Rajeev Chandrasekhar set for regional print foray

The Rajeev Chandrasekhar-owned Asianet Communications Ltd, a Bangalore-based media company, is believed to have struck a strategic alliance with Kannada Prabha, a multi-edition Kannada newspaper run by Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd.

Kannada Prabha is the third-largest Kannada newspaper in the country with a daily circulation of 177,061 copies (for January-June 2009, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation). It has been operational for half a century. At present, the newspaper is published simultaneously from Bangalore, Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Shimoga and Gulbarga.

Cash-rich Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is also a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, had been nursing ambitions of expanding his media business by acquiring regional publications in Karnataka and Kerala for quite sometime.

Sources close to the development said Asianet Communications would have a content-sharing arrangement with Kannada Prabha and was also expected to take a minority stake. Going forward, the company plans to acquire the Kannada newspaper by taking a controlling stake. Industry sources further added that an outright sale could be in the offing in the near future.

Asianet Communications, which currently runs Suvarna News, a 24-hour news channel in Kannada, had been planning to launch a Kannada newspaper. It had even poached close to 40 journalists from Kannada Prabha in September 2009. However, according to sources, it has put on hold its plans following the strategic alliance with Kannada Prabha.

Manoj Sonthalia, owner of Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd, could not be contacted for his comments on the deal.

The Kannada newspaper market has been witnessing swift developments in the last few years. About two weeks ago, Bennett, Coleman and Co, India’s largest media house, had wound up publication of the Kannada version of its flagship paper, The Times of India, after running it for a little over three years.