Jagran & Network18 Comes Together

Jagran & TV18 To Launch Hindi Business Daily

Jagran Prakashan Ltd has informed BSE that Netwotk18, India's leading media conglomerate and the Company, one of India's most acclaimed print majors & publisher of India's largest read daily 'Dainik Jagran' have announced a 50:50 joint venture initiative in the business print space. The primary mandate of this JV will be to launch a Hindi business daily for the Indian market in 2008. Subsequently, this will be followed by other Indian language dailies focused on financial and economic news.

This JV will in effect create a new category of local language business dailies within the India print space, as this will be the first Hindi business paper to hit the market nationally. This venture also marks an expansion of print offerings from Network 18 into the dailies space, post the recent announcement of its magazine publishing arrangement with Forbes media and ownership control of Infomedia, India’s leading publishers in the B2B media space. This venture is also a reiteration of the Company's intent and commitment to provide its readers news and information in all genres.

The venture has been positioned to benefit from the respective competencies of TV 18 & the Company. Television Eighteen (TV18) is a recognized leader in the business media space, with a roster of brands across television, online and information terminal platforms such as CNBC-TV 18 & CNBC AWAAZ which are India's leading business channels, Moneycontrol.com which is India's No 1 financial news & information portal and Newswirel8, India's leading real time news & data platform. The Company publishes "Dainik Jagran", India’s largest read daily besides recently launched youth oriented compacts "I-Next" and "City Plus". TV 18 shall bring forth its expertise in business content to the JV, while the Company shall bring forth its print competencies including operational expertise, print and related infrastructure and distribution to the venture. Both TV18 & the Company have agreed to co-promote the offerings under the venture and exploit cross platform synergy opportunities present from both sides. It is noteworthy that 3 years ago, TV18 had launched CNBC AWAAZ, a consumer focused business channel, to cater to the needs of the Hindi business viewer. It soon emerged as a Leader in the Hindi business news segment & a major contributor to the expansion of business audiences in the country.

Mahendra Mohan Gupta, CMD, of the Company said "Our leadership in the Indian print space will further be strengthened with the launch of business dailies. This venture is based on a commonness of vision we share with TVI8 on a strong need for a high quality business print offering in Hindi and other languages. Our experience in the language media space has revealed a growing interest in specialized business news & information, which, this vehicle will enable us to cater. I am confident that we will live upto the expectations of our readers as hitherto and expand the financial market, in the geographies that are going to play a crucial role in the economic growth of the country in times to come".

Commenting on this announcement, Raghav Bahl, MD, Network18 added "The fact that "Bharat" is rapidly emerging as the key driver of the Indian economic opportunity is fairly evident. In recent years, business audiences have grown immensely in the Hindi heartland and regional markets, reflecting a democratization of enterprise & wealth creation across the nation. The leadership of CNBC AWAAZ is a strong affirmation of this new reality as well as indicative of a great need for language products across the business media spectrum. We are delighted to partner Jagran Prakashan as it will allow us to fulfill this need powerfully in the print space, by combining TV18’s strengths in business content with Jagran's intimate understanding of print markets"

The JV will be governed by a board, comprising of representatives from TV18 & the Company, which will oversee management plans and execution. The operational specifics in terms of brand name for the business daily, selection of the editorial and business team and so on is in the process of being formalized. The JV will be funded through an initial equity infusion from both sides followed by internal accruals & debt financing in the later stage.

Jagran Prakashan - Joins Hands With Yahoo

Jagran & Yahoo Come Together To Launch Hindi Portal

Jagran Prakashan Ltd has informed BSE that Yahoo! India and the Jagran Group jointly announced the launch of a new co-branded Hindi news and current affairs Internet property. The new property will seamlessly integrate the largest Hindi content of Jagran with Yahoo! India's formidable online presence.

This pioneering agreement brings together India's number one Internet brand and a leading Indian newspaper conglomerate to provide the best of both online services and print media content for users and advertisers.

