Kulwinder Singh started the English-language afternoon newspaper Postnoon in Hyderabad just over a year-and-a-half ago. He discusses the newspaper, which managed to find a gap in the market in India's fourth-largest city.
Why did you decide to launch a newspaper in Hyderabad?
Hyderabad used to be a sleepy town. In the last 10 years it changed because of the influx of the IT companies that were set up there. So the consumption of English content in that market was growing a lot because people were moving from different parts of the country to the city.
How successful has it been?
It turned out to be a big hit. We thought if we bring out an afternoon newspaper that can be a little more refreshing and be an easy read, it would work out. The advantage was that we were coming out in the afternoon at about 12 o'clock and we were getting very fresh content.
Indian newspapers are extremely cheap. How does the cost of producing the newspaper compare to the price that you sell it for?
We priced at 2 rupees, while my cost of production was about 9 rupees, because that was the norm there in the market. One thing that is very important about the Indian newspaper market is that it is a very, very price-sensitive market. We were trying to recover the loss on each copy through advertising.
Did you look at a digital strategy when you were launching the newspaper?
We tried. But print was the prime business. The focus came much later, after about 12 months [or] eight months.
