| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Sakal Media Group |
| Publisher | Sakal Media Group |
| Editor-in-chief | Mr. Uttam Kamble |
| Founded | 1 January 1932 |
| Language | Marathi |
| Headquarters | 595, Budhwar Peth, Pune, India |
| Circulation | 15,00,000 Daily |
| Official website | http://www.esakal.com |
Sakal (Marathi: सकाळ, meaning "Morning") is a Marathi language daily newspaper headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Sakal is the flagship newspaper of the foundation publication, Sakal Media Group. Present newspaper circulation of Sakal is approximately 1.5 million copies per day, mainly in Maharashtra.[1] It ranks among the top 10 language dailies of India.[2]
It is published in Pune, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nanded, Solapur, Nagpur, Satara, Amravati and Jalgaon.
Dr. N. B. aka Nanasaheb Parulekar founded Sakal and circulation was launched on January 1, 1932.[3] Pratap G. Pawar[4] is the present Chairman of the Sakal Media Group and also the Vice - President of WAN (World Association of Newspapers). Abhijit Pawar is the managing director of Sakal Media Group.
Group’s other operations consist of regional newspapers, magazines and Internet publishing, together employing over 3000 people. It holds one of the largest Marathi website eSakal that reaches to 300,000 Internet users across globe. It is ranked as the number one Marathi website across globe.[5]
Other publications include the English-language daily Sakal Times (that replaced The Maharashtra Herald), Gomantak, Gomantak Times, a Marathi and English language dailies respectively published from neighboring State of Goa and Agrowon, the first ever daily dedicated to agriculture and farming.
Contents |
Sakal was a classic newspaper of the nationalist period. Its idealistic founder, Dr. N.B. alias Nanasaheb Parulekar had been influenced by American papers during his years at Columbia University. And though he started Sakal (morning) to advance Mahatma Gandhi’s movement for independence, he also introduced genuine daily journalism to Marathi.
Though begun as a part of the nationalist cause, it established itself as a successful business by making day-to-day concerns, not just of Pune but also of its rural neighborhoods, a preoccupation. By the 1960s, Sakal appointed full-time correspondents, each with a telephone, in every town in its neighborhood. It ran training camps for its journalists, promotions and cultural events for its readers and letters to the editor on its front page.
When Dr. Parulekar died in 1973, he left the paper with many good practices and rich traditions. It survived the first shocks of India’s revolution in newspaper technology and carried on for more than 10 years. The Pawar family took over Sakal in 1985. The Pawar family turned the paper into a public limited company in 1989, and Mr. Pratap G. Pawar became Managing Director.
Since taken over by the Pawars, Sakal has seen tremendous growth in all fronts of business; still keeping intact the core journalistic values. Mr. Pratap Pawar took Sakal in the same direction as renovating newspapers around India: towards marketing surveys, new management practices, aggressive selling of advertising and improvement in labor-saving technology.
Since long, Sakal is famous for ‘reporting from the front’. It sent its reporters all over the world, from wars to Olympic games and from elections to Film Festivals and provides detailed report to its readers.
Sakal’s annual turnover grew by five times in eight years-from Rs 60 millions to Rs 300 millions. The present chief editor of Sakal is Mr. Uttam Kamble. He is an important post modern writers of India[6] and the President of 84th Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, single largest literary meet surviving great tradition in Marathi.
The very first decade of the twenty first century saw changes in Sakal as a company. This decade saw changes in presentation, style, business expansion and many other levels.
Sakal started a separate pull out for local content. A traditional Marathi newspaper, Sakal adopted ‘Today’, an English title of the pullout. In 2006/07, ‘Today’ was launched across all major cities of Maharashtra. Pune edition initiated the pull out on 14th August 2006. It opened new avenues for local content as well local advertisers.
It concentrated on multimedia activities and emerged as a Multimedia House. World renowned newspaper designer Mario Garcia (Sr.)[7] redesigned Sakal newspaper in year 2007-2008. The new look of Sakal was flashy, energetic and colorful. The masthead of Sakal changed to blue reverse. Garcia Design implemented successfully across the Maharashtra.
