"Our advertisers have found tremendous value in our proposition" Sandeep Bhushan, COO, Mint

It's a day of celebration for Mint, the business daily of HT Media Ltd, as it turns three this year. The business daily made its presence felt by its unique positioning. Be it breaking the myth of business newspaper being pink paper or be it the layout, format and the lucid content. It's all evident by the position this publication has attained in short three years span which is validated by IRS and has give old players in the space a tough fight.

Adgully had an exclusive chat with Sandeep Bhushan, COO, Mint, on the occasion and he says, "Mint has grown strongly in 2009. In only its third year, Mint is India's 2nd largest business daily. As per IRS, we now have a 25 per cent share of readers in the markets where we were audited. We are in fact 3 times larger than Business Standard who has been around for many years. We have a reader base of 2 lakh readers if we also add the new editions that we have launched."

So who do you give the credit for the success? On this Bhushan answers, "At the core of our growth is our delivery of Clarity in business news. Our no jargon no nonsense editorial style and our path breaking format and design have appealed to the top-end business readers in the country and include business and policy leaders. This is validated by the latest IRS which puts our profile ahead of the category leader on both income and socio-economic classification."

Talking about the revenue generation he explains, "Our advertisers have found tremendous value in our proposition that Mint is the only way to reach the top end reader (especially since 4 of 5 mint readers do not read another business daily!). We have grown strongly in revenues therefore. We wanted ad revenues to reflect our readership numbers. With close to 30 share of display, we are getting there."

Bhushan further said, "Going forward we will continue to grow both in terms of volume and to start charging a premium for the reader profile that we have."

In the middle of the year 2009 Mint spread its reach by launching in two new metro cities Chennai and Kolkata. On asking if the brand has any further expansion plans, Bhushan clarifies, "We launched our Chennai and Kolkata editions in the middle of 2009. With these launches Mint is now available across 7 cities and has a national footprint. As we enter the New Year, on one hand we are constantly evaluating new opportunities to expand and on the other we seek to consolidate our circulation in these cities as we move ahead."

The recent IRS reports were not very encouraging for the print industry, so publication has to also think of other medium for revenue generation to keep the growth ticking. Bhushan briefs, "We also have built an events business under the "Clarity through Debate" umbrella and we believe that it has strong revenue potential. The events further add to Mint's delivery of the top end audience since all our events are editorially driven and have the credibility to attract the best panels and audiences - which is what advertisers are seeking as they push for greater accountability in their BTL spends."

Talking about the success, Bhushan sums up saying, "All of this is built on the foundation of one of most respected editorial products in the country. The kind of positive reaction it evokes continues to give us confidence that our way of clear credible journalism is not just a significant differentiator, but a strong business builder as well."