Times Mirror Gets Fipb Nod To Set Up Subsidiary

The media conglomerate has recived the green signal from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to invest Rs 70 lakh initially.

The company plans to reprint, publish and export scientific, technical, medical and other non-fiction books.

This material will also be sold in the domestic market.

However, Times Mirror has been granted a conditional clearance by the FIPB in that the company cannot reprint or publish any of its newspapers or magazines in accordance to the Industrial Policy of 1955.

Times Mirror publishes newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and some others. It also publishes professional information for the legal, aviation, medical and training martkets along with a few trade magazines.

 

Some of the big winners from the Times Mirror stable include the Mosby products like the Mosby Year Book, Mosby Lifeline, Mosby Consumer Health etc.

By setting up shop in India, the media major is hoping to tap the growing demand for professional information by strategically expanding worldwide publishing and selling efforts.

Times Mirror wants to become an information company focussing on newspapers, professional information and magazines.

The company will recieve a royalty of 15 per cent on domestic sales as well as on export sales of reprinted textbooks.

The department of education has already given its blessings to the venture.

Times Mirror registered a net profit of $72million last year, where the main chunk of profits came from the newspaper publishing business.

Currently, the media group is in the process of restructuring its business. As part of the excercise, Times Mirror is selling off its cable television operations and its interests in Harry N Abrams, a leading publisher of art books in the US.

Times Mirror has also tied up with Harcourt General to extend its reach in selling professional information.