Thank you, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Q1 FY27 earnings call.

We will begin with an overview of our financial performance for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026, followed by key operational updates across our businesses. We started the financial year on a strong note, delivering healthy growth in revenues, improved profitability, and continued margin expansion despite a challenging cost environment.

Our consolidated total revenue increased by around 8% year-on-year to Rs 6,220 million, reflecting steady momentum across our core businesses. More importantly, our focus on operational excellence and disciplined cost management translated into stronger profitability.

EBITDA grew by around 19% year-on-year to Rs 1,647 million, significantly outpacing revenue growth. Consequently, our EBITDA margin expanded by 250 basis points to 26.1% compared to 23.6% in Q1 FY26, demonstrating the strength of our business model.

Our profit after tax increased by around 25% year-on-year to Rs 1,007 million compared with Rs 808 million in the corresponding quarter last year. This strong bottom-line performance reflects the combined benefits of healthy revenue growth, effective cost optimization, and sustained operational discipline.

Our consolidated advertising revenue continued its strong trajectory, growing by around 10% year-on-year to Rs 4,320 million compared with Rs 3,933 million in Q1 FY26. The growth was broad-based across key sectors and reinforces the continued strength of print advertising in our leadership markets.

Print and other business EBITDA grew by 18% year-on-year to Rs 1,499 million as compared to Rs 1,270 in Q1 FY26. At the same time, our circulation revenue remained stable at Rs 1,204 million, reflecting the continued loyalty of our readers and the strength of our market-leading publications despite an evolving media landscape.

Our radio business also delivered an encouraging performance during the quarter. Revenue increased to Rs 425 million from Rs 392 million in last year, while EBITDA grew by around 29% year-on-year to Rs 148 million compared with Rs 115 million last year.

The strong profitability improvement highlights the continued recovery and operating leverage within the radio business. On the cost front, newsprint price witnessed some upward pressure during the quarter, primarily due to broader macroeconomic and geopolitical developments.

Despite this inflationary pressure, our continued emphasis on procurement efficiency, cost optimization, and disciplined execution enabled us to successfully mitigate much of the impact, resulting in healthy margin expansion during the quarter. Let me move on to our digital business.

Digital continues to be an important long-term growth pillar for the company, and as of May 2026, our news applications recorded around 20 million monthly active users, maintaining Dainik Bhaskar's position as the number one Hindi and Gujarati news app. Our continued investments in high-quality content, technology, and user experience are helping us strengthen user engagement, improve retention, and further expand our digital reach.

With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Girish Agarwal for his comments.

Over to you, Girish ji.

Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everybody. Thanks to you all for joining us today.

This quarter has been another demonstration of the resilience and strength of our business. Newspaper continues to perform consistently, reinforcing its relevance as a trusted and effective medium for both readers as well as advertisers.

Our performance during this quarter reflects disciplined execution across all our businesses, sustained market leadership, and our continued ability to deliver profitable growth. With that, now I would like to open the floor for the questions and answers session.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.

I want to know circulation copies had dipped to around 39 lakh in Q4. Has the new circulation scheme helped to stabilize or grow the number in Q1?

What's the outlook for the full year?

Sir, the circulation number in Q1 this year is around 38 lakh copies. With all our effort, I think some of the impact of the summer also is in this, but it would be in the range of 38, 39 only.

I guess with all the efforts of circulation which our team is doing, we are able to maintain the number, and in certain places we have been able to increase our market share also.

Sir. The next question is about the MAU you told around 20 million, 20 million as of Q4 or Q1?

In Q4, in Q1 the number is around 19, 20, number has been hovering around the same 19, 20 million.

When can we expect that it will contribute meaningful to the consolidated revenue rather than just user growth?

I guess this is a long-term investment call which we have taken, looking at the growth in India and future probability. We are looking at certain monetization strategies, but right now the large focus is to develop the readers base.

That's what we are focusing on.

Sir. That's it from my side.

Thank you, sir.

Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers.

First question is on the ad income. Could you share some more color on this?

Did it involve some one-off? How would you break down sectoral contribution to this growth?

Would you also say that there was some impact of government contribution to this? Because if I recollect, November 2025 DAVP had increased prices by about 26 odd percent, would you say there is some impact of the same in these numbers?

I think in this quarter, important thing is that every possible category has shown a upward growth barring out education and automobile. Education was flat for simple reason because NEET exam was announced null and void, and they did the reexamination in the month of June end.

Now which means the result of NEET which is going to come out in July or August, the advertising around that result got shifted from quarter one to now quarter two. That's the reason education was flat.

Automobile was down, actually negative, because of the geopolitical issues, the fuel supply, the rates and all that. I guess that's the reason while most of the automobile companies were holding onto the advertising.

