ABC Report News :

‘Sakal’ crosses 13 Lakh circulation in Maharashtra: It’s 5,37,085 in Pune
Marathi daily 'Sakal', which has crossed many milestones, has added yet another feather to its cap by surpassing a circulation mark of 13 lakh copies in Maharashtra. In Pune, the newspaper has grossed a circulation of 537,085.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), in its report for the period from January to June 2010, has certified that Sakal has a circulation of 13,30,542 in Maharashtra while in Pune the newspaper enjoys a circulation of 537,085.
The figures have also been consistent over the four-month period since June 2010. The circulation figures indicate that the newspaper has shown a 26.36 per cent growth as compared to the December 2009 circulation figures of the ABC.
The newspaper has consistently striven to keep pace with technology. That apart, innovative layout, balanced and impartial news coverage, supplements on various subjects, and continued support of readers, advertisers and distributors have ensured the newspaper's growing popularity. It has always been the endeavour of Sakal Media Group to provide news relevant to all sections of the society.
Close on the heels of the Pune edition, Sakal's Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Vidarbha editions too have registered remarkable rise in circulation.
As compared to the December 2009 figures of the ABC, the Aurangabad edition of Sakal has recorded an increase of 135.26 per cent.
The Kolhapur edition has registered a 101.83 per cent increase, while the newspaper has witnessed a 64.95 per cent increase in circulation in Vidarbha. The Mumbai edition has recorded a 25.23 per cent rise in circulation, Nashik edition witnessed a 5.75 per cent growth, Satara edition of Sakal has risen by 30.09 per cent & the Solapur edition has registered a 14.03 per cent growth.

EFFECTIVE VOICE TO THE PEOPLE
Sakal Media Group Managing Director-Editor Abhijit Pawar has thanked its readers for showing confidence in the newspaper. "Over the years, we have striven hard to strengthen relations with our readers at the personal level," Pawar said, while adding that the newspaper, in this effort, has tried to include all sections of the society and cutting across all communities. As a result, the newspaper has provided effective voice to all the people and has addressed their problems, Pawar said.

Sakal Receives Green Technology Award:

Green IT award for Sakal
Sakal Media Group bags Green IT award for employing Modern Technologies to conserve energy. Sakal Media Group’s Information Technology Director Shri. Bhausaheb Patil received the award in a symposium organized by the Computer Society of India’s Pune branch and CMC Limited in Pune.
CMC Limited Company’s Executive Director R Ramanan presented the award to Sakal Media Group and three other companies including Bajaj Auto, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and Tata Motors.
Dr Patil said that Sakal Media Group has applied modern technology to conserve energy. He said that the media group to maintain high quality of production and also to minimise cost used Six Sigma programme. This programme has helped the media group to achieve 15 per cent reduction in communication expenses and 10 per cent reduction in energy cost.
Shri. Patil further said that Sakal Media Group is a member of International Quality Club and has won award for best colour printing.

Agrowon Gets Award

Agrowon gets Gold Medal
New Delhi- Sakal Media Group's 'Agrowon' grabbed the gold medal in the Print Emerging category of News Innovation Awards 2010. The awards are initiated by 'afaqs!. 'Agrowon' is the only daily in the country, which is exclusively for farmers.
The awards were presented on Oct 27; 2010 in a grand ceremony held at Lalit, a five star hotel in Delhi. It was attended by some of the big names from media industry. The executive editor of 'Agrowon' Adinath Chavan and Chief Manager Pramod Rajebhosale received the award at the hands of Alok Sanval, Editor of 'I-Next'. Navneet Deshpande (Executive editor of 'Sakal') and Ashwini Deshpande (Director of 'Elephant Design') were also present for the event.
The motive behind initiating these awards is to promote the media which experiment with the news presentation'. The organizations’, which have experimented with the different news categories like agriculture, energy, environment, and social work, were honored on the occasion.

