 "Good days are back for Panchjanya publisher")
It wears its nationalistic badge on its sleeve and counts former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as its first editor. While Bharat Prakashan, publisher of the Organiser and Panchjanya weekly magazines, has had both an illustrious and controversial past, from a business point of view the city-based group appears to be now coming into its own.
Data sourced from the Registrar of Companies show that the publishing house has reported a sharp increase in ad revenues for both its magazines, considered flagship properties of the firm, in 2014-15.
This is, in fact, the unlisted entity's highest ad growth numbers reported in three years, despite it posting a loss of more than Rs 2 lakh in 2014-15 due to a switch from a daily to a weekly format that year.
The firm's directors' report also says that its wage bill almost doubled in 2014-15 due to the implementation of the Majithia wage board scales, hitting its bottom line. Nonetheless, at the topline level, numbers were strong.
Consider this. The English-language Organiser magazine saw a two-fold growth in ad revenues for 2014-15, while the Hindi-language Panchjanya saw a 68 per cent increase in ad revenues for the year under review. In 2013-14, ad revenue growth for the Organiser and Panchjanya magazines were 78 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
Despite this, at a time when magazines and dailies, notably, in the English-language space, have struggled to maintain ad and circulation revenue growth, these numbers are eye-popping, media experts said.
Political experts though are not surprised with the figures, given the hardline stance of the two magazines. The group was recently criticised for taking a strong view on the lynching of an individual in the town of Dadri in Uttar Pradesh for consuming beef. Panchjanya had carried a cover story in the wake of the killing, saying that the Vedas - the sacred text of the Hindus - speaks of taking matters in one's hands if the slaughter of cows happens. Hindus consider the bovine to be sacred.
While Panchjanya editor Hitesh Shankar eventually distanced himself from the story saying the views expressed in the article were of the writer's alone and not the magazine's, it did nothing to quell the storm. Organiser also followed it up with an article strongly supporting the ban on cow slaughter and criticising beef festivals that were organised across the country in the wake of Dadri. Executives at Bharat Prakashan were not immediately available for comment despite mails and calls to their office.
But the firm's website shows that it has been growing from strength-to-strength. Both the Organiser and Panchjanya are now available for subscription online.
Data sourced from the Registrar of Companies show that the publishing house has reported a sharp increase in ad revenues for both its magazines, considered flagship properties of the firm, in 2014-15.
This is, in fact, the unlisted entity's highest ad growth numbers reported in three years, despite it posting a loss of more than Rs 2 lakh in 2014-15 due to a switch from a daily to a weekly format that year.
The firm's directors' report also says that its wage bill almost doubled in 2014-15 due to the implementation of the Majithia wage board scales, hitting its bottom line. Nonetheless, at the topline level, numbers were strong.
Consider this. The English-language Organiser magazine saw a two-fold growth in ad revenues for 2014-15, while the Hindi-language Panchjanya saw a 68 per cent increase in ad revenues for the year under review. In 2013-14, ad revenue growth for the Organiser and Panchjanya magazines were 78 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
Despite this, at a time when magazines and dailies, notably, in the English-language space, have struggled to maintain ad and circulation revenue growth, these numbers are eye-popping, media experts said.
Political experts though are not surprised with the figures, given the hardline stance of the two magazines. The group was recently criticised for taking a strong view on the lynching of an individual in the town of Dadri in Uttar Pradesh for consuming beef. Panchjanya had carried a cover story in the wake of the killing, saying that the Vedas - the sacred text of the Hindus - speaks of taking matters in one's hands if the slaughter of cows happens. Hindus consider the bovine to be sacred.
While Panchjanya editor Hitesh Shankar eventually distanced himself from the story saying the views expressed in the article were of the writer's alone and not the magazine's, it did nothing to quell the storm. Organiser also followed it up with an article strongly supporting the ban on cow slaughter and criticising beef festivals that were organised across the country in the wake of Dadri. Executives at Bharat Prakashan were not immediately available for comment despite mails and calls to their office.
But the firm's website shows that it has been growing from strength-to-strength. Both the Organiser and Panchjanya are now available for subscription online.