Times are changing in Chennai

For all those who have been to Chennai recently you must be familiar to the question 'Next change?' After all, it hits at your face at every nook and corner of the city. Well, expect some battle royale in Chennai in the months ahead, starting April 1st as the 'Mumbai Golaith' is all set to take on the southern king.

This time, 'Times of India' needs to not only fight it out with 'The Hindu', but also with 'Deccan Chronicle' that has clearly taken the first mover advantage in the last two years, in targeting youth and the yuppies and promoting the Page 3 culture, a Times trademark in all other cities.

Add to this, the launch of Deccan Chronicle's financial daily from April 15th and while the rest of India is gearing up for the Cricket League wars in Chennai it is showering new media (a couple of regional channels such as Mega TV, Kalignar TV, Raj Musix & a few more, whose names I even forget, have been launched the last few months) and it is all about news, views and muse.

Will this expansion and new power of media result in more and better information for the readers? Well, we are watching out for Times' strategy in this market, since they have typically commercialised editorial content in most other markets. As for the team at PRHUB well, we are clearly focusing on evolving and executing a more strategic & targeted media campaign for all our clients this year and if all of these launches allow us to do that better- we would have hit the bull's eye.

Sumathi M Chari

Branch Head - Chennai