IANS Publishing: contract publishing since the pre-internet days

Internet has transformed the way of information access and sharing. But, even the pre-internet days could not stop IANS Publishing from spreading its wings abroad. Here’s more on this publishing outsourcing firm. Some print products handled by IANS Publishing. New Delhi-based IANS Publishing was one of the first Indian companies to get into custom/contract publishing. It executed international outsourced contracts in the mid-nineties when few people had heard of the term outsourcing. The outsourced work included editing, designing and production of US newspapers and Indian newspapers, magazines, journals, company brochures and newsletters. “It was way back in 1993 when we were the outsource publisher for a New York based daily. Those were the pre-internet days – we mostly relied on fax services for transmitting data,” told KG Sreenivas, executive editor-publishing, IANS Publishing.

Today, IANS Publishing uses state-of-the-art facility to create communication and information products of enduring value. The domain expertise acquired by them over a decade gives IANS Publishing the experience, competence and the confidence to handle the entire range of editing and publishing activities across all platforms keeping to deadlines – at costs that are competitive. “Our lineage is in Diaspora reporting, which is still one of our USPs here. We have a large number of clients in both private and public sectors. We provide them end-to-end full spectrum of publishing, right from concept to print,” told Sreenivas.

“Essentially, our core competence lies in conceptualizing, shaping and producing a brief as per the client’s requirements. We carry out content research, editing, proofreading and designing. For printing, we have a panel of reputed printers on our panel and get our jobs printed there if required,” explained Sreenivas.

With a team of 20 skilled individuals, with six strong in designing and rest 14 in editing area, IANS Publishing is servicing many a clients. “We have a lot of government ministries and PSUs as our clients. For example, Ministry of External Affairs is one of our prime clients and we do all their journals, news magazines, etc. For the content, we sometimes commission the stories or do it ourselves. Our work does not stop at delivering the product, we take client feedback and always strive our best to improve the deliverables,” he added.

“For overseas clients, we send print ready files to them. We produce the entire weekly for Chicago-based news weekly on Diaspora. We do content research, news and visuals for them,” told Sreenivas. Perhaps, the biggest strength of IANS Publishing is their parent company IANS (Indo-Asian News Service), India’s largest independent news agency. This 24×7 wire service, which is headquartered in New Delhi, has a network of over 100 correspondents in India and in key global capitals. The service puts out over 300 news reports every day and is geared to report not only events related to India, South Asia and the large Indian Diaspora spread across the world, but also global events that are of interest to, and impact on, India and its neighbourhood. “We cover the gamut of news – politics, economic, religious, books, literature, to name a few,” added Sreenivas.

IANS Publishing has built great depth in handling print products like customized magazines, periodicals, journals, newspaper supplements, corporate reports, marketing and advertorial products. Two major weekly products that are produced by IANS Publishing are News India-Times, a 48-page New-York based English weekly tabloid, and Desi Talk, another New York-based English weekly tabloid, comprising 40 pages. They also print India Digest, an 8-page English fortnightly tabloid, for the High Commission of India, London. Besides, they produce several monthly publications, including the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya, a 48-page English monthly magazine of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, India Review, a 24-page English monthly magazine for the Indian Embassy in Washington, and a 12-page English monthly magazine for the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Among the quarterly publications that IANS Publishing handles is Africa Quarterly, an 80-page academic journal of Indian Council of Cultural Relations.

“We also undertake publishing contracts in other languages, besides translation services. Two of our important non-English publications are Noticias da India, an 8-page Portuguese fortnightly tabloid that we publish for the Indian Embassy in Brasilia, and India Review that we publish in Dari language for the Indian Embassy in Kabul,” added Sreenivas.

Not only this, IANS Publishing is also producing books and coffee table books. “In 2009, we produced a coffee table book on Indian Diaspora, which was well-received,” he told.

Talking about the business of KPOs in India, Sreenivas opined that it has a huge market and the potential is still untapped. Success factors include meeting quality and delivery deadlines. Besides, India has a historical advantage of English language competence, which is recognized by West. “They trust our skills and hence we definitely have an edge over emerging markets like China and Philippines.”

“Way forward, IANS Publishing is expanding in a big way, we are making strong inroads into the private sector and are building up on our experience and core competence in producing a better product, be it a journal, a book, a weekly, or any other printed document,” concluded Sreenivas.

KG Sreenivas IANS Publishing has built great depth in handling print products like customized magazines, periodicals, journals, newspaper supplements, corporate reports, marketing and advertorial products.

–KG Sreenivas, executive editor, IANS Publishing