Hindustan Times and Sify.com join hands

Media group The Hindustan Times Ltd and Sify.com, the consumer portal of Satyam Infoway Ltd, have entered a cross-promotion deal. This tie-up will enable both Sify.com as well as the Hindustan Times and its site Hindustantimes.com to leverage each other's resources to gain more visibility. Not only this, the two companies will pitch for advertisers with offers of a wider reach and offer better advertising rates.

As a result of this new arrangement, Sify.com will promote the Hindustan Times and Hindustantimes.com across its properties as well as across some other Internet-related services. Along with this, Sify websites will also promote events and promotional activities of the Hindustan Times through banners and promotional space on the net. On the other hand, the Hindustan Times will promote Sify.com through its newspapers and website. And the site Hindustantimes.com will also provide content for additional Sify.com channels. For example, Sify.com will provide news and infotainment content from Hindustantimes.com on its sites samachar.com and crickinfo.com.

Alliances to improve bottomlines are today a common phenomenon in the publishing business, prominent among them being The Hindu's tie up with Eenadu, the Hindustan Times' tie up with Indian Express and Mid-Day and the Hindustan's partnership with Amar Ujala. However, a print and online marriage is first of its kind.

Rajan Kohli, executive president, the Hindustan Times Ltd, is excited about its association with Sify.com. "Sify.com is one of the biggest horizontal portals in India with 217 million monthly page views and a 3 million subscriber base. Moreover, it has 630 I-way cyber kiosks in the country. This will give the Hindustan Times and Hindustantimes.com a tremendous presence and reach on the net."

Having a strong net presence is imperative for The Hindustan Times Ltd. Sanjay Trehan, general manager, Internet, The Hindustan Times Ltd, says, "In a way, with one stroke without any spends this alliance has offset the advantage The Times Of India and the Indiatimes.com had. As a result of this tie-up with Sify.com, referral traffic on Hindustantimes.com will increase manifold."

Sify.com has its own reasons to partner The Hindustan Times Ltd. "Besides offering a more comprehensive solution to clients, Sify would get more exposure through HT properties in northern India, where the Hindustan Times has a strong presence," says Vivek Bali, president, portals, Sify. Sify is in talks with some regional publications to strike a similar alliance.

While the alliance apparently works out to the benefit for both the parties involved, what's in it for the advertiser? For starters, the advertising rates have been worked out according to three categories. The first is the stand-alone option where the advertisers choose Sify.com, or the Hindustan Times or Hindustantimes.com to advertise and pay the standard rack rates. While the second is the combination of all three (Sify.com, the Hindustan Times and Hindustantimes.com), the third is the combination of either of the two of the three mediums. Compared to the standard rack rates, the second and the third advertising packages would offer about 30 per cent comparative rates to advertisers.

As far as the ad revenue sharing arrangement is concerned, if Sify.com gets business for Hindustan Times (the newspaper) or vice-versa, 15 per cent the commission would be given to the company who fetches the business. And when Sify.com brings business for Hindustantimes.com and vice-versa, the booty will be equally divided.

But the question is: Will such a deal enthuse the media planner? For one, Gopinath Menon, executive media director, TBWA/Anthem has his doubts. "I just cannot find a logic that would excite a media planner," he remarks. On his part, giving figures to explain how the net is going to be a powerful medium of communication in the future, Rajan Kholi says, "Currently, the ad spend on the net is in the range of Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore. Five years down the line, the ad spends on the net would go up to Rs 200 - Rs 250 crore." © 2002 agencyfaqs!