Update: Dow Jones has declined to comment on their India plans at this time, but from what we’ve heard, they looking more at the version of the Asian Wall Street Journal than the US or European edition. What is perhaps going to be more interesting, is the pricing that they choose for the Indian market, for a facsimilie edition.
Original Story: News Corp owned Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, has applied for an approval to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India which will publish facsimilie editions of newspapers. For the time being, the government has deferred taking a decision on the application.
Readers will rememeber News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, during his visit to India earlier this year had said that the company won’t invest in the Print Media space in India because of the Foreign Direct Investment limitation that allows foreign investors hold only 26% stake. It appears, then, that they’re looking for a partner. HT Media could be one.
Dow Jones has a content agreement with HT Media’s publication - Mint, which had launched two years ago with the WSJ on its masthead, as well as select content from WSJ and DJ owned Marketwatch.com. The partnership, as well as the fact that Mints (former) editor Raju Narisetti was an old WSJ hand were leveraged extensively by HT Media to build Mint as a brand.
So what happens to WSJ and MarketWatch content in Mint, when is Mints partership with Dow Jones ending? We’ve contacted Mint and Dow Jones for some color on the road ahead for the partnership.
