Lokmat Group to expand beyond print; appoints Bijoy Sreedhar as man-in-charge

With a rich experience in radio, telecom and the Internet, Bijoy Sreedhar will be responsible for making the Lokmat Group visible in other media besides print

The Lokmat Group has appointed Bijoy Sreedhar vice-president, business development. Sreedhar will take care of the new businesses and the expansion of the group into other verticals besides print.

Speaking to afaqs!, Jwalant Swaroop, director, advertising and business development, Lokmat Group, says, “Bijoy's appointment will further strengthen our position in Maharashtra. His rich experience in radio, telecom and the Internet space will certainly be an asset.”

Earlier, Sreedhar was head, strategy and new business, Radio City. He joined Radio City as national sales head, retail, in 2005. Before Radio City, Sreedhar has also worked with Tata Indicom and indiamarkets.com.

He is a post graduate in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and holds a Bachelor's degree in Production Engineering.

The Lokmat Group also plans to diversify into other media such as television, radio, the Internet and OOH.

Sreedhar, in a conversation with afaqs!, says, “Lokmat in Maharashtra is the clear leader in the print space. The group plans to transform itself into a multi-media player through its initiatives in television, radio, OOH and digital space. Also, there are plans to ramp up the events and activation division.”

He declined to comment on the print plans of the group, stating, “My job primarily will be to give a boost to the new businesses and lead the initiatives in television, radio, OOH and digital business. As far as the digital space is concerned, we will revamp our existing portal, lokmat.com and also come up with new properties both in the B2B and the B2C space.”

According to Sreedhar, the group will enter the new businesses through acquisition and ownership of media properties as well as through strategic alliances.

The group already has a joint venture with IBN for its 24X7 Marathi news channel, IBN Lokmat.

Lokmat plans to come up with a new brand, Destination Maharashtra, which will be a one stop communication solution for all brand managers targeting the state. “It's not a new brand from the publication perspective. Maharashtra is becoming an important market for all media companies. Hence, we have designed Destination Maharashtra, which is a marketing communication solution and looks beyond a 360 degree solution,” says Swaroop.

He adds, “Brand managers can get access to all the media under one single umbrella.”

Events is another area which the group aims to exploit. “We keep doing events under the Lokmat Community Initiative banner, where brands have often got together with us for customised, sponsored or simply supported events. We'd be certainly looking at having more events regularly,” says Swaroop.