Except these two categories, whether it's response or real estate or jewelry or hospitals or FMCG or government, everyone has contributed to the growth in a good manner.

Could you also break down the contribution of the sectors?

Sure, I can do this for you. Education, as you know in the quarter one is the highest contributing sector, in the range of around 20%.

Government was around 14%, 15%, real estate was around 11%, 12%, automobile came down from double-digit to a single-digit, jewelry around 5%, others are in the single-digit.

Any comment on the point that I mentioned earlier, DAVP price increase about 26 odd percent? Has that kicked in over the past two quarters, and is that also one of the reasons?

It has kicked in, that's the reason the government numbers are also growing in a double digit.

Understood. Fair.

Secondly, what would be your outlook on newsprint prices? Where do you think it can peak out?

Newsprint price, if you see, in quarter one, we have seen around 13% hike. Now quarter two also we believe the price will continue to go up because in quarter one we had certain stock lying from the earlier quantities.

We clearly see indications from Q3 and Q4 the prices will start coming down. As of now, let's look at quarter two where the prices will certainly go up.

Right, fair. Sir, just hopping back to the previous question on advertising, what in your view is the core driver for such strong growth on the print advertising side?

Because if I hear commentaries across the board, especially broadcasters, 1Q seems pretty soft for them given the macro challenges, a lot of advertisers held back on their spends. How should we think about this?

What led to such a strong performance on the print advertising side?

On a lighter note, I would say achha ho raha hai toh hone dijiye, but on a serious note, good thing is that this shows that the efforts made by the team and the confidence of the various categories on the print. I think because of that, every possible category is doing.

Last question from my side, on the circulation side, if I look at a slightly longer term, at one point, if I go back two years, circulation used to be somewhere around 43, 44 lakh copies. Today that has come down to 38, 39.

Structurally, that has seen some decline. While of course I appreciate the readership efforts that you're taking to maintain readership, it definitely has come down.

How should we assess the yield? The realizations, have they been holding up?

Or is it also very challenging to take price hike on the realization side of it? If you could also put out the latest number of realization?

If you look at my realization, we are at a flat, there's no growth, okay? Now we are very clear we don't want to unnecessarily burden the reader by increasing the price furthermore.

All our efforts are being made to make sure that we are able to grow copies, but unfortunately, rather than growing, we are able to maintain and lose maybe couple of percentage points. That's the reason we don't want to take any price hike because advertising is growing.

We are in a better position if we don't increase our cover price.

Could you let us know the latest cover price?

One second. Rs 4.93 is the average cover price.

Sure. Would you have the number for 1Q26 handy, YoY?

YoY number was Rs 4.9 again, hardly any change.

Got it. Thank you so much, sir.

All the very best.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. I think most of my questions were asked by Kavish and participant earlier.

Just one small question that I have is that we have seen some dip in the subscriber base for the apps that we run. Any

I would not consider that as a dip because 20 million becoming 19 million, I won't really call it a dip. Because in the digital business, unless and until it is substantial beyond 20, 10, 20, 30%, 2%, 3% moving here and there is hardly any number.

Right. No, my question is actually coming from the perspective that I think one or two quarters back we had even discussed about how we are going about the activation of subscribers over here.

It's coming from that perspective as well.

We are looking at different markets like Uttar Pradesh is one market we are very focused on in terms of digital since we don't have a print presence over there. We are editorially in all our digital platforms, we are doing lot of things.

We are doing and use of animations, little bit of use of AI also there. Every possible effort has been made, and I think if you look at the, again, not to justify, but I think compared to the market situation, our numbers are doing pretty good.

Having said that, there's huge opportunity available. Uttar Pradesh government election will be there next year March, so that's a big opportunity for us.

Let's hope lot of news cycle comes our way.

All right. Wonderful.

Just one small thing again. There's some decline in the other expenses, just a few crores.

Anything structural, anything noteworthy over here?

No, no. I think every possible person in the company is trying to make sure that we save cost.

Got it. All right.

Thank you so much. All the best.

Thank you, sir.

Congratulations on the great numbers. My question regarding on the segmental growth which you mentioned for education and auto, can you give number or dictionary for other segments as well?

Real estate

Other segments all are doing good. Real estate is doing good, jewelry is doing good, FMCG is doing good, electronics are doing good, banking is doing pretty good.

I think also and this education also, because of the NEET shift that happened, if I compare Q1 and Q2 put together, education will also be in a good growth.

Okay. Regarding the cash, how much you're planning to spend on capex?

I think in Q4 you had guided around 150, 160 odd crores.

It's going to be around the same range also.

Okay. Another thing was, I just wanted to understand what was the driver for the margin expansion which we had on year-on-year basis?

Sorry, what expansion?

Margin expansion on operating level. What were the key drivers for this?

Cost saving, top line going up.

