MxMIndia

Tag: Times of India Group

  • The minister emphasised the need to attract, retain and develop talent which frees good content from the trappings of revenue needs

    Time to put rules to ensure that no one player dominates the industry: MIB Smriti Irani

    By A Correspondent

     

    Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani said that time has come to put laws, ethics and rules into place which will help in balancing the media industry so that one dominant player cannot rule the roost. Inaugurating the 15th Asia Media Summit (AMS) 2018 in New Delhi on Friday, she said that India will have around 969 million internet users by 2021 and Indian media industry looks upon the digital world not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity. How do we attract, retain and develop talent which frees good content from the trappings of revenue needs and brings about a balance in media institutions, the minister asked.

     

    The 15th Asia Media Summit is being hosted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, jointly with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi and Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), from May 10 to 12, 2018 in New Delhi. The theme of this year’s Summit is ‘Telling Our Stories – Asia and More’, which would encourage regional and bilateral dialogue and cooperation to respond to challenges to the broadcasting sector in the region.

     

    Giving a perspective of the expanding Indian media industry, Irani said: “India is the fastest growing advertising market expected to touch 10.59 billion US Dollars by the end of 2018 and the mobile spend is estimated to grow to 1.55 billion US Dollars in the year 2018. We have a vibrant media industry which has a direct established impact of Rs 1.35 lakh crore and indirect and induced benefits of Rs 4.5 lakh crore, with close to 4 million people associated with it.”

     

    The minster expressed hope that the Asia Media Summit will throw up new ideas so that we can look at pathways to strengthen media institutions for a better mankind.

     

    Earlier, Vineet Jain, MD, Times of India group discussed regulatory reforms for a fair market place that benefits consumers. Talking about data protection, he said that data is being siphoned by global platforms today and we must proactively protect our national interest by ensuring that data stays within India and that it is protected.

     

    In his welcome address, Sitanshu Kar, DG, PIB talked of India’s strong traditions of storytelling in its 23 major languages and around 720 dialects. He said that due to emerging technologies, we are at the cusp of revolutionary shifts in the way we think and how we tell our stories.

     

    This is the first time that Asian Media Summit is being held in India.

     

     

  • Senior editors and academics pay tribute to veteran journalist and former Times of India editor who passed away on Friday

    Remembering Dileep Padgaonkar…

     

    Former editor of The Times of India group and veteran journalist Dileep Padgaonkar passed away on Friday morning.  We reproduce here some tributes as published in a cross-section of publications

     

    He wrote on politics not just as a commentator on events but as one deeply interested in styles of political discourse and action, what one could call political culture. He had deep convictions particularly about secularism, tolerance and made serious efforts at reconciliation in Kashmir not once but twice.

    Nitin Desai, Economist (TheHoot.org)

     

    His brilliant career saw efforts to protect a great newspaper from becoming a shopping mall, and India’s territorial integrity from the crumbling of its democratic institutions. His was a mind free ‘from  the desert of dead habit’, as comfortable in Pune as in Paris, and as incisive in political analysis as in cultural critique.

    Ashoke Chatterjee, Academic (TheHoot.org)

     

    He was an engaging intelligent man full of joie de vivre.

    S Nihal Singh, Journalist (TheHoot.org)

     

    Dileep came to the Times of India as an outsider and grew into the job. He got along very well with his colleagues and that’s how he got people to contribute to the paper. In those years, I was diplomatic editor and chief of bureau in Delhi, and there was never an occasion when Dileep interfered with my work. He gave his reporters space.

    Subhash Chakravarti, journalist (Indianexpress.com)

     

    Both journalism and public life had a lot more to gain from Dileep Padgaonkar but that is not to be. I can see him in my mind’s eye, ever the Francophile, with his jaunty beret and omnipresent muffler, sometimes replaced by a Peshwa pagdi or a Rana topi, his favourite books clutched in one hand.