The partnership will create a richer online Hindi user experience, with Jagran's original content across news, current affairs, sports, entertainment and other features. It will be complemented with Yahoo!s innovative, user-focused internet products and services offered in seven Indian languages, including Yahoo! Search, Mail and Messenger.

Under the terms of the agreement, Jagran and Yahoo! India will share graphical and keyword advertising revenue generated by the property with Yahoo! India managing the advertising sales and ad-serving for the new co-branded property. Both Companies will also partner in distributing Yahoo! India's search and small and medium business offerings.

"This exciting and strategic partnership between these two powerful media entities will redefine the Hindi Online User experience and take this to the next level" said Mr. Sanjay Gupta, CEO, JPL.

"This platform will help rebrand and rescale the Hindi online space and leverage the strengths of both the organizations in creating a very powerful online property. We looked for a partner that stood for leadership and credibility in the online media space, which understood the pulse of internet audiences and had a customer-centric focus as central to their business approach. Yahoo! India definitely represents all these and more" said Mr. Sanjay Gupta, CEO, JPL.

Source : Bombay Stock Exchange

Jagran Prakashan - Reaching To Masses

Jagran Prakashan Q1 Net Up 51.62%

Driven by significant advertising revenue growth, Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), publishers of Hindi daily 'Dainik Jagran', on Friday reported a 51.62 per cent increase in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30.

The company said its net profit for the period under review stood at Rs 34.71 crore against Rs 22.89 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The media house's total revenues for the said quarter stood at Rs 192.27 crore, an increase of 34.69 per cent compared to Rs 142.75 crore in the last fiscal.

"We dedicated our efforts towards strengthening Dainik Jagran and various other initiatives. We are pretty positive about future of the media industry in general and business in particular," JPL Managing Director and Chairman Mahendra Mohan Gupta said.

The steady growth in the revenue has been driven by the significant growth in advertisement revenue, which grew by 42 per cent, at Rs 126.74 crore from Rs 89.22 crore, it said, adding revenue from businesses other than publication was Rs 11.49 crore.

Jagran Prakashan - Excellent Results

Jagran Prakashan Net Profit Up 140 % At Rs 76.22 Crore

Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), publishers of Dainik Jagran, has acquired a net profit of Rs 76.22 crore, which is up by 140.45 per cent from Rs 31.70 crore in the corresponding period of last year. JPL has reported total revenues of Rs 622.98 crore for FY07, an increase of 27.95 per cent as compared to Rs 486.88 crore in FY06.

The EPS for the year was Rs 12.65, as against Rs 6.23 at the end of FY06. The performance of the company in the last quarter of FY07 was commendable with total revenues increasing by 29.71 per cent to Rs 170.25 crore, as compared to Rs 131.25 crore in Q4 FY06. EBIDTA and net profit increased by 28.58 per cent and 42.53 per cent to Rs 33.96 crore and Rs 18.09 crore respectively in the quarter ended March 31, 2007.

In the last fiscal, JPL saw significant revenues from out-of-home advertising and event management activities, which was over Rs 30 crore. During the year, the JPL made two new launches -- a bilingual daily newspaper ‘I-Next’, and a weekly infotainment newspaper ‘City Plus’. Both are targeted at the youth.

Commenting on the performance of the company in the last fiscal, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, JPL, said, “In the last fiscal, we have taken steps to expand our product and services portfolio, and now JPL has presence in all media genres which includes print, out-of-home advertising, event management, and the new emerging media. Being a 360-degree media house, we have become one of the most diversified media player, providing complete media solutions to all the clients, while maintaining our primary focus towards maintaining our credibility in giving detailed, accurate and up-to-date news to our readers.”

JPL also entered into an alliance agreement with Yahoo! India, under which the company’s news portal www.jagran.com will be co-branded as www.jagran.yahoo.in. Yahoo! India would be responsible to host, maintain and market the website on revenue sharing basis. In addition to these, a separate profit centre named ‘J9’ was created to take the short code service division of JPL to a higher level.

