Meet Sarmad Ali, the Managing Director of Jang Media Group, Pakistan’s most prominent and fastest-growing media group. With three newspapers, two weekly magazines, five TV channels, and several digital properties, Jang Media Group is the number one media group in the country. Its print flagship brand Daily Jang is the country’s largest newspaper with a 51% readership share while The News is one of Pakistan’s two premiers English dailies. On the other hand, Daily Awaz is the group’s low-price economy newspaper.
In the consumer magazine sector, Jang Group’s two magazines, Akhbar-e-Jahan and MAG, account for nearly 50% of Pakistan’s magazine readership.
Additionally, the group’s broadcast portfolio includes the country’s most popular satellite television network, GEO TV.
Presently GEO TV network is the largest network in Pakistan, comprising five channels; GEO Tez, GEO Entertainment, GEO News, GEO Kahani, and GEO Super.
The Steadfast Leader
Sarmad completed his early education in Pakistan, where he studied at the prestigious Forman Christian College in Lahore. Later, he pursued his Master’s Degree from Villanova University, Pa, USA. Sarmad started his career with the country’s leading advertising agencies, including IAL/Saatchi, where he worked as Director of Client Services from 1987 to 1993 and led the company’s affiliation initiative with Saatchi and Saatchi.
Later in 1994, Sarmad joined Jang Media Group as the Chief Operating Officer of their just launched English daily The News. At that time, Pakistan only had a few English dailies, which failed to resonate well with young readers. While most of the dailies focused on the political and business world, the readers wanted to explore other genres like sports and entertainment and The News catered to their needs. The News was Pakistan’s first national and all-color newspaper. Before its launch, English dailies had specific markets and were primarily published in black and white. When Sarmad joined the group, The News was struggling against the already established players that dominated one or the other metro markets.
Under Sarmad’s leadership, The News soon became one of Pakistan’s two premier English dailies.
In 1997, he took over as the group’s Executive Director of Marketing and Sales, and in 2006 was promoted to the position of Managing Director. Later in 2019, Sarmad was also given the responsibility to lead the Revenue function of the group’s television business, Geo News.
He is credited with revamping the newspaper industry in Pakistan by bringing innovation and new technology to the print media.
Additionally, Sarmad is the President of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and has already served as its Secretary General. At APNS, Sarmad introduced the idea of celebrating national Newspaper Readership Day on the 25th of September every year to encourage youth to develop reading habits. Earlier in 2013 Sarmad had organized the first ever South Asian Media Summit at Islamabad.
He is also the President of the International Advertising Association’s Pakistan chapter and serves on its World Board of Directors. In 2019, Sarmad served as the Chairman of AdAsia 2019 and led the team that conceptualized and executed the prestigious Asian Advertising Congress in Lahore.
Described as of one of Pakistan’s marketing thought leaders, Sarmad has been thrice the President of the Marketing Association of Pakistan. In 1999, he was awarded the coveted Marketing Excellence Award for his contribution in the field of marketing. Ranked amongst Pakistan’s Top 100 Business Leaders, Sarmad received the Asian Brand Leadership Award from the Asian Brand Congress in 2007 and the 50 Most Talented CMOs Award at the World Marketing Summit in 2013. In 2019 the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) bestowed upon him the Special Merit Award in recognition of his services for the advertising industry in the region. In 2021 the Pakistan Advertisers Society presented him with its most prestigious and iconic Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2013, the President of Pakistan had conferred upon Sarmad, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s third highest Civil Award for his contributions towards the newspaper industry.
The Asian Business Environment
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the business environment in Asia is booming. China has been continuously extending its freight rail services to European and Asian markets and trying to reduce freight times on sea significantly. The rapid expansion of freight routes indicates the development of trade between China and other countries. However, it does not only benefit China but the entire region. Case in point China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a project under the Belt & Road Initiative that has opened doors of opportunities for Pakistan.”– states Sarmad.
He also explains that the projects under CPEC, like infrastructure, energy, or transport, have been a constant source of development in the region. It has provided several job opportunities for the local people and has paved the way for many foreign investments and international business cooperation.
Sarmad feels that Asian countries opening borders for each other, supporting in areas of weakness, and offering each other their strengths have put the continent on the map of economic development and have given the status of emerging economies. With countries like China, India, Japan, and Singapore, Asian business environment will continue to drive economic growth in the future.
Picture of the Future
As a multimedia company, Jang Group is already leading in Pakistan’s print, electronic, and digital media space and has earned the status of being an innovator and trendsetter in Pakistan’s media ecosystem. The group aspires to continue its position by strengthening its print, TV, and digital properties. Jang has been organizing Pakistan’s largest education expo for the last decade as a media group. However, the pandemic stopped all the activities, so it moved to organize a virtual expo, which garnered immense appreciation from participants and clients. Now with the declining Covid infections, the offline event has started once again, but Jang Group plans to keep it both virtual and physical to reach a wider set of audience.
Sarmad says, “We have also implemented augmented reality in our newspaper for news headlines. We plan to take it a step further and start augmenting and monetizing our advertisements as well. This will give our clients and us an edge over other newspapers and will help in our revenue generation as well.”
Sarmad and his team have also created a virtual gallery celebrating Pakistan’s 75 years of independence. Since the group’s flagship newspaper, Jang is older than Pakistan; it has a vibrant archive of Pakistan’s history. So, the group plans to launch it in October this year on Jang’s 75th anniversary in Pakistan.
“We will publish the QR code in our newspaper so that our readers can scan and enter a gallery of 75 years of important events in Pakistan through Jang headlines. The gallery will be supported by audio as well as video. So, it’s like walking through news and important events from the pages of our history and listening or watching its details as you move along from one decade in the gallery to another.”– explained Sarmad.
As the leader of the media group, Sarmad understands the importance of digital media in the current day and age and is working to integrate Group’s media platforms to provide audiences with a holistic and seamless experience.