ABP Pvt. Ltd. is a large multi-media group based in Calcutta, the capital of the state West Bengal in Eastern India. Recently, ABP introduced an innovation in our flagship brand, Anandabazar Patrika, a daily newspaper established in 1922 and written in Bengali, which is both the local and the sixth most-spoken language globally.

But readers in West Bengal’s outlying districts often feel that newspapers are “too metro-oriented,” since regional newspapers typically do not address the local problems that plague everyday life at a district level in West Bengal.

In response to this concern, we created our “Paper Within the Paper” concept: a six-page, hyperlocal newspaper for each district that is contained within the main newspaper and a complementary app enabled with Augmented Reality (AR) technology.

Each district gets an exact but hyperlocal replica of the main newspaper, with its own hyperlocal pages: front page, sports, classifieds, post edit, and features. For example, Bardhaman-Kalna-Katowa is the edition for the East Bardhaman district, and Durgapur-Asansol-Ranigunj is the edition for the West Bardhaman district, and so on.

Each district’s Paper Within the Paper includes:

• Page 1: Customised masthead (e.g., Bardhaman-Kalna-Katowa written over Anandabazar Patrika masthead), lead story with the biggest news from the specific districts, district snippets and weather.

• Page 2: Contacts for local administrative/municipal utilities offices, emergency services, hyperlocal reader engagement (quizzes, citizen journalism, opinion polls), and a local classifieds section.

• Page 3: News and snippets on tier-two towns in the districts.

• Page 4: Features and supplement page with letters from local readers. Each day features a different topic, such as loca schools/colleges on Monday, art and culture on Tuesday, business on Wednesday, health on Thursday, agriculture on Friday, kids contributions on Saturday, and travel on Sunday.

• Page 5: News from relevant adjoining districts.

• Page 6: Local sports, including district-level championships, articles on emerging sports talent, and other back-page inventory.

The accompanying AR app integrates print and digital hyperlocal content, while facilitating reader engagement with four key features.

• Videos: The biggest hit of the app, this feature takes readers by sheer surprise. They can use their mobile device to scan a picture in the print newspaper and immediately watch the video linked to the picture. They can then like or share the video or leave comments or suggestions.

• Quiz contests and opinion polls: Through the app, readers can respond to polls and quizzes in the print newspaper. The names of winners appear in the print edition.

• Citizen journalism: Readers can submit articles about local issues with relevant pictures. The chosen articles are published in Paper Within the Paper.

• Promotion of special offers: App users receive upcoming special offers, including local discounts and special content.

Paper Within the Paper has had a significant impact on copy sales. In a context in which newspaper sales are declining around 3% per year, Anandabazar Patrika has seen a 6% upward swing in its single-copy sales within just four months. App engagement has also been encouraging with 91,000 downloads, 12,500 responses through opinion polls, and more than 11,000 leads.

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