COMPANY PROFILE

Mathrubhumi (Malayalam: )

is

a Malayalam

language newspaper

that

is

published from Kerala, India. Mathrubhumi was founded by K P Kesava Menon, an active
volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British. The word "Mathrubhumi" roughly
translates to "mother land". It is the second most widely read newspaper daily in Kerala,
after Malayala Manorama. They also publish a variety of magazines and supplements including
the prestigious weekly literary magazine, Mathrubhumi Azhchappathippu.
Based in the northern Kerala town of Kozhikode, Mathrubhumi was founded in 1922 in
the aftermath of Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement as a public limited company.
This status makes it rare among newspapers, which tend to be closely held private companies
owned by a single family.
K.P Kesava Menon, who was then Secretary of Kerala State Congress Committee,
realized the urgent need for a pro-freedom movement publication from the Malabar region. And
he, along with his confidants like K. Madhavan Nair, Kurur Neelakandan Namboodiripad, K.
Kesavan Nair and P. Achuthan, resolved to register The Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing
Company Limited and the registration took place on 15 February 1922.
K. Madhavan Nair became the first managing director of the company. Madhavan Nair
(1882-1933) was leading the freedom-struggle from Malabar and was a member of Madras
Constituent Assembly.
The newspaper's founders were members of the Indian National Congress led by K. P.
Kesava Menon (1886-1978); its shareholders included about 350 men and women of Kerala.

Though Mathrubhumi lost money regularly in its early years, that did not matter, its historian
noted in 1973, because its goals were not those of business but of social oppression and unrest. It
battled

gallantly

with

British

authorities

before

independence

and

bitterly

with

Kerala's Communists from the late 1930s.

By the 1940s, as Kerala's literate and politicised character forced itself to the attention of
officials, the British acknowledged that Mathrubhumi, reaches every village in the district [of
Malabar] and a mischievous attack of the police [in Mathrubhumi] is likely to do, a great deal of
harm among the mass of the people who are able to read but not able to think for
themselves. Mathrubhumi played important roles in many social reformation movements such
as Vaikom Satyagraha and Guruvayur Satyagraha against untouchability. Participating in the
Satyagraha, K.P. Kesava Menon was arrested and was sent to jail. Independence activists such as
P. Ramanunni Nair, K. Kelappan, P. Narayanan Nair, C. H. Kunjappa, K. A. Damodara Menon,
and A.

P.

Udhayabhanu have

served

as

Chief

Editors

of

the

newspaper,

and

also Mathrubhumi has witnessed some of the very splendid Indian Civil Service officers as
editors.
Mathrubhumi was Kerala's leading daily with an estimated circulation of 19,000 at
independence in 1947, which rose quickly to 26,000 by 1952 .
The bitter struggle between the Congress and the Communists in Kerala gave a Congress
newspaper not only a reason for existence but a steady supply of electrifying stories for eager
readers. The conduct of the newspaper remained with the old nationalists who had founded it and
who comprised most of the shareholders, most of whom, it was said, had little idea where they
had put their ancient share certificates. Commercial competition became noticeable after the

formation of Kerala state in 1957. Mathrubhumi had been slow to join the Audit Bureau of
Circulations, as its certificate No. 143 suggests.
A struggle began among the shareholders for control of the company. The 5,000 shares at
Rs. 5 each, which had floated the newspaper in 1923, acquired undreamt- of value. By the 1990s,
with control of the newspaper contested, they traded at thousands of rupees each. The struggle to
control Mathrubhumi eventually reached the Supreme Court of India and illustrated the value of
a newspaper and the way in which languages and local honour provide at least a hindrance to the
acquisition of newspapers by 'outside' capitalists
In 1993, Mathrubhumi's general manager - finance described the financial structure and
compulsions of the company. When the newspaper was floated in the 1920s, 3,479 of the 5,000
shares were purchased at a nominal fee of Rs. 5 each by 352 different shareholders, 203 of whom
bought only one share each. Even in the 1990s, no single person owned more than 225
shares. Mathrubhumi was a "public limited company in the true sense". Shareholders elect nine
directors for two-year terms, one-third being elected each year.
The late 1970s brought two important changes. First, the old nationalists, who had run the
newspaper as a kind of public trust, began to disappear. Second, the economic climate in India
and in Kerala began to become more unapologetically capitalist. Mathrubhumi, which under its
old regime was a Kerala institution and also an effectively run business, came to be seen as a
valuable asset. Its control could provide wealth - and certainly provided influence and prestige.
Shares in Mathrubhumi began to be traded in a way that was inconceivable 10 years earlier.
Indeed, when the share book was tidied up in the mid-1980s, it was found that there were dozens

