Issue 7, dated November 1, 2004
 
 
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Foreign ownership of print titles under review; 13 intl. publishers' investment proposals cleared:
The Indian federal government has decided to constitute a group of ministers (GOM) to review various provisions of the Press Registration Act. More…
Findings from Indian Redearship Survey 2003-04:
Here are the key observations from the Indian Redearship Survey 2003-04: More…
Reuters moves jobs to India:
Financial news and information provider Reuters Group announced earlier in October that it planned to make Bangalore its biggest information-gathering hub, employing up to 1,500 people, or 10 per cent of its total workforce.   More…
CyberMedia plans US$ 3.7 million IPO; to launch 2 mags in intl. markets:
CyberMedia, which publishes nine magazines in the country, including Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data and BioSpectrum, is planning on a US$ 3.7 million IPO. More…
Malayala Manorama to launch men's magazine; adds to lifestyle magazines' list:
The Kerala-based Malayala Manorama group plans to launch a 200-page glossy men's magazine in English titled 'Man' in November. It will be priced at Rs 100. More…
Increasing printing costs worry publishers, may increase advt rates:
An increase in printing costs and emulation of new advertisement rate standard (shifting from per col.cm rate to per square cm. rate) are scheduled to impact advertisement rate cards of several publications in the country. More…
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Foreign ownership of print titles under review; 13 intl. publishers' investment proposals cleared:
The Indian federal government has decided to constitute a group of ministers (GOM) to review various provisions of the Press Registration Act.

The highly debated issue of foreign ownership of print media in India is unlikely to resolved as this process of forming a GOM as this decision itself is a compromise on which specific government ministry or department should have a direct say on the issue.

While the above decision to constitute a GOM was taken, the federal cabinet of ministers cleared 13 foreign investments by international publishing houses in various Indian non-news and current affairs publications.

The policies that the GoM would review are the previous government's decision to allow 26 per cent FDI (foreign direction investment) in news and current affairs publications, 74 per cent FDI in non-news, scientific, technical and specialty magazines and the 7.5 per cent cap on syndicated content from foreign publications in the Indian editions.

Within the government, there are differences over the issue with the information and broadcasting as well as industry ministry wanting to have a greater say on framing the policies as well as subsequent approvals of FDI in the print media.

Irrespective of what and when the decisions are taken, FDI proposals will need to get routed through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the print titles will need to get approved by the Registrar of Newspapers in India.
Findings from Indian Redearship Survey 2003-04:

Here are the key observations from the Indian Redearship Survey 2003-04:

  • Hindi daily Dainik Jagran is the largest publication with readership of 16.4 million
  • Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar's national readership is 13.4 million
  • Times of India is largest English daily with national readership of 7.1 million
  • English daily Hindustan Times' national readership is 3.2 million
  • Hindi daily Hindustan's national readership is 7.9 million
  • In major metros like New Delhi, readership of non-English publications register negative growth rate
  • English women's magazine Femina and film magazine Filmfare register fall
  • Malyalam daily Malayala Manorama is third-highest read publication with readership of 9.2 million
  • The fourth-highest read publication in the country is Daily Thanthi with a readership of 9.1 million; the fifth and sixth positions are held by other non-English dailies Amar Ujala and Eenadu with readership of 8.8 million lakhs and 8.1 million respectively
  • Non-English title Saras Salil is the only magazine to be among the top 10 with a readership of 7.2 million
  • In magazine category, the second largest read magazine is India Today (English) with a readership of 4.1 million
  • Malayala Manorama (Weekly) is the third-highest read magazine with a readership of 3.8 million.
  • India Today (Hindi) is at the number 4 position with a readership of 3.9 million. Vanitha (Malayalam) is the fifth-highest read magazine with a readership of 3.7 million. The sixth and seventh position is held by Grihasobha and Pratiyogita Darpan with a readership of 3.7 million and 3.0 million, respectively.
  • The largest ready business daily is The Economic Times (English) with readership of 1 million
  • Overall, the total readership of all English dailies in the country is 16.8 million, compared to the Hindi dailies' tally of 57.4 million.
  • Amongst business magazines, fortnightly Business Today is at 760,000, fortnightly Business India is at 619,000 and the weekly Businessworld is at 332,000 readers
  • Among the weekly publications, the top three languages are Malayalam, English and Hindi with readership of 8.3 million, 6.0 million and 4.7 million, respectively
Reuters moves jobs to India:

Financial news and information provider Reuters Group announced earlier in October that it planned to make Bangalore its biggest information-gathering hub, employing up to 1,500 people, or 10 per cent of its total workforce.

