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Category: eNews

  • Top south Indian news publishers join hands to form SPP

    Top south Indian news publishers join hands to form SPP

    BENGALURU: Dinamalar, Eenadu, ManoramaOnline and Prajavaninews media publishers have come together to form South Premium Publishers (SPP), India’s first and biggest ‘south languages’ digital advertising package. This brings the top four dailies, renowned in their regions, to serve their digital advertisers collectively. Advertisers can advertise on the digital assets of these publications and reach out to their target audience in one go. 

    The South Premium Publishers (SPP) digital advertising package offers a reach of 37 million unique visitors, with 715 million-page views and an attractive average time spent of 3.36 to 8.09 minutes. In addition, the SPP digital advertising package delivers 3 billion ad impressions per month. 

    “South Premium Publishers offers advertisers credibility, digital brand safety and increased awareness, with more control and ease of access to premium digital inventory from all major publishers of south India. This is the only premium digital publishers’ network that delivers. We, at Manorama Online are happy to be part of this pioneering platform in Indian digital publishing," said Manorama Online CEO Mariam Mammen Mathew.

    The key differentiator of SPP’s digital advertising package is that it offers a robust value proposition. Each digital advertiser will get a customised solution, derived from a deep understanding from the four media brands. The proposals will be competitive and compelling, and enable clients to target south India with a single RO. 

    Dinamalar director business & technical L Adimoolam stated, “We are the market leader in Tamil Digital market. In 2019-20, of the total Indian ad market of 70k+ crores, 21 per cent has been contributed by digital. Given the current digital growth prospects it’s important that we give the best and the most convenient platform to the advertisers & agencies to connect with south Indian digital audiences. We have launched our consortium website, www.southpremiumpublishers.comwhich has all essential information.”

    The SPP digital advertising package caters to the audience that every brand wants to focus upon. 73 per cent of the combined users are between 18-44 age group, from young purchasers to HNI’s, whose primary source is digital news.

    The alliance offers flexible advertising packages with sales support across India with best in class media mix with CPD/CPM options. The digital advertisers can choose from roadblock ads, display banner ads and native advertising to reach their target group.  

    Eenadu director I Venkat said, “We need to recognise that the market dynamics are evolving, which demands innovation in our existing business model and collaboration is one of the solutions. This combination will help advertisers to reach out to Southern Indian premium digital audiences in a very credible, secure, and highly engaged environment.”

    With SPP offering a south India reach with one single advertising package, marketers have the perfect way to work a digital plan, that talks to the entire region.

  • Times Internet’s transformation from media company to tech company

    Times Internet’s transformation from media company to tech company

    KOLKATA: Digital disruption is reshaping the media and entertainment ecosystem at a rapid pace. As media companies adapt to the change, investment in technology is emerging as the need of the hour. Times Internet Ltd (TIL) COO Puneet Gupt also emphasised that every media company needs to have a tech mindset, during a virtual fireside chat hosted by Indiantelevision.com.

    Without proper technology being built and deployed, media companies will not be able to understand how the next wave of change could possibly affect the business, Gupt explained. TIL has successfully transformed itself from a media company having tech as a delivery engine to being a tech company that has media as an asset, he shared. Going forwards, tech is going to fuel TIL’s growth, making sure that all of its businesses grow on the back of the user base it already has.

    TIL leverages its massive reach for any newly launched product on the back of technology. Gupt explained that all of TIL properties are internally connected with a technology flywheel that tries to move users from a low ARPU high reach kind of product to a high ARPU kind of product. While the organisation has gradually built its tech segment over the last five-six years, the approach helps it to leverage the entire reach of TIL as well as all the learning for better content, tech and product decision for any new property.

    “We think we have cracked the science of virality and converting content to commerce. A few years ago, when the algorithms had not changed, some TIL properties were at the top of the virality charts,” Gupt said.

    He also shed light on TIL’s initiatives that have yielded positive results for the company. “For the last four-five years, we have been working on a bunch of components whether it is our own content management system, whether it is AI or ML algorithms for a lot of work that we do, or on the adtech side where we think there is a large vacuum of right technology being available to the publisher. The advertising technology today is heavily favouring the bias. It’s really built for the buy-side, not on the sales side,” he added.

