Edipresse India, a joint venture formed between luxury lifestyle media group Edipresse Asia Ltd and Marzban Patel of Mediascope, has announced its plans to launch its first print product by the end of 2009.
The JV is part of Edipresse Asia’s strategy to expand its leadership position in the luxury media segment in Asia.
Edipresse India will be forming a company that will be aimed at producing some of the best magazines in its genre (luxury and lifestyle). All the ad sales for the magazines will be handled by Mediascope Publicitas and the magazines will be printed in India. The aim is to cover every single area in the lifestyle and luxury segment. 50-60 per cent of the content will be Indian and therefore, they will be recruiting a lot of people in India across editorial, production, design, style, etc.
Marzban Patel, Chairman, Mediascope Group, commented on whether the Edipresse India venture would add to Mediascope Publicitas’ overall profitability, “Yes it would. In fact, it will produce international quality products that reach a certain section of the audience. I have already established an advertising sales force, so naturally it adds to our revenue. For Edipresse, it means cost saving, and for us it is revenue generation, so the fit is absolutely perfect.”
Patel added, “Mediascope Publicitas also has an existing custom publishing business, which focuses on the luxury angle. We have about nine titles, which are between all sorts of frequencies but, a majority of them focuses on luxury.”
On the timing of the launch, he said, “I think we are pretty fortunate that we did not launch around two years’ back and build an infrastructure based on the highs, we will now base the infrastructure on the lows and the only way now for us is the way up. I believe if you have the right content and the right editorial environment reaching the right kind of audience, there is revenue in the market, and also as far as we in our JV are concerned, we are just starting out and so by the time we warm up we only hope that the market would become stable”.
Patel agreed that there was a slowdown but remained optimistic, “We are entering in the business when there is absolute slowdown, fully aware that there is a slowdown, with our eyes wide open, and I believe the only way the market can go from here is up. Nobody has given up on India as it is a growth market and the market of the future.”
On the growth rate in 2008, Patel said, “Our international business has not been affected, so we will close 2008-09 as planned. However, our domestic business has been affected, but because we are in a niche business, the impact has not been as severe as other markets. We are in investment mode, but we have not touched the revenue that we had hoped we would.”
On the plans for 2009, he said, “On the international side, we would not see an immediate change. We will still see growth in our business and our niche media business will also grow in terms of revenue, product and profit building.”
Edipresse will also be looking into the convergence model, giving the reader and the advertiser an opportunity to get together, be it print, digital or event. This would allow a reader of this product to access information in various ways in this genre. Even an advertiser would have the opportunity to interact with the potential buyer in all of these mediums.