A three-minute interview with Raju Narisetti, editor of Mint, India’s new and thriving financial daily
THE SET UP: The business beat in India is one of the most exciting anywhere. The new financial daily, Mint, (http://www.livemint.com) launched in February 2007, has grown from 80,000 to 122,000 copies), but also has inspired other business publications. Now an Indian edition of the Financial Times is in the makings, as well as a new business weekly magazine. How many business publications can survive in a highly competitive market? Raju offers his insights as he answers my questions:
Mario: Do you see the need for another financial publication in India?
Raju: The TV18/FT newspaper will be the 7th in the Indian market. It is unclearif there is real room for more than a couple of business dailies so there is a bubble quality to the whole segment right now. Mint appears to have shown that with smart segmentation and a differentiated offering, amoribund—the last business daily before Mint was 16 years ago—segment can come alive. Since Mint, one new business daily in English, two business dailies in Hindi, one business news TV channel have started and at least two business magazines have announced plans!
Mario: How will MINT be affected by the possibility of a Financial Times India edition, as well as by the new magazine?
Raju: The question for a new business magazine is whether there is room/appetite considering, even if they have the Forbes and Fortune name, as there are a t least four if not seven (depending on how business is defined) magazines,all offering analysis and features that readers increasingly don’t have time for.
If the FT/TV18 paper can raise the bar on Indian business journalism and also bring in strong ethics and journalistic standards, it would be a good addition to Mint. FT has been unfortunately kept out of India thanks to a brazen misappropriation of its brand here so they are taking a JV route and one wishes them good luck, since this is their second such venture.
With 120,000 copies every day, we do have a clear following for Mint and we hope we can continue to serve readers who want clarity in writing, analysis and packaging, in a honest and ethical newspaper that doesn’t sell accessor news coverage.
Mario: Are the other Indian national dailies: Times of India, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times showing that they are investing more in financial coverage?
Raju: Hindustan Times and DNA have devoted the most space to business coverage for any non-business daily. Others cover more business than say a few years ago but I haven’t noticed a sizable increase in resources being devoted for business coverage.
THE SIDE BAR: Anup Gupta, with whom I had the pleasure of working as we created the look of Mint, and who served as its first design director, is moving on to become design director of the new joint venture between network 18 and Forbes magazine. Says Anup: “ network 18 is primarily a television company and it wishes to capitalize on its success in that field to provide a complete solution to its audience across other platforms ranging from mobile to online to television and print. Network 18 is also in talks with other publishing giants around the world to partner with them in print products in India. “
WE SEND YOU: For more information about Mint, and Raju’s presentation to the WAN conference in Goteborg last month go: http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2008/05/mint_setting_ethical_standards_for_edito.php
ALSO OF INTEREST:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/mint
http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/10093009/Financial-Times-rewrites-plans.html
WHERE IS MARIO: Working in Tampa all week.