newspaper Dainik Bhaskar on August 13, 1958, in Bhopal.
Moving out of the Bhopal market, the group launched Dainik Bhaskar’s Indore edition in
1983. Within three years of this launch, it had replaced another Hindi newspaper Nai
Duniya as the top newspaper of the city. By 1995, Dainik Bhaskar emerged as the largest
circulated newspaper in Madhya Pradesh. It was the fastest growing daily in India (News
& Events Milestone, 2015).
Aiming to have fast-pace of growth, Dainik Bhaskar in 1995 decided to expand outside
Madhya Pradesh. The group recognized, Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, as the market
with the highest potential. Before launching there, Dainik Bhaskar surveyed approximately
200,000 potential newspaper-buying households. On the basis of the survey results, the
company presented the prototype of the newspaper to each of the households surveyed
and gave them the option to sign-in for an advance subscription price of INR 1.50 (USA
2.40 cents) as against the standard price of INR 2 (USA 3.20 cents).
In a short space of time, Dainik Bhaskar challenged market leader Rajasthan Patrika and
entered the major cities of Rajasthan – Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer and Sikar.
By 1999, it had become the largest urban newspaper of Rajasthan. According to Sudhir
Agrawal, Managing Director, Dainik Bhaskar:
The aggressive entry gave Dainik Bhaskar an unprecedented debut in most of its markets.
However, in the long run, it is the content that would keep readers loyal to us.

After their success in Rajasthan, the company targeted the north Indian markets of
Chandigarh and Haryana. Famous for English readership, Chandigarh market six times
higher circulation of English newspaper over Hindi. Following its earlier Jaipur model of
surveying readers, Dainik Bhaskar discovered that readers in Chandigarh favored English
newspapers for their superior quality. The company focused on the newspaper design and
incorporated a mix of two languages – Hindi and English. In May 2000, it launched its paper
in Chandigarh and became the market leader with 69,000 copies. On the same note, Dainik
Bhaskar entered Haryana in June 2000. Again, it became the largest selling on first day
itself with 271,000 copies. Later, Dainik Bhaskar had successfully launched its operations
in Punjab (2006), Jharkhand (2010) and Bihar (2014).
With 3.5 million copies per day across 12 states in India (Audit Bureau of Circulations,
2014), it had become India’s largest and the world’s eleventh most circulated daily
newspaper. In 2015, Dainik Bhaskar was available in 12 states with 40 editions (Table I).
According to the Brand Trust report, Dainik Bhaskar was India’s most trusted Hindi
language newspaper (Wordpress, 2015).
D B group drew its strength from the policy of “unbiased reporting” and the “freedom it
extended to its editorial teams”. A resident editor was appointed at every publication center
to decide the content, depth and tone of the news to be published in the specific edition.
In the words of Shiv Dubey, Resident Editor, Dainik Bhaskar Raipur:
We never owe any allegiance from any political party. Our aim is to provide the truthful
information to the readers of our country.

Quite contrary to the model followed by English newspapers, Dainik Bhaskar selected news
according to the cities. To gather and report in-depth news that had direct or indirect

VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 3

 influence on the people in and around that area, it divided towns into different zones and
launched separate editions for these towns. The editor of each of the edition selected news
from the central desk, where all international, national and regional important news were
available. Some of the factors taken into consideration while selecting news for publication
included political sensitivity, interest, impact on the local populace and distance from
epicenter of the news. Besides this central desk, it also had a local desk for local news.
Thus, socio-cultural and political differences were duly tapped amongst different editions.
The newspaper had always focused on surprising readers with its innovations – in format,
structure, news and content. To coincide with the Hindu festival Holi, readers got to read a
fragranced and colored newspaper. The launch of a three-dimensional newspaper fetched
D B group, the most coveted Star News Brand Excellence Award for innovative marketing
practices. For greater legibility in newspaper printing, Dainik Bhaskar pioneered in
inventing its own fine-tuned fonts – Bhaskar fonts. Further, to provide new reading
experiences to their customers, the group often changed the newspaper’s layout.
Occasionally, the Sunday Edition had the editorial section printed on the first page. Against
the conventional size, Dainik Bhaskar resorted to compacting the size of the newspaper by
1.5 inches. Besides easy handling of the paper by the readers, this had helped the
company in reducing newsprint cost. Dainik Bhaskar group’s competitors soon followed
this innovation.
The pre-launch door-to-door twin-contact campaign of Dainik Bhaskar was recognised by
Erehwon Innovation Consulting. Marico Foundation also awarded it with Business Process
Innovation Award (News & Events Milestone, 2015).

