NEW DELHI: Now Zee News is going in for barter advertising deals with print publications and has extended a similar relationship to Mumbai's tabloid Mid Day Publication for content sharing too.
Confirming the move, Zee Telefilms news group director Laxmi Goel told indiantelevision.com, "We are going in for various marketing alliances with print publications, including Mid Day which will do some news and current affairs programming for Zee News."
According to Goel, the deal with Mid Day, to be announced tomorrow in Mumbai, entails both Zee News and the tabloid giving each other space and airtime on their product for a specified number of time per week. He didn't divulge into details.
However, Goel admitted that Mid Day would be putting together an eight-and-a-half minutes news programme for Zee News, which would be credited to the Mumbai newspaper. Zee would be marketing this programme amongst probable advertisers and would be paying 
Mid Day for the news product.
Apart from Mid Day, Zee News has also struck up a barter deal for advertising space with Outlook magazine, owned by a Rajan Raheja company. Another Raheja company Hathway Datacom is a multi-system cable operator (MSO), a venture in which Star owns 26 per cent stake.
Though Goel was not forthcoming, he said that the news channel was "open to the idea" of such barter deals with other media companies too, including online entities.
Another broadcaster that has similar barter deals with print publications for ad space is India's pubcaster Prasar Bharati, which oversees the functioning of Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Prasar Bharati has a string of deals already in its bag with heavyweights like Malayala Manorama, Indian Express group and Dainik Bhaskar and would be leveraging these relationships to publicise the re-launch of DD News 
channel.