PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: The Times of India group has unveiled its latest product in Bangalore: Vijaya Next, a broadsheet, all-colour, Kannada weekly for the “upwardly mobile Kannadiga population“.
The 24-page Friday offering, priced at Rs 6, is a customised version of the Crest edition of The Times of India, complete with shades of its aquamarine colour.
And like Crest, the product offering has the usual “upmarket” mix of relationships, health, education, sex, travel, food, fitness, films, celebrities, automotive, gadgets, and sport.
The strategy behind the hurried launch of Vijaya Next, according to insiders, is essentially the same as ToI’s Crest: to slip it along with the group’s flagship Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka every week and get more out of the customer’s monthly newspaper bill without increasing the cover price of Vijaya Karnataka.
Vijaya Next is edited by Deepak Thimaya, a well-known TV anchor with almost no newspaper journalism experience on his resume barring a few columns, and is produced by residual staff from the Kannada edition of The Times of India, which was shut down in early March at a day’s notice.
(The Kannada edition of ToI had itself been launched in quest of a similar “upwardly mobile” Kannadiga audience after shutting Usha Kirana, the Kannada newspaper that fell into the group’s lap when it bought Vijaya Karnataka and the now-defunct Vijay Times from BJP parliamentarian Vijay Sankeshwar.)
Vijaya Next has been grandly proclaimed in a full-page ad in today’s Times of India (Bangalore market) as the “first-ever Kannada weekly“, although what that means is unclear when full-fledged features weekly magazines such as Sudha from the Praja Vani group and Taranga from the Udaya Vani group, have been available for decades.
Also, there are innumerable Kannada weekly tabloids, part news, part features and part crime, such as Hi! Bangalore, Lankesh, Agni and so on. Most of them do not carry advertisements as a matter of policy and are priced at between Rs 12 and Rs 15 per copy, giving Vijaya Next a price advantage.
But there is little confusion on what the brand managers mean when they say that Vijaya Next will take an “entertaining look” at the world and stories and issues that matter to you.
“Now read all di stories that matter, nimmade bhasheyalli (now read all the stories that matter in your own language),” reads the copy of a half-Kannada, half-English, half-page ad that runs in Vijaya Karnataka, which has lost considerable ground to the Deccan Herald-owned Praja Vani in the last two rounds of the ABC.
If nothing else, Vijaya Next will muddy the waters before Rajeev Chandasekhar‘s Jupiter group begins ploughing in money into Kannada Prabha, in which he bought a stake recently. It will also perhaps prevent him from finding people to staff the paper. Many of the ToI Kannada staff were absorbed in Vijaya Karnataka as a preemptive measure.
IJR 
matthondu half-truth outlet from the Times Group Karnataka could have done without.
RADDI news mag
Well Said!
Hi,,
Can it(Vijaya Next) be obtained online?????
Regards,
Vivek
Vijaya next is a good attempt.
Go ahead.
It is good that Vijayakarnataka has come out with a weekly magazine Vijaya Next. But why cant it be printed like a magazine (book size)
instead of news paper which is difficult to retain for a long time. I suggest that it should look like ‘WEEK’ ‘SUNDAY’ ‘INDIA TODAY’ If the same thing like news paper continues, I doubt that people would not like it for a long time. Please also examine if any reduction in price can be done since it is felt that the price of Rs 6 is a bit high.
its very nice & beautiful
thanks to vijayakarnatakaa
. i need some back issues printout … hw can i take…
vijayanext news paper is very best
vijaya next paper very best nice paper . ravi
it is good paper to be read i wil never miss this paper
very nice effort the team had done ,try to publish more subjects on science like the experience of scientists their advice for our generation etc. and some cinema news but not too much
as the name shows it must help and guide the next generation Although it is awesome!!!!!……
vijay next and TOI are dabba papers. TOI is purely junk – fit for nothing.
VijayKarnataka is also going the same path – it wil b extinct soon.
KannadaPrabha and PrajaVani are leading..
Good news papper
vijay next paper is very knowledgeble its useful of the youth