Print media
The newspaper saga commenced in India with the publication of the first weekly
newspaper Bengal Gazette from Kolkata in 1780. By the end of March 2014, there were
approximately 99,660 registered publications in India including 13,350 dailies and 86,310
periodicals. The print industry was dominated by a few big media houses (Table III). Hindi
language led with more than 40 per cent of all the registered publications. Vernacular,
including bilingual and multilingual publications, together had a 47 per cent share (The
Registrar of newspapers for India, 2014). The regional language editions outperformed the
national editions as well as English dailies.
By 2014, the industry was of approximately INR 263bn (US$4.2bn) and was poised to grow
at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent during FY 2014-19 to reach INR 387bn (US$6.18bn).
Advertisement and circulation revenues mainly contributed to the growth of the print
industry (Table IV). The national and regional newspapers contributed to around 94 per
cent of the total revenue generated by the print industry (FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and
Entertainment Industry Report, 2015). The Hindi print market grew from INR75bn

Table III Prominent media houses in India

AIR[1]
Media house Publication (Figures in thousands)

Dainik Bhaskar Group Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi, Saurashtra Samachar, 19,208
Business Bhaskar, DNA, DB STAR and Dainik Prabhat Kiran
Dainik Jagran Group Dainik Jagran, Nai Dunia, I Next, Midday and Inquilab 17,785
TOI Group The Times of India, The Economic Times, Maharashtra Times, 16,546
Navbharat Times, Vijay Karnataka, Mumbai Mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror
and Bangalore Mirror
HT Media Group Hindustan, Hindustan Times and Mint 16,019
Patrika Group Rajasthan Patrika and Patrika 12,852
Malayala Manorama Group Malayala Manorama 8,803
Source: Indian Readership Survey, Compiled by Author

PAGE 4 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017

Table IV Newspaper industry revenue (INR bn)
Advertising Circulation Total
Year English Hindi Vernacular English Hindi Vernacular Advertising Circulation

2010 53 37 36 26 21 20 126 67
2011 57 41 42 26 22 21 140 69
2012 59 54 46 27 24 24 159 75
2013 62 50 51 29 26 26 163 81
2014 65 54 57 31 29 27 176 87
2015P 69 60 64 32 31 29 193 92
2016P 72 67 72 33 33 30 211 96
2017P 76 75 82 33 35 31 233 99
2018P 80 83 92 34 36 33 255 103
2019P 83 92 104 35 38 34 279 107
Source: FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report (2015), Compiled by Author

(US$1.2bn) in 2013 to INR83bn (US$1.33bn) in 2014, whereas the vernacular print saw a
growth of 9.8 per cent and touched INR84bn (US$1.34bn) in 2014. However, the growth of
the English print had dropped from 5.8 per cent in 2013 to 5.2 per cent in 2014. This drop
in the subscription growth of English print was attributed to the emergence of online
platforms, resulting in the decline of advertising revenue for English print. Regional print
markets, however, remained insulated from this global trend. For advertisers, the local
vernacular print was always an economical approach to reach the target audience in
smaller cities and towns. As a result, this media was expected to touch one-third of the total
revenue in 2019 by growing at a CAGR of 10.5 per cent during 2014-2019 (FICCI-KPMG
Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report, 2015).

Competition
In 1995, when Dainik Bhaskar decided to move beyond Madhya Pradesh, it became the
first Hindi daily to launch an edition outside its home state. It stirred the competition with a
series of players attempting to capture geographical markets beyond their core and taking
the competition head-on. Of the 3,213 registered Hindi dailies in 2014, major players like
Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Navbharat Times, NaiDunia, AmarUjala, NavaBharat,
HariBhoomi, Patrika, etc., followed suit (The Registrar of newspapers for India, 2014).

Dainik Jagran
Founded in 1942 by a nationalist, Puran Chandra Gupta, Jagran Prakashan Limited
published newspapers in five different languages across 15 states. With a total readership
of 68 million, it was India’s largest print media group. The flagship brand of the company,
Dainik Jagran paper was the one of the most read newspaper in the world with circulation
of 31,82,160 (Table V). Launched from Jhansi during the Indian freedom struggle to voice

Table V Circulation of prominent Hindi newspapers

Serial no. Newspaper July-December 2013 January-June 2014 January-Jun 2015

1 Dainik Bhaskar 3,254,586 3,557,269 36,69,616

2 Dainik Jagran 3,112,560 3,034,140 31,82,160
3 Hindustan 2,237,243 2,300,910 24,72,170
4 Amar Ujala 2,018,023 1,952,849 24,90,639
5 Rajasthan Patrika 1,735,083 1,767,837 NA
6 Patrika 1,125,229 1,156,969 NA
7 Navbharat Times 1,066,461 1,101,997 NA
8 Hari Bhoomi 689,250 642,750 NA
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulation, Compiled by Author

VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 5

 the founder’s nationalistic sentiments, the paper was subsequently launched from Kanpur
(1947), Rewa (1953), Bhopal (1956), Gorakhpur (1975), followed by other five towns in Uttar
Pradesh (in the 1980s) and Delhi (1990). Later, it ventured into other eight north and eastern
Indian states like Uttarakhand, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Jammu, Himachal
Pradesh and West Bengal (Jagran, 2015).

