Chennai: In a classic case of a print media giant catching up with the digital trends, the 93 years old Vikatan Group has successfully transformed in to digital pro media entity with its digital revenue adding up to 16% of the group’s overall revenue, the companies Managing Director, B Srinivasan revealed at conclave on Digital Transformation organized by Madras Management Association (MMA) in Chennai.
He also disclosed that 10% of the group’s revenue comes from YouTube with Vikatan having six active YouTube channels that commands 8 million subscribers and 7.5 million views per day. According to FE, the company’s digital revenues (pay and ad revenues) have been growing by a compound annual rate of 35% withdelighted advertisers happy about the response and audience connect generated through several ad campaigns that are response-driven.
While elaborating how his company made digital foray accidentally, Srini stated that Vikatan.com was started in 1997 as a free to read site for all Vikatan group of magazines in order to serve the global Tamil diaspora that was reeling under postal delays and huge shipping cost. Escalating cost resulted in the site going “paid” from Feb 2005, offering digital magazine subscriptions for readers to pay, subscribe and read the Vikatan magazines on the Internet. The group’s first maiden digital venture becomes successful with its operations turning profitable in 100 days.
Expressing his happiness over the process of equipping his editorial team digital ready, Srini recollected his challenges on how the Print leaning editorial team with traditional approach was reluctant to integrate with the digital team that was technically sound with limited or zero editorial sense. He attributed that his perseverance to create a future ready editorial team is a reality today.
Srinivasan hopes to build an experience-driven, contextual content company focused on technology, when Vikatan Group celebrates its 100th birthday in seven years.