    Anikendra Nath (Badshah) Sen, journalist (HindustanTimes.com)

     

    At a time when many of his contemporaries would have liked nothing better than to cultivate politicians, wangle a nomination to the Rajya Sabha and cling to the suffocating confines of Lutyens’ Delhi, Padgaonkar sought personal renewal in the company of artists and cineastes, scholars and writers.

    Siddharth Varadarajan, Journalist (TheWire.in)

     

    His period as editor of The Times of India was also one where the balance of power seemed to slowly shift away from editorial to marketing. Padgaonkar was troubled by it but didn’t allow the change to affect the core editorial independence of the newspaper. The editorial page remained sacrosanct. And when he seemed to lose the battle, he withdrew to his refined world of books, helping set up the wonderful book review magazine Biblio.

    Rajdeep Sardesai, Journalist (dailyo.in)

     

    He was one of the last of those editors who had a reflective mind. He had strong views but he was accommodating towards those who didn’t agree with him. In that sense, he was the last of the very old fashioned editors

    Swapan Dasgupta, Journalist (livemint.com)

     

    Dileep Padgaonkar was a writer in the classic sense. He was one of the best writers and he enriched Indian journalism with his writing.

    M D Nalapat, Journalist (pune365.com)

     

  • Viral's role will cover a wide array of customer facing activities including marketing, customer care and hospitality and facility management

    Viral Oza joins Lodha as Chief Marketing Officer

    By A Correspondent

    The Lodha Group has announced that Viral Oza has taken over as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

     

    Oza joins Lodha from Bennett Coleman and Company (The Times of India group) where he was working as Director of Marketing. Prior to this, he was at Nokia (/Microsoft) since 2008 serving as Marketing Director and member of the India Leadership Team. At the start of this career, Oza spent 17 years with Unilever in India, Philippines and the UAE.

     

    Shaleen Madan, Head of HR at Lodha said “We are extremely pleased to have Viral join us as a senior member of our leadership team. Over the last few years, Lodha has excelled at attracting and growing world-class talent from across industries and Viral will further strengthen our management as we seek to build upon our position as India’s largest real estate developer. Viral’s role will cover a wide array of customer facing activities including marketing, customer care and hospitality and facility management, so as to provide an integrated brand platform to consumers. He will guide and develop the current leadership team in our journey to make Lodha a much loved consumer brand. Lodha group is constantly evolving towards becoming one of India’s leading consumer goods companies, with a product focus on homes and offices, and we look forward to Viral’s leadership in shaping this journey.”

     

    Commenting on his new role, Oza said “Lodha as a brand and organization has always challenged the status quo to offer consumers the best in the category. I am excited and look forward to playing a part in this journey towards making Lodha one of India’s leading brands.”

     

  • The Times of India group was among the seven companies rewarded for excellence in innovation by the International News Media Association (INMA), with social media curation company Storyful taking home worldwide first place in the Global Innovation Awards

    Times of India bags INMA Global Innovation regional award

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Times of India group was among the seven companies rewarded for excellence in innovation by the International News Media Association (INMA), with social media curation company Storyful taking home worldwide first place in the Global Innovation Awards.

     

    The awards were presented on May 11 at the 85th Annual INMA World Congress held in New York City with nearly 300 media executives in attendance. The second annual INMA Global Innovation Award competition rewards media company programmes that encourage ideation and incubation, change the corporate culture, attract young talent, and incentivises innovation mindsets.

     

    “This year’s winners exemplify the breathtaking pace at which media companies are investing in innovation as a process that leads to more new products, more revenue, more efficiencies, a modern workforce, and better business outcomes,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “That Storyful took home the global prize as a non-print, non-legacy media company shows that the ‘news media tent’ is expanding.”

     

    The seven regional winners are:

    Best in Africa: Independent News & Media, South Africa, for “Inspired by Change.”

    Best in Asia/Pacific: Fairfax Media, Australia, for “Brand Discover.”