    Realising the publishers’ need, TIL built its own ad tech engine – Colombia. Later, the company put the best of content management and advertising ability to build M-360, which is gaining good traction. Currently, M360 has 80-90 publishers on board and Gupt said that they expect the number to reach a few hundred in six-nine months.

    According to Gupt, 20-30 per cent of large media companies in India have already started investing in tech. But the initiative needs to reach medium and small publishers as well because a lot of “low-hanging staff” in newsrooms is going to be automated soon. However, he clarified that it does not mean that journalists might lose their importance. While technology can make churning out a part of content faster, journalists can focus on detailed, in-depth content.

    “You will get visitors, your visitors will have to convert to loyalists and the loyalists will have to convert to paid subscribers. This entire cycle has to work well,” he said. “The content that is created for the subscription side will be measured on the ability to convert a loyalist to a paid user; the ability to retain and renew a paid user,” he added further.

    With emerging technologies, the conversation around data protection is also becoming more prominent. Gupt stated that publishers should focus on respecting users’ choice and consent, focusing on receiving data properly rather than collecting it, thereby upholding the ‘right to be forgotten’. He termed TIL as a “worthy custodian of data” as it has always managed data with utmost care.

  • BuzzFeed to take over HuffPost from Verizon Media

    BuzzFeed to take over HuffPost from Verizon Media

    MUMBAI: BuzzFeed has announced that it is in the process of acquiring HuffPost online news service, in a deal uniting two digital media pioneers seeking fresh momentum in a troubled sector.

    The acquisition is a part of a larger deal between Buzzfeed and Verizon Media. The deal allows both the companies to syndicate content on each other’s platform including Yahoo, according to a statement issued by them.

    It also makes Verizon a minority shareholder in BuzzFeed, with the two firms agreeing to a strategic partnership for content and advertising.

    “We're excited about our partnership with Verizon Media, and mutual benefits that will come from syndicating content across each other's properties, collaborating on innovative ad products and the future of commerce, and tapping into the strength and creativity of Verizon Media Immersive,” said BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti.  

    The deal is a reunion of sorts for Peretti, who also happens to be one of the founders of HuffPost. “I have vivid memories of growing HuffPost into a major news outlet in its early years, but BuzzFeed is making this acquisition because we believe in the future of HuffPost and the potential it has to continue to define the media landscape for years to come,” he added. “With the addition of HuffPost, our media network will have more users, spending significantly more time with our content than any of our peers.”

    Peretti co-founded HuffPost, formerly known as the Huffington Post, in 2005 with publisher Arianna Huffington, before starting Buzzfeed a year later.  

    The early success of HuffPost and BuzzFeed prompted optimism about the future of digital-first media, but in recent years both have faced struggles in a difficult economic environment for the sector.

  • PUBG: Game over for PUBG mobile in India

    PUBG: Game over for PUBG mobile in India

    KOLKATA: Despite the ban on PUBG Mobile in India, fans were desperately hoping that it might eventually make a comeback. Those hopes were sadly dashed when Tencent Games, the publisher, announced its decision to shut down all services and access for users in India on 30 October.

    “To comply with the interim order of the ministry of electronics and information technology dated 2 September 2020, Tencent Games will terminate all service and access for users in India to PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG MOBILE Lite (together, “PUBG Mobile”) on 30 October 2020. The rights to publish PUBG MOBILE in India will be returned to the owner of the PUBG intellectual property,” the company said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page.

    Back in September, the Indian government had banned PUBG Mobile, along with 117 other Chinese apps, citing security concerns. India was one of the largest markets for PUBG Mobile and the game had generated close to $28 million since July 2019 through in-app purchases alone, a report from Sensor Tower stated.

    “Protecting user data has always been a top priority and we have always complied with applicable data protection laws and regulations in India. All users’ gameplay information is processed in a transparent manner as disclosed in our privacy policy,” the statement added.

  • CNNIC taps Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal to lead ‘Audience First’ strategy

    CNNIC taps Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal to lead ‘Audience First’ strategy

    NEW DELHI: CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) has appointed Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal as joint-heads of the organisation’s international advertising sales business as part of its ‘Audience First’ strategy.

