Times Internet is increasing it’s digital content footprint in India at a rapid pace. They have not only made number of acquisitions in digital space in recent times, but have also partnered with various global media houses to bring global digital content brands in India.
Times Internet have today announced that they have partnered with Say media, a leading digital publishing agency to launch Indian versions of two popular online magazines – ReadWrite and Remodelista.
ReadWrite was founded in 2003 and was earlier called ReadWriteWeb, and was re-launched as ReadWrite in 2012. It is one of the most widely read and respected tech news sites in the world.
Remodelista.com, is one of the most popular and loved home design websites in the world.
Times Internet partnership with Say Media will entail them exclusive rights to the two brands and their content in India. The Indian version of Remodelista would cover global home design trends along with content on Indian interior designing. For ReadWrite India, the coverage will include the latest from local tech circles which will augment the global tech news stories.
This partnership will fall under Times Local Partners (TLP) group. Over the past 12 to 18 months TLP has already partnered and rolled out Indian editions of Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Techradar, Business Insider and IGN.
Puneet Singhvi, Business Head, Times Local Partners, said “We are looking forward to expanding the horizons for Remodelista and ReadWrite.com in India. The Indian art of interior designing combined with the global design trends laid out by Remodelista India would make for an exciting read for the audience. The India version of ReadWrite will further augment the fledgling TLP Tech network and deliver latest from Indian and global tech news and analysis for its audience. The websites will complement our leadership in design and technology content offerings giving new avenues to our users as well as advertisers.”
Our Take – Disappointing Local Content
It is clear that Times Internet wants to aggressively increase their digital content footprint in India. They are partnering with globaly popular brands like Gizmodo, Techradar, ReadWrite & Lifehacker, so as to quickly get off the ground. They do not want to spend time building a brand ground-up and making it popular.
However, with all their previous partnerships, one thing is quite disappointing – their localized Indian content.
After all, these partnerships have been done to launch “Indian editions” of global brands and they need to cover Indian content, but if you have a look Indian editions of Gizmodo, or Lifehacker or others, they have very thin Indian content. Most of the articles are just rehash of their global counterparts (or sometimes exactly the same).
If the content is not going to be focused on Indian audience, launching “Indian editions” just does not make any sense!
Do let us know your thoughts!
[…] Remodelista […]