DAINIK BHASKAR's 'JUNIOR EDITOR' creates History

Junior Editor-2011, an initiative of Dainik Bhaskar, under the umbrella of Bhaskar Champ's club creates history by being recognised by 'Guinness World Record' as "THE LARGEST WRITING COMPETITION", by 'Limca World Record' as "The Largest Countrywide Newspaper Making Competition for Children" and also recognised by 'India Book of Records' for "The Largest Number of Manually Prepared Newspapers by Kids." A total of 67,130 manually created newspapers were submitted by children from 41 cities of 10 states. The activity commenced on February 2011 and culminated on 18th September 2011.

Junior Editor was an exceptional interactive programme with elements of editorial, designing, creative writing and reporting of the major happenings in and around the world. 67.130 participants of class 1 to class 12 manually created their own newspapers using the framework provided in the 8 page templates. These even had creative spaces for subject as varied as 'Cartoon & Caricature" and 'Ad Mad – Creativity at its best'.

Vinay Maheshwari, Vice-President- Sales & Market Development, Dainik Bhaskar Group said, "Guinness World Record is just an affirmation of scale. The Junior Editor 2011 has made to all the three relevant records, 'Limca World Record' & 'India Book of Records' and the participation of 67,130 participants from 592 schools joining in reflects the stature of the club as well as the strong brand presence of DB Group".

He added 'The idea behind the initiative was not only to engage kids but the entire family by providing them a smart reader engagement, as the participants were expected not to just cut-paste the information but to give their own interpretation and at times use imagination to complete a story, it definitely had the family interacting as a unit. That was also the focal point of Ideation". Such initiatives tap the existing enormous potential of strengthening reader connect with the brand.'

The participants participated in 2 categories based in level of expertise and expectations. Category- A (Class 1st to 4th), Category- B (Class 5th to 8th) & Category C (Class 9th to 12th). It was interesting to see the spectrum of subjects picked up for making the newspaper by different categories of participants.

An exhibition was held across 6 locations, namely, Jaipur, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Raipur and Ranchi, presenting 2150 manually prepared newspapers saluting participant's excellent presentations. 183 entries received the honours as 'Junior Editors', 12 'Categorized Winners' ('Best Reporting Award', 'Best Editorial Award', 'Best Layout Award' & 'Best Advertisement Award'), 24 'Panel's Choice Award' and 138 'Meritorious Participants' at a grand event organized in Delhi on 18th September 2011, which was conferred by Chief Guest, Gen. V.K. Singh - Chief of the Army Staff.

'Junior Editor-2011' was the third mega initiative of Bhaskar Champs Club, which has a strong base of more than 2 lakh members in DB territories prior to which the club has successfully created standards with initiatives like Bhaskar Champs Scrapbook Activity -2010 & Junior Picasso-2011 (A National Level Painting Competition).

The ongoing activity of the club 'Brain Hunt-2012'- The Quest for Wonder Kidz!' as per the sources has already broken all the records of competition with a grand participation of close to 3 Lakh kids already having registered for it.