Despite competition, Indian newspaper giant DB Corp has delivered the financial results which are every publisher's dream.

Double-digit growth in digital and radio advertising, higher circulation revenue and print advertising dented only by different dates for a major festival are key elements of the group's second-quarter financial results.

Circulation revenue grew by 14.8 on the same period of 2014 in all DB's mature markets except Bihar - where new Dainik Bhaskar editions in Bhagalpur, Gaya and Muzaffarpur and seven district editions extend reach to the whole of Bihar - Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The flagship Dainik Bhaskar is expected to remain India's largest-circulated national daily in ABC results for Jan-Jun 2015.

Meanwhile digital advertising revenue has grown 82 per cent to INR 114 million (A$2.4 million) while uniques soared from 14 to 40 million.

Managing director Sudhir Agarwal (right) describes the Bihar rollout as an "expansion milestone" enabling them to deliver better reach to advertisers and cater to an under-tapped readership base.

"DB Digital has been performing well... and our radio business strategy to be the market leading radio business in 'Unmetro' regions is well aligned to print business and with the recent acquisition of 14 frequencies in the Phase 3 auctions."

This will make a "very compelling package" for advertisers in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, CPH and Gujarat, he says.

"On an overall basis, we continue to take all measures to leverage our strengths across print, radio and digital businesses to drive growth aggressively, while also ensuring that we continue to achieve better organisational efficiencies."

Highlights from the quarter's results included:

Total revenues flat at INR 4837 million (compared to INR 4838 million);

Circulation revenue increased 16 per cent YOY INR 1057 million;

Advertising revenues INR 3433 million (compared to INR 3610 million in the same quarter of 2014), due to the impact of Navratri Festival dates;

DBCL achieved EBIDTA margins of 24 per cent at INR 1171 million (from INR 1271 million last year), after factoring forex loss of 15.6 million and Bihar launch related preoperative expenditure of INR 27.7 million.

DB Corp publishes Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, with 19.8 million readers across some of India's fastest growing markets.

A special focus on product development has seen content associations with publications including Time Magazine, Harvard Business Review and the New York Times.

Non-print businesses - including the top Hindi and Gujarati news sites - attracted 900 million page views and 40 million unique visitors, the latter growing 177 per cent during the quarter. A new video news bulletin for www.dainikbhaskar.com is a "first of kind" initiative, and has scored around ten million video views.

Agarwal says this not only increased engagement but also helped DB cross the language barrier and tap English readers who are also watching the Hindi videos. A new fashion also crossed the million uniques mark within the first few months of its launch and bagged 'best mobile website' at the 2015 Maddies.

On our homepage: Soaring uniques - The DainikBhaskar.com website