MxMIndia

Tag: Firstpost.com

  • On mobile, Firstpost has recorded a similar growth trajectory with monthly unique visitors and page views growing at 175 per cent and 280 per cent, respectively

    Firstpost.com turns 7; lays out strategic roadmap for next year

    By A Correspondent

     

    Digital news platform Firstpost.com is celebrating seven years in the industry. Said Azim Lalani, Business Head of the website: “The digital universe is expanding and just like any other sector the digital space too is growing to become highly competitive. So, to have been around for seven years and to have recorded some great growth numbers certainly speaks volumes about the effort put in and the force that Firstpost is today. We look forward to further strengthen our presence and keep our audiences thoroughly engaged year after year.”

     

    Added Editor BV Rao: “It’s only marriages that wait for the seen-year itch. At Firstpost we itch constantly to break new ground every day. Beginning with the very concept of a breaking views paper to introducing marathon real-time video digicast of elections and budgets, to launching new products such as Firstcricket, Showsha, FirstCulture and Firstpost Hindi the itch to innovate to serve our readers has been a constant companion. And will continue to for several decades more.”

     

     

  • She was earlier the CEO of Firstpost.com, the leading news and opinion portal from the group

    Durga Raghunath elevated at Network18 Digital

    By a correspondent

     

    Network18 Digital, the digital content arm of Network18 has strengthened its leadership structure by elevating Durga Raghunath to CEO. She was earlier the CEO of Firstpost.com, the leading news and opinion portal from the group. Lakshmi Narasimhan, the previous CEO for the group’s digital content business, is now moving onto a corporate role.

     

    Ajay Chacko

    Commenting on the development, Ajay Chacko, COO, Network18 said, “At Network18 Digital, we are proud to have built cult digital content brands which have had a defining influence on the space. As consumer internet in India undergoes a paradigm shift, we continue to be focused on leading this change from the front. Durga is well-equipped to lead this effort for us due to her strong understanding of the digital user, products and the opportunity.”

     

     

    Lakshmi Narasimhan added, “Durga has played a stellar role in transforming Firstpost from an innovative idea into a leader brand today. We are confident that in this expanded mandate, she will take Network18 Digital to newer heights.”

     

    Raghunath has over ten years experience in publishing – both books and digital. She previously worked with the Wall Street Journal, Mint and HarperCollins in New York.

     

  • Firstbiz will be a standalone business and news website from Network18's Firstpost

    Firstpost.com launches new business portal, Firstbiz

    By A Correspondent

     

    A little less than three years after the highly visible launch of Firstpost.com, the online news destination from the Network18 group, has launched www.firstbiz.com, a standalone business news and views site. Network18 already has moneycontrol and the Forbes India websites amongst its business-y web news offerings.

     

    While Firstpost has in the past covered business, economy, investing and brands as a part of its general news coverage, this standalone approach comes at a time when India gears up for its giant, general election where economic and business agendas are set as much as the political, notes a communiqué. Said R Jagannathan, Editor-in-chief: “With Firstpost, we walked right into the middle of a rising tide of public anger against poor governance and corruption. By reflecting a diverse range of public opinion that mainstream media was slow to respond to, Firstpost made a space for itself. Durga Raghunath, CEO Firstpost added: “We are also thrilled to take Biztech, that was previously a standalone property into our fold. Enterprise technology is a phenomenally important space that we will build a multitude of experiences around. We will focus on great depth in this area, both online and offline.”

     

    We are not sure whether we would agree with Mr Jagannathan’s comment on mainstream media has been slow. On the contrary – one of the charges against the television media specifically and even the newspapers in recent years – is that they’ve been exceedingly belligerent. The group’s subsidiary runs CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, and one can be sure that editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai has a different view on the slow responsiveness. The news media genre has in fact grown in the last two years. But, of course, the internet access numbers have increased too which is why web destinations like Firstpost.com and MxMIndia have benefitted.

     

  • The interactive video-views platform is also available on Android phones.

    Firstpost launches promo for YouSpeak

    By A Correspondent

     

    Firstpost.com, India’s leading news and views portal has just launched the longest commercial for its interactive, video views platform, YouSpeak, which is also available on Android phones.

     

    Conceptualized and directed by Ravi Deshpande, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Contract, the ad runs for three minutes and 52 seconds and showcases a monologue of a quintessential modern woman spanning multiple subjects. She urges users to express themselves, as bottled-up feelings can be toxic.

