MUMBAI: DB Corp, publishers of Hindi news daily Dainik Bhaskar and Divya Bhaskar, has hiked its advertising rates and expects to clock a 14 per cent growth in revenues in FY’11.

“We have hiked our advertising rates by 10 -12 per cent since 1 May. We expect a substantial boost in our ad revenues from this move,” a senior DB Corp official said on condition of anonymity.

For DB Corp, the ad growth at over 15 per cent has been faster in May and June than the previous quarter.
 
 
“Until the slowdown, ad rates always underwent an annual hike to offset inflation. And now as the economy is back on pace, it was time to up the rates,” the executive added.

DB Corp had posted an 11.5 per cent ad revenue growth to end FY’10 at Rs 8.08 billion while net profit almost quadrupled to Rs 1.8 billion.

“While FMCG and telecom have been advertising consistently, national corporates, energy, automobile and education sectors also have begun to spend a bit more lavishly,” the executive said.
 
 
The company, which went public earlier this year, plans to enter Bihar, Jharkand and Jammu & Kashmir. While the plan is to launch the Jammu edition by July-end, Jharkhand should come up in August.

“We will launch the Bihar edition next year. Although these editions will take two-three years to break even, they will boost our revenues,” the executive added.
 
 
DB Corp publishes in three languages (Hindi, Gujarati and English) across 11 states in India.

“The increasing number of middle and higher income households has made Tier II and Tier III cities attractive markets, thereby resulting in growth in regional advertisement. DB Corp is likely to garner a major chunk in regional advertisement pie as most of its editions enjoy leadership positions in these cities,” according to a media analyst.