BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COMPANY AND ITS BUSINESSThe Company was incorporated under the Companies Act 1956 asMid-Day Publications Private Limited on March 12 1981 to takeover the newspaper publishing business of Inquilab OffsetPrinters Private Limited (IOPPL) controlled by the samepromoter family. IOPPL was established in 1938 and its firstpublication `Inquilab' started as an underground pamphletpropagating the cause of the Independence movement of India.Soon after the formation of Mid-Day Publications Pvt Limited in1981 with the main object of printing and publishing ofnewspapers magazines books journals etc. the operatingbrands transferred to the new Company were The Daily Inquilab(established 1938) Sportsweek (established 1968) Mid-Day(established 1979) and Sunday Mid-Day (established 1981).Mid-Day Publications Pvt Limited was promoted by the samepromoters as IOPPL and since inception there has been no changeof management. Inquilab Offset Printers Pvt Ltd continued as aprinting Company under the same ownership structure. Mid-DayPublications Private Limited was then converted into a deemedpublic entity under Section 43A of the Companies Act 1956 onJuly 1 1989. Pursuant to a Special Resolution passed at theAnnual General Meeting held on May 29 2000 it was convertedinto a Public Limited Company under Section 44(2)(b) of theCompanies Act 1956. To reflect the diversification of itsactivities into other media fields and the changing nature ofthe business the name of the Company was changed to Mid-DayMultimedia Limited. This was done pursuant to a SpecialResolution passed at the Extraordinary General Meeting held onJune 23 2000. The Company's Objects Clauses were suitablyamended to include its forays into other multimedia activitiesincluding to carry on the business as broadcasters marketers orin any other manner of audio programmes to carry on thebusiness of television programs television films and televisionsoftware to carry on the business of Advertising Agents toprovide on-line and/or interactive information and news forbusiness and general use to deal in internet commerce and allinternet related activity.Printing & PublishingWhile the Company was incorporated in 1981 the truecommencement of business should be taken as the year 1938 whenthe daily Inquilab a popular Urdu morninger was launched aspart of the Freedom Movement and still continues to grow inreadership. The first English publication of the groupSportsweek was launched in 1968. Due to the insufficiency ofadvertising revenue in the sector Sportsweek was closed down in1989 but not before contributing very significantly to thelearning process within the Company. Mid-Day Mumbai's populareveninger was launched in 1979. Sunday Mid-Day the Sundaymorning newspaper was launched in 1981. The Gujarati edition ofMid-Day was launched into the Mumbai market in 1995 to fill theperceived need for a good afternoon newspaper for the prominentGujarati community of Mumbai. In order to service the need fora good publication addressing information needs of theadvertising and media industries the Company launched afortnightly called The Brief in 1997. The Brief has alsoentered the seminars and exhibitions space with a number ofsuccessful industry events to date. The other publishinginterests of the Company include books like The Mid-Day GoodFood Guide to Mumbai Mid-Day Mumbai Shopping Guide the Mid-DayMillennium Horoscope Mid-Day Good Food Guide to Pune.Outdoor AdvertisingObserving the worldwide growth of the medium of outdoor signagethe Company explored an entry into the outdoor advertisingbusiness in Mumbai in 1998 winning key contracts in the cityfor the maintenance and marketing of advertising space.RadioIn 1993 the first new media opportunity for the Company came inthe form of the offering to private producers of slots on AllIndia Radio's FM service in metro cities. The Company was oneof the first private players to venture into this area and in ashort time had established Radio Mid-Day as a premium FM brandprogramming and marketing radio in Mumbai Panaji ChennaiBangalore and Delhi.Mid-Day Multimedia and its subsidiary M C Media Limitedestablished the Radio Mid-Day FM brand and earned ad revenuesduring its operations. MC Media Limited acquired a time slot inthe FM frequency band of The All India Radio (AIR) to produceand air music programmes during the specified time slot on itsFM channel. Since June 1998 AIR discontinued the services ofall the private operators from airing programmes on its FMchannel and this has adversely affected MC Media Ltd'soperations.Rs. lakhs 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00Ad revenues 7 82 119 197.8 325 112.4 47Studio Revenue - 3 8 6 11.9 7 14InternetIn order to protect the existing franchise and exploit the newmedium Mid-Day made a foray into cyberspace with mid-day.com inearly 1999. The site has been relaunched as Chalomumbai.comwith improved content and links.Initially Chalomumbai is looking at two paths for revenues.* It is targeting the 180000 commercial establishment registeredwith the BMC in the city of Mumbai. Chalomumbai has identified5000 of these establishments in the current year for which ithopes to develop a home page and host at its site at a cost ofRs. 1000 per page.* Advertising revenues and also hosting events for incrementalrevenues.CAPITAL HISTORYMid-Day Multimedia Limited was initially incorporated with acapita] of Rs 300 which was made up of 3 equity shares of Rs.100 each on 12th March 1981. The capital was then increased invarious stages to Rs 4464000 by 31st March 2000. The equityshares were sub - divided from Rs. 100 to Rs. 10 on 29th May2000. The equity share capital was increased to Rs.270000000 in June 2000 consequent to a bonus issue in theratio of 1844 shares for every 31 shares held in the Company.
Name | Position |
---|---|
Mr. Praveen Someshwar | Chairman & Non-Exe.Director |
Mr. Sameer Singh | Independent Director |
Mr. Lloyd Mathias | Independent Director |
Ms. Suchitra Rajendra | Independent Director |
Mr. Sandeep Rao | Non Executive Director |