The last major business daily to launch in India was Financial Chronicle in April 2008, preceded by Mint on February 1, 2007.
Three new business dailies are set to launch over the next three to four months.
This will break an 18-year hiatus in the country's financial print media industry.
Key Points
- Express Publications plans Kochi-based Financial Standard, while Kumudam and Dinamalar will introduce new Tamil-focused business newspapers.
- Express aims nationwide editions using existing printing infrastructure, with editorial emphasis on India's emerging manufacturing, logistics and innovation corridors.
- Kumudam's publication will combine Tamil regional reporting with English national and international business coverage across multiple state editions.
Express Publications (Madurai), which owns the New Indian Express newspaper, plans to come up with a new national business paper based out of Kochi by the end of October.
Tamil media group Kumudam will launch a Chennai-based business newspaper in Tamil and English in mid-September.
This comes as one of the largest circulated Tamil-language daily newspapers Dinamalar is also planning to launch a business daily in Tamil by the end of this year.
The last major business daily to launch in India was Financial Chronicle in April 2008, preceded by Mint on February 1, 2007.
Financial Chronicle shut down in February 2019, leaving the Economic Times, Business Standard, Mint, Financial Express and BusinessLine as the country's primary business papers.
Financial Standard Launch Plans
Two government sources aware of the developments said Express Publications' newspaper will be titled Financial Standard, while the Chennai-based publication will launch as Kumudam Business And News.
Officials from both media houses, however, declined to confirm the titles.
Lakshmi Menon, chief operating officer of Express Publications (Madurai), said the new product's editorial focus will be around sectors where much of India's next decade of growth is being built.
It will be the sixth national financial daily in India.
"We are not merely reporting on the Indian economy; we are chronicling the new geography of Indian growth -- the financial daily for India's growth story," Menon said.
"We intend to report on the businesses, industries, policies and people driving economic transformation across the country's expanding growth corridors -- from manufacturing hubs and logistics networks to innovation ecosystems, family-owned enterprises, regional champions and high-growth cities," Menon said.
Kochi Emerges as Hub
Anto T Joseph, resident editor of The New Indian Express for Tamil Nadu, is set to lead the group's new business paper in Kochi.
Senior journalist L Ranganathan will be the editor of the new daily by Kumudam.
Though the exact number of editions for the Express Publications (Madurai) paper is not yet known, market sources say it could launch at least a dozen nationwide by leveraging its existing printing press network.
Menon said India's economic story is being shaped by entrepreneurs in emerging cities, manufacturers in industrial clusters, expanding consumer markets, digital businesses reaching every district, and ambitious enterprises scaling from across the country.
"We see a significant opportunity to build a financial daily that reflects this changing economic landscape.
"The established financial centres will, of course, remain integral to our coverage," she said in response to a question on choosing Kochi as its headquarters.
"We also recognise that the business of financial journalism has evolved significantly since the last major wave of financial newspaper launches.
"The modern business daily has to be relevant across platforms and touchpoints, and create value for readers, businesses and the wider economic ecosystem," Menon said.
The price of the paper is yet to be revealed.
"While our primary focus will always be credible, differentiated journalism, we will also explore appropriate opportunities around events, knowledge platforms and other initiatives that complement our editorial mission," she said.
Dinamalar Business Daily
Kumudam Business And News is expected to feature regional reporting in Tamil, with major national and international news in English.
On the other hand, the Dinamalar product will be a 16-page business newspaper.
"We have already started making dummy pages, and our team is ready to go. Waiting for the market to pick up," said Krishnamurthy Ramasubbu, associate editor, Dinamalar.
The new newspaper will be printed in all the 10 cities with Dinamalar presence.
Industry sources say the Kumudam Group paper will launch at least four editions across Tamil Nadu.
Its parent publication, Kumudam, is a popular Tamil news and entertainment weekly founded in 1948 by S A P Annamalai and P V Parthasarathy in Chennai.
South India Media Expansion
Many view the two launches as a sign of broader media expansion across South India.
On Monday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay officially launched India Today Tamil, a new local reporting digital initiative.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
