The Telegraph
The Telegraph is eastern India's largest circulated and most read English newspaper. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) of 2017 survey, the paper is ranked seventh in the Top 10 English dailies with a readership of over 1.5 million. The paper is published by the Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) Group, which was founded in 1922 by Prafulla Kumar Sarkar in the pre-independence India. The paper claims that its readership in Calcutta alone is greater than that of all its competitors put together.
Audience Share
0.25%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid
Media Companies / Groups
ABP Group
Ownership Structure
The Telegraph is published by ABP Private Limited. The shares of ABP Private Limited are divided among 4 members of the Sarkar family: Aveek Sarkar (19.5%), Arup Kumar Sarkar (19.5%), Atideb Sarkar (19.5%) and Shithi Sarkar (19.5%). The remaining 21.9% shares are held by ABP Holdings Private limited.
The shares of ABP Holding Private Limited are further divided among the four family members: Aveek Sarkar (25%), Arup Kumar Sarkar (25%), Shithi Sarkar (25%) and Atideb Sarkar (25%). Therefore, the family controls 100% of ABP Holding Private Limited, i.e. it’s 21.9% stake in ABP Private Limited.
Hence, the Sarkar family controls in total 99.99% share of ABP Private Limited.
Voting Rights
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Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1982
Affiliated Interests Founder
is the founder of Anandabazar Patrika, the publisher of the English newspaper, The Telegraph, which he founded in 1922. He was a nationalist and started the newspaper as a mark of protest against the British rule. Prafulla Kumar Sarkar was jailed many times for his nationalist views.
was the co-founder and proprietor of Anandabazar patrika.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
is the Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) Private Limited, the publishing company of the Telegraph newspaper. Purkayastha is a Cost and Management Accountant and has been with the company for 34 years of his 37 years of professional life. In other interests, Purkayastha is the chairperson of the Central Advisory Committee of WAN-INFRA, an association of newspapers with presence in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Further, he functions as the Director of Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS), the company’s broadcasting arm ABP News, ABP Ananda and ABP Majha.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
is the Editor-in-Chief of the Telegraph. No Information on affiliated interests was found.
Affiliated Interests other important people
In addition to owning shares of ABP’s publishing company ABP Private Limited of the Telegraph, he is the Vice Chairman of the ABP Group of Publications and its Editor Emeritus. He is the son of Ashok Kumar Sarkar, the owner of Ananda Bazar Patrika, and the grandson of Prafula Kumar Sarkar, the founder of the Ananda Bazar Patrika. He is a graduate from the University of Calcutta, and has trained under Sir Harold Evans, the Editor of The Sunday Times, while in Britain. He is credited for transforming the ABP Group from a regional entity into a national player.
The author of “Paper Tigers”, Nicholas Coleridge has described Aveek Sarkar in his book as “India’s most sophisticated newspaper proprietor”, and goes on to describe him as “a man of impeccable tastes and choices from the food he has to his wardrobe”.
Aveek Sarkar is also the Director of The Press Trust of India (PTI), ABP News Network Private Limited, Cima Gallery Private Limited, and Sarkar Consultants Private Limited.
Together with Arup and Aveek Sarkar he owns shares in ABP Private Limited and also holds the position of the Executive Director at the company. He joined ABP in October 2010, has worked in various functions across the group including Editorial and Strategy, and currently serves on the boards of ABP Private Ltd and ABP News Network Private Ltd. Apart from these 2 companies, he is also a Director of Wedoria Technologies Private Limited and the Indian Newspaper Society. His educational background includes a Bachelor’s as well as a Master’s degrees in Economics.
Contact
6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Chowringhee Street, Bow Barracks,
Kolkata 700001 India
Tel: +91 33 22345374, 22216600, 22378000
Website: www.telegraphindia.com
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
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Advertising (in % of total funding)
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Market Share
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Further Information
Meta Data
The ownership data was sourced from the filings from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It is important to note here that the data is based on the 2016-2017 filings in the MCA records. The MOM team sent an email on the 10th January 2019 followed by a letter on the 1st February 2019 to ABP to confirm the data given in the document. There has been no answer yet.
