MxMIndia

Tag: India Today Group

  • ‘India’s Most Powerful Women in Media Award’ and ‘Outstanding Media & Entertainment Award’

    India Today Group’s Vice-Chairperson Kalli Purie gets global recognition

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kalli Purie, Vice-Chairperson of India Today Group, was awarded the ‘India’s Most Powerful Women in Media’ award at the Confluence Excellence awards at the British Parliament last week (Sep 27). This comes close on the heels of the ‘Outstanding Media & Entertainment Award’ at the annual 21st Century Icon Awards in London just a fornight back.

     

    Accepting the award, Purie said: “It is very satisfying to be recognised internationally for the work we are doing at the India Today Group. In many fields like creating content for mobile and social we are leaders in the world. It’s exciting and daunting to create prototypes for media around the world to follow.”

     

     

  • Becomes the only news channel globally, to have achieved this feat

    Aaj Tak achieves 20mn subscriber landmark on YouTube

    By A Correspondent

     

    News channel Aaj Tak has crossed the 20 million subscriber mark on YouTube, notes a press release fGlobally, it is the only news channel that has crossed this landmark.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Kalli Purie, Vice-Chairperson, India Today Group said, “It is not just a number, but the faith shown by 20 million subscribers in Aaj Tak. It is the unshakeable commitment to always be ‘Sabse Tez’ that helps Aaj Tak wins hearts and respect across platforms and audiences.”

     

  • The opening of fourth global support centre and new offices in India’s tech centre mark rapid growth in the region

    Taboola expands reach across India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Taboola announced its expansion plans in India by opening up new offices in Cyber City, Gurugram, a new sales centre in Mumbai, and actively hiring 80 employees, to support the company’s operations in India and globally.

     

    The expansion follows the signing and renewing of partnership agreements with publishers including  Indian Express, The Hindu, Zee Media, NDTV, India Today Group, Times Now, MSN, IndiaTV, ABP and Dinamalar.

     

    “At Taboola, publishers come first,” said Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson, India Today Group. “What I really like about Taboola is that they come in and work as partners, not suppliers or vendors. Once they were partners they were in our Newsroom working closely with us, always sharing what they are building and how we can use it. Taboola feels embedded in our Newsroom and that’s a great way to run a partnership.”

     

    Added Adam Singolda, CEO and Founder at Taboola:  “We are excited to be opening our fourth global support centre in India and tripling our workforce here having developed in the country with tremendous speed. We are confident that expanding our teams on the ground here will foster the strong relationships we’ve built with powerful publications in India over the past two years and will continue long into the future helping drive their engagement, revenue, and audience growth while developing new partnerships with brands to help them drive awareness and traffic.”

     

     

  • India Today’s ‘So Sorry’ series now a mobile game

    By A Correspondent

    The India Today group unveiled its gaming app titled So Sorry Gully Cricket’, featuring politoons in the lineup of players. The app was launched at FICCI Frames last week by former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar alongside Sam Balsara and Shashi Sinha.

    Said Kalli Purie, Vice-Chairperson, India Today Group, “We are really excited to announce the launch of the new game ‘So Sorry Gully Cricket’ at Frames in the presence of such a distinguished audience. ‘So Sorry Gully Cricket’ is a unique game that portrays life and politics in a way that is interactive, real and interesting.  With India heading for Parliamentary elections the timing could not be more perfect. It’s a super example of an integrated use of technology n content.”

    Added Alok Kejriwal, Founder and CEO of Games2win India, the company which devised the app: “Cricket is potentially a religion. We had a perfect ingredient in So Sorry characters and the fusion of the two will work for sure,”. “You will recognise all the characters and sounds. It’s a treat to the ears as well.”

  • Aaj Tak repeats its #1 stature on Television news to You tube too

    Aaj Tak receives ‘Diamond Play Button’ for its Youtube channel

    By A Correspondent

     

    News channel Aaj Tak has achieved the ‘Diamond Play Button’ Award recognition from YouTube for surpassing over 10 million subscribers. The Award was presented by YouTube to the India Today Group last week.

     

    Said Kalli Purie, Vice-Chairperson, India Today Group, on accepting the recognition for the milestone: “We are really proud of this rare award which no other Indian media company has received till date. We are humbled and are thankful to our viewers who have liked our channel that brings the most credible, apolitical, factual and unbiased news from around the world. We are extremely proud that our untiring efforts to provide news that is reliable and unbiased which has made us the number 1 news channel for close to two decades, has found acceptance amongst our Youtube channel subscribers too.

