The Indian Express group of publications is using digital to extend its reach in the Indic language markets, beyond Hindi and Marathi. Indian Express Digital, the group's digital arm, has launched IEmalayalam.com, operating out of Kerala. This is IE Digital's third independent publication, after launching Inuth.com (youth content) and Techook.com (gadget reviews). Sandeep Amar, CEO of Indian Express Digital told MediaNama that they plan to launch sites in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bangla next. Indian Express already has regional language print and web publications in Loksatta (Marathi) and Jansatta (Hindi). Notes from a short conversation with Sandeep Amar: Why Malayalam first? We chose Malayalam because it's a very mature news market. Literacy levels are high, and Facebook is very strong here. We felt that our style of journalism will be tested best in the Malayalam market. We plan to launch Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali very soon. Presence in Kerala Sanjay Mohan is the editor here, and he reports to Nandagopal Rajan, who is our executive editor at Indian Express Digital. We have a dedicated Indian Express Digital Malayalam team, and a dedicated editorial office, which is fully independent. We'll cover from seven places here (in Kerala), other than Kochi. Looking at digital and offline separate We are looking at ourselves (Indian Express Digital) as a separate company altogether. You understand digital has to be an independent strategy. Digital journalism has to be separate. One of the things we've seen in this market is that Facebook is very very strong.…
