MiD DAY's new campaign engages and reaches out to readers

Summer holidays have flown by and soon it's time for schools and colleges across the city to reopen for the new academic session. With this thought in mind, MiD DAY will be bringing a series of reports on significant issues to the sphere of education. The stories will range from safety guidelines for school busses to the contentious issue of fee hikes. Also on the agenda will be the upcoming SSC results and the online admissions procedures for educational institutions in the city.

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Sachin Kalbag ' Executive Editor MiD DAY said, "The thought behind the MiD DAY Campaign was simple: how to reach out to the hearts and minds of our growing base of readers and put their problems and issues at the centre of our coverage plan. In the last couple of months, MiD DAY's aggressive, in-your-face journalism has been targeting what are usually called the "big stories' ' politicians, corporations, scams, organised crime syndicates, sports, Bollywood."

He further added, "Although we have been speaking about the issues that dog the typical citizen of a metropolis, we thought the next step forward would be to systematically tackle the problems that our readers face, both as an individual and as part of a family unit."

The month-long "MiD DAY Campaign', completely editorial-led, does that. For the period of a month, the newspaper will take up one big-ticket issue that is most likely to affect its readers. For June, therefore, the tabloid has chosen school education. "This is when school semesters begin and everything related to schools ' safety of school buses, a hike in the fees, etc ' is in the spotlight. It affects just about every parent, and these same parents are our readers. If we talk to them and give them the assurance that their problems will find a voice in the pages of MiD DAY, they would be more than happy to not only pick up a copy of the paper, but also participate in this month-long activity. To cut a long story short, the fundamental purpose of "MiD DAY Campaign' is reader engagement," Kalbag commented.

The objective of the campaign has been to hook the tabloid's readers to a sustained campaign that talks about the issues that concern them the most. "Journalists have always been guilty of doing kiss-and-ride jobs ' we tackle a big story with passion for a day or two and then forget all about it because we move on to the next big story. More than readers, it is us journalists who suffer from attention deficit disorder. We at MiD DAY want to change all that. We will run a campaign on issues for four weeks and round off the month with a special supplement in which we will demonstrate the impact of the stories we did," Kalbag explained.

The response has been much better than what was expected by the tabloid. Kalbag further added, "Since we launched the first "MiD DAY Campaign' on June 6, we have received over 180 emails from concerned parents and high school students on the safety of school buses in two days. On the website too, there has been a tremendous response. This is indeed heartening. It also gives us the confidence to carry on the campaign in a sustained manner for a month.

Industry experts have applauded this campaign and are in the opinion that it is a good way to initiate and ensure reader engagement. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]