Jagran Media Network, the holding company of Jagran Prakashan will receive an investment of Rs 2.25 billion (around $50 Million) from US private equity group Blackstone. The deal for an undisclosed stake in the company will be put forward for approval from India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Foreign investors are allowed up to 26 percent in news companies or news broadcasters in India. On the digital side, Jagran has a tie-up with Yahoo India for Jagran.com, Online Classifieds business Khojle.in, reverse auction portal Jeetle.in, and also a Mobile Value Added services company called J9 Ventures. The media house publishes 37 editions and over 200 sub-editions of its newspaper Dainik Jagran, a tabloid called City Plus (23 editions), and I-Next, a bilingual newspaper. In Talks With Mid-Day Multimedia Both Jagran and the tabloid Mid Day Multimedia have clarified to the BSE that they are in discussions, without explicitly stating the details of their potential alliance. Mid-Day has said that they are "in talks with various media partners and examining the possibilities for strategic & operational alliances", while Jagran Prakashan has said that they "keep talking to various media houses and exploring the possibilities of equity and non-equity participation based alliances" and have had discussions with Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd. Yesterday, the Financial Express had reported that Jagran is in discussions with Mid-Day for a strategic alliance or possibly a stake. The investment has come close to the heels of Ireland based Independent News & Media Investment Ltd selling off 7.8 percent of its stake in Jagran Prakashan.…
