It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to the 13th Annual General Meeting and
share the first of many more to come annual reports of your Company after its listing on
the stock exchanges in December 2017.
Diligent Media Corporation Limited was incorporated in the year 2005, as a Joint
Venture of two eminent business houses in Media Industry viz. Essel Group and Bhaskar
Group. Their business experience and support, steered your Company with launch of its
maiden English Daily Newspaper ‘DNA’ in July 2005 starting with the Mumbai
market. Since then, your Company has seen many ups and downs & business and corporate
restructurings in its journey of over a decade including exit of Bhaskar Group from the
Joint Venture in 2012 and consolidation of your Company under Zee Media Corporation
Limited, another media entity of Essel Group in the news segment, in 2014. The expected
synergies from this consolidation were to create a News Media Powerhouse with presence
across Television, Digital and Print media with a cross-platform o3ering to advertisers
and e3ciencies in content curation. The expansion initiatives taken by your Company
post-consolidation under Zee Media Corporation Limited, helped your Company in achieving
scale requiring an independent strategic direction. Accordingly, to facilitate charting an
independent road-map for the growth and also considering changes in the regulatory
landscape, the Print Media business was demerged and vested with your Company as a
standalone listed entity in pursuance of an NCLT approved Scheme.
In addition to the Mumbai edition of DNA, your Company currently has a one-year old
edition in Delhi, independent editions of DNA in Jaipur and Ahmedabad, re-launched after
discontinuance of erstwhile franchise editions run by Bhaskar group, and a Marathi
language weekly newsletter -Zee Marathi Disha, with the last three launched in FY 18. Post
listing, the key focus area for your Company is to increase revenue growth to turn
profitable. One of the key strategies to achieve this objective is to o3er an integrated
360o media solution to the client by combining print, digital and on-the-ground events.
And some of the strengths of your Company that will be an asset in this endeavor, apart
from firm commitment of Essel Group to support its growth, are Essel Group’s strong
and distinct philosophy ‘Extraordinary Together’ with content catering to
everyone in the family, and core readership of younger age groups.
I would like to conclude, by assuring the Members that, while your Company continues to
incur losses, the recent expansions, with hard work and contribution of management team
and Essel group’s strength in Media & Entertainment, your Company is poised to
enter a high growth trajectory and is expected to add value to your investments in near
future.
With warm regards,
Chairman