     

    Mr Deshpande commented, “Often, your opinion, is linked to the way you are as a person. When you hear or read someone’s opinion, you can envision his face in your mind’s eye. That’s why, seeing the person speak is more powerful than just reading or hearing an opinion. The idea was to create a short film which is in fact a person’s opinion. Who she is as a person is clearly reflected in the content and delivery of her talk. Just as the personality of thousands of other video uploaders will be evident from what they have to say on YouSpeak.”

     

    YouSpeak, which was launched in March, allows users to express their views/ opinions via a 30-second comment on any topic on Firstpost.com and also allows them to start a conversation of their choice. It is also available for Android Mobile users, which will allow users to upload their points of view anytime, anywhere.

     

    The full ad can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGa3R4yCYg and the app can be downloaded at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.youspeak.

     

    Creative Agency: Contract India

    Art Director: Ravi Deshpande, Chairman and CCO, Contract Advertising

    Writer: Malobi Dasgupta

    Concept & Direction: Ravi Deshpande

    DOP: Faroukh Mistry

    Actor: Priyanka Bose

    Account Management: Anish Kotian, Gayathri Bhaskaran

    Production: FAR productions

     

  • R Jagannathan will lead Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, Forbes India and Network18 Publishing

    R Jagannathan is Network18’s ed-in-chief for web & print

    By A Correspondent

     

    Network18 group has strengthened the editorial structure at its web and publishing arms by elevating veteran journalist R Jagannathan (“Jaggi”) as Editor-In-Chief. Mr Jagannathan will be responsible for leading editorial strategy and driving content synergies across a bouquet comprising some of the country’s leading news and special interest brands. This is part of the group’s progression towards an integrated publishing and digital editorial operation.

     

    This mandate includes Moneycontrol.com and Firstpost.com, Forbes India and Network18 Publishing, which spans a portfolio of 18 B2C and B2B titles such as Overdrive, Better Photography, Chip, T3, Entrepreneur, Search and Auto Monitor.

     

    Mr Jagannathan had taken charge of Moneycontrol.com and Firstpost.com at the time of joining Network18 in 2011. In this expanded role, he will be additionally responsible for Forbes India and Network18 Publishing. Editors at each of these brands will now report to him with immediate effect.

     

    With a career spanning over 36 years, Mr Jagannathan has been the editor of several print and digital publications across the general and business news space. Prior to joining Network18 Group in 2011, he was the Executive Editor at DNA. Earlier, he was the Executive Editor at Business Standard and he has also been the Editor at Financial Express, Indian Management and Business World. He was the founding Executive Editor of Business Today in the early 1990s and Business Editor of India Today before that. His first foray into the digital world came when he became Editor at Myiris.com at the height of the first dotcom boom.

     

    Raghav Bahl, Founder and Editor, Network18 said, “Platform neutrality in publishing is almost a truism now and as one of the country’s largest news and digital players, we’re best placed to lead this broadening trend. It’s critical that our brands access the best expertise across the group while they continue to fulfil their distinct content mandates and they do so through a structure which mirrors the new digital reality. We have entrusted the task of leading this effort in the able hands of Jaggi.”

     

    B Sai Kumar, Group CEO, Network18 said, “In Jaggi, we have one of the finest editorial minds in the industry with an unmatched breadth of experience and a proven track record, which includes the stellar performance of our digital brands under his command, Moneycontrol and Firstpost. We’re confident that in this expanded mandate, he will help us further enhance our editorial product and deepen audience engagement and market leadership.”

     

    Mr Jagannathan remarked, “Network18 has some of the country’s most loved brands which enjoy the highest levels of trust and credibility with audiences and each represents a unique editorial voice. I look forward to working with the teams to ensure that we strengthen our proposition across platforms.”

     

  • YouSpeak allows users to express their views/ opinions via a 30-sec comment on any topic on Firstpost.com and to start a conversation of their choice

    Firstpost.com launches interactive, video views platform

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading news and views portal Firstpost.com has launched a new interactive, video views platform, YouSpeak. The platform allows users to express their views/ opinions via a 30-second comment on any topic on Firstpost.com and also allows them to start a conversation of their choice. A user has to login with their Twitter or Facebook credentials because this experience unlike text commenting cannot remain anonymous.

     

    The product experience involves 3 parts:

    1) The Firstpost video comment – where Firstpost editors/writers spend a minute or two explaining their stance on a topic.