Reuters will use the Bangalore base to house mostly data and technical services teams.

"What we are creating here is the largest single hub of information gathering within Reuters," said Geert Linnebank, the company's editor-in-chief and head of content operations.

According to him, Reuters has already hired 340 employees to compile and analyse data and expects to have 400 by the end of this year, he said.

The Bangalore office would employ 1,000 by the end of 2005 and between 1,200 and 1,500 over the next year and a half, Linnebank said.

Reuters employs 14,700 people. Bangalore is set to become the biggest of four global data centres, with about 750 staff, or 50 percent of its expanded data-gathering group, to be located here by the end of 2005, said Justin Abel, the company's head of data operations.

Reuters, which is headquartered in London, set up shop in India in 1866 to provide news and commodity prices to European markets. The company now employs about 2,300 journalists around the world.

Reports quoted David Schlesinger, global managing editor of Reuters, saying that they plan to have up to 40 journalists in its Bangalore newsroom, a number that could increase over time. Twenty journalists already are working on editorial reference projects and coverage of small- and medium-sized U.S. companies.

CyberMedia plans US$ 3.7 millionIPO; to launch 2 mags in intl. markets:

CyberMedia, which publishes nine magazines in the country, including Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data and BioSpectrum, is planning on a US$ 3.7 million IPO.

Apart from growth in the Indian markets, the IPO funds are scheduled to be utilised to launch two magazines on outsourcing and bio-technology in the international markets.

CyberMedia also announced a joint venture with US based Dice Inc., a provider of online recruiting services for technology and engineering professionals.

With this development, CIOL Jobs, the job protal within the group's online brand ciol.com, will cease to exist. Its assets will be merged into the new entity to create CyberMedia Dice Careers Ltd., which will function as a separate portal company.

By the terms of the agreement, CIOL will provide the manpower and management in India, while investment and technology will be pumped in by Dice. Equity break up and exact investment details were not available.

CyberMedia had also signed an MoU with McGraw Hill, the publisher of BusinessWeek, one of the largest circulated business magazine in the world to publish an Indian edition of the magazine.

Malayala Manorama to launch men's magazine; adds to lifestyle magazines' list:

The Kerala-based Malayala Manorama group plans to launch a 200-page glossy men's magazine in English titled 'Man' in November. It will be priced at Rs 100.

The group is also gearing up to launch an auto magazine in Malayalam titled 'Fast Track' in the near future, according to Verghese Chandy, General Manager-Marketing of the group.

"We will bring out the first issue of 'Man' next month, and then carry out a reader response survey to decide the frequency of the magazine. In all likelihood, it is going to a be a quarterly," he said.

The decision to launch 'Man' was taken in the wake of the successful launch of 'Sreeman', a men's magazine in Malayalam, by the group. The magazine will be printed from Cochin and circulated across the country. The first issue is likely to have a print run of 50,000 copies.

Chandy said details of the automobile magazine were still being worked out, but added "that it is definitely on."

In the last few months, India has witnessed several launches of lifestyle magazines, which even include titles like 'Aha! Zindagi' in the Hindi language.
Increasing printing costs worry publishers, may increase advt rates:

An increase in printing costs and emulation of new advertisement rate standard (shifting from per col.cm rate to per square cm. rate) are scheduled to impact advertisement rate cards of several publications in the country.

The increase in printing costs has already resulted in some publications hiking their advertisement rates by 12-17 percentage points.

On the other hand, the Times of India group's shift to a per square cm. rate instead of the established per col.cm. rate is getting emulated elsewhere in the country.

This move too results in an increase the actual rate hike for the same space utilised by advertisers.

While publishers are concerned about the likely impact on gross revenue hike, with advertisers left with very few options. This is particularly because the rate hikes and new advt. rate standards being effected by publications which enjoy leadership posotion within their categories.

Reflecting the views of the advertising community, Manas Misra, Associate Vice President, Initiative, was recently reported as saying, "If most of the mainstream dailies are opting for an increase in ad rates, there isn't much that either planners or brands can do about it. You can't possibly deviate from print, which forms a big part of your media plan. So even though complaints will be rampant, and disgruntled reactions would emerge from certain quarters, dailies would face no real problems in selling space. "

 
 
The newsletter - Indian Media Observer - is produced by Chronosphere’s CEO Bhupesh Trivedi personally. Chronosphere is based at B205, Nirman Palace, Pump House, Andheri (East), Mumbai – 400093, INDIA.