Launches and Strategies

Triveni Media Ltd (TML), a fully owned subsidiary of real estate and infrastructure group Triveni Infrastructure Development Co Ltd, is set to launch a bouquet of news and lifestyle channels this year, and MJP Media Pvt Ltd, a company promoted by journalist MJ Akbar, will soon launch Covert, a magazine on Indian politics, says a Mint report. Some elementary details: TML will launch a 24-hour Hindi...

Pearson PLC, the publisher of Financial Times newspaper, is planning to start a new daily business newspaper in India with local partner Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd, which controls India's largest business news television channel, CNBC-TV18, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Pearson is looking to boost its profile in India's growing media market, according to a person familiar with its...

Financial Times owner Pearson has sold its 13.85 per cent stake in India's daily business newspaper Business Standard, according to the Guardian. Pearson has decided to give up its shares in the newspaper four years after it became the first foreign company to make a major investment in an Indian business title. The two papers had collaborated for more than a decade before Pearson bought the stake...

Kasturi and Sons Ltd are believed to be in talks to sell a minority stake to Australia's Fairfax Media Ltd, the Mint paper said on Wednesday, citing sources close to the Indian firm. The paper cited sources close to Kasturi shareholders as saying discussions were on to sell a stake. Under Indian law, the maximum foreign holding permissible is a stake of up to 26 percent. The family-owned Indian...

Cuba's state-run television broadcaster will launch a 24-hour channel with mostly foreign content in a move to provide Cuban audiences with more variety, says a Reuters report. The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, ICRT, made the announcement Wednesday last at a conference of the Cuban writers and artists guild, where intellectuals criticised the poor quality of television programming in...

Network 18 and Marathi newspaper Lokmat have launched a regional news channel, says a CNN-IBN report. Bits from the promo news item: Speaking about the new venture CNN-IBN’s Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “Our aim with IBN Lokmat was to build truly a world class regional channel that will fulfill the aspirations of the people of Maharashtra but more importantly will become a sort of bridge...

NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, plans to start an online TV channel to improve the image of the Western military alliance. NATO TV will be launched April 2 at a summit in Bucharest, Romania, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday last. The new TV channel is the result of close cooperation between the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Danish Government to improve...

Financial Times is ending its 15-year relationship with the Business Standard, says a report in Mint. BS will retain the right to use the FT brand as well as content through at least 2008. As of now, FT is closing an online content deal with Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd, the diversified media conglomerate, which, through its TV18 India Ltd, runs CNBC TV18 as well as Moneycontrol.com...

Spanish politicians competing for next month's election are wooing free newspapers, whose readership now outstrips the traditional press, says a Reuters report. A free daily diet of entertainment and human interest stories geared to the Internet generation, with politics limited and simplified, has seen freesheet circulation rise to about 1 million readers each per day. This is double the...

Newspapers are now fighting it out over the Hindi news space. Mint has an exclusive report on the scene: The list of companies includes Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL), Business Standard Ltd, Amar Ujala and Jagran Prakashan Ltd and Television18 India Ltd (the last two have partnered to launch a local language business daily). Numbers show the vernacular business news market is underserved...