Shekhar Gupta's media biz plans
MUMBAI: Veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta has turned entrepreneur. He is in the process of launching a newspaper, television shows and digital news products under his company Mediascape Pvt Ltd that was registered in 2000.
For starters, Gupta will launch two television shows for NDTV's English news channel. Currently, Gupta hosts the interview-based show Walk the Talk' for NDTV 24X7. "With the two shows, Mediascape will make its debut in the media sphere. Other than doing things in partnership with NDTV, Mediascape also plans to get into digital and print media. We will launch different products across media but they will all be in the news genre," Gupta told Livemint. Recruitment has started and two senior business executives have already joined the office in Mumbai.
The company's first digital news product may take about four-five months to launch as Gupta is reported to be negotiating for the release of a domain name registered by someone else. The newspaper brand will in most likelihood have the same name as the domain. Refusing to divulge more details, he said that what they launch will be the Bentley of Indian journalism. It will be the last word on news, opinion and analysis, he claims.
Speaking to Livemint about entering the print domain in the era of digital, when newspaper companies are seeing a decline in profits, he said, "Frankly, if this was 2020, we could have gone straight to the web. Today, even to get good journalists to work with you, you need to give them a print product. What is available on the web right now are streams of consciousness. Web journalists write opinion pieces which are read by their 100 friends who don't even pay for it." The challenge for good journalism today is to get good stories, something which costs money. Journalists should be paid well, too, and yet the company must make a profit for the shareholders, he added.
Gupta stated that the investments for the venture are being made in his personal capacity. "At the scale at which we want to operate it for the first six months, I can fund the enterprise myself," he said. Although he claims that several people have shown interest in funding the venture, Gupta will manage on his own for the initial period as he wants a good valuation. He wants the business to reach a certain scale first. He hopes to get a much better valuation if he dilutes his stake at a later stage. "I don't want to sell right now, but I don't want to run it like a boutique operation either," he added. The former Indian Express Group editor-in-chief had a 9 per cent stake in the company that owned the Express Towers building in Mumbai. When it got sold earlier this year, Gupta's stake in it came down to 1.2 per cent and he made money on the transaction, states the report.
Gupta's stint at India Today Group as vice-chairman and editor-in-chief came to an abrupt end in September this year, leading to speculations that there were differences between him and founder-promoter and chairman Aroon Purie. Gupta then went on to serve the group as editorial advisor. He had joined India Today Group on 1 July as vice-chairman and editor-in-chief of all news properties including news and business publications, news TV brands, as well as all related news and business digital brands.
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http://www.televisionpost.com/news/shekhar-guptas-media-biz-plans/ | TelevisionPost.comEdited by aparnauma - 10 years ago
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