‘Online prepared me for print’
Vinay Chhajlani, CEO of Webdunia and Naidunia, on how a regional daily
can make its presence felt at national level

By Meha Mathur

Vinay Chhajlani is founder and CEO of Webdunia, world’s first multilingual portal offering services in 11 languages. A graduate in electrical and electronics engineering from BITS Pilani, and an MS in print technology from Rochester Institute of Technology, Chhajlani decided to make a difference to online media and software development through his portal, even though his family derives its reputation from the print media, having founded Central India’s leading newspaper Naidunia, launched just prior to Independence. Chhajlani, now the CEO of Naidunia, is showing the same foresight and dynamism that he showed in web space, in the print space too. Naidunia, which has given a number of stalwart journalists to the country, is now coming to Delhi, under Chhajlani’s leadership. How does he plan to create a space for a serious Hindi publication at national level? Management Compass finds out. Excerpts from an interview with him

Naidunia is now 60. How has it changed to keep pace with the ‘nai dunia’? What perceptible changes do you feel have crept in, in the media world, according to you?
What we as ‘Naidunia’ have not changed in past 60 years are our ethics and core values. Other than that whatever was required to keep pace with the ‘nai dunia’ or the ever-changing world outside, we have done it. Be it editorial, technical or managerial, we have not just kept abreast with the changing times, we have rather worked as trend setters to define the path.

To answer the second part of your question, the changes are so many. In fact the whole media world has changed. From the ‘missionary’ zeal that we saw during independence to the fierce competition and economics that drives the media world now. The media world is of course lot more organised than before but the whole objective and orientation has changed.

Naidunia has the pride of giving to the Hindi media a number of stalwarts. Why didn’t the newspaper earlier decide to enter the national media space itself? What was the reason that its competitor Dainik Bhaskar gained prominence at national level, while Naidunia remained confined to Central India.
Well, we do have lot of firsts to our account. However, I do agree that we could not expand as aggressively as we could have. One major reason was we were not a media house that had diversified activities going on to support the kind of cash flow that is required to expand rapidly. Naidunia evolved as newspaper only, with the independence movement and later with the passion for social change. It took time to form the basis that was required to take the giant leap ahead.

What is interesting to note is several of the stalwarts who started their career at Naidunia are now more then willing to have a “home coming” as we now set on a course of national expansion.

Also, can newspapers command national readership even from their bastions, without coming to Delhi?
I feel that coming to Delhi is of course significant and important, as without that you are tagged more as regional than national. The reasons are obvious and are followed by all other media houses as well. However the media world today is not restricted by its place of publication, not even print media, as you always have online versions and now with more and more people looking at satellite printing sites you can have a national access.

Now that the newspaper has decided to enter the national arena, what USP will it have? How will it create a niche?
We already have the USP of authentic and rich content with dedicated readership in regional editions. We believe in creating thought leadership and impact on public opinion. In fact your earlier question had the mention of several stalwarts being a part of the Naidunia team, including national leaders in the field. The reason so many people and Naidunia had proud mutual association is because the management at Naidunia always gave its editorial team the space and freedom and support to express freely. The same is going to be our USP for national arena as well and that is what will help us carve the niche that we are looking for.

The perception of Naidunia is that of a serious newspaper. Today, when glamour quotient of a newspaper is crucial for its success, what reasons will make readers lap it up? What will be the marketing strategy of the newspaper?
That is what is strategy — we are a serious newspaper and we take our readers very seriously. If our young readers are interested in reading more about the entertainment world, we will put all serious efforts to deliver the content related to glamour and entertainment world, in a right way to our readers. And that is what defines our glamour quotient as well. In all the regions that we exist, we enjoy a very good percentage of young readership as well. Interestingly in past we have published some very popular annual specials on films and television.

Media world is into big branding exercises and mega events today — leadership summits, leadership hunts. Does Naidunia (and Webdunia) plan to do something on that scale?
We do conduct events regularly. Our group company Naidunia Entertainment Pvt Ltd organises around 24 small to large events every year in MP and Chhattisgarh and as we expand we will roll our event formats in other areas as well. We have a different approach towards events and branding. In fact in central India, from where Naidunia started, we have set the trend of how newspapers can benefit the society by conducting various events and bring awareness. Our events on career, IT, housing etc are very popular. We recently organised an event for children wherein youth icon John Abraham got 25,000 school children to pledge for not smoking and consuming tobacco in their life.

Media is largely driven by management experts today. Does that impact the editorial sanctity?
No. This rather helps. If the editorial process flow of a newspaper is managed more efficiently, the content sources are utilised in a better way and the stories are planned well in advance, this will rather help to increase the editorial sanctity and bring more accountability in the whole system

You decided to make a mark in digital world through Webdunia and have now taken the reigns of Naidunia. It’s reverse of the trend in media. What reasons made you turn to the print only now? After having done an MS in print technology, why the decision not to venture straight into the print world?
Straight into the print world after doing MS in print technology was the easy way out. I have always enjoyed travelling the road less travelled. That is what has helped me realise the dream of Webdunia and make it happen. If I would have been straight in print, may be I would have been just ‘typed’ in that only. Having seen the online world and other media more closely, I am now better prepared to take the challenges involved with the print medium.

Through Webdunia you have demonstrated how technology and communication can blend to serve the readers. How can that be replicated in the print form?
This is what I am already working on. There is a lot that can be done here. Time is changing very fast and news papers need to adapt to the change carefully. There are enough lags in the system that can be eliminated with the use of technology. Technology can increase the efficiency and output levels in print in a dramatic way. However this needs to be very carefully implemented.