India: UK’s Independent to publish Indian edition

Posted by Elena Perotti on September 18, 2006 at 11:18 AM

Britain’s Independent newspaper recently announced its intention to publish an Indian edition. In the wait of the approval from the government, the paper is to be printed on the presses of Jagran Prakashan - India’s largest newspaper company - 20,8% of whose capital is hold by The Independent’s Indian associate Independent News & Media plc (INM).

The expectation of The Independent is to sell about 5000 copies a day of the Indian edition, mostly around the major cities and targeting in particular the leading hotel groups and embassies. It will be the first British newspaper to be printed in India.

Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News & Media UK, said: "INM already publishes newspapers in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. (…)Now we are leading the way into India.”

Jagran Prakashan publishes the Hindi-language daily newspaper Dainik Jagran, which has a readership of over 20m a day and recently experienced a 32 per cent increase in advertising revenues. The company entered the Mumbai Stock Exchange earlier this year and is controlled by the Gupta family, which is now looking into investing in India's radio market.

Source: The Independent

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