Fortune India and Forbes India in numbers

Much anticipated and much delayed, Fortune, the business magazine from the Time Inc stable, has finally made its India debut, in collaboration with Aveek Sarkar‘s Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP) group, 16 months after the launch of the Indian edition of Forbes in collaboration with Raghav Bahl‘s Network 18 group.

# Forbes India periodicity: fortnightly

Fortune India periodicity: monthly

# Forbes launch cover price: Rs 50 (raised to Rs 100)

Fortune launch cover price: Rs 100

# Forbes inaugural subscription price: Rs 950 (26 issues)

Fortune inaugural subscription price: Rs 800 (12 issues)

# Total pages in Forbes launch issue: 122

Total pages in Fortune launch issue: 192

# No. of names in Forbes launch issue masthead: 43

No. of names in Fortune launch issue masthead: 20

# No. of articles in Forbes launch issue: 30 (+ regulars)

No. of articles in Fortune launch issue: 25 (+ regulars)

# No. of ads in Forbes launch issue: 25

No. of ads in Fortune launch issue: 61

# No. of gatefold ads in Forbes launch issue: 0

No. of gatefold ads in Fortune launch issue: 2

# Forbes India: launched by Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, Forbes

Fortune India: launched by B. Muthuraman of Tata Steel and Ravi Kant of Tata Motors

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# Forbes launch issue cover story: Lakshmi Mittal

Fortune launch issue cover story: India Inc’s international workforce

# Firang gyan in Forbes launch issue: Steve Forbes

Firang gyan in Fortune launch issue: Andy Serwer, managing editor, Fortune

# India peg in Forbes launch issue: Lakshmi Mittal, Vijay Mallya (UB), Tulsi Tanti (Suzlon)

India peg in Fortune launch issue: Jawaharlal Nehru article from 1942 Forbes, Naresh Trehan (Medanta), Pramit Jhaveri (Citibank India CEO)

# Forbes India shit-I-didn’t-know-that story: Suzlon’s wind energy plans become a nightmare, debts and losses are Mallya’s new companions

Fortune India shit-I-didn’t-kn0w-that story: Bill Gates‘ favourite teacher’s father was born in Bengal, Wal-Mart will soon have $500 billion in sales

# Forbes India Freudian slip: “Indians can’t work, Chinese can’t think”

Fortune India Freudian slip: Will Brazil overtake India?

# Forbes India editorial mission statement: “We will strive to convince you of a point of view with hard evidence, logic and clear reasoning. But at the same time, we will have an attitude, an edge, and strive to be conversaional like someone on a bar stool telling you a story. We’ll also be fun to read. Companies may be a shade dull—but their managers almost never are. That’s why we will tell our stories through people… It’s not just words alone. Our design—images, graphics, and illustrations—will work in tandem with our stories to create a contemporary business magazine.” (Indrajit Gupta, editor)

Fortune India editorial mission statement: “As we bring you the stories that matter from around the world, through meticulous reporage, deftly edited to ensure an effortless read, lavish pictures, and sophisticated design, we’ll always endeavour to make the magazine enjoyable. Indeed, to make you partners in the greatest journalistic assignment in history.” (D.N. Mukerjea, editor)

Does a free newspaper stand a chance in India?

Per Mikael Jensen, president and CEO of Metro International, the Swedish company behind the world’s largest free newspaper Metro, on his India plans, in the latest issue of Forbes India:

# We’ve been looking at India for the last five years. It would have to be a joint venture or a franchise. FDI allows us to own 26% of the operation and we have increased our efforts towards exploring the opportunity through our India representative, Husain Quettawalla.

# In Latin America, we are in four countries. The two most recent launches in Mexico and Brazil have done extremely well and have become profitable in less than two years, which is very good performance. When we look at the Indian market, we see some similarities. We are not likely to need a giant market share to become profitable.

# Where we stand out is that we are so focussed on our target audience—the young urban audience between the ages of 20 and 40. When I look at Indian readership figures for Indian newspapers, like The Times of India for example, I’m not scared to death with their readership to be honest.