    Best in Europe: Sanoma, Finland, for “Get Started.”

    Best in Latin America: El Colombiano, Colombia, for “ECOlab.”

    Best in North America: The New York Times, United States, for “Digital Innovation 2.0.”

    Best in South Asia: Times of India for “Rewarding Excellence in Media Company Innovation.”

    Global/At-Large: Storyful, Ireland/international, for “Innovation Is a Culture.”

     

    From the seven regional winners, the three-judge panel of innovation experts selected Storyful as the worldwide winner.

     

    Founded in 2010, Storyful is a social media news agency that curates relevant tweets, posts, and video from people in the center of news events worldwide. Storyful also provides social media dashboards, real-time discovery tools, feeds and analytics to customers. The company’s headquarters are in Dublin, with offices in New York and Hong Kong.With innovation already a part of its young culture, Storyful faced the challenge of scaling its efforts when acquired by News Corp. in late 2013. Integrating scale with culture, Storyful created a manifesto:

     

    Full-stack teams, no silos.

    Clear focus with teams focused on News, Video, and Discovery.

    Fail-fast mentality with two-week sprints and an adherence to the Agile methodology.

    Create time to collaborate: planning, research, UX design, and user engagement.

    Diversification of workforce to provide a more rounded approach to problem-solving and speed innovation.

    Be data-driven across all tools – from user loyalty to feature development, and more.

    Breed culture: maintain it and help new employees to assimilate through team activities and onboarding.

     

    With those principles, Storyful set out to build three new teams, re-build its core product, overhaul internal tools, and launch a new product into the market.

     

    Ultimately, judges focused on the processes behind Storyful’s objectives. They described Storyful as a company with a “super interesting innovation culture” integrated throughout the organisation, led by data-driven insights and full-stack teams. They lauded Storyful as a “strong start-up on its own” that has “leveraged new corporate ownership’s resources without bogging down.”

     

    Regional Winners

    Colombiano, Colombia: With creativity as its strategic weapon, El Colombiano created ECOlab, an internal media lab to launch and maintain business units, research and implement new business models, develop new activities to grow the business, diversify its portfolio, transform creativity into corporate culture, and be systematic agents of change. ECOlab has led to a Web site redesign, a redesign of neighbourhood newspapers, and created new magazines and projects while providing employees borrowed from departments new skill sets.

     

    Fairfax Media, Australia: Brand Discover is Fairfax’s response to bring incremental revenue and to create new product streams that leverage its content. Since launch, the programme has achieved more than A$2 million in revenue. The Digital Innovation Services team is tasked with developing new advertising products around rich media and content marketing.

     

    Independent News & Media, South Africa: Embracing change on many fronts, the company shifted from a regional to a national structure, created an editors’ forum, rewarded staff ideas through pitch sessions, digitally trained teams, sought new talent to bring Digital Natives into the storytelling process, making editorial and sales departments compatible, and pushed 360—degree custom content solutions.

     

    The New York Times, United States: Reaching 910,000 paid digital subscribers was spurred by the development of new editorial and advertiser solutions. A wide array of new products with refined features aims to elevate the reader experience and provide a deeper emotional connection to the Times, which aims to consistently drive its most engaging content to grow audiences and deepen advertiser relationships through exclusive paid posts. Products to emerge include NYT Now, a cooking app, Paid Posts, and Times Premier.

     

    Sanoma, Finland: SanomaLab is an accelerator designed to develop new internal ventures, create open innovation programmes, accelerate cultural change to reach business goals, and identify “superstar” talent. More than 1,700 employees have been trained to use the lean methodology. The slogan for all its product activities is: “Can we find a repeatable and scalable business model?”

     

    The Times of India: Its systematic innovation approach has implemented 85+ breakthrough performances in the past three years. The Times’ innovation-focused strategy aims at execution speed, interactive innovations with young readers in mind, culture and revenue as key drivers in the process. It involves teams across all levels, leading to an ongoing process of ideation and incubation. Its reviewing system tests reader ideas before being scaled.

