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Macmillan, a leading publishing company, has drawn up aggressive plans for growth through acquisitions in publishing and BPO sectors in India to tap the available talent here in English language, scientific know-how, institutional resources and printing skills. More…

Hyper-activity continues in the Indian publishing markets.

Various developments reported over the last one month include: More…

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International publishing company Ringier Trade Publications has got into an alliance with Mumbai-based Infomedia, an ICICI Venture company, to launch five b2b titles in the Indian marketplace.

The alliance between the two publishing groups is a loose one, with the former not taking up a stake in the latter. The stake-free investment will largely come towards “content, systems and work towards a guaranteed revenue stream that is important for any trade magazine to survive”.

The alliance will reportedly focus on Ringier’s core areas of operation, with five different titles planned in the plastics, packaging, food processing, textiles and pharmaceuticals segments. Trade events in these sectors are expected to be major revenue streams for the alliance.

The Indian commitment of Switzerland-based Ringier comes in the wake of its 6-years of successful operations in the Chinese markets.

Infomedia is a Rs 350-crore company with publishing interests in business directories as well as trade and consumer magazines.

International Data Group (IDG) has decided to go it alone in India with the set up of a wholly-owned subsidiary to print and publish its scientific and technical magazines including PC World, Computerworld, CIO and Outsourcing World.

The subsidiary, however, will not undertake research activities within India in the area of computing, interactive entertainment and on-line services.

In the research space, IDG group-company IDC already has an agreement with Cyber Media India Limited (CMIL) to undertake research in India and market IDC's worldwide research material here.

IDG’s relationship with CMIL will “continue” in various other ways, with both companies already having worked on several plans together.

While there is a 74 per cent ceiling on foreign investment in Indian print publishing companies, IDG is expecting to make use of an exception to the rules, wherein a special permission is required from the government to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in the printing and publishing of scientific and technical magazines and publications.

The local subsidiary is also expected to act as a local editorial and production support outsourcing hub for IDG with quite a few of its international jobs, including print and publish the parent company's technical and scientific books and reports, being moved here to India.

Macmillan, a leading publishing company, has drawn up aggressive plans for growth through acquisitions in publishing and BPO sectors in India to tap the available talent here in English language, scientific know-how, institutional resources and printing skills.

Macmillan India already has a sizeable outsourced business from other companies for typesetting, data coding and conversion of editorial services to publishers globally. Leveraging on this strength, it plans to expand its investment for setting up a unit for publishing science journals, including the popular magazine Nature.

Richard Charkin, Chief Executive, Macmillan UK and Chairman, Macmillan India, after opening company's new typesetting division here recently, said, “We want to work with scientists and well-known names in biotechnology, pharmaceutical companies, scientists and related institutions here. Our aim is to help reach Indian science and its writings to the world.”

The Nature publishing group is the scientific publishing arm of Macmillan and combines Nature research journals, nature reviews, NPC academic journals and nature clinical practice journals, providing information for the basic biological and physical sciences.

Joining the beeline of companies wanting to explore the Indian markets is UK-based East Coast Media, the media training division of 75-year old Grimsby Institute.

East Coast Media is looking to launch a media-training institute in India beginning June 2005. The institute is currently scouting for an Indian partner to commence operations, Priya Vardhan, Business Development Consultant for the Institute, told an Indian online media portal recently.

She was reported as saying, "We are currently looking at an Indian partner who will provide the premises, infrastructure and marketing of the Institute in the country. We are looking to handle the content for the courses, the staff and the training ourselves."

The Institute offers courses in Broadcast Journalism, Scripting, Film, Photography, and related fields, but is not averse to launching courses in advertising in India given the scope, she explained. Over 5,000 students enroll at the Grimsby Institute, with 160 being the intake number for its media courses.

CyberMedia IPO of Rs 17 crore (about US $ 4 million) opened last week, with expectations of a good response, considering the increased interest amongst institutional investors in media companies.

The objective of the IPO is to raise money for the company's global expansion plans, said Pradeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Cybermedia.

"In recognition of the importance of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to India, we will be launching an international magazine on outsourcing called 'Global Outsourcing', which is currently a supplement with Dataquest. We will also be launching our two-year-old magazine BioSpectrum in the Singapore market."

Cybermedia, while already has a working relationship with IDG, is in advanced stage of negotiations with McGraw Hill to launch an Indian edition of BusinessWeek. The required government approval for this venture is still awaited.

The company also plans to move into the business of content generation as an offshore outsourcing service to international media and IT companies. "We will provide content based BPOs to publishers abroad like BBC Worldwide, Simon & Schuster, etc.," said Gupta.

Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of government-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation, could tap the capital market early next year to part finance its expansion plan.

Expansion plans aim to double the installed capacity with flexibility for producing finer grade of writing and printing paper. HNL currently has a production capacity of 100,000 tonnes and capacity utilisation ratio is reportedly more than 100 per cent.

The HPC announced recently that it has appointed reputed global consultant Jaycopuori for preparing a detailed feasibility report for the proposed expansion and diversification plan of Hindustan Newsprint, which is one of the biggest newsprint company in the country.

According to him, the federal Indian government will invest around Rs 640 crore in HNL in a period of three years between 2005 and 2008.

The HPC is keen to retain majority stake in HNL even after IPO.

Hyper-activity continues in the Indian publishing markets.

Various developments reported over the last one month include:

- Sakal launches Marathi tabloid ‘Sadan Shetkari’ for farmers

- Conservative daily The Hindu rolled out with a new trendy design, to look more contemporary

- Planet Finance India, in a strategic partnership with Digital Empowerment Foundation, has launched micro-business magazine 'Small Change'

- 'In The Karnataka', a fortnightly English tabloid launched two months ago, has created quite a ripple. Published by Mitra Media, a new entrant in the publishing industry, the tabloid has already reached a circulation of 50,000, and is considering to go weekly.

- English daily Pioneer to launch franchisee editions from Kochi and Bhubaneshwar

- Media Transasia closes National Review; plans to launch two new magazines in lifestyle and entertainment space

- Publishers of English daily Vijay Times launch afternoon tabloid in Bangalore; Chennai edition on the cards

- India’s largest publication Dainik Jagran launches Muzaffarpur

- Next Gen Publishing launches 'Smart Photography'