Agreement between Hindustan Times & Weekly Blitz signed

by Special Correspondent
June 18, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1523/agreement-between-hindustan-times-weekly-blitz

Hindustan Times Media Limited, which owns India's largest English language daily newspaper The Hindustan Times, has signed an agreement with Blitz Publications, the owning company of Weekly Blitz on May 5, 2011.

Hindustan Times [HT] is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ["Hindustan" being a historical name for Northern India]. Hindustan Times is the flagship publication of HT Media Ltd. In 2008 the newspaper reported its daily circulation as being over 1.14 million copies according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations [India], ranking it as the third largest daily English newspaper in India. The Indian Readership Survey [IRS] 2010 revealed that HT has a daily readership of [3.467 million] placing it as the third most widely read English Newspaper in India after The Times of India. It has a wide reach in northern India, with simultaneous editions from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Bhopal and Chandigarh. HT launched a youth daily, HT Next, in 2004. The Mumbai edition was launched on 14 July 2005 and the Kolkata edition was launched on early 2000.

Other sister publications of Hindustan Times are Mint [English business daily], Dainik Hindustan [Hindi Daily], Nandan [monthly children's magazine] and Kadambani [monthly literary magazine]. The media group owns a radio channel, Fever, and organizes an annual Luxury Conference which has featured speakers like designer Diane von Fürstenberg, shoemaker Christian Louboutin, Gucci CEO Robert Polet and Cartier MD Patrick Normand.

Hindustan Times is owned by the KK Birla branch of the Birla family. The Delhi-based English newspaper Hindustan Times is part of the KK Birla group and managed by Shobhana Bhartia, daughter of the industrialist KK Birla and granddaughter of GD Birla. It is owned by HT Media Ltd. The KK Birla group owns a 69 per cent stake in HT Media, currently valued at Indian Rupees 834 crore [1 crore = 10 million]. When Shobhana Bhartia joined Hindustan Times in 1986, she was the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper. Ms. Shobhana has been nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress Party.

Under this agreement, Hindustan Times Media Limited shall utilize all or part of the content of Weekly Blitz via any of HTML's direct/indirect distribution channels [as modified from time to time] anywhere in the world. This Agreement initially shall remain valid for a period of one year.

Weekly Blitz has granted Hindustan Times Media Limited the non-exclusive worldwide rights to reproduce, transmit and distribute the content, in whole or in part, on magnetic, optical or any other form of electronic media or transmission whether now in existence or developed in the future including electronic transmission to on-line terminals and computer networks for searching, displaying and printing.

Weekly Blitz was established in 2003 by award winning anti-Jihadist journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Blitz has already attained the status as the most influential newspaper in Bangladesh. This newspaper has been consistently combating religious extremism, anti-semitism and Jihad as well promoting inter-faith harmony. Office of this newspaper was attacked a number of times by the local militants while the editor of Blitz was abducted at gun point by the members of Rapid Action Battalion in 2008. Government led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] brought sedition, treason and blasphemy charges against Mr. Choudhury in 2003 and he was imprisoned for 17 months. Trial of this false case is still continuing in a court in Dhaka. According to Bangladesh law, sedition bears capital punishment.

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