Lokmat

Lokmat
लोकमत

Lokmat Brand Logo
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Founder(s) Jawaharlal Darda, presently managed by Vijay J. Darda and Rajendra Darda
Publisher Lokmat Media Limited
Editor-in-chief Vijay J. Darda
Founded December 15, 1971 (1971-12-15)
Language Marathi
Headquarters Lokmat Media Ltd, 2nd Floor, Nirlon House, Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai, 400030
Country India
Circulation 1,326,188 Daily[1] (as of Jul - Dec 2015)
Website www.lokmat.com

Lokmat ( Marathi (मराठी:लोकमत, literally 'People's Opinion') is a Marathi language newspaper published from Mumbai, and several other cities in Maharashtra state. Founded in 1971 by Jawaharlal Darda, in 2014, as per Indian Readership Survey (IRS 2014) it was the tenth largest Indian daily with 5.887 million readers,[2] and in Marathi, it is the largest selling daily [3] with 1.4 million copies a day.[4] As per IRS 2010 Q3, Lokmat has a total readership of 23.67 million, Lokmat has a total readership of 23.67 million.[5] Its registered and corporate offices are located in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India) and its main administrative center is located at Lokmat Building, Lokmat Square, Nagpur (India).

Editions

Lokmat has 11 Marathi editions in Maharashtra.

  1. Nagpur (including Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Gondia, Amravati and Gadchiroli supplements)
  2. Aurangabad (including Separate Hello Lokmat Supplement For 8 Distticts in Marathwada)
  3. Mumbai (including Ratnagiri & Sindhudurg)
  4. Pune
  5. Ahmednagar (including Shirdi and Beed)
  6. Solapur
  7. Kolhapur (including Sangli & Satara)
  8. Nashik
  9. Jalgaon (inclusive of Dhule and Nandurbar)
  10. Akola (including Buldhana, Washim and supplements)
  11. Goa

Lokmat also caters to the Marathi speaking population outside Maharashtra. It has editions in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Belgaum (Karnataka). On 21 April 2009, Lokmat launched its Goa edition (Marathi) primarily for the Marathi-speaking population of north and north-east Goa.

Sections and Features

Main sections: Local, Maharashtra, National, International, Agriculture, Sports. These sections are covered in every day all editions of Lokmat.

Besides the above, there are some special sections, which only appear in certain editions or on certain days. They are:

1. Lokmat Appointments (every Wednesday and Saturday for Mumbai)

2. Bruhan-Maharashtra

3. Oxygen- for youth

4. Urja- for adolescent children

5. Health and Fitness

6. Travel and Tourism News

7. Sakhi- for women

8. Manthan- literature

9. Almanac and Horoscope

10. Culture and Society

11. Business and Finance

12. Lokmat Shopping

13. Lokmat Birthday Wishes

Entry into the Magazine Sector

In 2006, Lokmat formed Cymbal Media, their magazine division in Mumbai.

The first magazine launched is G2- The Global Gujarati (in English) in a large international size. It is distributed in several national and international markets including Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Singapore, Sydney, New York and London. The division intends to target several niche segments. It is edited by Pritti Kumar, and contains columns from writers like Bacchi Karkaria, health specialist Naini Setalwad and others.

Entry into the Broadcast Sector

Lokmat extended its media business to television through a 50-50 joint venture with IBN18 Broadcast Limited (“ibn18”). The joint venture company, IBN-Lokmat Private Limited (“IBNL”), operates IBN-Lokmat, a 24 x 7 Marathi news and current affairs television channel which went on air on April 6, 2008.[4] The channel’s editorial team is led by multimedia journalists Nikhil Wagle, editor of IBN-Lokmat and Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of IBN Network.

Other Lokmat Initiatives

Lokmatwall

In August 2009, Lokmat announced a new online graffiti portal to encourage people to use the web to express their views and voice their opinions through scribbling messages, scrawling names or painting abstract caricatures. The Marathi daily has decided to call the new portal Lokmatwall. More details on this are awaited.

