First Edition. Printed in Mumbai.

Year 2013
WRAPSTASHCORP.

Preface
Im glad I got the opportunity to cover one of the oldest Indian vernacular
newspapers Sakal, which has imperative historical importance & was
instrumental during the independance of our country.

This booklet contains the information of how the newspaper was formed, its
objectives, functioning, moving with the times, technicalities & future plans.

Karan Asnani
Author

Foreward
This book, written by Mr. Karan Asnani is the result of a considerable
amount of research in the field of Indian Regional Journalism,
extensively focused upon the Marathi newspaper 'Sakal'. Visiting
Pune,i.e. the headquarters of the publication, and gathering the
required information through help and support of Mr. Ram Shelke,
Ashna Dhalait and Meghna Shetty, is a commendable effort and it
helped in attaining knowledge about the publication to materialize it
into this book. The effort is noteworthy.

Akshita Monga
Co-Researcher

Acknowledgement
R.D.National College
Prof. Niranjali Varma
Akshita Monga
Ashna Liyakat
Meghna Shetty

Sakal

Mr. Ram Shelke

Ms. Prajakta
Mr. Vedpathak

I hope this book fulfills the respective guidlines & is easy on the eye

Index
TOPIC

HISTORY
OBJECTIVE
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Publication

Target Audience

FUNCTIONING
DESIGNATIONS
PRINTING OF NEWSPAPER

Distribution

TURNING POINT
PLANNING & TRACKING
OTHER ENTITIES
INITIATIVES

Guidance

SOCIAL ACTIVITY
TRIVIA
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Page no.

8
10
12
13
15
16
17
19
19
20
21
23
26
26
27
28
29
30

HISTORY

History

'Sakal' started on January 1, 1932

Founded by Dr.N.B.Parulkar, who was a dynamic & an eminent journalist

Dr.Parulkar initiated a competition for the audiences/people to suggest a

name for a newspaper he was about to start. The prize money for the contest
was Rs.10 0. For the same, he received approximately 4000 suggestions
from over 1500 people.

Finally the name 'Sakal' was chosen, it was suggested by a student.

Sakal means morning in Marathi. It was started as a 4 page daily .

The initiation of Sakal coincicided with the beginning of Gandhijis mass
movement which Sakal supported thoroughly.

From its inception, Sakal proclaimed its role as an independent daily,

unbiased & certain. As a newspaper it has maintained an unchanged stance
all these years & has built up traditions thats portrays its independency.

Neither has it had political party support nor any industrial house backing
even during initial financial problems.

Dr.Parulkar said, newspapers are a medium of public education & of social

change, many Marathi journalists took this motto & followed the
undaunting, selfless & unbiased spirit of Sakal.

Objective

Objective

Sakal is an independent daily, unbiased & certain.

Its motto has always been to be independant & speak
freely

Sakal
An Insight

Headquarted in Pune, Sakal is a huge media syndicate & has made a

vivid imprint on the media canvas.
7 core publications including 3 marathi & 2 english dailies
2 marathi weeklies
Covers Maharashtra & Goa
Enjoys a loyal readership of 6 million discerning people
e-paper is assiduously accessed throughout the globe also organizes
events & educational weeklies, yellow pages & commercial printing.
Sakal is a people oriented organization.
Compises motivated, dynamic individuals channelizing ideas &
energies for broader perspective.
1800 employees
25000 vendors

Approximate readership of the newspaper is 65,00,000.

Competitive Newspapers:
Lokmat & Pudhari are the major competitors of Sakal, in the
current times.

ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE

Organizational Structure in Sakal

Make believe that the organization will be satisfying in the long run
Care about the quality of work
Committed
High retention rates
More productive.