     

    2) Viewers can Reply to every one of these voices by simply hitting the reply button below the video. Firstpost detects if one has a webcam and records a 30-sec view, allowing users to preview and re-record as many times as they want to. Viewers can then submit their view with a headline and description. Post review it is published on the site and users are alerted through email.

     

    3) Participants can also start any discussion that they wish by turning on the recorder and simply hitting record. These views are also published upon preview.

     

    Said Durga Raghunath, VP-Products and Executive News Producer, “Firstpost, was conceptualized as a platform of relentless views, on all the issues that were of interest to a growing digital and social audience. Over close to two years now, we’ve fulfilled this promise through text, images, and as much interaction as a digital newsroom could put out. We’ve always felt that the digital editorial must find a video form and be treated as an important a pillar of Firstpost and hence the launch of YouSpeak. We are enormously excited because we see it as a democratic platform through which anyone can broadcast a view.”

     

  • Firstpost.com has come up with its first ever campaign on television. The new TVC braces the viewer to the reality that newspapers and the planet are under siege.

    Contract creates a cliche-free TVC for FirstPost

    By A Correspondent

     

    Firstpost.com, a digital newsroom and an advocate of ‘participation’ accompanying the breaking news process has debuted a new campaign with a television commercial which is set to change the way the world perceives news, or rather newspapers.

     

    While habits suggest people are moving to the internet more often to seek news, the perception of reading news is still dominated by ‘the morning newspaper’, which does provide news, but effectively a day late.

     

    The new campaign for Firstpost.com, devised by Contract Advertising, depicts what Firstpost is set out to achieve was simply to reach out to a larger audience. In the one year of its existence, digital natives had already taken a liking to this newsroom on the web and spurred the level of participation by actively engaging with Firstpost on a regular basis. However, the challenge was to take Firstpost to internet users who still thought of the ‘morning newspaper’, whenever they thought of ‘news’. The objective was to get people turn to Firstpost.com for their dose of news and opinion on the web or any mobile medium for that matter.

     

    Explaining Firstpost’s commitment to digital journalism, Durga Raghunath, VP Products and Exec News Producer, Firstpost said: “The news has moved beyond a static newspaper. The idea was to make readers entirely rethink their view of news as-it-happens. Therefore, the lines around reading news a day late. Contract, of course, has taken this spirit and made a stunning ad, whose concept is adorable.”

     

    While Firstpost.com has its dedicated following, the task was to migrate newspaper readers to Firstpost, explained Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising: “We wanted to get regular newspaper readers interested in the Firstpost. And we needed to do that in the most persuasive and effective way since reading a newspaper first thing in the morning is a hard habit to beat.We also wanted to avoid cliches such as our reporting is better or unbiased etc when we planned the communication. We focus on the fact that you not only help protect our only planet  when you consume news in digital platform but you also help yourself get the news as it happens. You don’t really have to wait for 24 hours to learn about the news”.

     

    Mapping out the approach, he said: “We were pretty sure that once they were there, the product itself would hook them. After all, Firstpost is a truly international news product from Indiathat has not been an offshoot of a traditional newspaper attempting to replicate itself online.

     

    Right from the word go, it has been designed to cater to the needs of people on the move. It enables a dialogue, not a monologue. Challenging newspapers would have to be done at a poetic level. Thus, the direction we’ve taken in the film is to display the terrible loss of trees that the planet goes through. We wanted to cue how people could read news fast on Firstpost.com without hurting the planet. While personally I feel reading a newspaper in the morning is rather romantic, the shift to digital is inevitable.”

     

    On aspects of execution he added “We wanted the execution of the film to serve up total honesty, total reality… that’s why we showed nothing fictional when it came to the process of deforestation, whereby trees get cut, transformed into pulp and ultimately into newspapers that serve up news that’s already a day old. The music we chose was an authentic country/folk song, that helped us present irony in an entertaining way, it kept the drama going till the commercial makes its statement about exhorting you to move to the digital platform.”

     

    TVC Credits
    Chief Creative Officer: Ravi Deshpande
    Creative Director: Ravi Deshpande
    Copywriter: Ravi Deshpande & Sahar
    Art Director: Ravi Deshpande & Salil Sojwal
    Account Management: Arjun Sengupta ,Anish and Namrata
    Production House: Day Dreamers
    Director: Bosco
    Producer: Deepti & Kautul
    Agency producer: Ketaki Guhagarkar