Founded by Pooran Chandra Gupta during the Quit India Movement in 1942 on the principle of reflecting people’s free will, the Jagran group of newspapers was started with the ideology of Hindutva.
Over 80 years later, the flagship brand Dainik Jagran, stands strong and is one of the largest-read regional newspapers in India with three men to credit – Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Sanjay Gupta and Shailesh Gupta.
Jagran Prakashan is one of India’s leading Media and Communications Groups with leadership in Print, Digital, Radio, Out-of-Home (OOH) and Activation with content available in nine languages.
With a readership of over 80 million, Jagran is one of the largest print media groups in the country which produces about 100 editions of around 12 print products in over five distinct languages across 15 states.
Dainik Jagran, iNext, Mid-Day, Nai Dunia, Mid-Day Gujarati, Inquilab, and Punjabi Jagran, are among the Company’s print media brands.
Jagran New Media, Jagran.com, Jagranjosh.com, Jagran Post, Jagran Junction and Jeetle are some of the company’s digital media brands. Jagran Pehel is the company’s social initiative.
Awarded the highest honour of “Ambassador of Goodwill” by Lions Clubs International in 2005, Dr Mahendra Mohan Gupta is the CMD and Editorial Director of Jagran Prakashan Ltd.
From handling the finance function at Jagran in its early days to overseeing the printing of the newspaper to being imprisoned during the Emergency to signing the landmark FDI deal for Jagran to taking the Jagran Group public and putting it on course for future readiness, Mahendra’s inspirational leadership has left a stamp on every aspect of the Group’s functioning.
Mahendra, who entered the most hallowed precincts of public life as a Member of the Rajya Sabha in 2006, has served on key policy-making councils of the media industry over the years.
He has served as a Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations; as President of the Indian Language Newspaper Association; as President of the Indian Newspaper Society; as Chairman of United News of India; as former Chairman of the Press Trust of India, as Director of Press Trust of India, even a tenure as Member of the Film Censor Board.
He served as the Director of Merchant’s Chambers of UP, Member Regional Direct Taxes Advisory Committee, Kanpur (Ministry of Finance), Chairman -Multiple Council Lions Clubs International, Patron-Indian Academy of Management Sciences Mirzapur, Patron-U.P. Veterans Cricket Association and Patron-Kanpur Rotary Kidney Foundation, amongst many others.
Honoured with the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award by the All India National Unity Conference for excellence in Hindi Journalism, Mahendra has also served as District Governor of the Lions Clubs International Multiple District.
He has been the driving force behind the Corporate Social Responsibility activities conducted under the Group’s charitable trust, the Shri Puran Chandra Gupta Smarak Trust.
Sanjay Gupta, 59, contributed immensely in taking the brand Dainik Jagran to new heights. He is the Editor in Chief of Dainik Jagran.
Under Sanjay’s leadership, Dainik Jagran has been the largest-read newspaper of India since 2003 with its credibility, honesty and nation building.
For more than 75 years, this iconic voice of freedom and free expression has been benchmarking standards of excellence that have inspired readers and industry alike, says the media company’s website.
It is to his credit largely that Dainik Jagran has topped the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) round after round.
Sanjay believed in striking a rapport with the readers by incorporating the language of the state to the newspaper and regionalised it using their dialect.
Sanjay had said in an interview that the paper stood by the principle of “Hindutva or Indianness” with which, according to him, a lot of society’s emotions are attached.
“The Hindi word for Indianness is Hindutva and we stand for it and will always write for it. We are against parties who appease the voters in terms of religion and divide society based on caste and creed. In Jagran, we are very clear that we would not write in support of these things. Unlike a lot of other dailies, we believe in being objective and stand for Indianness. There is nothing wrong with Hindutva. Media is often seen criticising it without understanding the true sense of Hindutva. A lot of society’s emotions are attached to this sentiment. We respect that sentiment. That is the selling point and will continue to be our selling point.”
Appointed as the Part-Time-Member of Prasar Bharti Board in 2020 for five years, Sanjay holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science and has around 40 years of experience in the print media industry.
Sanjay is a Director of Midday Infomedia Limited, MMI Online Limited and Member of Executive Committee of The Indian Newspaper Society. He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Amritsar.
He is also a Director of Jagran Media Network Investment Pvt Ltd, holding company of the Company.
For his exemplary contribution to the industry, Sanjay has been awarded at various platforms, the most notable of them being the Editor of The Year Award conferred on him by the Union Minister Kiren Rijiju.
He was also conferred with AIMA Managing India Award for Outstanding Contribution to Media and Lokmanya Tilak National Journalism Award for the contribution in the field of journalism by Kesari-Maratha Trust.
Shailesh Gupta, the Wholetime Director of Jagran Prakashan Ltd, is one of the most respected names in the Indian Media Industry.
Over the last 25 years, Shailesh has provided a new dimension to Jagran’s marketing strategy, and has been at the heart of driving transformational change at the Jagran group. He also holds positions as Director, Music Broadcast Limited, and Director, Midday Infomedia Ltd.
During his dynamic career, he’s been at the helm of several Industry bodies, and is held in high esteem for his professionalism and his razor-sharp understanding of the media industry in India.
He was the President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in the year 2019-20.
Shailesh was elected as the youngest member of the Managing Committee of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) for the year 2004-05 and became the Chairman of the ABC in 2012-13
In 2021, he held the position of Vice Chairman of Media Research Users Council (MRUC), which is one of the most prominent media research bodies in India formed with the sole purpose of organizing accurate, timely and efficient media research in the country, across all forms of media.
Recognised as the ‘Youngest Entrepreneur Of The Year’ by Rotary Club, India, Shailesh was also nominated by the Indian Newspaper Society to the board of the World Association of Newspapers, Paris.
Apart from the above accolades, Shailesh has also been conferred with ‘Excellence Award for Communication and Mass Entertainment’ By Merchants’ Chamber of UP and ‘Most Talented CMO of India’ by the World Marketing Congress in 2014.