तहलका का बहुप्रतीक्षित बिजनेस अखबार फाइनेंसियल वर्ल्ड अब प्रकाशित नहीं होगा. इसके शुरू होने से पहले बंद करने का ऐलान कर दिया गया है. तहलका की प्रकाशन करने वाली कंपनी अनंत मीडिया प्राइवेट लिमिटेड ने इस अखबार के प्रकाशन में असमर्थता जताई है. तहलका के प्रमुख संपादक तरूण तेजपाल ने एक बैठक बुलाकर सभी कर्मचारियों को इसकी सूचना दी. बैठक में उन्होंने बताया कि फाइनेंसियल वर्ल्ड नाम से आने वाला इस समूह का अखबार अब नहीं निकाला जाएगा.
कंपनी सूत्रों की मानें तो यह फैसला आर्थिक कारणों से लिया गया है. अनंत मीडिया कंपनी के प्रमुख स्टेक होल्डर एवं फाइनेंसियल वर्ल्ड शीर्षक के मालिक केडी सिंह भी इस प्रोजेक्ट से अपने को अलग कर लिया है. अखबार से जुड़े कई वरिष्ठ लोगों ने पहले ही इस्तीफा दे दिया था.
वहीं बिजनेस समाचार देने वाली एजेंसी फाइनेंसियल टेक्नोलॉजीस ग्रुप ने भी अपनी सेवा टिकलप्लांट लिमिटेड का ऑपरेशन समाप्त करने की घोषणा कर दी है. नीचे पढि़ए पूरी खबर-
Tehelka’s biz paper venture called off
The publisher of Tehelka magazine, Anant Media Pvt. Ltd, is calling off its plans for a business daily because of a funding crunch.
Tarun J. Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka and a promoter of Anant Media, informed employees at a meeting on Friday that the business paper, Financial World, would not be launched, said three people familiar with the development, all declining to be identified.
Tejpal blamed problems in funding and syndication with foreign newspapers, said one of them, who was present at the meeting. Tejpal did not answer calls or reply to text messages sent to his mobile phone on Friday.
Financial World was to compete with other business dailies, including The Economic Times, Mint, Business Standard, The Hindu Business Line, Financial Express and Financial Chronicle.
Last week, Tejpal had denied funding was a problem. He said at the time that the paper was delayed by a few months and would be ready to launch by March-April.
K.D. Singh, a majority stakeholder in Anant Media and owner of Financial World title, said he had withdrawn from the project.
Singh, also chairman of Chandigarh-based Alchemist Group, was expected to invest `100 crore in the paper.
He said that irrespective of the fate of Financial World, Tehelka will see an expansion. “We have plans of launching the magazine in Bengali, Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam,” Singh said.
Alchemist Group has interests in aviation, healthcare, realty and education.
Senior editors who had already quit Financial World include Prem Shankar Jha and Mukul Shukla.
Jha said he quit because of editorial differences with the management on the nature of the paper. Shukla, hired as political editor, concurred with Jha.
The news comes as another media venture, TickerPlant Ltd, an information-vending platform from the Financial Technologies group, decided to shut its operations from March, Mint reported on 13 January.
Tejpal told employees of Financial World they were entitled to two months’ pay, said the person who was at the Friday meeting.
Advertising revenue for business papers is estimated at `600-700 crore a year and is growing at 10-15%, according to media buyers.
Janardan Pandey, associate vice-president at Mudra Max, the media arm of Mudra Group, said the growth in readership was not commensurate with the number of papers.
“The business publications space is dominated by a few players, and any new player would find it difficult to break through the clutter,” he said. “It’s a tough space to operate in and quite unlike general news.” courtesy : Mint
Deependu Biswas
January 16, 2011 at 1:43 pm
All my hearty condolences to Mr Tarun Tejpal…
But, I can understand what editorial differences he must be having with other people in the group. The type of agenda that Tehelka itself follows in the garb of so-called ‘investigative journalism’ is obvious to everyone. He must have conceptualised it as another tool to support Muslims and in the process garner funds from Gulf countries as he does for ‘Tehelka’.
Mr Tejpal…Please don’t ruin journalism by your shoddy agenda and opportunism.