‘DB corp took 3% jump in cover price without any loss in circulation’

Dainik Bhaskar has concluded the fiscal on a stronger note with good Y-o-Y growth, especially  because the print media industry is witnessing a strong growth in advertising across segments,    said non-executive director Girish Agarwal during the Q4 FY23 earnings conference call. 

“This is happening across languages Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, which is very heartening,” he added.

According to Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, DB Corp, the company concluded fiscal 2023 on an optimistic note with strong results on the back of growth in ad revenues across all major markets and circulation. 

“The group’s print advertising for fiscal FY23 grew by a strong 27% Y-o-Y. Print advertising grew 16% Y-o-Y in Q4FY'23. Our consolidated EBITDA grew by an impressive 34% Y-o-Y. And in Q4FY23, to Rs 889 million, with margin expanded by 250 basis points despite higher newsprint prices,” he said.

“We've been highlighting, over the past few quarters, the strong revival of traditional media and this quarter, once again, demonstrated print media as the most credible source amongst advertisers, resulting in strong growth in advertising revenues across categories,” said Agarwal. 

According to him, traditional advertisers, such as real estate, education, white goods and jewellery etc., continue to use print as a preferred medium and the auto segment has started to see some movement. “The Audit Bureau of Circulation Survey for July 2022 to December 2022, continues to position Dainik Bhaskar Group as the largest circulated newspaper group in India and Dainik Bhaskar on the top position as the largest circulated newspaper in India, with a very wide gap with number two print player.”

Moving on to the digital business, he said that it has been a key focus area and an important vertical in terms of future growth for our business. “The company has been steadily growing its loyal monthly active user base across its apps with an increase of over seven times, from 2 million users in January 2022 to more than 14 million in March 2023. Our teams continue to work on the digital apps to improve the engagement with users and this is helping overall retention of our readers across all formats.”

Meanwhile speaking on the circulation revenue Girish Agarwal said, “Our loss of copies is nil. When it comes to Q4 numbers last year as compared to this year, we are at the same number- Rs 43 lakh round. I have increased the cover price from Rs 4.70 to Rs 4.82. So, I have taken Rs 0.12, which is a 3% jump in my cover price overall without any loss in the circulation.”

Speaking about the newsprint cost, Agarwal shared that in quarter 2 last year, DB Corp was at Rs 63,500 per ton blended cost of the newsprint, Indian and imported. “In Q3, it went down to Rs 61,500. In Q4, it went down to Rs 60,000 and as we are sitting in Q1, we are hopeful that this Q1 would close at around Rs 57,000. So there has been a constant decline in the newsprint cost. And also, this will reflect in the margin going forward.”