Hierarchy of the System:

From Print to Reader

Abhijit Pawar (Owner / MD)

Director of Technology/Director of Edit
Editorial
Advertising
Circulation
Production
Information Technology
Distribution

Hierarchy of Functioning

General Manager (G.M)

Chief Manager (C.M)
Senior Manager (S.M)
Manager (M)
Senior Executive

Publications

1.Global Magazines
2.India & Global Affairs
3.Dailies
4.Sakal
5.Sakal Times
6.Gomantak Times (English)
7.Agrowon (Agriculture based)
8.Gomantak
9.Saptahik Sakal
10.Tanishka
11.A22
12.Sakal Pattern
13.Vaatchal
14.Garbasankar

Sakal owns and runs 9 Printing presses across Maharashtra. Every

edition has multiple sub-editions and editions.
About 70 plus sub editions.
More than 60 Regional offices.
5 Divisions of Maharashtra. Each division had 11-12 units
Goa has 2 publications

Published from Mumbai, Kolhapur, Nasik, Aurangabad, Sholapur,

Nagpur & Jalgaon.

Entertainment Magazines:

1.Geet Ramayana: Shows legacy of G.D Madgulkar and Sudhir Phalke

2.Herald Hungama: Film, music and cine artists
3.Sachinmay: Films stars, Sachins success story.

Sakal

Weekly Saptahik (Family Entertainment)

Young Buzz (Kids Magazine)
Sakal N.I.E for schools
Monthly 3 Magazines:
Pioneer (Cinema/ Film Magazine)
Tanishka (Womens Magazine)
Educon (Educational & Content)
Educon takes the initiative of holding seminars/guidance programs
held in colleges by Deans/Chancellors.
It has been held in Sri Lanka/Bangkok.

Target Audience

1.Marathi
2.Vernacular
3.Urban and Rural
Circulation across the whole of Maharashtra

Functioning

Chandrakant Kulkarni (Editor-In-Chief)

Ashok Mohale (Pagination )

Editorial
1.Staff Reporter
2.Stringer (Service/Businessman who works as a freelancer)

Sources
1.UNI + PTI
2.People/Civilians

Earlier news was received/transferred via fax, telephone but nowadays

information is received via mail

DESIGNATIONS

EDITOR:
Editor is the eye of the reader.
Planning & Management is the responsibility of the editor

SUB EDITOR:
Sub-Editor is the most important designation in a newspaper.
He writes the beat
Writes respective news & create articles/headlines
Does the proof reading & designing & pasting
Sub editor has to be strong & attentive
Ads are designed pre hand
Sub Editors give the empty space for news to the paster.

REPORTER:
Reporter workon beats for 1-2
Have to do intense & extensive research
Create good rapport with leads & rapport with police .
Police also co-operates & responds with necessary documents & legal information, not detailed insights but basics.

Sources

Attaining information and Articles:

UNI and PTI
Every village/taluka has a reporter
Many people write to the paper to cover articles.
The sub-editor then comprises and takes important information and reduces the raw article/write-up, to an article.
The readership is directly proportionate to Advertising and Marketing.

It majorly depends on the audience.

Some of the technology partners are

SAP
PPI (Page Planning)
SIEMENS
APPLE
Dell
Microsoft
HP
Adobe

Process of Printing the

newspaper

Step 1.Page pairing

Step 2.Page Checking
Step 3.CTP machines
Step 4.IT
Step 5.EDIT
Step 6.AD
Step 7.GRAPHIC
Step 8.SCAN
Step 9.PAGINATION(Preparing the page)

PrePress

CTP

Production

Printing

Maintainence

Quality Control
Dispatch
Distribution

Readers

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution depends on Circulation deptartment

Sakal prints about 30,000 to 40,000 prints per hour
The number of copies is increased by 50,000-2 lac in case of
calamity or threat/alert times

Dispatch deptartment is given a list of agents to supply the copies

Agents, who distribute the paper via:
1.Shop
2.Boys recruited for distribution

Agent also demand extra copies sometimes when the news is

related to their area/ some major incident occurs in their area.

Turning Points

- 1 January, 1932 Origin of Sakal, through N.B

Parulekar.
It took place during the era of Indian Independace, in
Pune. Big revolutionaries and freedom fighters backed it
up, with their writings of revolution and support to fight for
Independence.

- Year 1981 The Pawar family took over. Managed

dominantly by Sharad Pawars younger brother.

Planning
& Tracking

Revenue:

Circulation
Advertising
Scrap

International currency and markets make a big difference as their

paper comes from foreign countries.
Printing comprises 60% of the revenue
Salaries comprise 5% & 35%

Progressive Planning:

E-paper
SAAM TV (15th August , 2008)
SMS service
Self-Book Publication
Event
Commercial Print
Learning Insitute
Coloring competition for kids known as Bal Mitra, since the past 20
years.