Tie-up with Journalism Colleges

In April 1999, Lokmat entered into collaboration with the Horniman College of Journalism and Mass Communication run by The Maulana Azad Education Trust Aurangabad (MAET). Lokmat agreed to offer theoretical education and practical training in different disciplines of journalism as well as provide on-the-spot training in different departments of newspaper production.

Jawaharlal Darda Fellowships for Marathi Journalism students

The group selects five students (undergraduate) and three (post graduate) students, who are awarded the Jawaharlal Darda fellowships of Rs 1,000 per month. These students are also provided intensive training in the Lokmat office at Aurangabad and are involved in the day-to-day production of the newspapers.123456

Jawaharlal Darda Excellence Awards

Lokmat has also instituted two prizes of Rs 2,500 each to be known as the Jawaharlal Darda Excellence Awards to be given to the best male and female student on the basis of merit in the university examination, each year, in the Marathi journalism course through ought Maharashtra.

MyIndiaMyWay Pre-Election Campaign

During the 2009 General Elections, Lokmat launched a special campaign ‘MyIndiaMyWay’ in all its editions across the 3 languages.

The ‘Lokmat MyIndiaMyWay’ commenced from January 25, 2009. Lokmat dedicated two pages every day with separate format and design, taking up all kinds of issues for the debate.

The US Presidential elections were very keenly observed as well as the financial meltdown and the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks.

An extract from Lokmat Times says “While the majority is very clear that democracy is one of India’s key sustainable and competitive advantages, there are questions as to whether democracy in the current format is relevant and sufficient in addressing the issues confronting the nation. As a responsible media player, Lokmat Group has created a platform for conducting a discussion on these issues.”

Speaking on the initiative, Bharat Kapadia, Director, Lokmat, said, “The voice of the common people, who are actually owners of this country, are unheard on various occasions. So, we thought of empowering the common people’s voice through our initiative. In this, readers can participate in three ways – first, there is a question of the day, which can be answered by them; secondly, they can raise a question, which is basically getting answered by the Maharashtra Home Minister or Chief Minister; and thirdly, the reader can post their feedbacks on experts’ articles every day. All three ways of communication can be done through SMSes, emails, and letters, or directly through phone calls. We hope to provide a positive angle to the developments and empower the citizens by providing them a platform like this for debate.”

Lokmat Group promoted this initiative through TV, radio and hoardings. Lokmat is considered among the leading newspapers of Maharashtra state in India.

Controversy

Anti BJP Campaign

Lokmat is continuously printing anti government and anti BJP/Narednra Modi articles in their editorials. Lokmat has taken a soft stance on Augusta Westland bribery, although the evidences indicate the involvement of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Lokmat in their editorial of dated 12th May 2016 wrote "Its win for democracy and loss for Modi" shows unfortunate frame of mind of its Editors. Lokmat is clearly a biased paper and they must understand it. People of today's world know the events better than what is presented in Media.

Paid News

Lokmat came into limelight in the end of year 2009 in a Paid news scam for covering 47 full page report on then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan placing it as news coverage.[6][7]

2015 ISIS cartoon controversy

In 2015, a cartoon published alongside the article "ISIS cha Paisa" (ISIS' money), regarding the funding pattern of terrorist group ISIS, led to violent protests from Muslim groups and attacks on the newspaper's offices in Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar, Malegaon and other locations across Maharashtra. Protestors deemed the cartoon to be "blasphemous". Several complaints were filed with the police regarding the cartoon, and subsequently, an FIR was lodged against the owners, the cartoonist and the editor. The newspaper later published an apology.[8][9][10] One of the protests was led by Congress MLA from Malegaon Shaikh Asif Shaikh Rashid.[11][12] Police stated that they had increased security at all Lokmat offices across Maharashtra following the attacks.[13]

References

External links

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