HT Media's digital business revenues up 18.2% at Rs 13.7Cr, cuts losses in Q3

Media and publishing group HT Media recorded Rs 13.7 crore in revenues from the digital segment for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. This marks 18.2 per cent growth over the third quarter of the previous fiscal while revenues grew 4.5 per cent sequentially over the preceding quarter ended September 30. The company's digital business includes the job portal Shine.com (which competes with the likes of Naukri.com, among others) and HTCampus.com.

Losses from the digital business were pegged at Rs 8.86 crore last quarter, as against Rs 9.34 crore in Q3 FY12, while it also cut losses around 11 per cent sequentially. This also shows that the digital business is slowly improving.

According to the company, it invested Rs 1.1 crore afresh during the last quarter through compulsory convertible debentures (CCDs) of HT Digital besides converting previously issued CCDs worth Rs 19.6 crore into shares of the digital arm.

In the last quarter, it also put in Rs 11.2 crore in Ivy Talent India Pvt Ltd, which in turn, picked up a minority stake in MyParichay Services India Pvt Ltd.

Shine.com recorded 5.2 million 'engaged candidates' during Q3, which is the same as the previous quarter ended Sept 2012 but twofold rise from the year-ago period. Revenue growth for Shine.com was pegged at 30 per cent over the same period previous fiscal. The firm did not separately disclose the revenue figures for the portal but its revenue increase slowed, compared to Q2 when it grew 61 per cent year on year.

HT Media had also invested in MyParichay.in, a social hiring tool, by acquiring  a minority stake in it in the last quarter. Now, Shine claims to have become the first Indian job portal to integrate recruitment services through Facebook.

HTCampus.com also launched two new information portals – mycollegeboard.com and studyabroad.com â€“ on international universities and registered revenue growth of 30 per cent over Q3 FY12. Another digital property, HT Mobile, registered 40 per cent increase in revenue over Q3 FY12.

HT Media, which publishes the English daily Hindustan Times besides the Hindi daily Hindustan and the business daily Mint, as a whole reported total revenues of Rs 547 crore, up 4.3 per cent over the year-ago period. HT Media's net profit rose 11.3 per cent over the year-ago period to Rs 53.6 crore, largely due to higher profit in the core printing and publishing business and also because its radio & broadcasting business came out of the red over the year-ago period when it clocked losses.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)