The Guru Behind Mediaguru

Sanjay Salil believes a key reason MediaGuru could successfully accomplish over 50 projects across 16 countries in a decade is because it focuses on innovation from a client’s perspective.

- Vinita Bhatia

Sanjay Salil still remembers how during his initial days as an entrepreneur, he met three generations of the family that managed Malayala Manorama. His enterprise, MediaGuru, was barely two years old, and had executed a couple of projects, when word of his work reached them.

“They wanted to set up a TV station in Kerala that would offer a mix of news and entertainment, similar to the format that Asianet News, their closest competitor, was offering,” recalled Salil. “I suggested they launch a 24-hour news channel instead, and based on what MediaGuru proposed, they could expect revenues of INR 8 to INR 9 crore within the first year. They were disbelieving, because Asianet probably did less than 20% of this annually.”

But, something about Salil’s confidence convinced the South-Indian media behemoth’s management and they assigned the project to MediaGuru, even though they had earmarked an American consultant for it. And he claimed that in the first year, Manorama News TV station clocked revenues exceeded what Salil had promised.

Taking up challenges like these head-on,and turning them into success stories, is second nature for Salil. Hailing from Nalanda, he moved to New Delhi as a youngster and chose to become a journalist, joining the India Today Group where he anchored and produced the Good Morning Today show in 1996. He went on to launch Subah Aaj Tak in 1998 and later became the associate executive producer of Aaj Tak channel.