I understand cost saving, but any specific thing or any specific cost saving scheme which was done?

As I mentioned to you, see, we realize in our business, the large cost is newsprint, where none of us have any role to play. What we have is the other cost: traveling, admin, everything possible.

Rather than only limited people sitting in HO looking at the cost, we have now taken it to all the team members. Everybody is trying to save cost wherever they can, and that's the reason we have been able to save some cost.

Okay. That's it.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good set of numbers.

I have one question. With the rapid emergence of micro-drama platforms in India, could you share your thoughts on whether the existing Bhaskar serials on the Dainik Bhaskar app, can be a potential strategic growth opportunity for the digital business given the use of AI into short-format videos?

How do you plan to advertise these Bhaskar serials?

Hi. Sir, thank you.

You are really watching my app very closely. As you rightly noticed that we are doing couple of micro-dramas using the AI on our platform, and we've been getting good response from the readers.

Idea is to make it more relevant. Only difference is that our serials has to be based on the news.

We can't do fiction. That's the reason we have a slight limited scope to play there, but still pretty large.

We continue to do more. As far as the publicity is concerned, we are posting them on the other platforms like YouTube and other places to get some traction there also.

Okay. Can we expect something like this in English app as well?

Sir, English app slightly later because all the resources are in Hindi and Gujarati. To be very honest, English, but later, not now.

Okay. Thanks, Mr.

Agarwal. That's it.

Thank you, sir.

Hi. Thanks for the follow-up opportunity.

Sir, if I heard you right, you mentioned that capex for this year could be somewhere around 150, 160 crores. Before FY26, capex used to be much lower.

FY26 saw sharp bump-up in that. Where exactly is this being spent?

Last year, sir, if you remember, we had taken a call two years back that wherever we are paying high rental, better to acquire the property and build it on our own. For example, in Bhopal, we have finally bought a place, and we are making our own building.

Similarly, we did this in couple of more stations. That's what the strategy is so that we are able to save the rental expense and build our own property and also get depreciation on the property.

Fair enough. Understood.

Secondly, within the other expenses, last year we had started spending on initiatives to maintain readership. Out of the other expenses, on an annual basis, how much would that spend amount be?

I don't have the exact number with me right now, but I think all the expenses of circulation, promotion, and all would be in the range of around 20, 25 crore rupees annually.

Sure. Turning on the digital bit, I heard Mr.

Agarwal earlier today in an interview saying that you put out about 14,000 odd stories, 1,800 odd videos per day on the platform, a pretty high number, very solid number. Could you share some more details here?

What is the total team size, split working only on the digital piece, how many on-ground reporters, how many people on the tech side? Some more details.

Sir, these 14,000 stories are generated by the print and digital reporters together. Because as in print also, we have a huge team at every possible location.

We print almost 250 district editions. We generate almost 1,700 news pages on a daily basis.

All those things are also posted on the digital, except the videos because videos, print cannot take it. Videos are done exclusively for digital.

Digital also have their exclusive team in certain markets, certain places. Yeah.

Any quantification on the team size working solely on digital?

Sir, for the big reason of the confidentiality to protect the competition to know much more detail, I can't divulge more. You will appreciate that.

Sure. Last question from my side on the radio.

What would be a realistic growth target on the radio segment?

See, they have grown by how much, 8%, 9%? This quarter?

12% top line.

12% on the advertising.

Correct. We've had this quarter about 8% increase in our revenue across our 37 stations.

We have seven more stations lined up. We're looking at a good growth this year on the bottom line because we have also put in a lot of cost control checks.

If you've seen our EBITDA in the first quarter has grown by about 15% odd. This year is going to be a mix of both revenue and cost control.

Any quantification on the top line? What would be your aspiration for maybe this year and the next year?

I think 12% number growth is also humongous task in radio business. Because if you see, the space is fixed, the timeline is fixed, you can't increase the timeline there.

This is all by doing multiple innovations and all that. Though I would be much more greedy, but realistic sense, even this kind of growth is humongous task for them.

Sure, sir. This is really helpful.

Maybe I'll connect with you offline to discuss more on the digital piece. Thank you so much.

Sure. Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

Firstly, congratulations on a good set of numbers, especially your ad revenue, which has grown in double digits.

Thank you, sir.

Now my first question is, has this growth come in from pricing or is this not a part of volume increase?

Little bit of both, sir. I can't say 50-50.

Pricing is less, but more of volume.

That's good news then. Now about circulation, I think I'm a little confused because here we are saying that the copies were at around 38 lakh copies during the quarter, right?

Yes, sir.

In the previous quarter, it was around 39 lakh

Correct, sir.

then the revenues are higher if we compare it to the previous quarter.

In certain places, there's a minor tweaking of the weekend prices and few places the high-paid copies on a particular day was increased. Because of that, but nothing major.