     

  • Last Thursday, the stock exchanges were informed of a "non-binding" MoU being signed between Entertainment Network (India) Ltd, a Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited-promoted company, and TV Today Network Limited, an India Today group-promoted company

    Clean up time at India Today group. After shutting 3 regional print editions, inks pact with Times of India group to sell FM network ‘Oye’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Today group’s commitment to the media is known. But, then much as emotions and gut influence the way media business and specifically P&L projections are made,  it’s finally the colour of money or the bank balance that’s the final decider.

     

    We know how it works, albeit in a small, small way.

     

    Last week, we learnt of the news that three editions of the India Today magazine were being shuttered. The Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam were reported to be suspended due to indifferent financial conditions. Sad, not just for the India Today group, but also for print journalism (and journalists) in these three languages where news television seems to be booming.

     

    In radio, last Thursday, the stock exchanges were informed of a “non-binding” MoU being signed between Entertainment Network (India) Ltd, a Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited-promoted company, and TV Today Network Limited, an India Today group-promoted companies. Both ENIL and TVTN are listed in the stock exchanges.

     

    Here’s what the announcement said:

    Entertainment Network (India) Ltd has informed BSE that the Committee of Directors of the Board at a meeting held on February 13, 2015, noted that the Company has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with TV Today Network Limited (TVTN), in relation to the proposed purchase of seven radio stations from TVTN, subject to fulfillment of the contractual obligations (which may be agreed between the parties) and receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals including permissions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

     

    Simply put, ENIL, the owners of the Radio Mirchi brand, have agreed to buy Oye FM, the seven-station FM radio network  of TVTN, subject to some contractual obligations and government approvals.

     

    Oye 104.8 FM, it may be remembered, had undertaken a high profile relaunch in 2010. It was earlier called Meow FM, working under the same frequency. Meow was a women-centric talk radio station. The TV Today group once also owned Red FM. It exited that venture in 2006.

     

  • The product is thanks to an arrangement between Crain Communications of the United States and The Times of India group here

    AdAge launches in India. Perfect Timing, says editor

    By A Correspondent

     

    If you thought the Indian media marketplace has just too many publications tracking the ad and media world, pause a bit. Advertising Age, the world’s most respected advertising and marketing fraternity publication, launched in India yesterday.

    It will essentially be an online edition (http://www.adageindia.in), though one could well see a print avatar in future.  The product is thanks to an arrangement between Crain Communications of the United States and The Times of India group here.

    The office is located in the Times building in Noida. Ad Age had a tie-up with the exchange4media group for a few years but that never converted to a full-fledged edition of the magazine locally.

     

    The online publication will be edited by Satrajit Sen, formerly editor of with Afaqs and earlier with digital website Indian Digital Review (eka AlooTechie.com) and a slew of other online and print brands. Sen told MxMIndia that he is working with a small team currently but it will be expanded with time.

    A launch event is planned next month . “We are excited to launch Advertising Age India. And it could not have been at a more opportune time,” writes Sen in a signed editorial on the site, adding: “Ad Age India will integrate the authoritative status of this marquee publication with the rapidly growing and evolving Indian media and marketing ecosystem to create a vibrant platform for the industry. We will strive to make Ad Age India a trusted marketing communication brand and one that the industry follows.  We also plan to roll out the regional versions of the iconic and coveted Ad Age Lists.”

     

  • Times Group will sponsor the winning teams with an all expense paid trip to Singapore

    Times Group extends support to youth for Spikes Asia

    The Times of India Group has been supporting young talent in the advertising and media industry by creating opportunities on the Young Lions and Young Spikes stages. A great outcome this year was the Silver bagged by the Young Marketer’s team by HUL at the Cannes Young Lions last month. In keeping with this endeavor, The Times of India has announced the Young Spikes contest for two categories – Integrated & Media.

