The Guardian sets eyes on India
After setting up online outlets outside its home country, in Australia and the US, the British newspaper giant, The Guardian, has now set its eyes on India as part of its plan to expand its global footprints.
15 Jul 2014 | 2540 Views | By Dibyajyoti Sarma
David Pemsel, deputy chief executive, Guardian News & Media, in an recent interview, said, “India is probably the next launch – it’s somewhere the Guardian has relevancy, Alan (Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian) talks very eloquently about taking our journalism to where it’s most needed, and I think that India will probably be somewhere that we will look to.”
The Guardian leader said a number of documents already exist detailing potential plans for further launches in large English language markets.
Pemsel said even with The Guardian’s blend of advertising and subscriptions, and the new boost from strategic partnerships around branded content via Guardian Labs, "there’s only so much you can take out of one market". He noted: "The bigger prize will ultimately be from what we can take globally."
And India is understandably the next stop.
The development comes at the heels of the newspaper’s recent achievements, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service reporting for their coverage of the NSA's worldwide electronic surveillance programme and the documents leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden, which it shared with The Washington Post. The Guardian broke the story.
Despite the fact that even with the launch of Guardian Australia in May 2013, and Guardian America in 2012, turnover for the group rose just £14 million to £210.2 million during the 12 months toMarch 30, the newspaper is optimistic about the future. The Guardian leader also dismissed suggestions the Guardian’s advertising-led approach to publishing online was reaching a saturation point, pointing to the 24% growth year on year in digital revenues, to £69.5 million.
“Have we fully bottomed out the financial prize of ‘open’, clearly we haven’t. I don’t think we’ve got anywhere near to looking at the global prize, and obviously our aspirations in relation to membership services is also something we’re exploring,” Pemsel said.
Going forward, GNM’s parent Guardian Media Group is now financially secure. GMG has £842.7m in the bank and the deputy CEO highlighted two area’s ring-fenced for investment as the Guardian’s nascent membership service – “which will evolve over the next couple of years” - and in expanding its global footprint.
He said: “We need to make sure we make the most of America, now that we’ve got traffic that we’re comfortable with. The Pulitzer Prize has given us huge confidence that our brand is relevant there.”
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