Sakaal Live: News-on-Mobile service launched

Sakaal Media Group announced the launch of its beta mobile news update service – Sakaal Live on 4th August 2008. Unlike paid subscription services, the beta launch of Sakaal Live is provided free of charge to consumers by incorporating text advertisements within the service.
The service delivers latest news to its subscribers via text messages (SMS) at least thrice a day. Sakaal Media Group which already has presence in Mobile Media by virtue of its 54321 Short code, now aims to benefit consumers as well as advertisers through Sakaal Live. The goal of this service is to keep the readers alert all the time without penalizing them with yet another subscription fee.
Consumers can get the service by visiting http://www.sakaaltimes.com or htto://www.esakal.com and by filling up a registration form. The service requires consumers to confirm their mobile numbers once they register online to avoid any further consequences. Both, GSM and CDMA users can subscribe to Sakaal Live. This service is currently available to users from Pune City. (Please note: The new registrations are closed currently)

National English daily Sakaal Times launched

In its constant endeavour to create new products, the Sakaal Media Group launched Sakaal Times, a national English daily, on 7th May, 2008. The newspaper contains four sections — 12 pages of national and international news, 12 pages of local news, eight pages of business news and eight pages of weekly supplement. This is the second product that Sakaal Media Group have brought out in association with APCA (Asia-Pacific Communication Associates) after the first magazine called India and Global Affairs (IGA), launched in January this year. In the publisher's note in the first issue of Sakaal Times, Abhijit Pawar says, "Sakaal Times will be a family newspaper. It will cater to the interests of readers across all age groups. Honest, balanced and unbiased reporting will be the hallmark of the paper." He adds, "At the same time, the paper will be a forum for debate and discussion. Sakaal Times intends to go beyond informing, educating and entertaining its readers. It intends to empower its readers by involving them. This newspaper intends to emerge as a forum for its readers, and as a vehicle for its advertisers, to reach their message to the state and national capital."

 More about Sakaal Times

SAAM TV MARATHI goes on air

Sakaal's first television venture, SAAM TV, a Marathi entertainment and news channel was launched on the 15th of August 2008.
Saam TV aims to change the way the Marathi audience enjoyed their television viewing with a diverse and path breaking approach to entertainment and information programming.

 More about SAAM TV

India in global Affairs Magazine launched

INDIA & GLOBAL AFFAIRS (IGA) is a quarterly magazine, and much more. It has been so designed keeping in mind the needs and expectations of  the global thinkers, movers and shakers. Leaders, with their ear to the ground and an eye all around. Opinion-makers, who have their own take on the situation, and yet, respect the other viewpoint. Achievers, who are constantly reaching out to new horizons. IGA aims to be the preferred platform for world personalities to express opinion, raise and discuss issues, and collaborate to take the world towards the future.


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Sakaal takes a big SAP forward

CORRESPONDENT
bureaus@sakaaltimes.com
 

NEW DELHI: Sakaal Group of Newspapers has won the SAP – ACE 2007 award in recognition of its efforts in setting global benchmarks in excellence through implementation of SAP technology.
Sakaal’s Director (Technology) Bhausaheb Patil received the award from SAP AG’s Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann at a function held at a Hyatt Regency on Monday evening.The Sakaal Group won the award for customer excellence in the Best Media Sector Implementation – Midsize Enterprises Category.
It was the first regional language newspaper to implement SAP in 2003, that in turn resulted in enormous savings in terms of manhours and breathed in more efficiency across its editions.

The group already has 500 trained SAP employees. Kagermann said that India ranks next only to Germany and US in implementing SAP followed by China & Japan and the user base is expanding. Eight of the 12 Navratna companies also use SAP, he added. Industry majors like Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Telecom, NTPC, BHEL, L&T, won awards in various other categories, National Housing Bank, Kuoni Travel Group, Dimexon Diamonds won the awards in the medium size enterprises category. Sixteen companies in Rs. 1,000 crore plus turnover and 14 companies in below Rs.1,000 crore turnover were awarded in different categories. Nine other companies were also honoured with Special Jury awards.

The panel of judges comprised Subhiksha Trading Services R. Subramaniam, ONGC CIO T Ravindran, VP and Group CIO, RPG Group Amit Mukerjee, Head ERP Centre of Excellence, IIM B, Krishna Sunder, former IT Advisor – TVS Group Venkat Rajan and others. Ranjan Das, President and CEO SAP Indian Subcontinent,  Nimesh Mehta, Vice-President, and SAP Ecosystem’s executive president Zia Yusuf were present.