     

    Times Group will sponsor the winning teams with an all expense paid trip to Singapore to represent India and compete internationally at Spikes Asia 2014, happening on 23rd – 26th September 2014. Entries will be judged by a prelim jury and the chosen finalists will make a physical presentation to the final jury in the first week of August in Mumbai. The entire judging process will be overseen by Ernst & Young, Process Partners for Young Spikes.

     

    This year’s Theme for Young Spikes – Integrated is on “Stop Unnecessary & Incessant Honking on Roads”, while the Theme for Young Spikes – Media is on “Naked Overhead Wires, a Threat to Life”.

     

    The final jury for Young Spikes Integrated has a host of prominent names like Josy Paul, Arun Iyer and Senthil. An equally distinguished jury for Young Spikes Media consists of names like Nandini Dias, Yesudas and Ravi Rao.

     

  • The courses being offered by this academy will be in subjects pertaining to self enhancement skills that matter to today's modern Indian women

    TOI unveils Femina Believe academy for women

    By a correspondent

     

    Borrowing a leaf from the legacy of Femina  and its connect with the modern Indian women, The Times of India Group has launched ‘Femina Believe Learning Academy’, a first of its kind learning academy in India. Targeted towards women from all walks of life, the practical and contemporary courses being offered by this academy will be in subjects pertaining to self enhancement skills that matter to today’s modern Indian women in their professional and social life.

     

    Extending the group’s presence in the field of education and training, Femina Believe will be a part of the ‘Times Center for Learning’, which was launched last year.

     

    The academy aims at empowering women through the power of training and will conduct short intensive workshops in a variety of subjects ranging from personality enhancement to culinary skills.

     

    As a part of the brand launch campaign, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut will be the face of the brand.

     

    Speaking at the launch, Kangana Ranaut said, “I am delighted and honoured to be a part of Femina Believe. This empowering initiative will help women to transform and manage everyday pressures of life with the help of practical workshops and discover a brand new self.”

     

    Women can choose from an array of courses mentioned on the academy’s website. Definitive learning, practical curriculum and a high level of interaction will be the core focus of these courses and will be conducted by best in class professionals, who will combine their unrivalled experience in subjects with training skills par excellence.

     

  • The Times of India led all companies with seven finalist entries, followed by The New York Times and South China Morning Post with five each

    The Times of India group has 7 of 15 Indian finalists at INMA Awards 2014

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International News Media Association (INMA) has announced 90 finalists in the INMA Awards 2014 competition that rewards global excellence in the marketing and sales of media brands. The Times of India led all companies with seven finalist entries, followed by The New York Times and South China Morning Post with five each. Aftenposten, Aftonbladet, mX, and VG were named finalists in four categories.

     

    The INMA Awards 2014 competition garnered 560 entries from 149 media companies in 37 countries. Some 28 judges from media and advertising worldwide judged the entries.

     

    First-place recipients will be announced at the INMA Awards Dinner on May 13 at the conclusion of the 84th Annual INMA World Congress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. In addition to 30 first-place awards, the San Francisco INMA World Congress dinner will be capped by the presentation of the “Best In Show,” representing the top sales and marketing campaign by a media company from the past year.

     

    The World Congress theme is “Fast Track to Innovation,” and features the news industry’s most innovative programme geared to business model transformation, revenue generation, and corporate culture change – with a particular emphasis on digital acceleration given the conference’s location of San Francisco.

     

    The INMA Awards 2014 competition entries were divided into two groups so that companies were judged against peers of similar sizes. For this year, Group 1 was for brands under 300,000 print circulation or 3 million unique digital visitors per month, while Group 2 was for brands above those thresholds.

     

    Created in 1935, the 79-year-old INMA Awards competition captures the heartbeat of the global news industry’s efforts to energise brands, stimulate audiences, innovate in product development, and grow revenue – today, in transformational times.