     

     

  • The winners will get a chance to go on a trip to Oxford, UK

    Season 3 winners of NewsWiz declared

    By A Correspondent

     

    The third edition of India Today’s news-based national inter-school quiz show NewsWiz came to an end with the team from Thrissur emerging as the winner at the grand finale. NewsWiz is the brainchild of former quizmaster Siddhartha Basu and anchored by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. The final winners, Sreeram Madhavan V and Paul Binu, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Poochatty bagged the winner’s title. In addition, the winners will now get a chance to go on a trip to Oxford, England.

     

    Team Hyderabad which was a wildcard entrant represented by Ahmed and Syed Abdul from Mannan Little Flower High School were first runner-up in the grand finale of Season 3. Team Hyderabad won a television set and a scholarship from a reputed university to pursue higher studies.

     

    Said Sardesai: “It a truly uplifting story to know that our winners are from a school in Kerala that served as a relief centre during the floods. The young boys Sreeram Madhavan V & Paul Binu have shown that the power of news as knowledge can conquer all adversity. I congratulate the winners and all the teams who made NewsWiz 2018 such a grand success”

     

    Added Vivek Khanna, Group CEO, India Today Group: “We are elated to announce the culmination of the show where-in we have seen enthusiastic participation from thousands of students from across geographies, which were selected through a rigorous selection process. The NewsWiz team for the first time picked up Wild Card Entries in this third season. Euphoria created by News Wiz has been phenomenal and never seen before in the history of a quizzing show.”

     

     

  • The event will be attended by leaders and stalwarts, among them Mamata Banerjee, Sarbananda Sonowal, Sourav Ganguly, Rani Mukerji, Prosenjit Chatterjee and many more

    India Today Group to host conclave in Cal

     

     

    The India Today group has announced a conclave scheduled for November 24 and 25.

     

    Announcing the event, Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson, India Today Group said: “As a group we have always believed in democratic dissemination of information. With our credibility to host some of the biggest events in the country, we are bringing our flagship event to the East this time. We are ready to deliver an unforgettable experience through the conclave.”

     

     

  • It’s a portfolio of seven digital channels

    India Today Group flags off digital entity, MobileTak.in

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Today Group launched a new portfolio of seven niche digital channels across six platforms under the umbrella of Mobiletak.in. The digital channels include News Tak, Sports Tak, Food Tak, Life Tak, AstroTak, Tech Tak, and Yoga Tak.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson, India Today Group said: “Content consumption on mobile devices is growing at a phenomenal rate and we are catering to this growing appetite for content on mobile with this new launch. Mobiletak.in is mobile first in content and experience. We always wanted to create a series of niche channels. This would have been a herculean task on television, but the onslaught of content consumption on mobile and the current digital landscape have enabled in ushering in the simultaneous mega launch of the seven niche digital channels”.

     

     

  • The Group CEO whose resignation was announced yesterday is the senior most and longest serving captains of a big media company in India

    Who next after Ashish Bagga? And where’s he going?

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    A few hours after close of trading hours on Monday, the publicly listed TV Today Network informed the two stock exchanges that its CEO Ashish Kumar Bagga had resigned. With effect from July. For personal reasons.

     

    Bagga, one of the senior most and longest-running CEOs amongst the bigger players in the Indian media business (other than the owners of course), has been Group CEO of the India Today group, a position that he gained a few years back, after G Krishnan moved on from TV Today.  According to information received, all those who directly report to him will now report to Group Editorial Director (Broadcast & New Media) and Group CFO Dinesh Bhatia.

     

    Bagga, who did his MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune and is a British Chevening Scholarship scholar at the Manchester Business School, started out with the group soon after in 1983.He has been actively associated with and spearheaded all of the group’s media offerings ever since though he did exit the group for a bit to join a Business Standard-Financial Times venture.

     

    Having cut his teeth with Madhu Trehan’s Newstrack in the 1980s, started his career with the India Today Group in 1983 and before re-joining the India Today Group in 2001, Bagga briefly served as President & CEO with Business Standard’s e-initiative, in association with Financial Times, London.

     

    Although the digital play of the group has been found wanting, Bagga has spearheaded the ship with fair passion and virtually been the face of the India Today group at most industry associations and pressure groups.

