Bridgenews, the $1-billion financial news organisation, is focussed on expanding its operations in India. The wide-ranging opportunities that the Indian market offers and the competitive environment in the country are among the reasons pushing BridgeNews towards innovations here. For instance, right now, BridgeNews is planning to go all out for a much wider coverage of equity. Mr Barry Hing, Managing Editor, emerging markets; and Mr Eric Coleman, Managing Editor, copy desks, BridgeNews, who are in India at present, spoke to Nivedita Mookerji on how their organisation plans to stay ahead of others. Excerpts from the interview:BridgeNews has been active in India for the past couple of years. Are you here to announce something new for India?
Our trip to India is mainly to familiarise ourselves with the Indian operations and the staff here. Depending on the feedback that we get from this trip, we'll expand our services in India.
What are the India-specific plans that you have?
We're very keen about India as there's a whole lot of opportunities here, particularly in the area of portals. On the whole, the Indian market is good for BridgeNews. Specifically, we're trying to increase our coverage of the equity market, looking at the competitive environment in India. So far, our focus has mainly been on commodities and the money market.
What's your strategy to stay ahead of yourcompetition?
We have respect for our competitors. But Bridge is different from them in being focussed on what it gives to its subscribers. We believe in giving sophisticated and in-depth analytical news on commodities, the money market and equities.
Are you planning any substantial increase in the investment level for the India market?
We can safely say that we are enthusiastic about the future potential of the Indian market. We're also planning expansion of coverage of the Indian market, which means a greater investment. But we're not in a position to talk about any investment figure.
Is BridgeNews thinking in terms of getting into alliances and tie-ups for the Indian market? At present, BridgeNews is doing well on its own. However, for reaching out to Indian newspapers, we have a partnership with a company called Indian Quotation System (IQS). In case we are interested in any more alliances in the future, we'll consider it on a case by case basis, depending on the requirements at a particular point.
How big are your India operations right now?
We have a total of 30 reporters in our bureaus in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Then we have 48 editors in the country. The main bureau centres are Mumbai and New Delhi for BridgeNews. And in the Asian market, India is our hub for editing operations, while Singapore is the hub for bureau operations.
What are the interests of BridgeNews in the print media?
We have collaboration with various newspaper organisations, including The New York Times. Either directly, or through collaborations, we reach out to 600 newspapers around the world. In India, we reach out to newspapers through our partner-Indian Quotation System (IQS). Incidentally, we're the largest financial information provider in North America and the second largest in the world, with Reuters leading the race.
What are the new e-initiatives of BridgeNews?
We have a service called e-Bridge, where we host Websites for our clients. Among others, we have top international banks as our clients for the e-Bridge service.
Please name some of your big Indian clients?
We have the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and American Express (Amex) among our valued clients who subscribe to our corporate packages.
Finally, what's the secret behind the success of BridgeNews?
We're leaner, quicker and smarter than others.
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