    In these new positions, Bradley and Ibal will be focused on creating and delivering solutions for clients that have the most impact with defined audiences on a global scale and enhancing our audiences’ advertising experience across all CNN platforms. The ‘Audience First’ strategy supercharges putting audiences at the heart of every campaign rather than focus on platform or geography.

    Bradley leads advertising sales across the Asia Pacific, including Australia, and Latin America and will now be responsible for CNNIC’s international digital and data development. Corinna Keller, vice president for advertising sales, Latin America, and Tini Sevak, vice president, audiences & data, will report to him. Bradley will be relocating to Asia in 2021 and continue with his global role while remaining close to key clients and markets.

    Ibal is in charge of advertising sales for all EMEA and will take over CNNIC’s international client development. James Hunt, senior vice president, global client solutions, will report to her while continuing to oversee all client servicing functions within CNNIC, including its Create brand studio.

    Both Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal will continue to report into CNN Worldwide Commercial president Rani Raad.  

    “We are optimising how we partner with brands to have maximum impact with audiences at a time of accelerated change in both consumer behaviour and the way advertisers are connecting with customers,” said Raad. “Cathy and Rob have an excellent track record in working collaboratively with clients and across CNN to develop and execute sophisticated campaigns that no other media can match.”

    Cathy Ibal has been at CNN since 2001, originally working in research and then in sales since 2006 where she manages some of CNNIC’s largest partnerships. Rob Bradley joined CNN in 2015. Since then he has led CNNIC’s digital revenue, strategy and operations as well as advertising sales for the UK, Nordics and US.

  • India Today suspends print publication Mail Today; turns digital

    India Today suspends print publication Mail Today; turns digital

    NEW DELHI: Most newspapers in India are facing an uphill task to maintain their readership amidst the pandemic. India Today too faced the burn. The group announced that its English language tabloid Mail Today will suspend its print publication with effect from 10 August 2020. The reason stated is that the print segment has been hit due to the pandemic but the content shall continue to be published in the digital format.

    The BSE filing read that the newspaper Mail Today comprises an insignificant portion of the business of the company. Mail Today newspaper in its physical mode contributed less than two per cent to the total revenues of the company during the quarter ended 30 June 2020, therefore, the said the suspension shall not have any material impact on overall business of the company.

    Last year, India Today’s opinion website DailyO got shut and it was reported that many employees lost their jobs. 

  • BYJU’S acquires ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr

    BYJU’S acquires ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr

    KOLKATA: BYJU’S, the leading ed-tech company, has announced that it has acquired Mumbai based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr.

    This partnership brings together two formidable brands: BYJU’S, with its unmatched breadth of offerings and creator of India’s most-loved school-learning app, and WhiteHat Jr., a hugely popular and unique coding platform. With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, this integration will help BYJU’S further expand its offerings in India. This acquisition will also accelerate BYJU’S US expansion plans. This partnership is timely with the Government of India pushing skills such as coding from early classes with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

    After the acquisition, BYJU’S will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr. Founder, Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale this business in India and the US.

    “We started WhiteHat Jr. to make kids creators instead of consumers of technology,” WhiteHat Jr founder Karan Bajaj explains. “Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before. Integration with a visionary company such as BYJU’S will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids at a global scale.”

    “WhiteHat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time.” said BYJU’S founder and CEO Byju Raveendran says. 

    “Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJU’S and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students.”,Raveendran adds.

    WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes. After launching their courses in the US, since February this year, the company is growing at more than 100% MoM in the country.

    Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. WhiteHat Jr. offers four levels of courses –

    Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional – for students in grades 1-9. Kids create complex games, animations and apps using logic, structure, sequence, commands and algorithmic thinking—in a live 1:1 online classroom. Early graduates of the course have created professional-ready apps downloadable on the App Store at ages as young as seven years old.

    Launched in 2015, BYJU’S is the leader in offering personalised learning programs for school students in India. With 64 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85%, BYJU’S has witnessed phenomenal growth. The app creates personalized learning programs for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style. BYJU’S doubled its revenue from INR 1430 crore to INR 2800 crore in FY 19-20.