     

    He is currently President of the News Broadcasters Association (which he occupied after Ashok Venkatramani relinquished after he quit ABP News). He was also President of the Indian Newspaper Society and earlier President of the Association of Indian Magazines. Interesting his work helming both the NBA and INS required taking some tough decisions – like advising NBA members to withdraw the watermarking when they felt aggrieved and also rallying INS members together when they were upset about the Indian Readership Survey.

     

    According to a mail that is said to have been sent to all employees, founder, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief AroonPurie has written on Bagga: “I have always appreciated his sage counsel and his ‘can do’ attitude. His contribution to the group has been significant. Not least for the excellent team of effective leaders he has mentored who I am sure will carry us in our journey forward.” Do note that we do not have confirmation whether this mail has indeed been sent from Purie’s office.

     

    While there were rumours on Bagga’s exit for a few weeks, now that it has been announced, one will wait to see if his position will find a new suitor and what he does next. Will KalliPurie take charge of business operations, or will the Kumar Mangalam Birla investment of 41-odd percent get the group to appoint a CEO from the outsideor have one of their own in the job. There have also been strong rumours on RP-Sanjiv Goenka group picking up a sizeable stake.

     

    In May 2015, he had said in an interview published in MxM that contextual mobile commerce is the future and he had some ideas he would like to implement there. A lot has changed in that arena since then, but what’s certain is that Bagga has some surefire plans up his sleeves. In the same interview, when he was asked about his dream job, he had said: Being the world’s top media honcho.

     

    Watch this space for more.

     

  • This puts the India Today magazine amongst the best in the world to be featured for brilliance in cover design

    India Today Magazine featured as ‘Cover of the Day’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The cover of the July 31 issue of India Today magazine on the China–Pakistan issue has been selected as ‘The Cover of the Day’ by the Society of Publication Designers, New York.

     

    The cover with the headline ‘China’s New Chick’ along with a caricature of the maps of China and Pakistan as a hen and a chick have already made the international media take note for an artistic take on an international development.

     

    Over the last four decades, the India Today magazine covers are known to be arresting, and like those of some of the best magazines in the world, have captured the defining moments in history. For instance, a Bhopal gas tragedy victim’s photograph, for instance, became the image of the negligence-led tragedy. The cover for the July 31 issue has been designed by Grop Creative Director Nilanjan Das.

     

    Said Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group: “Getting featured in SPD, New York reflects on India Today’s commitment to set international standards in journalism. Pertinent issues and a powerful take on them is the hallmark of impactful reportage and insights. For India Today, we are happy that we have serviced the Thinking Indian well.”

     

  • The new changes will enhance the magazine's core values of clarity, credibility and relevance and provide insights, knowledge and perspectives on a range of issues

    India Today Group revamps flagship mag India Today

    By A Correspondent

     

    India Today Group is re-launching its 41-year-old flagship English news magazine India Today in a completely new avatar.

     

    The new changes – effective the issue that will be out today (Jan 27) – will enhance the magazine’s core values of clarity, credibility and relevance and provide insights, knowledge and perspectives on a range of contemporary issues to its readers, notes a communique.

     

    Commenting on the reinvention of the magazine, Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group, said, “We live in a time where we are flooded with news 24×7 about anyone, anywhere, anytime. But it remains important to know what is significant and what is the truth. In all the noise that surrounds us, truth has become an endangered species. India Today magazine has always striven to get you the truth without any agenda, and an understanding of contemporary issues that really matters.”

     

  • News channel Aaj Tak has reported yet another high given the news of the demonetisation

    Demonetisation helps Aaj Tak viewership skyrocket

    By A Correspondent

     

    Close on the heels of its performance around the surgical strike, news channel Aaj Tak has reported yet another high given the news of the demonetisation. According to communiqué, as per recent BARC data, Aaj Tak has left behind GEC and movie channels like Colors, Zee Cinema, Sony Max, Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony Ent (SOURCE:- BARC, Mkt:- HSM, TG:- 15+ NCCS AB, Wk-45’16  (in millions). Aaj Tak also had a massive lead in the news genre with 25% market share on coverage of the demonetisation post PM Modi’s announcement, the communiqué adds.

     

    Commenting on the ratings, Ashish Bagga, Group CEO – India Today Group said “The preference for Aaj Tak amongst news viewers is evident every time any major national news breaks. The fact that Aaj Tak is ahead of all channels during by Advertise” href=”#44390314″> important news events highlights the trust that viewers place on the channel. We value their confidence in the brand and will continue to stay true to the promise of being Sabse Tez.”