Then there has been some increase in pricing, right?

2%, 3% overall.

Sorry? 2%, 3%?

Overall, if you look at the overall number.

Okay. Because I don't think in the last two years we've seen some drop in the circulation copies in the first quarter, which is normally what is termed as summer fall.

This year we've dropped from 39, let's say 40 in Q3 to 39 in Q4 and 38 in Q1 again. Any specific reason as to why our copies have been reducing or decreasing quarter-on-quarter?

For the past few years, it was constant at around about 40 lakh copies.

Correct, sir.

This is in spite of increasing spends and offering schemes to readers

Correct.

and facing such issues. What's actually going on on the ground?

I think it's a mix on the ground because let's get it right, there is some impact of people, some people, those who are not a very serious readers, moving on to digital, little bit of them, couple of 2%, 3%, 4% like that. I guess that is one thing.

In summer, in certain markets, we have actually gained the market share. Like in Rajasthan, we have gained the market share.

In MP, we have gained the market share.

Is it that the overall market is in a decreasing?

Maybe I would say by couple of percentages.

Okay. There seems to be some drastic improvement in other operating income if we compare it with the previous year.

What is that towards?

Operating income also includes the interest on the FD what we have.

No, not the other income which is below EBITDA. I'm talking about the other operating income which is part of your print and publishing income, apart from ad and circulation revenue.

Lalit ji, just give us the detail. Lalit ji, can you give us the detail on this, please?

Lalit, Mr. Lalit Jain, can you give us the reply on this?

You're on a mute.

This is because of the increase in job work revenue and wastage revenue.

Okay.

Okay. All right.

Just one more thing. Just newsprint prices, you said, have gone up by around 13%.

Is that versus previous year, or is that against the previous quarter?

Previous year. Previous quarter, around 8%.

Last quarter, we were told it was around 49,000. This quarter would be around 54, 55?

53.

53. Okay.

Yeah.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Thank you, sir.

Am I audible?

Yes, sir.

Sir, what would be a portion of our digital revenue of the entire revenue?

Miniscule, sir, right now.

Okay. That would be mainly advertising, whatever

Correct.

Correct. Okay.

Sir, directionally also, would it be at least 5% to 10% in that range of our total revenue or

Sorry, sir?

Directionally, would it be around 5% to 10% of our total revenue, or even lower?

Even lower, sir.

Okay. Are we seeing any increasing trends there, by any chance?

Yeah. Advertising revenue is growing there.

Okay.

Base is too small, advertising revenue is growing there.

There could be couple of years before it becomes a meaningful 10%, 20% contribution to the top line?

Correct, sir. Correct.

Okay. Sir, do we guide this year for maybe a higher revenue than what our pre-COVID high was?

Do you think we can surpass that of maybe more than 2,500 crore?

I can't give any guidance, sir, but everybody's working hard. That much I can assure you.

Every possible team member is really working hard.

Understood, sir. Sir, for the circulation revenue, would the revenue that we have achieved this quarter, so that would be considered as the base in the sense that we will not go below that?

Any view on that?

Sir, in circulation number, which is 38 lakh copies right now, we are putting all our efforts to gain copies. To be very honest, we lose some copy, we gain some copy, we again lose some copy, we gain some copy.

You can appreciate our teams also go through lot of frustration because of this, but I guess that's the market situation right now. We're holding strong, and important point is that we are gaining market share.

You're saying the industry loss would have been higher than what our 39 to 38 is? The industry would have lost a lot more?

Looks like, sir, very clearly.

Okay. Understood.

Sir, just asking globally, do we see any equivalent part of any other newspaper that gives us confidence that maybe circulation has a kind of floor, basically? It doesn't go below that.

Some parameter in developed economies, or I don't know, I'm just asking on any other country that you must be tracking.

No, sir, no other country. I think we should look at ourselves, keep it strong.

Actually, to see my market share improving, and that's the reason my advertising is improving. The growth of advertising is also reflection of my share growth.

Fine. That's largely volume driven, as you mentioned.

Correct.

Sir, one final question, this print and other EBITDA percentage that you've mentioned in your media release, that is print and circulation combined, right?

Print and digital combined, sir.

There is no circulation revenue included in that EBITDA calculation, is it?

Correct.

It's not separately given also, like the circulation EBITDA?

No, sir. There is no circulation EBITDA, sir.

The print and other EBITDA percentage basically includes everything other than radio?

Correct, correct, correct.

Okay. Fine.

Thank you, sir. Thanks.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks to everyone for your participation today and time on this earnings call. I hope we've responded to your queries, and we'll always be happy to be of assistance through our investor relation department headed by Mr.

Prasoon Kumar Pandey for all your further queries. Thank you, and have a great evening.

Thank you, everyone.