    Since the lockdown, BYJU’S has seen over 15 million new students start learning from its platform. With temporary closure of schools due to the ongoing pandemic, BYJU’S has become one of the only ways for students to continue learning. Last month, the company launched BYJU’S Classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program that addresses the need for personalised after-school learning solutions with scheduled engagement from India’s top teachers, live doubt solving and personalised mentoring. The company also launched learning programs for History, Civics and Geography. The company did over INR 500 crores in revenue last month.

  • HT Media acquires Mosaic Media Ventures

    HT Media acquires Mosaic Media Ventures

    NEW DELHI: HT Media, today, announced is all set to acquire Mosaic Media Ventures, which was incorporated in the year 2007 and operates news platforms including VCCircle, TechCircle. It provides subscription-based research databases.  

    In a BSE filing, HT Media said, “The board of directors at its meeting held on 28 July 2020 accorded approval to invest up to Rs six crore post working capital adjustment and revenue linked milestones payment up to Rs one crore on a deferred basis, to acquire 100 per cent of paid-up share capital of Mosaic held by NWS Digital Asia PTE Ltd and News Corporation subject to finalisation of definitive agreements.”

    According to BSE, the shares of HT Media was last trading at Rs 12.03 as compared to the previous close of Rs 12.52 and the total number of shares traded during the day was 13189 in over 60 trades. The stock has hit an intraday high of Rs 12.5 and intraday low of Rs 11.83. The net turnover during the day was Rs 1,60,971.

    The acquisition will scale VCCircle and TechCircle to augment Mint’s tech and editorial capacities. Hindustan Times’ reach will be used to augment VCCircle event business and will help scale the database and research business. The company is said to complete the procedure before 30 August.

    Mosaic’s turnover in FY20 was Rs 14.5 core.

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  • RP Sanjiv Goenka Group picks 51% stake in Vikram Chandra’s Editorji

    RP Sanjiv Goenka Group picks 51% stake in Vikram Chandra’s Editorji

    NEW DELHI: Editorji founder Vikram Chandra announced on Twitter this morning that RP Sanjiv Goenka Group has acquired the majority stake of 51 per cent in his online personalised news platform. 

    Chandra will continue to hold his MD position, while Airtel and HT will remain investors in the platform, which he had started in September 2018, after spending 24 years as a television journalist. 

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    RP Sanjiv Goenka had recently signed a deal with Fortune Media group as well, to publish the magazine in India. 

  • Likee releases a video with heart-touching Mother’s Day message from those stuck in lockdown

    Likee releases a video with heart-touching Mother’s Day message from those stuck in lockdown

    New Delhi: Likee, the pioneering short video platform by Singapore-based BIGO Technology Pte Ltd, came up with a unique initiative to connect those, who were unable to visit their homes to celebrate Mother’s Day because of the national lockdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, with their mothers. This initiative under #Likeedreams enabled them to share their messages for their mothers through Likee, which is among the most downloaded apps globally.

    As part of the initiative, a video has been released by the app wherein seven Likee creators from different parts of the country came together to talk about their mothers. Apart from sharing their messages, the video also ascertains as to how much these creators know about the persons that their mothers are. In the heart-touching video, the creators answer questions such as their mothers’ likes, interests and unfulfilled dreams.

    A number of creators, including Abhishek from Bangalore, Prateek from Mumbai and Bhavana from Hyderabad, have participated in the same. The concept behind the drive, which celebrates the spirit that works consistently for us without any breaks, is that our mothers are our friends, healers, teachers, councellors and protectors. Likee also launched an H5 page dedicated to the occasion, inviting users to share videos in lieu of rewards. Likers also shared videos, featuring or honouring their mothers, under #MothersDayGift which is still among the top trends on the app.

    Speaking about the initiative, Damon He, Likee India GM, said, “The relationship between a child and a mother is like that of heart and heartbeat. We are happy to virtually connect the creators with their mothers, who are our first teacher, friend, philosopher and guide.”

    You can view the video here:

    #Likeedreams is a very special campaign from Likee, which aims at discovering and supporting ordinary people who strive to change others’ lives through their efforts. It is due to several such initiatives that Likee has emerged as an app that the youth identifies with. It provides them with a stage to accelerate their creativity, thus producing high-quality video content. It gives them confidence, recognition, and a chance to earn a living. The app has become widely popular in India and also globally. In recent reports by App Annie and Sensor Tower, the app is among the top 10 most downloaded apps in the world.