"Sometimes sensationalism is carried too far, like reporting for example that an unusually tall man - eight and a half feet tall - was harassing residents of Kothagudem, the coal town," said one reader. Readers who have switched from other Telugu papers to Eenadu feel there is greater variety in reporting - including stories on sex and gossip.
The first Telugu paper to introduce a horizontal make-up, Eenadu is strict about writing style, typography, lucid rewriting of "letters to the editor," and variety in features. The quest for improvement has been continually reflected in both layout and content, both of which have made Eenadu distinctive. We are ready for it though we closed 1977-78 with a loss of Rs 50 lakh." Rao is confident that circulation will touch a new high with the launching of the Tirupati edition. An aggressive marketing campaign - advertisement in rival papers, in radio spots and free distribution for two weeks - helped even out the initial disadvantage to a large extent. It faced a stiff challenge from Andhra Patrika, Andhra Jyoti, Goenka's Andhra Prabha and the Communist Party of India's Visalandhra, all of which are well established. Variety: However, in Vijayawada, where publication began in May last year, Eenadu's easy run ended. "We have been able to take the newspaper to remote villages and even today we are the only paper to reach many villages,'' emphasised Rao. The market profile showed rich potential both in the city and in the nine neighbouring Telengana districts. The advertising agency manager-turned-editor says the success at Visakhapatnam, where he started publishing Eenadu in August 1974 with a small flat bed printing machine - which can print a maximum of 20,000 copies a day - gave him the courage to start the next edition in Hyderabad in December 1975. Before the end of 1979 it is hoped that the daily will also roll out from Tirupathi, the temple town. The eight-page daily - 10 pages on Sundays - is published from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Today 24 staffers, 83 stringers and 11 part-time employees report for 20 district editions: there are 23 districts in the state.
He says the idea of a Telugu daily came to him in 1970. "Two out of every five readers of dailies in the state are Eenadu readers," claims the bespectacled founder Editor Cherukuri Ramoji Rao, 43. Its circulation is now around the 180,000 mark. Rao-variety has paidFew newspapers in Indian journalism have had as phenomenal a rise as Eenadu (Today) which has soared to the top circulation spot among Andhra Pradesh dailies in less than five years.
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