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India Today & Daily Mail team up for project

India Today Group has made no secret of its desire to be a significant player in the newspaper space. Now, the Aroon Purie-managed group has taken its first big step to expand into newspapers.

In a statement, India Today Group announced a joint venture with Associated Newspapers, the publishers of, among others, the UK’s Daily Mail, to launch ‘mainline’ newspapers in India.

Saying that the two partners were still exploring the road ahead, an India Today official had nothing more to add on the structure of the agreement, the product/s being considered for launch, and the timelines that have been set in place.

It�۪s quite obvious though that the group will target the tabloid space, and will leverage the tie-up with the Daily Mail to launch a morning tabloid. The India Today currently has an afternoon tabloid in Delhi, Today, which is being revamped. It is learnt that the group is leaving all options open, and could consider a fresh brand for its new offering in the space.

Looking at what the Daily Mail stands for, the India Today Group is clearly aiming for a compact, tabloid offering in the space currently occupied by Metro Now (a JV between the Times of India and Hindustan Times) in Delhi aimed at the young, and the TOI�۪s Mumbai Mirror in Mumbai.

As audiences get younger, newspaper houses in India are betting that readership patterns will follow the developed markets and open up space for in-your-face tabloids that will be served up to advertisers hungry for younger audiences. Buoyed by their reading of the enormous potential, the India Today group is also learnt to be eyeing the smaller metros and tier II cities for such a ‘blue-blooded’ tabloid offering.

The Daily Mail is the UK�۪s largest tabloid, firmly aimed at a middle class audience, with a circulation of 2 million copies on weekdays and 3 million copies on Saturdays. Its parent the Daily Mail General Trust ��� which is listed on the London Stock Exchange ��� also publishes The Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard, Metro, London Lite and Loot.

The India Today Group publishes the country�۪s largest-selling English magazine, India Today, as well as Business Today, among others. The group also has significant interest in television via TV Today.

In a statement, Aroon Purie, Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group said: “We are delighted that our first foray into mainline newspapers is in partnership with one of the leading newspaper publishers of the world. We share the same values of investment in editorial excellence.”