Hindustan
Established in Delhi on April 12, 1936, Hindustan was published by HT Media Ltd. group.
Later, in 2009, the group moved its Hindi publications under a separate company
Hindustan Media Ventures Limited. With 24,72,170 circulation, it was ranked as the fourth
largest-read daily in the country and had 19 editions across the Hindi speaking, belt of the
country (Hindustan Media Ventures Limited, Annual Report, 2015). The paper had spread
across Delhi, Bihar (four editions), Jharkhand (three editions), Uttar Pradesh (thirteen
editions) and Uttarakhand (three editions).

Navbharat Times
Launched on April 3, 1947, Navbharat Times was one of the largest circulated and read Hindi
newspapers in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow. The only Hindi publication during its early days to
use rotary machines for producing the paper, this paper was owned by the most renowned
publishing and media house Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. This group also published other
popular dailies like The Times of India, The Economic Times and Maharashtra Times. With a
circulation of 423 thousand copies in Delhi, Navbharat had 1,101,997 circulations in 2014.

Nai Dunia
Established by freedom fighters Pandit Krishnakant Vyas and Krishnachandra Mudgal, Nai
Dunia Media Ltd. started its journey in June 1947 from central Indian town of Indore with Hindi
daily Nai Dunia. It became the first Indian Hindi newspaper to launch an Internet edition. After
nearly six decades, Nai Dunia launched new editions from other towns across the states of
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2005. With a vast reader base that had grown substantially
over the years, Nai Dunia acquired Jagran Prakashan Limited in April 2012 (Das, 2012).

Amar Ujala
In the year 1948, Messers Dori Lal Agarwal and Murari Lal Maheswari founded Amar Ujala.
It was among the leading Hindi newspapers with a circulation of more than 2.4 million
copies daily and readership of 7.8 million across Hindi speaking states and union territories
(Company Overview of Amar Ujala Publications Ltd, 2015).

Nava Bharat
One of the oldest newspapers in the country, Nava Bharat was founded and promoted by
Ramgopalji Maheshwari in 1934 in Nagpur. The newspaper daily with 14 editions was
published from various cities in the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Chhattisgarh. In the year 2000, the group was segregated in three different entities – Nava
Bharat (Maharashtra), Nava Bharat (Madhya Pradesh) and Nava Bharat (Chhattisgarh)
(Navbharat, 2015).

Hari Bhoomi
Started as a weekly Hindi language newspaper on September 5, 1996 from the north Indian
state of Haryana, this was one of the prominent newspapers in north and central India. Later,
with the launch of Hari Bhoomi, Rohtak (a town in Haryana) edition in November 1997, this was
renewed into a daily newspaper. Within few months, the group ventured into the national capital
and started the Delhi edition to cover news from this region. In the spree of launches, the group
entered into the central Indian states of Chhattisgarh (March 2001) and Madhya Pradesh

PAGE 6 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017

(October 2008) (Hari Bhoomi Group, 2015). With more than 0.64 million circulations in 2014, the
newspaper was among the top ten Hindi newspaper in India.

Patrika
Modestly starting a newspaper venture in 1956 from Jaipur India, the Patrika group had
grown to become one of the largest Hindi newspaper groups in India. With reach to more
than 12.85 million readers, and approximately three million circulations, the group’s legacy
lay in its fearless journalistic pursuits. With 35 editions, it had presence in the states of
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (2008) (afqs, 2008), Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal,
Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Karnataka (Patrika, 2015). Rajasthan Patrika and Patrika were
ranked 26th and 49th, respectively, in world’s top 50 paid daily newspapers.