Apart from these new initiatives, JPL’s flagship brand Dainik Jagran also ventured into new territories of Indore, Siliguri and Amritsar. The advertisement and circulation revenues continued to increase with advertisement revenues at Rs 388.21 crore and circulation revenue at Rs 170.83 crore for the year. The advertisement revenue for Dainik Jagran grew by 25.7 per cent, higher than the industry’s overall growth rate of 22.8 per cent. The advertisement revenues were driven by the increase in card rate, increased focus on local market and increase of about 18 per cent in colour advertisement space.

Jagran Prakashan - Hike In Ad Rates

Jagran Prakashan Increases Advertisement Rates Of Dainik Jagran

Jagran Prakashan Ltd on March 14, 2007 has announced that it has revised its advertising rates. As per the revised rates, all-edition rates will increase by 26% alongwith a 37% increase in UP + Uttaranchal rates. The Company has decided to take this move one—month early this year, as compared to the usual practice of increasing the rates on April 09 every year.

With the launch of I-next in the current fiscal, the Company has offered an impressive scheme to the advertisers this time with a package rate for both Dainik Jagran and I-next for the UP + Uttaranchal editions and for all editions. The advertising rates for Dainik Jagran in other states (Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal) have been increased by an average of around 10%. Standalone prices for I-next have been fixed at Rs 198 per sq cm for Kanpur + Lucknow editions.

Dainik Jagran at present has 31 editions with nearly 250 sub editions covering 50% of India's population and the entire Hindi-speaking belt of India. I-next, the bilingual daily launched by the Company in Kanpur and Lucknow in December 2007, will soon be launched in other areas of the Jagran's footprint.

Source : Bombay Stock Exchange

Jagran Prakashan - Reports Higher Profits

Jagran Prakashan Q3 Net Profit Up By 143.80%

Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), publishers of ‘Dainik Jagran’, India’s largest read newspaper (Source: IRS), has recorded net revenues of Rs 163.45 crore for Q3 FY07, an increase of 29.79% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The net profit was at Rs 17.70 crore, a sharp increase of 143.80% from Rs 7.26 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. The EPS for the quarter was at Rs 2.94 as against Rs 1.47 in the corresponding quarter of FY 06. The company also announced an interim dividend of Rs 7.50 per share.

Better advertising and circulation revenues from the publishing business have led to the increased revenues in this quarter. The Out of Home (OOH) and Event Management activities of the company too have had contribution of Rs. 8.30 crore in the increased revenues.

In the publishing business, the increase in ad rates and total space particularly color space sold have led to a 28.53 % increase in the advertisement revenue to Rs 103.20 crore and the circulation revenue increased by 3.63% to Rs 42.73 crore in Q3 FY07.

Jagran Prakashan Limited launched I-next, the first bilingual newspaper in the country in this quarter targeting readers in the age group of 18-35 years from SEC A and B1. The paper was launched in Lucknow and Kanpur and the company has plans to launch the brand in 5 more mini metros of North India.

The company also launched City Plus, an English Infotainment newspaper in September 2006, which has shown commendable response in this quarter. Owing to the success of the initial editions in Noida and Gurgaon, the company also launched editions of the paper in Faridabad and Ghaziabad and has plans to launch four more editions in current fiscal.

Commenting on the the performance and developments in the company in this quarter, Mr. Mahendra Mohan Gupta, CMD of Jagran Prakashan Limited said "We have always directed our efforts towards providing quality reading material to our readers and our constant effort is to provide the readers what they want to read. With the launch of I-next and City Plus, we are now in a position to cater to readers across different age groups and categories, both in Hindi and English. The Out-of-Home and Event Management business of the company are also growing, and are well poised to add to the revenues in the coming time."

Jagran Engage, Out of Home (OOH) advertising division of the company, which had already established its presence in leading markets for OOH business like Lucknow, Kanpur, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The division now has about 700 sites in addition to advertising rights at Lucknow railway station and has plans to grow further.

Jagran Prakashan Limited is concentrating on its current markets and strengthening its position as more editions will keep maturing. It aims to increase its market share by launching I-next and City Plus, and seeks to provide 360° marketing solutions under one umbrella through its various business segments.