of partly paid-up shares whose owners were long dead or unknown. Such shares were forfeited,
making the remaining valid shares even more valuable.
A keen contest to control the company began, in which M. P. Veerendra Kumar, a wealthy
planter and political aspirant, who held about 3% of the shares, emerged as the dominant
shareholder and became the Managing Director. In the course of this struggle, M. D. Nalapat,
another

shareholder

and

editor

from

198487,

whose

mother,

the

writerKamala

Das (Madhavikutty), also held shares, was forced off the board of directors. Nalapat then broke
the rules as they had existed until that time: he sold his shares (at Rs. l2,500 each) not merely
outside of Kerala but to India's wealthiest newspaper chain, Bennett, Coleman & Co., owners
of The Times of India in Bombay. Nalapat and his supporters sold close to 20% of the shares
in Mathrubhumi. Though this was scarcely a controlling interest, others saw the sale as the
beginning of a Times of India takeover of a Kerala institution, and, according to Nalapat, an
"innate sense of paranoia surfaced". The dominant shareholders appealed against the sale to
the Kerala High Court which ruled that because The Times of India was a competitor
of Mathrubhumi, the sale was invalid. Some saw the court's decision more as a response to
Kerala sentiment than to the requirements of the law. The Times of India appealed to the
Supreme Court of India where the case was still pending in the mid-1990s.
In 1932, the company entered Magazine Journalism with the launch of Mathrubhumi
Azhchappathippu (Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly). It still remains one of the most read literary
magazines in Kerala. In 1940, Viswaroopam, a comic magazine was launched with Sanjayan as
the Chief Editor. Yugaprabhat, a bi-monthly in Hindi was also published whose editor was N. V.
Krishna Warrier. But now, these two publications are not in print.

Mathrubhumi is one of the most circulated newspapers in Kerala, and is headquartered

in Kozhikode. Inside Kerala, it is printed from Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam,
Kochi, Thrissur, Kannur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kollam and Alappuzha. Outside Kerala, it is
published from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi. Mathrubhumi is also printed from
Dubai. It has a current readership of 94,44,000 as per the Indian Readership Survey 2009
(Round 1).
M P Veerendra Kumar, former minister for state, Govt. of India [Socialist JanathaDemocratic state President] is the chairman and managing director of Mathrubhumi.
P V Chandran is the Managing Editor. M Kesava Menon is the Editor
of Mathrubhumi daily. M V Shreyams Kumar M.L.A. is the Director-Marketing and P V Nidhish
is the Director-Editorial Administration. P V Ganagadharan, an industrialist of KTC Group and
film producer, from Kozhikode; is a director in Mathrubhumi Board. K K Sreedharan Nair is the
Editor-Periodicals.

Printing Centres (Editions)

In Kerala
Alappuzha
Kannur

Rest of India

Outside India

Bengaluru

Dubai

Chennai

Doha

Mumbai

Qatar

Kochi
Kollam
Kottayam

Delhi

Kozhikode
Malappuram
Palakkad
Thiruvananthapuram
Thrissur

Publications

Arogyamasika (Health publication - The largest selling health magazine in India)

Balabhumi(Children's publication)
Cartoon Plus
Grihalakshmi (Women's publication)
Mathrubhumi Azhchappathippu (Illustrated Weekly)
Mathrubhumi Sports Masika (Sports publication in Malayalam)
Mathrubhumi (The complete multipurpose portal) (Malayalam)
Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus - Malayalam (Malayalam)
Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus - English (English)
Mathrubhumi Yathra(Travel magazine)
Minnaminni (For Pre-Primary/Lower primary Kids)
Thozhilvartha (Opportunities publication - The leading career weekly in India)
Mathrubhumi Star & Style (A Complete Magazine covering Film, Fashion And

Lifestyle)
Matrubhumi GK Current Affairs