     

    “The clear theme from this year’s entries centered on media companies explaining to their stakeholders – readers, advertisers, employees, shareholders – their differentiating value in the emerging multi-media landscape,” said Earl J Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “To see that storyline play out among media companies in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia/Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa is fascinating to see in this year’s entries.”

     

  • HappyTrips promises to explore unknown locations, and currently tracks 200 Indian and 100 international destinations

    Times Internet launches travel portal HappyTrips.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    Times Internet (TIL), the digital arm of The Times of India group, has launched a travel portal HappyTrips.com.

     

    HappyTrips attempts to be a platform helping users plan their next trip, discover amazing hotels and restaurants, things to do as well as providing them with fun facts all around the world.

     

    “We are excited to announce the beta launch of our latest venture HappyTrips.com. HappyTrips is special because it feels like a magazine, but is powered by a robust backend data platform, storing millions of related data points. Upfront, the user sees easy-to-navigate cards with curated guides, itineraries and lists to help them find the best of a city they’re exploring,” said Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet.

     

    HappyTrips intends to be the go-to destination in the travel category with curated travel advice and actionable-and up-to-date information to inspire readers. “Our featured lists and guides help filter through the noise and find the best places to stay, eat, party, or find something to do”, said Puneet Gupt, Business Head of HappyTrips.com

     

    The site covers close to 200 Indian destinations as of now and another 100 destinations around the world.

     

  • In his new role, Mr Lulla will be working closely with Vineet Jain, Managing Director, BCCL Group and Satyan Gajwani, Chief Executive Officer, Times Internet Ltd overseeing a number of group initiatives in the areas of sports, music, international events and more

    It’s official. Sunil Lulla is now Prez-Corp Devpt, as MK Anand to join as MD & CEO, Times TV

    Sunil Lulla
    M K Anand

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

    By A Correspondent

    Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. (BCCL) issued an announcement on Friday confirming the news that MxMIndia had carried over a week before. Sunil Lulla, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Times Television Network, is to be appointed as President – Corporate Development, BCCL Group. Mr Lulla has spent over eight years in various leadership roles at Times TV Television. In his new strategic role at BCCL, he will be working closely with Vineet Jain, Managing Director, BCCL Group and Satyan Gajwani, Chief Executive Officer, Times Internet Ltd. overseeing a number of group initiatives in the areas of Sports, Music, International Events and more.

    Meanwhile, M K Anand, an old BCCL hand, will return to the group after his stint of heading the broadcasting ventures of the Disney UTV group. Mr Anand will be taking over as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Times Television Network. He has previously worked with The Times of India group for 19 years, first with the print business for 14 years and later with the television business at zoOm from 2004 to 2009.

  • All eyes on the Times of India group as it is set to launch Gujarati daily 'NavGujarat Samay' from Ahmedabad tomorrow

    Times gets gung-ho on Gujarat [Updated]

     

     

    By Shobhana Nair

     

    The cries of ‘Kai Po Chhe’ could be heard across the streets and skies of Ahmedabad yesterday. Kites of all hues – literally – dotted the sky as Amdavadis celebrated Uttarayan. Kites are popular across the world, but no where is it a religion like it’s in Gujarat’s premier city.

     

    But this Uttarayan – that’s yesterday (Tuesday, Jan 14) – there was reason for another form of excitement, at least amongst media circles. Two days later, on January 16 to be precise, the six million-odd populace of Ahmedabad will wake up to a new Gujarati newspaper from the Bennett, Coleman stable. Called ‘NavGujarat Samay’, the paper will complete with existing players like Gujarat Samachar, Divya Bhaskar and Sandesh which have a loyal readership. Says Suresh Balakrishnan, CEO of media agency network BPN: “It is going to be a bit challenging since it is a broadsheet though they have chosen the right market – Ahmedabad. I don’t know how successful it will be since there are intense competitors but it’s indeed good news for advertisers.”

