British business daily Financial Times, respected the world over for its commentaries on economic affairs, is keen to enter India but is disappointed at not getting the necessary approvals, its editor said.
"We would love to directly compete in India and have been trying to print here for over 20-years now...It is disappointing," the pink paper's Editor Lionel Barber said at a conference organised by CII here today.
Hinting at the caps on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media, which restricts foreign ownership to 26 per cent, Barber said FT's bids are met with legal hurdles.
"India is a great place to be in...Allow competition," he said.
The print media is definitely on the decline but not out. For survival, the print media will have to analyse ways of differentiating its product offerings from newer media like the web, Barber said.
Barber, who has been at the helm since 2005, recalled how FT was itself struggling some years back but a conscious strategy of having a balance between print and the web helped it sustain. Both the paper and the web divisions are currently profitable, he added.
"We decided to position ourselves as a premium global product and charge for content online," Barber said, adding the financial market meltdown was a good opportunity which the daily capitalised on.
He also said that the content has to be good for the industry to flourish.