The fuctionality of the newspaper has become Technology driven, and

updated machines, helping in the smoothe functioning .
Remove obsolete machines.

Other entities

Events

1.Popular
2.Customer oriented
3.Expert/Professional Participation
4.Multiple platforms for businessmen/consumers to
engage/interact with the owner& the audience
5.Direct Marketing
6.Exhibitions

Exhibitons

1.Vastu
2.Edugain
3.Aarogya
4.InvestMeet
5.Shopping Fest
6.Agrowon
7.Shagun
8.Maha Udyogini Award
9.Kitchen Expo
10.Pune Diwali Fest
11.Maharashtra Premier League
12.Property Mahayatra

Sakal Printers Private Limited

Successful foray in commercial printing

Sakal Printers Pvt Ltd. Is a one stop printing solution of international
quality output
Fully integrated print management consultancy with a wide range of
amazing superlative services in pre & post press catetgory
Sakal Printers Pvt Ltd. Is headquarted at Pune and has an office in
Munich, Switzerland for cumulative printing with a capacity of 4
million copies a day.

initiatives

Initiatives by Sakal Newspaper: To improve traffic conditions

Pune Bus Day (1st November, 2012) was an initiative for resolving traffic problems.
Certain number of buses were provided by Sakal
After serving the commuters, the newspaper diagnosed the problem & found out
that if more buses were introduced in Pune, 1.6 tonnes of fuel would be saved &
the revenue from the buses would increase by 60 lakhs per day.
This activity made the government realize the lack of buses & over the last few
months, the government has increased the number of buses in Pune.
Sakal solved the Aurangabad water problem.

Sakal calls 2,000 to 3,000k Sarpanch all over Maharashtra for a seminar with
Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

As a responsible media house, Sakal focuses highly on Agriculture & farming facilities.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Sakal Social Foundation

GUIDANCE

1. Relief Fund
2. India Foundation
3. Bhajipada Samiti
4.Counselling
5. Teaching
6. Journalism Initiative
7. Shiksha Vyavsaya
8. Nirdhar: Pune traffic control
9. Parivar Mangal Trust: Family Planning

Social Activity

Tanishkaa
Own forun
Have a help line throughout Maharashtra
Actively involved against domestic violence, molestation,
20 women create a group in every society They discuss
Reporters take down all points
State issue
Make it/ take it to officials, even centre sometimes.
Many Relief Funds.
India Foundation: Provides scholarship and money to aspiring
students.
Sakal International Learning Centre.

Sakal Learning Centre

1.Prospect Aspect Career Scope

2.Oportunity to voice opinion, upgrade social status & strengthen family
status.
3.Stree Pratishtha Abhiyaan
4.Chief Minister & Deputy Chief Minister (Rural & Urban)
5.Delivering Maharashtra
6.Water Conclave (Research & Development)
7.Green Movement which includes wind turbines producing 20 lac electric
units per year

Trivia

Pursuit of basic objective was & is educating masses & working as a

catalyst for social change.
Since its beginning, Sakal has created new traditions in Marathi journalism
Sakal is the largest independently owned media business centre in Maharashtra & on the indian internet.
Most popular & read paper in Pune.
Sakal, sells 13 lakh copies everyday.

Conclusion
Sakal is one of the oldest Marathi newspapers, which has been independantly been running for over 80 years now.
It has supported all mass movements & has given momentum to various
noteworthy activities.
It is true to journalism in every sense.
Sakal even after being over 80 years old, hasnt lost its touch or readers
for that matter as it has moved beautifully along with times
Even today it is the highest read newspaper in major cities like Pune,
Sholapur & Nagpur.
It has grown out to form various sub-editions which not only cater to
the Maharashtrian state, but to the entire nation.
They also have a printing venture in Europe which promises to stay for
long.

As an organization Sakal treats all its employees in the best possible

manner & holds each member in high regard.

We hope to see Sakal complete its 100 years as gracefully as it

functions

Bibliography
Sakal Newspaper, Pune.
Sakal Library, Pune.
Pune Institute of Economic Development

End