Entrepreneur India

About Entrepreneur India

Overview

Entrepreneur India is a monthly English-language business magazine published from New Delhi, targeted at Indian business owners and entrepreneurial enthusiasts. It is the Indian edition of Entrepreneur, the American business magazine, and it is published in India by Entrepreneur India Media Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between Entrepreneur Media of the United States and the Indian company Franchise India. The magazine is published twelve times a year and is sold by subscription and on newsstands.

The Indian edition was relaunched in July 2015 after an earlier licensing arrangement with the Network18 group came to an end. Alongside the print magazine, Entrepreneur India Media hosts the Entrepreneur website in India, publishing Indian business and startup content through entrepreneur.com. The operation is headquartered in Delhi and employs a team covering editorial, sales and digital functions.

History in India

Entrepreneur magazine first entered the Indian market in September 2009, when it was launched in India at a cover price of Rs 75 under a licensing arrangement with the Network18 group. The brand remained in the country through the early 2010s, but the publication was subsequently pulled back, with industry reporting describing the end of the Network18 licensing arrangement in the period before 2015.

The magazine returned to India in July 2015 in a new avatar. The relaunch was carried out by Entrepreneur India Media Pvt. Ltd., the joint venture between Entrepreneur Media USA and Franchise India. The new edition was formally inaugurated at a launch event attended by Rajiv Pratap Rudy, then the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, who was featured on the cover of the new first edition. The magazine has since published monthly for Indian readers interested in business and entrepreneurial stories and information.

The relaunch event

The July 2015 relaunch was inaugurated by Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Speaking at the occasion, Rudy said the Prime Minister was looking seriously towards entrepreneurship, which was why a new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship had been created, and described the magazine as one that needed to be studied by young and old business people. He added that the government's vision was to make Indian human capital on par with the world and that scaling up entrepreneurship ability was needed to achieve this.

Also present at the launch was Ryan Shea, president and chief operating officer of Entrepreneur Media USA, who said India was a country of entrepreneurs and that the company looked forward to working closely with Indian entrepreneurs and startups. Gaurav Marya, chairman of Franchise India, spoke about the partnership between the two companies at the event.

Publisher and ownership

The magazine is published by Entrepreneur India Media Pvt. Ltd., which is described as a joint venture between Entrepreneur Media USA and Franchise India. Franchise India, established in 1999, is an Indian company providing integrated franchise solutions, and its chairman Gaurav Marya has spoken of the company's work with entrepreneurs over many years and of the partnership's vision to provide a global platform to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Entrepreneur Media of the United States is the licensor of the global Entrepreneur brand. The parent brand traces its history to 1973 and publishes editions in the United States, China, India, Mexico, the Middle East, the Philippines and South Africa. The India operation's LinkedIn profile identifies the company as Entrepreneur Media India, headquartered in Delhi, operating in the technology, information and media industry with a company size of 51 to 200 employees.

Editorial leadership

Ritu Marya serves as Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Media India. She has commented on the brand's digital growth in the Indian market, noting that the platform serves as a medium for startups, business owners, innovators and founders to come together and develop ideas within the entrepreneurial community. The editorial operation covers the print monthly and the Indian edition of the Entrepreneur website.

The company's LinkedIn profile describes its mission as providing information, insight and inspiration for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses in India and globally. Every issue of the magazine is described as covering both the inspirational and the practical dimensions of business ownership, aimed at equipping entrepreneurs with the information they require to grow their businesses.

Content and audience

Entrepreneur India is a monthly business magazine whose target reader is the Indian business owner and the entrepreneurial enthusiast. Its content spans startup stories, business strategy, franchising, marketing, sales, technology and social media, reflecting the specialties listed for the company. The magazine's India edition publishes Indian entrepreneurial stories alongside content adapted from the global brand.

Franchise India's own background in the franchise industry shapes part of the editorial mix. Before the Entrepreneur partnership, Franchise India published the business magazines The Franchising World, The Retailer and The Brand Licensing, and launched the titles Estate World and Small Medium Entrepreneur, giving the group a long-standing presence in small-business publishing.

Digital presence

Entrepreneur India Media hosts the Entrepreneur website in India through entrepreneur.com. The India edition of the website was launched in December 2015, a few months after the print relaunch, in the same joint-venture partnership with Franchise India. By February 2016, the company reported that the Indian edition of Entrepreneur.com had crossed one million unique visitors for the month, with a 190 percent growth in page views, while the global website was reported to receive more than 21 million unique visitors monthly at the time.

The digital team was strengthened around the same period, with the company appointing Malar Vannan to head its digital sales. The website publishes Indian startup and business content alongside the global brand's material, and the company's LinkedIn presence, which lists over 260,000 followers, supports its digital audience development.

Frequency and distribution

Entrepreneur India is published twelve times a year, on a monthly schedule. The global brand's distribution model, which the India edition follows, makes the magazine available by subscription and on newsstands. The Indian editions in print carry Indian covers and Indian business content, as illustrated by the relaunch issue featuring the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Franchise India background

Franchise India, the Indian partner in the joint venture, was established in 1999 as an integrated franchise solutions company operating in various Asian countries. At the relaunch event, chairman Gaurav Marya said the company had worked with millions of entrepreneurs over the previous seventeen years and had partnered with Entrepreneur Media, which had done similar work globally for four decades, with the vision of providing a global platform to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Before the Entrepreneur partnership, Franchise India had a long-standing presence in business publishing. Trade press reports from the 2000s describe it as the publisher of The Franchising World, The Retailer and The Brand Licensing magazines, and record its launches of the magazines Estate World and Small Medium Entrepreneur. The latter was launched at the Small Business Show, while Estate World was aimed at brokers, developers, builders, real-estate companies, investors, suppliers and dealers. This publishing background gave the company experience in reaching small and medium business readers.

Global brand context

The Entrepreneur brand has been published in the United States since 1973, positioning itself as a guide to the challenges of business ownership. Its international editions span the United States, China, India, Mexico, the Middle East, the Philippines and South Africa, with the global magazine reported to have a circulation of over six million at the time of the India relaunch. The brand's fortieth year of operation coincided with the period in which Franchise India took up the India franchise, and the global website entrepreneur.com serves as the digital home for the brand's worldwide editions.

Contact and base

Entrepreneur India Media Pvt. Ltd. is based in New Delhi, India. The magazine's India web presence is hosted through entrepreneur.com, the global Entrepreneur website, where the Indian edition's content is published. The print magazine continues to be published monthly from Delhi.