amarujala.com is now among top three news websites in South Asia

The Hindi website makes its mark on the international stage by winning the WAN-IFRA award

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | September 22, 2016

Hindi, which has been treated as second fiddle to English by the industry despite its significantly higher reach, is finally being treated with the importance it deserves on the international stage. The resurgence of non-English media in the digital space is finally happening. Amar Ujala's flagship website amarujala.com has won the WAN-IFRA award for one of the top three news websites in South Asia. The award was given taking into account website design, product, innovation and audience fitment.

Competing against the biggest media houses across South Asia, amarujala.com's victory signals two important trends: firstly, the fact that the industry is paying attention to the leading voices in Hindi on digital, and secondly, the fact that Amar Ujala's focus on global standards of product and design is paying off, and may signal a completely different approach to the Hindi audience.

Probal Ghosal

Commenting on Amar Ujala's digital vision, Probal Ghosal, Director, Amar Ujala, said, “Amar Ujala's vision for digital media is built into its brand vision of creating a world-class experience for the Hindi user, wherever they are in the world. We are therefore creating rich and hyper-engaged media vehicles, which intend to bring the world to the local audience and carry the local audience to the Hindi Diaspora. Our vision is integrated and interactive, and it allows brands to partner with us cross-media. Digital plays an important part for amplification, engagement and rich media. We are expanding our media platform making it video-rich and allowing the user's voice a part of the experience of the platform.”

Amar Ujala relaunched its website early this year, with a fully responsive website, clean design, new interactive features and non-intrusive advertising approach. Feature to feature, Amar Ujala has upped the game. Clearly, the innovation and strategic change of approach is working for Amar Ujala.

Arvind Joshi, Creative and Product Head, Amar Ujala Digital Business, said, "The Hindi and other non-English audience are not credited with taste by most media houses. It is too soon assumed that shabbiness, instant thrill and dumbed-down products will do. As a cultural icon, Amar Ujala sets the standards for Hindi and so we've brought the best practices of global design and packaging with a focus on re-positioning Hindi and its audience as the aspiration they aspire for.”

With the digital monetisation of news space trying to go beyond display and network advertising, these innovations will lead the way for business strategy as well.

Himanshu Gautam, Business Head, Amar Ujala Digital, explained the importance of the new website in the context of Amar Ujala's business objectives, “This is just the first phase of our roll-out plan, aiming at creating new kinds of rich user experiences, which in turn create high-value monetisation opportunities. We refuse to commodify our users by linking our business with just page views. Moving beyond display and network, we've built into our digital offering, deeper brand engagement opportunities. But there will be more, stay tuned.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com