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News clipping service or a monitoring tool: What’s best for your requirement?

In today’s fast-paced business world, staying on top of current events and industry trends is critical to a company’s success. For this reason, media monitoring has become a vital part of many businesses’ operations. Media monitoring allows businesses to keep track of their brand’s visibility and track the impact of their marketing efforts. 

The importance of monitoring

The process of monitoring is critical for businesses to stay updated about the latest trends, developments, and discussions relevant to their industry. Media monitoring helps to identify threats, opportunities, and potential PR crises, which can be addressed proactively. By keeping track of your brand’s media coverage, you can get insights into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and adjust your strategies accordingly. Media monitoring can also be useful for reputation management, as it helps to track public sentiment and identify negative coverage that needs to be addressed.

Here are some of the major benefits of media monitoring

Staying informed: Media monitoring helps you stay informed about what’s happening in your industry, the latest trends, and what your competitors are doing. By keeping up-to-date with the latest news and insights, you can make better-informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

Reputation management: Media monitoring allows you to track your brand’s reputation and identify any negative coverage that may be affecting your business. This helps you to respond faster and proactively to any potential PR crises, and to protect your brand’s reputation.

Crisis management: Media monitoring helps you manage a crisis situation effectively. 

Identifying opportunities: Media monitoring helps you to identify new opportunities for your business, such as investment opportunities or emerging markets for your products.

Tracking marketing campaigns: Media monitoring allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, by monitoring your brand’s media coverage and tracking key metrics such as share of voice, sentiment analysis, and engagement rates.

Competitive intelligence: Media monitoring helps you to keep track of your competitors by monitoring their media coverage and identifying any new strategies or initiatives they may be implementing.

Primary methods for media monitoring

There are two primary methods for media monitoring: clipping services and monitoring tools. Let’s explore the differences between these two methods that would help you decide which one is right for your business.

Clipping services involves hiring a service provider to perform comprehensive and customized news monitoring for your business or communication agency. Clipping services are ideal for businesses that require a flexible and critical examination of media content. The services can help with decision-making along with identifying negative brand stories, evaluating the quality and quantity of the news, and providing an analytical eye for issues. Additionally, the service offers daily nimbleness and punctuality in delivery, making it a valuable process. This monitoring is generally beneficial, as these service providers are allies who assist in building your brand and achieving desired outcomes.

The advantages of clipping services

Clipping services offer several advantages over traditional news monitoring methods. They provide a more targeted approach by focusing on specific keywords or topics, allowing clients to receive only the news that is most relevant to them. Additionally, clipping services offer a faster and more efficient way of monitoring news, as they use automated tools to scan through large volumes of content and deliver it in a concise and organized manner. This saves time and effort in manually sorting through news articles and enables them to stay up-to-date on industry trends without having to invest in expensive software or tools. At Ninestars, we offer two distinct types of clipping services to meet the diverse needs of our clients. The first option is Clip-all, where we provide a comprehensive service of clipping and delivering all articles from newspapers or magazines. The second option is based on specific keywords provided by the client, which we use to scan for relevant articles that match the given criteria. Our team is proficient in performing both simple and Boolean searches, ensuring that we extract all relevant articles and provide them to you in a timely and efficient manner. 

Monitoring tools, on the other hand,  offer the freedom to be strategic and ensure that data is preserved in the cloud and can be viewed from anywhere. Monitoring tools are perfect for teams who require flexibility to be strategic whenever and wherever they choose. The tool automatically produces results based on configured searches and segments the results of news monitoring through the use of keywords and filters. It also enables the creation of specific searches on your brand, competitors, and market segment. However, while monitoring tools offer more freedom and flexibility, they require more effort from the user to set up and manage. Monitoring tools require the user to input specific keywords and filters to ensure the results are relevant to their business needs. 

The advantages of monitoring tools

Monitoring tools provide a more holistic view of how a brand is being perceived by the public and helps to identify emerging trends and issues that require attention. Monitoring tools also offer advanced analytics and reporting features that allow businesses to track key metrics such as share of voice, sentiment analysis, and engagement rates. This data can be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and inform future strategies. However, all monitoring tools require the users to be familiar with the system’s features and capabilities to get the most out of it. At Ninestars, our team is proficient in using a wide range of monitoring tools, including social media monitoring tools, online news monitoring tools, and brand reputation monitoring tools. We have the expertise and skills to efficiently extract and analyse data from various sources, such as news sites, social media, blogs, and forums. Our team of professionals is trained to navigate and use different monitoring tools and software to ensure that we deliver accurate and timely results. We work closely with our clients to tailor our services to their specific monitoring requirements. Our goal is to provide our clients with a comprehensive view of their brand’s online presence and reputation, enabling them to make informed business decisions and improve their overall brand reputation.

In conclusion

Choosing the right approach to news monitoring depends on a variety of factors, including the size and complexity of your business, the industry you operate in, and specific goals and objectives. Clipping services are ideal for businesses that need a targeted approach to news monitoring and want to save time and effort in manually sorting through news articles. Monitoring tools, on the other hand, are more suited for businesses that require a comprehensive view of their brand’s media coverage across multiple sources and want to track key metrics and trends over time.

