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TRADE NEWS INDIA SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
(L-R) Hari Selvanathan, Chairperson of Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Company;
Kumar Nadesan, Managing Director, Express Newspapers; S Balasubramanian
Adithyan, Director of Daily Thanthi, during the signing of the agreement.
Dina Thanthi launches in Sri Lanka
Leading Sri Lankan Tamil daily ‘Virakesari’ and Indian daily ‘Dina Thanthi’ recently
joined hands to launch ‘Dina Thanthi’ local edition in Colombo, Sri
Lanka. Virakesari, one of the leading Tamil dailies in Sri Lanka, was established
in 1930 by Subramaniam Chettiar. It is owned by Express Newspapers Ceylon
Limited and is the oldest and the largest circulated Tamil Newspaper in Sri
Lanka.
Daily Thanthi was founded in Madurai in 1942 by Si. Pa. Adithanar. It is India’s
largest daily printed in Tamil and the ninth largest among all dailies in India
by circulation.
The Colombo edition started on 24 January this year follows the recent edition
in Dubai. Daily Thanthi is printed and published in 16 Indian cities. Apart
from print, the company has also forayed into television and radio. The newspaper
sells over 18 lakh copies daily.
Management buyout at ppi Media
The first day of the new year
saw managing directors Dr.
Hauke Berndt and Manuel
Scheyda and strategic investor
Alexander Eck take over
ppi Media GmbH as part of a
management buyout.
With the buyout, ppi Media separated
from the Eversfrank Group, which had acquired
the company from manroland AG
in 2012 and will in future focus on its own
core business. The solutions ranging from
cross-media editorial systems to entire
publishing workflows are distributed in
more than 20 countries for customers
who belong to the who’s who of the international
media industry.
In 2016, Berndt joined the management
board and has been responsible for
customer projects, sales and business innovation
since then. He oversaw the product
development of ppi Media software
for magazine production and corporate
publishing.
The buyout enables ppi Media to focus
its digital solutions on the challenges of
the media industry. “We will invest even
more specifically in products and markets
that will strengthen and expand ppi Media’s
position in the publishing industry in
the long term,” said Berndt.
Manuel Scheyda has been with ppi Media
for over 20 years. He started out in 1997,
where he was responsible for setting up
the support department. Since 2016, he
has headed the Business Innovation division,
which forms the basis for ppi Media’s
dynamic businesses in the future.
The strategic investor and IT entrepreneur
Alexander Eck will become a shareholder
of ppi Media GmbH and will advise
the management on strategic issues. “The
team’s high level of competence, the excellent
customer base and the cultural
change an MBO can bring about opens up
excellent opportunities for the future,”
said Eck.
India: Regional print media fares better
than English counterpart By Shilpa Elizabeth
As the FY 19 third quarter results of HT Media, DB Corp and Jagran Prakashan
came out, regional print media seems to be faring better compared to its English
counterpart.
DB Corps which brings out newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya
Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, reported a 11 % growth in revenues. From
Rs 596.5 Cr in Q3 FY 18 the revenues of the company grew to Rs 661.6 Cr in
the current period. Compared to DB Corps Ltd, Jagran Prakashan’s performance
was muted, delivering only a 2.6% growth in operating revenues, from Rs
598.07 crores to Rs 613.83 crores. In the case of HT media, whose flagship
brands are Hindustan Times and The Mint, the revenues dipped by about 2%
from Rs 681 Cr to Rs 664 Cr in this quarter.
Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp Ltd, as stated in a press release,
the performance is a culmination of dedicated strategic efforts made
across all the businesses spanning print, digital and radio. DB Corp’s advertising
revenues went up by 13% YoY to Rs. 4813 million in current period from Rs.
4261 million. Print advertisement alone recorded 11.5% growth in revenue
from Rs 377.4 Cr to Rs 420.8 Cr YoY.
HT Media whose consolidated operating revenue fell by 3% YoY saw an
even steeper fall in its profits - about 69% from Rs 136.96 Cr to Rs 43 Cr YoY.
In the company’s investor presentation Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial
Director, HT Media Ltd and Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd, was quoted
saying,”The relatively weak festive season in 2018 hurt print advertising revenues.
The adverse impact of higher raw material prices and a weak rupee affected
our operating performance.” Ad revenue for HT’s print segment fell by
about 5% from about Rs 4.43 Cr to Rs 4.20 Cr. HT’s Hindi title’s ad revenue fell
by 7% as against the 4% fall its English counterpart witnessed.
India: Firstpost launches print edition
Eight years after firstpost.com
became the go to destination
for the argumentative Indian,
Network18 will be launching
its first weekly newspaper –
Firstpost.
“By taking the viewspaper from the virtual
to the physical world, we are signaling
two things: Firstly, there is a market opportunity
in the weekends for deep, thoughtful
and reflective journalism, the kind that
allows us to step back from the cacophony
of the moment and analyze events
calmly,” said BV Rao, Editor, Firstpost.
Secondly, content is platform-agnostic,
especially good content. The digital consumer
reads a lot but not necessarily the
best. Firstpost print content, arranged to
enable quick access in one place, will provide
that reading pleasure to digital readers
as well. Existing digital readers can access
the content free for a limited period
and then signal their readiness to put a
premium on the content they cherish.”
Positioning itself as the last word on
news, Firstpost will be a 20-page broadsheet
appearing every Saturday and shall
cater to readers in Mumbai and New
Delhi. Aiming to change the way in which
the consumer perceives newspapers, Firstpost
emphasises on narrative, long-format
journalism with a focus on national politics,
culture and art and being a mix of
hard and soft feature news.
With a strong and vibrant design, the
newspaper has been designed by Jacek
Utko.
“Firstpost is a new kind of newspaper.
Instead of the usual, mundane recounting
of events already well known to readers
through digital media and television, every
single article aspires to exceptionality: to
offer a unique perspective; to excavate
new information; to bring to life a new
story,” said Praveen Swami, Group Consulting
Editor, Network18.
(by exchange4media)
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