India Today, Associated News ink JV

In what will be the country's first strategic investment in an English-language general newspaper, the India Today Group, with interests in magazine publishing and television channels, has signed a joint venture agreement with Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail in the UK, to launch a morning tabloid.

India Today executives did not divulge the size of the stake to be bought by Associated Newspapers, which is a part of the Daily Mail and General Trust that runs a large number of national and regional newspapers in the UK.

The brand name of the new daily is yet to be decided. Describing the upcoming paper as a "blue-blooded tabloid," company sources said, "It will be on the lines of Daily Mail, which is a serious in-your-face tabloid." Having failed to push its earlier tabloid, "Today," the media house is now eyeing a multi-city newspaper.