New look, old rhetoric: Sena hardsells Saamna

PRAFULLA MARPAKWAR

MUMBAI, OCTOBER 18: FORGET Nostradamus, our predictions have been more accurate,’’ screams a hoarding on Mumbai’s Pedder Road. The advertiser is Saamna, the newspaper edited by Bal Thackeray.

Shiv Sena is hardselling its mouthpiece with a new look, bold headlines and colour photographs. The redesign of the paper is backed by an expensive campaign of outdoor advertisements and TV commercials.

Saamna is trying to cash in on the September 11 incident through their advertisements and their punchlines goes: ‘‘Today New York, tomorrow the World’’; ‘‘Don’t be the victim of a holy war, read our paper religiously’’ and ‘‘Dust bin, Garbage bin, Osama Bin. Time to empty the trash.’’

‘‘We were planning for a long time, but we were undecided. Finally, we fixed the date and chalked out an action plan within a week,’’ says Saamna trustee and Sena leader Udhav Thackeray.

He said they did not hire an advertising agency and the strategy was drafted and implemented by Saamna staff with the help of Sanjay Surey.

‘‘The response was overwhelming. Within a month, our circulation has registered a huge increase,’’ Udhav said. Saamna staffers claim the newspaper’s circulation was around 75,000 before the relaunch.

Bal Thackeray launched Saamna in 1988 to address the grassroots workers of his party. His contention was this was the best way to convey his views to party workers.

Now, the paper looks forward to acquire new readers, but not at the cost of Hindutva dilution, Udhav said.

‘‘We have not deviated an inch from our policy on Hindutva. We accepted all technological changes, but we have maintained the personality of the newspaper.’’ He declined to elaborate on the funds spent for the campaign. Udhav said the funds came out of ‘‘love and affection of people as well as wellwishers of Saamna’’.

Saamna executive editor Sanjay Raut says there was not much planning for the relaunch. ‘‘For long we were being published in black and white though all newspapers in the metropolis were already in colour,’’ he said.

The paper, the executive editor said, is getting new readers but the common man continues to be its backbone.