1. At a Glance
Once upon a recession, print was declared dead. D B Corp laughed, printed the obituary, and sold ads around it.
Q2 FY26 results say it all — Revenue ₹614 Cr, PAT ₹93.5 Cr, up 13% YoY, OPM holding at 22%, and a juicy Dividend Yield of 4.75%.
CMP: ₹253 | Market Cap: ₹4,506 Cr | P/E: 13.1 x | ROE: 16.7% | ROCE: 21.1%
Return in last 1 year: -25% (apparently, investors can’t read either).
The empire of Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, and Divya Marathi continues to flood north-Indian breakfast tables. With 51 printing plants, 2,000 journalists, and now 18.9 million app users, DB Corp is the hybrid beast — half ink, half algorithm, all drama.
2. Introduction
Imagine being a 1950-style media house in a 5G world — and still making ₹345 crore profit a year. That’s D B Corp.
While OTT giants burn billions for subscriptions, this company still earns from that ancient innovation called advertising.
Founded by the Agarwal family, DBCL built Dainik Bhaskar into India’s most read daily, expanded into Gujarati and Marathi markets, added 94.3 My FM for your morning traffic jams, and sprinkled digital apps to prove it’s not a dinosaur.
Yet investors treat it like a fossil because print growth = 0%. But let’s be honest — if you’ve ever been in a small-town chai stall, you’ve seen a Bhaskar front page before you saw Netflix buffering.
DB Corp’s strategy is simple: rule Tier II-III India where the next 500 million readers still smell ink before they smell data. And while the metros doom-scroll, the Hindi heartland still pays ₹5 for newsprint and a free crossword.
So yes — print is dying, but D B Corp is writing the death certificate in bold, black, profitable ink.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Three heads, one crown.
(1) Print Division (~90% revenue):
India’s largest print empire — 5 newspapers, 3 languages, 57 editions. Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi, DB Star, Saurashtra Samachar.
Add magazines like Aha Zindagi and Bal Bhaskar — emotional therapy for advertisers and parents alike.
(2) Radio Division (~5–6% revenue):
Brand 94.3 My FM operates in 30 cities across 7 states. Basically, background music for your office canteen.
(3) Digital & Events (~4% revenue but 100% buzz):
Apps & portals in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi — and newly, English (English Bhaskar).
MAUs grew from 2 million (2020) → 19 million