Year later, in 2010 Sakal adopted Newzine style of presenting the news. This style gives detailed view focusing future insights for the readers. Besides includes contents that give an edge in their quest for better practices and prosperity. It took initiatives in solving key issues affecting the peoples. Newzine is the newly coined word derived from the News In The Form of Magazine. The word Newzine is in use since 2008/09.
It has weekly supplements for the targeted sectors. Saptrang for family (Sunday), Posiview on Finance (Monday), Jobz for employment (Tuesday), Education (Wednesday), Pratibimb for hyper-local content (Thursday), Family Doctor for holistic approach to health (Friday). One of the notable factor of it's Sunday supplement, Saptrang is; it acts as a facilitator to the reader; to get the pool of knowledge.
Its masthead is dark blue in color. It’s a mixing of cyan and magenta with a little touch of black. Earlier the masthead was black. Each Sunday it used to publish red masthead. In year 2008 the masthead was changed to blue reverse. Masthead undergone many changes from style to typography.
Present tagline of Daily Sakal is ‘Uday Bhavishyapatracha’ (उदय भविष्यपत्राचा). Its literally meaning is “rise of the future newspaper”. The ideology behind the tag line is that the content is to consolidate its readers' awareness about the future. Earlier the tag line was ‘Mitra Navya Shatkacha’ (मित्र नव्या शतकाचा). Its literally meaning is ‘A friend of the New Century.’
From being a mono media, Sakal has transformed itself into Multimedia. Presently it has multiple platforms such as Print, TV, Mobile, On line as well as Events to deliver the content and advertisements.
Flagship website, eSakal.com also adopted new design designed by Mario Garcia (Jr.). It added interactivity. Also, epaper facility launched for various publications including Sakal. News-updates, interactive features, citizen journalism, dialogue with the users are the key elements of the website. The website consist of epaperfacility for the user. The website is said to be popular among migrant Marathi community across globe, especially from United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Sakal has started 54321 SMS short-code to serve News alerts and engagement activities with its readers. It initiated Push SMS service; Sakal Live; for its registered users. Thousands of users as well as eminent personalities receive regular news updates from this service.
With Saam TV[8]; Sakal entered into Television business in year 2008. It’s a Marathi GEC (General Entertainment Channel).
Events and activities become integral part of new Sakal. It arranges events targeting Education, Agriculture, Travel-Tourism, Business etc sectors. Its international event, ‘EDUCON’ has now became the center stage for Vice Chancellors from across the India, to present their vision about Indian higher education. Property Mahayatra, Education Mahayatra, MPL, Pune Shopping Festivals, Family Health, Sakal Shopping Festivals, Sakal Edugain, Sakal Investneet, Sakal Vastu, Sakal Shagun etc. are the events known to Maharashtra. The Group started clubs for the targeted audience events. Madhurangan (मधुरांगण) for women, Young Buzz and Sakal NIE (Newspaper In Education), Family Doctor Club are a few to mention.
Sakal also publishes several books each month. It has a separate books publishing division to ranging from all variety of sections such as health, entertainment, sports, spiritual, children etc. ‘Ayurvediya Garbhsanskar’ by Dr. Shri. Balaji Tambe; ‘Timeless Inspirator’ edited by Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, a comic strip book of Chintoo are some of the popular titles published by this division.
A social wing for the welfare of the society, Sakal Social Foundation[9] works mainly in Maharashtra. Health, poverty, education, environment, governance are some of its prime areas of work.
Besides Sakal; a daily newspaper; Group has variety of magazines. Sakal Saptahik (सकाळ साप्ताहिक) stands at top[10] in IRS (Indian Readership Survey). Tanishka (तनिष्का) is a monthly magazine targeting women readers. Premier (प्रीमियर) is the entertainment magazine publishes ins and outs of entertainment industry every month.