Dainik Bhaskar’s initiative: no negative news/#livenonegative

A newspaper’s main purpose had always been to keep people informed of events around
the world as well as those in their backyard. For years, newspapers reported negative
news, if any, only to create a deterrent in society against the person who was involved in
such activities. However, later it became the norm of Indian newspapers to report news
related to scams and corruption, poverty and injustice, kidnappings, rape and murders.
Exhilarating negative news emerged as a strategic tool to increase the circulation of a
paper. Usually, such news was exaggerated to fill the vacant space and the news became
“filler”. The four-line news story was getting extended to a 20-line story.
Fed up with excessive negative reporting in the print media, Girish Agarwaal, Director,
DBCL, called upon a meeting in November 2014. The agenda was explicit. Was there a
way-out from this negativity? He said:
Early morning papers splashed the headlines with such negative news elements that were
becoming unacceptable to the vast majority of newspaper readers. The general public wanted
to hear and read the otherwise. Every day we received post on our Facebook page and email
shows discontent was boiling up.

In the past few years, I have seen my many friends trying to shut out news completely by not
subscribing to newspapers or watching it on television. Because all news papers and news
channels are full of horrifying stories.

Ten-year-old boy was looking forward to visiting his grandparents in the summer vacations. When
the family decided to do the long journey from Raipur to Delhi by flight, his first reaction was a
worried, “What if the flight crash or disappears?” Flight crashes were all he has seen and known of
flight journeys from watching photographs on newspaper. That was his immediate recall.

When my seventeen years girl going for Delhi for its graduation study, I am very worried for her
safety. Is Delhi safe for my little girl? Almost all the newspaper headline says that- this city is
unsafe for women.

Such news was creating insecurity and negative outlook in the society. According to him:
A common complaint is that the print media tend to highlight negative news more than positive
developments in our society and country. Too much focus on uninspiring news can inhibit one’s
outlook on daily life and society. The reader then tends to begin his/her day on a negative note
with little excitement to look forward to.

Substantiating this, Stavan Desai, Editor, Divya Bhaskar, said:

A continuous reporting of news related to rape not only embarrasses the victims and their family,
but also affects the other families. Families feel very unsafe for their daughters and such thought
might have consequences on the female education.

VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 7

 The issues of negative reporting engross everyone present in the meeting. DBCL’s
Managing Director, Sudhir Agarwal said:
I am in total agreement with all that has been discussed. Now a day almost all newspapers focus
only on negative news, which creates negative attitude among readers. Masses become
insensitive. Such negative attitude effects relationship between husband and wife, you and your
neighbor/colleagues and as Stavan Desai said, it also impacts girls’ education.

Being a largest publishing house what we can do? Can we publish only positive news in our
papers that helps in reducing negativity among our readers? Is it a possible and workable idea
that dose not compromise our circulation?

To this, Girish Agarwaal replied:

Sir, reporting positive news is a very innovative idea, and if we implement this, it will redefine the
news industry in India. This will also change the competitive scenario within the industry. This
will help us in having a distinct image in the minds of our readers vis-à-vis our competitors.
However, Sir implementing this shall not be an easy task. We have to make our reporters think
positive. For decades, they have been reporting news related to rape, murder, accidents and
corruptions only. This has made them insensitive human beings.

Kelpesh Yagnik, Group Editor, DBCL, cautioned the member present in the meeting. As per
him:
Your concern is very genuine, Girish Agarwaal. But I want to point out the second problem.
How we define good/positive news. Dainik Bhaskar is famous for unbiased news. Our
newspaper never supports any political or religious ideology. If we report positive news that
links to some political party or some religious group, our readers might think otherwise. It
might harm our core.

Finally, Dainik Bhaskar group endeavored to counter this negativism in the market and
society at large. It was decided to institutionalize positivity among their own employees,
mainly the editorial team, which later trickled to readers. Thus, the larger campaign “Live
No Negative” movement came into being that strove to generate positivity among its
readers.

The Campaign
The company chartered out two phases for spreading this positivity.

Phase I – creating positivity among employees

In one of the groundbreaking efforts undertaken by any newspaper company in the
country, Dainik Bhaskar decided to first create positivity among the employees. DBCL
hired the services of advertising agency Orcomm and entrusted it with the responsibility
of making 30-second duration films. The central idea of such films was to spread
positive thinking in the vitiated environment (www.youtube.com/watch?v⫽4Bf4bOt3iIg).
The spirit, behind the campaign, as elaborated by Shiv Dubey, Editor, Danik Bhaskar,
Raipur:
Publishing the positive news was not an easy task. Our reporters as well as employees reported
news related to rape, murder, accidents and corruptions etc. Such series of incidents had made
them “insensitive people” that had turned them into negative attitude persons. To create
positivity or positive attitudes among our employees, we showed them these films and also
loaded these films in their laptop, desktop, I-pad and mobile phones. Only a person with a
positive attitude towards life can see positivity around him/her. Our group followed the same
concept.

