‘TOI’-‘Sandesh’ equity stake to shape up in a month

Rumours have been rife about the Times Group acquiring an equity stake in Gujarati daily ‘Sandesh’.

To put the speculation to rest, agencyfaqs! contacted senior executives at the Times Group, who declined to comment on the subject. However, Falgunbhai Patel, editor and CMD, ‘Sandesh’, confirmed the news that the equity deal was on and should be finalised within a month.

As of now, Patel says, “No equity stake has been offered or bought by either party, but such a development is expected in a month’s time.”

Currently, the two publications are a part of a ‘business cooperation arrangement’. As per this arrangement, Patel says ‘Sandesh’ will provide ‘TOI’ its additional printing facilities. “Since we have printing facilities in various places such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, we will provide them to ‘The Times of India’,” explains Patel.

‘Sandesh’ also plans to exchange editorial content with ‘TOI’. Further, Patel says that the two newspapers will formulate joint circulation and promotion schemes.

The two publications plan to work together in space selling as well. “The ad rates in both publications will be jointly decided as part of this agreement. For instance, we will offer space in ‘Sandesh’ to a client along with ‘TOI’ if he plans to target Gujarat and have a jointly decided rate for the ad,” explains Patel.

It will, however, take almost a month for the final details of the deal to be worked out.

It was in June 2006 that the Times Group acquired the Bangalore based publishing house, Vijayanand Printer Ltd (VPL).

© 2006 agencyfaqs!