Gyan Gupta heads the digital business of Dainik Bhaskar Group. The Group offers integrated internet and mobile interactive services through I Media Corp Ltd. (IMCL), a subsidiary of DB Corp ltd. The company has in its gamut portals- DainikBhaskar.com, DivyaBhaskar.co.in. Prior to joining IMCL in November 2008, Gupta had worked with Genpact and CMC Ltd. In an exclusive interview with India Digital Review, Gyan Gupta shares his thoughts and plans about growing the entire digital publishing market in India.

DB Corp has recently crossed 200 mn cumulative pageviews. What, according to you, are the factors that led to this feat?

In the current context, especially when you speak about online media, it is imperative to focus on your reader. Internet is not a push medium, and if someone doesn’t like the content, he or she will just migrate to another site. It is not like newspapers where one takes six months to figure out who the vendor is and then migrate. For us, it is always a question of what the readers are willing to read online. We reach out to our readers and ask them about their preferences and trends. Leveraging the medium to the best use of our readers is what we look at doing primarily. For example, news like ‘India needs 2 runs to win’ is not a headline but we will run it as a header as it is probably the biggest news at that point. In newspapers, we have a concept of ‘event of the day’, but here it is about ‘event of the moment’.

We have also expanded our horizon of offerings and generated to a content site from being a news site. People want to stay updated and an update can be anything like a new tablet launch to a simple thing like 5 trains got cancelled. We have also launched two new sections called ‘brands’ and ‘celebs’. In brands, we talk about luxury brands with information that is not generally fund on the traditional medium. So the catch is keeping the reader in mind and deciding what would matter to him the most.

How do you see DB Corp taking the route of convergence towards online publishing in India?

Going forward, it is the writing on the wall that internet will be a primary media in India. There are a couple of interesting trends that are happening. The number of Google Searches is declining and this is because people are now going to Facebook to search for recommendations from people I know. People can associate with a person’s recommendation rather than a search engine’s recommendations. Hence a need of branded content on the web is emerging because people now don’t want too much information, rather they look for filtered information. Media houses have to have that relevancy in the medium. It is not about being fancy by having a web presence anymore. It is about providing relevant information to people through the medium.

What has been the core strategy of DainikBhaskar.com in the editorial space? What is the ratio of original/breaking news stories and aggregated pieces?

Today, a lot of the content that we do, is produced only for the web. Right from the top headlines to the Bollywood gossips, we do it exclusively for the web. We have a Bollywood team in Mumbai who file stories for us. We have a special team in Ujjain for religious content. The idea is to treat the web differently. Even the local news that we pick up, we rehash the piece for the web. We have also trained our Print reporters the art of filing stories real time. Last year we equipped them with laptops to file stories from the field. This year we gave them smart phones so that they can shoot pictures and videos and upload them directly on the web. In any Press Conference attended by our Daink Bhaskar reporters, they ask the Ministers to give a one minute bite on video, which then gets uploaded to the web. That is the kind of exclusive content that one can create on the web and broadcast can’t get that down.

What are your priorities as the CEO of DB Corp online right now? Any new properties planned?

We don’t plan to create multiple brands. We will continue focussing on the brands that we presently have. The reader doesn’t really care whether he has to go to 10 different sites to get the content, if he gets them in one page why not? Today the best source of content consumption is Facebook and it is not even a media company. And looking at the trends on Facebook, personal content is on a sharp decline and the generic stuff is catching up.

What we are doing differently is that this year, we are creating an IPR. This year, the Dainik Bhaskar Bollywood awards, which is a group property, is chaired only by the online arm. Bollywood stars are no one without the people’s support and we are telling that its the people and not the jury who will decide the winners. This is the second year where we are crowd sourcing the judgment from the readers through internet.

Besides content brands, do you plan to divulge into other services like ecommerce, classifieds etc?

These are not our forte. We are a content company and we will like to stay and focus on that. I will do what I am good that and I don’t have any expertise on anything other than content.