And in this work too. A simple video started changing the attitude. Amit Sharma, Senior
Reporter, of the group reported:

PAGE 8 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017

 How a simple video would change the persons’ attitude? After watching the video regularly in
office, cafeteria and on my laptop as well as mobile, I felt the change in the way I think. Yes,
these videos really helped me to see the picture more positively.

Another reporter added:

Being a reporter, we were trained “to see everything in doubt.” After these videos I have brought
positivity in my professional as well as personal life too.

Phase II – selection of positive news and a day for publishing

With belief in reporting unbiased and credible news, the Dainik Bhaskar group did not have
any alignment to any of the religious groups, communities, political party or client. It
avoided patronizing any particular religion and covered reports related to varied
communities. On this premise, the core team at Dainik Bhaskar commenced the
discussions. The major issue management faced was “how to define and select positive
news?”
With multiple deliberations, the team concluded:
We are not creating positive news; we are only giving them priority for the publication.

Finally, it was pivoted to varied types of positive news – news that inspired the society; or
lightened the path ahead; news related to development; human stories or any work done
by government/non-governmental organization/individual that solved societal problems.
However, the issue remained – what about the relevant negative news? If it was not being
published, then the newspaper could be accused of hiding the information from its reader?
This was against the moral principal of the newspaper.
Vikas Singh, AVP Brand Marketing, Dainik Bhaskar replied:
Being a responsible newspaper, we will cover all the relevant yet negative news in a separate
header under Negative News. So the reader has an option of reading the negative news or
skipping it altogether.

Further, Shiv Dubey and Stavan Desai raised another concern:

Who will decide, is to be published as positive news? Will it be decided by our national level
editors’ team and be common for all our editions, specially the first page news? Or we follow our
core principle to select news according to the cities?

Another issue that was rising in the meeting was:

On what day we publish our “no negative newspaper” edition? Can it be Sunday, the day when
whole family reads newspaper, so that it creates positivity among maximum numbers of
readers? Or, we choose Monday, the day when most of the people start their work and they start
their work with a positive attitude?

As the aim was to bring the campaign “without compromising the circulation”, the team
decided to spread awareness about this initiative to the readers. Before launching it
commercially, DBCL had to test this idea, and its results would decide the future of the
idea.
The group decided on forming a team at every publication center that consisted of
editor, sub editor and news content analyst. This team was responsible for choosing the
positive news that could be of national, state or the local level. With a universal trend to
commence work from Monday, the first day of the week, the company decided to print
the positive news on Monday. The entire DBCL editors’ team supported the idea.
However, they were apprehensive about the readers’ receptiveness of this idea.

VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 9


Keywords:
Marketing,
New product development,
Social marketing,
Marketing strategy/methods,
Brand management/equity
PAGE 10 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES
DBCL hired an external agency, Milestone Brandcom to launch an outdoor campaign in
various cities aimed at spreading awareness about this initiative. The agency used two
billboards signifying – negative and positive news with black and white background,
respectively. Dainik Bhaskar logo was placed in the centre, joining the two aspects of the
news. This communicated the transition from negative approach to a positive one
(Mohapatra, 2015). Simultaneously, billboards sprang up across various towns with famous
Indian film star Amir Khan announcing the launch of the campaign (Figure 2).
For piloting the new concept in news journalism, DBCL published “no negative” newspaper
across 58 editions on January 1, 2015. This was aimed to analyze the readers’ reactions
and disposition to the newspaper. The company hoped to map the mindset and readiness
of Indian readers for positive news. The results from the survey were very crucial for the
group. Around 6,000 samples were taken across different cities.[1]
On Saturday, January, 10, 2015, Vikas Singh, shared the survey results with the
management. As per him:
Our initiative to create positivity in the society through our newspaper has been welcomed by our
readers. Approximately, ninety-five per cent of our readers across fifty-eight editions liked our idea
of “no negative” news. Many companies have successfully used the concept of creating positivity
in the society, through positive marketing. United Colors of Benetton has been promoting diversity,
equality, and multiculturalism in the society through its campaign featuring multi-ethnic models.
PepsiCo has improved social image by using thinner plastic bottles for Aquafina, which has helped
the company to reduce its plastic wastage. So, I think it is a good initiative.
Sharing his concern, Shiv Dubey said:
Although results are very encouraging and many companies have used it successfully, but in
one of the earlier experiments, a Russian online newspaper had lost two-thirds of its readers,
after following no negative newspaper (BBC, 2014). This can happen to us.
With these two contradictory scenarios, the question before the management, is it a good
idea to go forward with No Negative?
Figure 2 Outdoors campaign
VOL. 7 NO. 3 2017
Note
1. Average issue readership.

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Corresponding author
Chandan Parsad can be contacted at: chandanparsad@gmail.com

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