Living Media India Ltd (The India Today Group) has formed a joint venture with the US media group Hearst Corp to publish print and digital lifestyle magazines for the Indian market, reports Exchange4Media. The joint venture will publish magazine titles from Hearst as well as other publishers. Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group has told this will comprise of new titles, brand extensions and regional language editions amongst others. The joint venture will be headed by Sanjay Thapar as CEO, who will be responsible for supervising all the editorial, business and staff of this joint venture. He will be reporting to Ashish Bagga. Prior to this, Thapar was serving as the Group CEO of WPP's creative agency Bates India. He's also held senior executive positions in Ogilvy & Mather, Mudra India, Ramms India, and Bata India. India Today's Partnership with Hearst Corp Its worth noting that India Today group has a partnership with Hearst Corp for 17 years and has launched four of Hearst's magazine titles in the country - Harper's BAZAAR, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and more recently Harper's BAZAAR Bride which debuted earlier this month. Its quite possible that these magazines will now be brought under this joint venture. Other magazines published by India Today group include its flagship publication India Today, Business Today, Money Today, Design Today, Travel Plus, Gadgets & Gizmos. It also has a 49:51 joint venture partnership with Axel Springer to publish the fortnightly magazine Auto Bild and has licensing agreements to publish Indian editions of Reader's Digest, Conde Nast's Golf Digest, Rodale's Men's Health, Women's Health and Prevention, Harvard Business Review and…
