Why Axis, a Bangalore-based design and advertising agency, has been retained by Vision Express, the joint venture between Reliance Retail and Dutch optical retailer Pearle Europe. Why Axis has managed to retain the business amid a tough pitch process, which saw the participation of eight top agencies.

The Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company, which publishers popular Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, is gearing up to enter the news space in Kerala with a 24-hour news and current affairs channel. The channel, to be called ‘Mathrubhumi News’, will go on air in 2011.

Leo Burnett, which started its Chennai operation on October, 2009, has made the branch the South hub. As an incumbent agency for Uninor, Leo Burnett Chennai services the Uninor business in all the four Southern states. All the regional creative work for the telecom brand is done from Chennai for states like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh besides Tamil Nadu.

“In the recent past, Vijay TV has pushed the envelope of creativity by a few notches. People look upto the channel for differentiated, innovative programming, be it fiction or non-fiction” said K Sriram, General Manager, Vijay TV when quizzed whether audience fatigue was the reason for the channel shifting its focus from non-fiction shows, which is considered to be its forte.

Muthoot Group’s FM venture, Chennai Live, recently turned two. The talk radio, which plays only English music, is targeted at the 25-plus age group. To mark the occasion, the Chennai-based Fm station has launched a radio reality show – ‘Band Hunt’.

‘A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort’, taking a cue from this quote of Herm Albright, Chennai-based Lead Star Media and Communications has recently launched an online weekly magazine, christened theweekendleader.com, with a self-imposed mandate to focus exclusively on positive news and features.

After successfully experimenting with various non-fiction shows during prime time and non-prime time, Vijay TV, the Tamil GEC from Star Network, has again set its eyes on fiction by launching an array of new shows during prime time.

Malayala Manorama TV (MMTV), the television division of Malayala Manorama, is planning to increase its presence in the television space in Kerala by adding a GEC by mid-2011. The channel is expected to help the group gain foothold in the cluttered GEC space. Jacob Mathew, Executive Editor and Director, Malayala Manorama, revealed this to exchange4media.

With a decade-long presence in the furniture business, Style Spa, the furniture arm of SK Poddar Group of Companies and Zuari Industries Ltd, has relied heavily on print media advertising so far. But now, the furniture retail major, which is on a dynamic store opening and expansion spree, has recently launched two new TVCs for the first time.

There are no surprises in the Kerala market as per the IRS Q2 2010 results as far as newspapers are concerned. While maintaining its leadership, Malayala Manorama has further strengthened its foothold in the market by adding 253,000 readers in Q2. Deshabhimani is the only other Malayalam daily to have shown strong growth in Kerala. Apart from these two, nearly all dailies have witnessed slump in readership.

With substantial increase in readership, market leader in Andhra Pradesh, Eenadu, has further widened the gap with No. 2 player Sakshi, according to IRS Q2 2010 results. While elsewhere magazines have taken a beating, in Andhra Pradesh magazines have displayed a commendable show. Barring Swati, all other magazines have shown growth.

There is some cheer for Daily Thanthi and Dinakaran in the Chennai market as per the IRS Q2 2010 results. The two leading Tamil dailies have added 57,000 (Daily Thanthi) and 58,000 (Dinakaran) readers in this quarter. However, Dinamalar, another leading Tamil daily in the market, has seen a 2.17 per cent decline in its average issue readership (AIR).

Daily Thanthi and Times of India are the only two dailies to register a positive growth in AIR Tamil Nadu market, according to IRS Q2 2010. While Daily Thanthi has added 68,000 more readers in Tamil Nadu, Times of India has added just 1,000 more readers. The readership of all the other dailies has dropped however, the major losses suffered in the Tamil Nadu market, were by Dinakaran and Dinamalar. While Dinakaran has lost a whopping 15,000,0 readers in Tamil Nadu, Dinamalar lost 124,000 readers.

While Daily Thanthi has witnessed some growth as per IRS Q2 2010 data, nearly all dailies and periodicals in Tamil Nadu have shown negative growth. The results have garnered mixed reactions from the players in Southern media. Meanwhile, quite a few publishers are seeking a different pattern of estimation for magazines, which, they felt, a large survey like IRS was not able to capture.

It was a mixed bag of growth and decline for Malayalam dailies as per the IRS Q2 2010 results. Among the Malayalam dailies, Malayala Manorama, while maintaining its pole position, has registered a 2.69 per cent growth in its Average Issue Readership (AIR). However, the AIR of Mathrubhumi and almost all Malayalam magazines have dropped.