Business news must for everyone: Tapan Sharma, Republic Media Network

Republic Network recently diversified its offerings with the announcement and logo reveal of its flagship business website, R. Business.

The latest offering aims to be the premier business channel, offering diverse and inclusive coverage across financial, industrial, goods and services, markets, BFSI, and various other business categories.

Tapan Sharma, COO of Digital Business, Republic Media Network told e4m the main objective behind diversifying into R. Business was to reach out to every possible category of users who are consuming business news across platforms and devices. We are a country with 90 percent 4G penetration and about 850-900 million smartphones available across the pop-strata of the country. 

“Business news is a category of news which is no more a vanity. Business news is important for everyone to consume every day. Financial literacy and awareness of the economic indicators is a must to have for all,” he added.

In the last decade or so India has seen tremendous growth in terms of market capital, capital expenditure, FDI, entrepreneurial initiatives, service and manufacturing sector, public infrastructure and overall GDP, mentioned Sharma. This is the time when every individual is well informed of the business, industrial and financial environment and plays an inclusive part in the collective growth happening in India.

Hence, there is a need for this information getting disseminated to the last mile and the Republic Media Network wants to play its part by reaching all possible nooks and corners of the society with this initiative. 

Republic Business website will be focussing on Indian financial markets, global financial markets, government policies, Industries, start-up ecosystems, technology, automobiles, business leaders and business events and every market niche a consumer wants to know about. 

“We have an opportunity and want to build this opportunity as a business unit so it is well taken care of in both spread and depth,” Sharma said.

The Website will be a digital-first initiative across text and video both, editorially led by Sharmila Bhowmick. 

But, a lot of businesses already have diversified their news into business specific verticals, so what new does R. Business bring to the table?

Sharma highlighted their contemporaries focus largely on categories which cater to a particular audience amongst the readers. “We would offer a far deeper coverage across categories and want to make the outreach across pop-strata. We would cater to the Industry, Corporates, SME sector, Retail investors, and the audience at large in a language they understand the best, without industry jargon so they can make informed decisions. R. Business is after all about business news that is for the people.”

In terms of numbers, Sharma believes it's too soon to set quantitative targets. For now, becoming India's favourite source of business news is the ultimate goal for the network.