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DELHI: Media giants The Times of India and The Hindustan Times had
seen it coming, and had got together despite being traditional rivals to fight
competition by launching the capital’s first morning tabloid, Metro Now. In its official announcement,
the India Today group today announced that it had joined hands with British group
Associated Newspapers who own the Daily Mail to launch mainline newspapers
in India. And while no specific
details are being given out with the Aroon Purie-managed Group saying the two
partners are still exploring the market, India Today sources told indiantelevision.com
that the group’s afternoon Today is set to come out as a morning tabloid
as the first step in this joint venture.
These sources also confirmed
that the aim was to come out before the tabloid Mid-Day is re-launched
in the capital. This tabloid had been appearing from the capital as an afternoon
paper till its closure following the death of owner and renowned hotelier Lalit
Suri, and the title had been bought back by Mid-Day Multimedia of Mumbai.
It is also learnt that the group is exploring launching tabloids in other
cities in the country. The Daily Mail, Britain’s largest tabloid
with a circulation of 2 million copies on weekdays and 3 million copies on Saturdays,
is owned by the Daily Mail General Trust which also brings out The Mail on
Sunday, The Evening Standard, Metro, London Lite and Loot.
An FTSE 100 company listed on the London Stock Exchange, its turnover exceeds
2 billion pounds and has a market cap of over 3 billion pounds.
Aroon
Purie said in a statement: "We are delighted that our first foray into mainline
newspapers is in partnership with one of the leading newspaper publishers of the
world. We share the same values of investment in editorial excellence."
Associated Newspapers (ANL) Managing Director Kevin Beatty added, "This
has been a momentous occasion in the long history of our company" and paid
laudable tributes to what he described as "the dynamism of the media landscape
in India."
ANL’s digital division’s network reaches an
estimated 25 per cent of all UK internet users and has expanded into the online
advertising market in automotive, jobs, property, dating, and personal finance.
Now, Today is touted as an 'afternoon' tabloid. But it comes out
in the morning, and does not give anything above what the news channels give.
Since the past six months, Today has seen a massive expansion
of staff, especially on the desk. The previous editor, Ravi Shankar, had been
sent off by Poorie to handle a different magazine. Shankar, a cartoonist par excellence,
did not have much editorial experience. In his place, Kingshuk Mukherjee has been
brought in from The Times of India, Kolkata, where he was the Regional
Editor.
In August last year, Poorie had started sending strong messages
that he was extremely unphappy with the way Today was running. Over four
consequtive weeks, every Monday in August, Poorie practically "took classes"
with the reporters and considerable heat was generated. Poorie did not feel confident
that he would be able to run the FDI-venture newspaper with the then existing
team.
Meanwhile, the Times-HT joint venture, Metro Now, almost
completely ate away the editorial staff strength, and what is there today is an
almost all-new team.
Meanwhile, sources also reveal that the group is
planning a massive campaign using the Delhi Metro and is looking to buy
space and set up exclusive kiosks at all the metro stations for sales and publicity. The
India Today Group brings out several news and feature magazines such as India
Today and Business Today, and language editions of the India Today
magazine. Among the international titles it publishes in India are Cosmopolitan,
Reader’s Digest, Men’s Health, Good Housekeeping, Scientific American,
Prevention and Harvard Business Review.
The other companies
in the group are TV Today Network Ltd, which runs four successful 24-hour news
channels; Thomson Press, the largest commercial press in India; HarperCollins
India Ltd, a joint venture book publishing firm; and Integrated Databases, a JV
with Yellow Pages Singapore. The JV was announced in-house last Friday at
the India Today Conclave and was attended by the Who's Who of the media, entertainment,
glamour, fashion and political worlds.
The tabloid would be 48 pages
and would come out in early mornings, which is a different package from what Today
is at the present.
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