# The main time we target our audience is during the morning when they have 15 to 20 mintues to read our paper. This is when people are entering the metro trains or are waiting for the trains. We distribute at university campuses, high schools and waiting rooms at hospitals—everywhere people have 20 minutes they could use in reading the newspaper. But in India, given that our target audience doesn’t really travel by the trains, we won’t be focussing on the public transport system. So the model will focus on distribution at traffic lights or even targetting people when they get out of movie theatres.

But in a country where most English dailies are sold at rock-bottom prices, does a freesheet stand a chance?

Read the full interview: ‘I’m not worried about ToI‘s readership’

Sorry, brother, we got a few million $$$ wrong

The battle between Dhirubhai Ambani‘s children—Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, and children they truly are—also has a small but remarkable media subtext.

Both “camps” scour through news reports with a fine toothcomb, and both “camps” are not unknown to plant a few saplings in fertile newspapers and magazines to score points.

This clarification appears in the Delhi edition of the Indian Express on August 1 for the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infrastructure, which used to be Reliance Energy just a few months ago, which used to be BSES just a few years ago.

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The Indian edition of Forbes, the capitalist tool now in formerly socialist India, courtesy Network 18, runs a gossip column on its last page titled “Insnider”, yes “Insnider”, “because fat cats tend to have soft underbellies”

In its July 3 edition, the third issue of the magazine, Forbes India was forced to carry this “apology” for rubbing “fat cat” Mukesh Ambani’s underbelly on the wrong side, along with those of his “fat kittens”.

“In our issue dated June 19, 2009 under the heading Self-Reliance, we published a snippet stating that Isha and Akash, children of Mukesh Ambani, would be accompanied by a mini-entourage of three servants when they proceed to Yale for their undergraduate studies. The same piece went on to state and imply that Isha and Akash had not been admitted on merit but that Mukesh Ambani had, by improper means and use of his influence, secure their admission to Yale.

“We had published the report based on information that we had believed to be reliable.

“We have, however, subsequently ascertained and now recognise that there was no foundation to these allegations and we sincererely regret that they were ever made. We are happy to take the earliest opportunity of correcting our error and expressing to Mukesh Ambani and his children Isha and Akash our regret and embarrassment caused to them by publishing the original snippet.

“Similarly we also regret any references that were made to Yale University and its officials in the original snippet.”

Also read: Why the Indian media doesn’t take on the Ambanis

How media hyped up the Reliance Power IPO

Anil sues Mukesh for New York Times profile

2 new biz publications in 4 days of Cong win

New business publications are raining in India after the unexpected scale of triumph of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in the general elections on May 16.

On Monday, May 18, the Indian facsimile edition of The Wall Street Journal was launched in association with the Indian Express group with long-time WSJ man Suman Dubey at the helm. And on Thursday, May 21, the Indian edition of Forbes published by Network 18 and edited by Indrajit Gupta hit the stands.

“Why invest in a magazine when readership is dwindling all over the globe?” Raghav Bahl, the founder and editor of Network 18 writes in the premiere issue of Forbes:

“Because India is in a transformational phase unmatched in human history. Demographic mobility is creating a huge generation of first-time readers, who will simultaneously watch TV and begin to surf the Net. This demographic push is wo wide and deep that many will not skip the “touch and feel paper-reading phase” of their advancement into newly literate adults. But the magazines for this “digital and paper” generation will have to morph and evolve. They will have to go beyond the first information reports screaming on television and web sites. Magazine editorial will have to become like second-skin analysis, get closer to the bone, display more shades, investigate deeper, be more sensitive, deal with ambiguities, explain the greys and tell it with new-age chutzpah and design.”

An India edition of Financial Times is also on the cards, and ET Now, the business channel of The Times of India group is due to go on the air any time now.

Also read: Is this man the new media mogul of India?

An Indian address for ‘The Capitalist Tool’

The 11 habits of India’s most powerful media pros