     

    The general belief is that Gujarat is an untapped market and hence the decision of launching a regional newspaper would only mean that the pie will get expanded. In fact, there are some who believe that there’s scope for two more regional newspapers.  Says Bharat Kapadia, Founder of ideas@bharatkapadia.com who spearheaded Divya Bhaskar at the Dainik Bhaskar group and was editor and publisher of Chitralekha: “Henry Ford was once quoted saying that ‘The market never gets saturated for a good product but it can get saturated by a bad product. That means there is a scope when you come up with a good product.”

     

     

    NavGujarat Samay launched in Ahmedabad

     

    As a part of its strategy to aggressively extend footprint in languages, The Times of India Group has launched NavGujarat Samay in Ahmedabad.  This launch comes on the heels of a slew of launches like Ei Samay in Kolkata, seven new editions of Maharashtra Times (Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nasik, Kolhapur, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar) and one new edition of NavBharat Times (Lucknow) in the last couple of years.

     

    The paper is positioned as a new voice for a new Gujarat and focuses on the new age media, that are especially popular with the ‘under-40’ readers. For instance, it is the only Gujarati daily that launches alongwith a wide array of digital platforms – apps, a WAP site and a website (www.navgujaratsamay.com). Going forward, NavGujarat Samay will continue to engage readers via its print, digital and social media innovations and offerings.

     

    The paper will have a strong industry, business and SME focus with a highlight being two front pages, a “first ever innovation in any daily in Gujarat, that delivers double the value for our Gujarati newspaper readers”.

     

    Said Rahul Kansal, Executive President, The Times Group: “The Times Group is well-acknowledged as a thought leader in the English newspaper space as well as for its language brands – NavBharat Times, Maharashtra Times and Ei Samay. Now we are all geared up to achieve the same milestone in other languages as well.

     

    Added Ranjeet Kate, Director Response, BCCL “NavGujarat Samay will provide the right platform and context for the advertisers to creatively engage the Amdavadis in their own language. With a ‘print plus’ approach and a whole lot of brand activations planned over the whole of 2014, NavGujarat Samay will usher in a new era of newspapers in Ahmedabad, that will delight the readers and advertisers like.”

     

    The news of the launch appears to have made media agencies happy who are forever vying for prime positions for their clients at good rates. “The market size of advertising and promotions in Gujarat is Rs 3,500 crore which includes the total 360 degree activities of the clients. And hence everyone wants a prime position. This newspaper will add to our choice,” said Jalpa M Dave, Principal Consultant, View Finder, a Gujarat-based media buying agency.

     

    Welcoming the buzz in the marketplace, Krunal Amin, CEO, Saini Production, a local media and entertainment agency said: “Publicity may not have started in a big way but people are aware because of the brand.”

     

    There are some though who believe that the Gujarat urban market is becoming increasingly aspirational and the challenge would be to be look at growing despite a large number of readers going in for English. Mr Kapadia though feels Gujarati continues to be the dominant media, and the real challenge is about the product.”Production & distribution are not rocket science but the ultimate test is that of the brand.”

     

    This is of course not the first time Bennett, Coleman and Co getting into the Gujarati newspaper marketing. In 1993, it launched Times of India Gujarati but the paper was shut after a couple of years. In 2006, BCCL picked up a 12 percent stake in Gujarati daily Sandesh. BCCL and the publishers of Sandesh – The Sandesh Ltd had also signed a business cooperation and arrangement agreement for cooperation in advertising sales, marketing and printing. However, sometime around December 2012, the stake was sold.

     

    Gujarat is a value-conscious market, said an industry observer requesting anonymity. While smart subscription offers like the one NavGujarat Samay is offering will work, in the longer run what is desired is overall editorial quality and smart business strategies.  “The Times group is known for its strengths in both areas, and will use every rule in the book to ensure they outwit competition on both fronts.”

     

    The question then is who will suffer the ‘Kai Po Chhe’ first.