The Wall Street Journal has put its Indian edition on hold, saying they will wait till the (Indian) government policy towards print media turns more conducive.

WSJ had earlier announced plans to start an Indian edition by partnering Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, publishers of the Times of India and the Economic Times.

The Wall Street Journal's Europe editor Raju Narisetti made the announcement recently in New Delhi, at the sidelines of a conference that he was attending.

"The current rules appear to be influenced by various interests groups. It makes an artificial distinction between foreign newspapers and foreign television," he was quoted.

Though foreign papers are allowed to start Indian editions with a 26
per cent cap on the foreign partner's equity, certain rules restrict them from carrying advertisements of local (Indian) companies.

The Outlook group has signed an agreement with 'Newsweek' to bring the facsimile edition of the US based magazine to India.

In the first phase of the relationship, The Outlook group will manage the advertising, marketing and distribution of 'Newsweek' in India. The first issue of the magazine is scheduled hit the stands on April 3,
2006.

By the time the Indian government liberalises print publishing laws further, Newsweek could see a full-fledged local edition being published from India. "The agreement also provides for the possibility of Outlook licensing Newsweek when the government gives its permission to this effect," Outlook publisher Maheshwar Peri said.

Initially, the magazine will be printed in Singapore and will be shipped to India. By not printing the foreign news magazine in India, the Outlook group will bypass the government norms, which do not allow local advertisements in facsimile editions of foreign news publications.

Speaking about the agreement and choice of 'Newsweek' magazine, Peri added, "We will have much broader control over the matters of the magazine than any other Indian publisher publishing foreign magazines. We have the power to decide the pricing of the advertisements, pricing of the magazine and providing advertisements to the parent 'Newsweek' magazine from this region as well."

An Indian film actress has sought damages to the tune of Rs 3 crore (US $ 680,000) from the Indian publishers of Maxim for morphing her picture.

The actress, Khushboo, has sent a legal notice to the Indian publisher and editor of men's lifestyle magazine Maxim, seeking the damages. The actress has also asked for an apology to be rendered before the media at Chennai, for damages caused by the morphed picture and accompanying text, in the magazine's inaugural issue in India.

Khushboo has given three weeks' time to the publisher to act on the notice, failing which she seeks to approach the courts for redressal.

The actress had earlier filed a complaint under the 'Indecent representation of Women' Act with the Chennai Police Commissioner. On the basis of the complaint, copies of Maxim were seized from retail outlets across the city, according to a press release from the city police.

Earlier in February 2006, New York-based Sx2 Media Labs acquired part of CNET's publishing business portfolio comprising Computer Shopper, CNET Digital Living, College Buying Guide, Computershopper.com and custom publishing that together generated revenues in excess of $19 million during fiscal year ended December 2004.

The Computer Shopper magazine, with a circulation in excess of 450,000, enjoys a strong competitive positioning amongst the top three B2C computer magazines. Computer Shopper has been ranked No. 1 in the "Considerable Advertising Interest" study by MRI Fall, 2005.

CyberMedia's Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Gupta said, "CyberMedia's strategic investment in Sx2 Media Labs is aimed at leveraging its 23-year IT and Telecom publishing experience to partner with Sx2 Media Labs in growing Computer Shopper and its allied brands, College Buying Guide, CNET Digital Living and Computershopper.com, over all types of media delivery vehicles. We are excited to be part of Sx2 Media Labs journey into the future with the brand history loaded, Computer Shopper magazine."

The battle for control of the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, between majority shareholder Atul Maheshwari and minority partner Ajai Agarwal, has reached a crescendo with the former alleging that the Zee-Bhaskar combine has struck a secret deal with the minority promoter of the paper to take over management control.

In its interim judgement, the Company Law Board (CLB) chairman S
Subramaniam has directed that the payment of the second instalment of five per cent by minority shareholders, to acquire Amar Ujala, be put on hold.

The Maheshwari group, in an application to the CLB, on February 16, had accused the minority shareholder of violating the mutual terms of agreement of buy and sell option given to them.

Earlier, the CLB has prohibited the petitioners from negotiating or selling its stake to any third party for three years. Ajai Agarwal has since sought to buy out the majority shareholder. The Maheshwari group is said to have produced evidence suggesting the Zee-Bhaskar group would engineer a hostile takeover of Amar Ujala. What seems to have raised the hackles of the majority promoter was the first instalment of five per cent amounting to Rs 12.7 crore paid by Ajai Agarwal on February 7. The payment is said to have come directly from the Zee group-owned Mediavest India.

Zee group has a print media venture with Dainik Bhaskar under the joint venture Diligent Media Corporation. Accordingly, as per the terms, the Maheshwari group has demanded that the minority promoters should be directed to sell their shareholding to the majority promoters.

Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL), the publisher of The Times of India and Maharashtra Times, has filed a civil suit against Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd, inter alia, claiming damages of Rs 100 crore for releasing false and misleading ad promo claiming Loksatta (Marathi daily competitor of Maharashtra Times) to be the largest-read newspaper.

An official communiqué stated, "A notice of motion taken out in the said suit for ad-interim reliefs was heard on Monday, February 6, 2006. The Counsel appearing for Indian Express made a statement in the Court that Indian Express Group has discontinued the tagline 'The largest read daily of Mumbai' w.e.f. January 10, 2006. The Court, in view of the above mentioned statement did not grant any ad-interim (urgent) relief."