Having ruled the print media industry in India with its flagship Hindi Daily Newspaper brand called Dainik Bhaskar, the D B group plans to make its presence felt in the online industry as well. To serve the same purpose i-Media Corporation Limited (IMCL), the digital arm and subsidiary of DB Corp (Dainik Bhaskar group) plans to initiate two portals by the end of this month. It becomes essential to mention that the operational area of the two portals would be news and education, both of which cater to vital information needs of consumers. By doing so, the company could achieve maximum hits and therefore quote high prices to advertisers who wish to place their ads on these portals.
This is going to be the first news site to be introduced in English by the Group, along with its already existing regional language news sites – Bhaskar.com in Hindi and DivyaBhaskar.co.in in Gujurati. In the recent past, we have seen fresh News firms surfacing that are solely dedicated to presenting news items that are related to particular cities or states and have achieved success in doing so. Understanding of the success rate of these regional news sites to be quite high has driven D B Group to focus majorly on news pertaining to local and state-level areas. Thereby the English news portal would supply news that is mostly regional in nature, in addition to national and international news content along with standard interactive tools that are generally present in a news portal like blogs and forums.
The news site would be launched in English language and this is because of a valid reason cited by Gyan Gupta, Business Head, IMCL – His observation of a large number of individuals in India and abroad (NRIs) who consume English content online desire to ascertain news updates that is more local and more about their hometowns or natives. Beside this, the main strength of D B Group is to deliver the best of local news. The hunt for the best editors is on since the last few months along with the effort to poach reporters who would be exclusively committed to discovering and presenting relevant regional news.
The second portal is also devoted to service the information needs of browsers. But here, the information is confined to education and careers. For now, users who seek to avail guidance related to their careers, further education and counselling can log on to this portal. After a few months post its launch, several interactive and customisation features will be added to the site. Again the target audience of this portal belongs to the semi-urban and rural-urban cities (tier II and III towns). The major source of revenue for both these portals would be through advertising.
It is good to know that companies these days are sane enough to be investing wisely and expanding into areas that they have already mastered. In this case, it is D B Group that has pioneered the delivery of valuable information and now chooses to expand by investing in a different medium; one which has proven to be profitable – the internet.