How do you see online publishing in India growing over the coming year?

Everyone is realising that they can’t ignore this medium anymore. The two drivers from 100 million to 300 million internet penetration in India will be local content and local language. One year back, we started speaking about this and I am so glad that people around are realising this now and endorsing the point. In two years, we are saying that we will around 200 million people online. As per the iCube report, Metros are growing at 13 per cent and non-metros are growing at 67 per cent. And 98 per cent of the non-metro consumption today is local language.

Internet is a very personal medium and people like to converse with their know ones in their own language. It’s not like carrying a famous newspaper in your arms and telling the world what you read. What you read on the laptop is only known to you.

We have been hearing that regional content will be the point of growth of internet penetration in India. What is your take on this?

I have been interacting with our vernacular peers a lot. Everyone knows that the only way to fuel the growth on digital is to give the readers their desired content. Each one have their own ways of rendering their readers’ demands and that might different from each other. But the ultimate goal is the same.

It is believed that in India monetization of content is more of a reality in offline. What is your opinion on this?

Last year, internet emerged as the third largest medium and online display was about Rs 1,000 crore. This is good enough an endorsement that this medium is being recognised. For any medium, to become that primary medium, it is all about scale. We took about 15 years to reach 100 million and we are talking about reaching 200 million in the next two years. Then with 300 million people, advertisers can’t ignore this medium and hence the revenue will also grow. At the moment we shouldn’t look at pricing because differential pricing exists across all mediums. One has to realise that the guy who is coming online is affluent and one needs to tell them.

Have we overdone the measurement quotient and made digital medium hard to understand for the brand marketers?

I don’t think so. See, lets say you go out shopping for your daughter’s birthday party. You buy a Rs 5000 dress and other stuffs. Then if she says that she wants a balloon which is worth 10 rupees, will you debate that? So, for a multinational brand, who has an advertising budget of Rs 1, 000 crore, do you think they will debate that? The CMO won’t waste his time in the Rs 10 crore he will spend in the medium. So it’s not the marketer because it comes on to the planner to use the spends. It is a chicken and egg story. As long as a significant portion of the budget is not going there, the head is not looking at it.  And if the head is not looking at it, the people below will take their own calls. Companies whose primary media spends are online, know that process. It’s not about getting a lead, it’s about branding. Facebook has the lowest CTRs but they are spending huge money. Internet is not a medium to generate sales. A medium can never do sales for you, and you will have to have a sales team for that. It’s about having a presence on the medium.

We will have to look at the bigger picture. The moment 30 per cent of a brand’s spends go on online, the marketer will be serious and will want to know about the RoI. They will get their best minds to design an ad and the agencies will put a thinking process behind the creative.

What are your thoughts on innovations which publishers can offer to clients for advertising their products in a better way?

In this case, publishers need to ask advertisers how innovative as a brand are they? Tell me one broadcast innovation that you remember in the last 10 years. Every campaign is designed according to the objective of the product and the campaign should meet the objective. Innovation is not the answer always.

How important is rich media content from a publisher point of view.

A reader should get whatever he wants to from this medium and hence it is very important to have videos enabled or desktop, mobiles and tablets. What broadcast, print or radio can't do, internet can do and hence one should exercise this ability.

What are your mobile strategies right now?

I don’t think anyone has a strategy for mobile at this point of time. We all realise that mobile as a device is present with almost everyone in this country but there are some serious challenges to this. Addressing the user experience becomes tricky when one has to deal with so many form factors. All wapsites are simple and basic in nature and that limitation will exist unless the market converges into certain specific sizes for mobile devices.

200 mn cumulative pageviews this year, whats in store for next year for DB Corp?

That’s a tough question to answer. We took about two years to reach 100 million. Then in the next 8 to 9 months added 50 million more and the last 50 mn we added in three months. The pace is accelerating and we will continue the growth story.