Both clipping services and monitoring tools are useful approaches to news monitoring and analysis. Each approach has its own strengths and challenges, and the choice ultimately depends on the specific needs of your business. At Ninestars, we understand the importance of effective media monitoring for an organization. We offer clipping services as well as expertise in media monitoring tools and can help you choose the right approach to achieve your media monitoring priorities. With the expertise and support of Ninestars, you can effectively stay on top of your brand visibility, identifying key trends and insights, and making informed decisions for your business.

Changing Trends in The Publishing Industry in 2023

From print to digital and mobile, the world of publishing has always been a shifting landscape. Technology has spurred several transformations especially in the last decade that are shaping the publishing industry in unprecedented ways. 

So what’s in store for 2023 when it comes to digital publishing trends?

Subscription models

Subscription-based services continue to gain popularity. Subscriptions to digital publications accounted for 44% of overall revenue for news publishers globally in 2018. Enticing readers or viewers to subscribe content, however, is not as simple as offering them access to exclusive features, images, or forums. To turn casual readers and viewers into paying subscribers, publishers often use email newsletters, exit intent pop-ups, and push alerts. Publishers must produce excellent content in innovative formats to draw in new readers and foster reader loyalty. Offering options allows the user to decide whether to pay a fee to access the information or not, which is always preferable.

The Paris Review, for instance, offers four distinct subscription options. The New Yorker offers print + digital issues to subscribers, while Unlimited Digital Access is available to those who have abandoned paper in favour of screen culture. Every membership comes with a free New Yorker tote bag, which adds a personal touch and encourages readers to feel proud of being a part of the community.

Here, customization is crucial. The “entertainment in your pocket” initiatives started by OTT platforms like Netflix, where they launched the mobile-only membership, are an intriguing example to take note of.

Insta Novels

The New York Public Library first introduced Insta Novels in August 2018 with the newly digitised edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Insta Novels is a reworking of Instagram Novels that offers a new venue for some of the most famous stories ever written. They developed “Insta Novels,” a fun, captivating storytelling style, in collaboration with Mother, a New York advertising agency, to appeal to a population of young readers with incredibly short attention spans. The mission of NYPL was to promote reading among a wider audience outside of its four walls. To accomplish this goal, the organisation has resorted to one of the biggest social media networks in the world, Instagram, where it has 400 million daily active members, to share classic literature.

Videos, Audiobooks, and Podcasts:

By 2023, there will be 1.85 billion monthly podcast listeners worldwide. This indicates that publishers are scrambling to capitalise on the current surge in podcasting. When consumers listen to podcasts while working from home, working out, or travelling, they can more readily ingest longer forms of material while going about their daily lives without having to give the content their complete attention. This is encouraging for all types of publishers because people may now listen to any podcast that interests them, whether it’s about intellectual arguments or celebrity rumours.

The publishing industry’s newest darling is audiobooks. In fact, the digital publishing industry’s fastest-growing sector right now is audiobooks. According to the Association of American Publishers, there has reportedly been a 33.9% rise in the number of audiobooks produced in 2017 compared to 2016. Audible is a very well-known membership service for audio books. In 2018, Amazon introduced Audible and its monthly audiobook subscription service in India. They initially offered a 90-day free trial with credit for three free audiobooks, then offered monthly, semi-annual, and annual plans. It is the best subscription service for the money because of its broad range of books and thoughtfully designed interface, to name just two factors.

The majority of consumer screen time on social media is spent watching short, snackable videos. These movies cover a variety of topics, such as how to make delightful sweets at home and quick tutorials on gym exercises. In any case, viewers prefer watching short movies—between 30 and 75 seconds—and video makers have mostly abandoned the conventional structure of one- to two-minute videos. The difficulty for publishers is to keep viewers entertained in that brief amount of time by making videos that are entertaining and engaging without requiring a lot of attention or time.

Collaboration

You are who you hang out with!

That also applies to writers, even if it refers to digital company.

A content package that is well-coordinated with other publishers, organisations, and even influencers can be more significant and potent than one that could have been produced by a publisher alone. When various firms combine their distinctive skills and knowledge, the ultimate product is nearly always a piece of content that offers consumers more value. It can also refer to technological advancements like partnerships between media companies and producers.

A valuable source of money for authors, book to movie adaptations also guarantee improved exposure for the authors. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Comics, and the Harry Potter Universe are the best examples of all time. Speaking of India, recent successful literary adaptations include Raazi, Sacred Games, and the impending Shantaram television series. The most recent instance globally would be the Times Square grand unveiling of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Fifty “wizarding world influencers,” vloggers, bloggers, and everyone else who had been invited to the launch were present. In order to promote the play’s expansion to new international markets and reveal its new tagline, “Sometimes, Darkness Comes from Unexpected Places,” in the form of an immersive theatre, the Broadway producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in collaboration with the entertainment advertising agency AKA NYC, commandeered Times Square and used 51 towering screens.

Mobile-first approach

For the majority of individuals, mobile is now the best device for internet activity. As a result, it is essential that your publishing platform provide a positive mobile experience. Many things can be limited with a mobile strategy, and there are countless opportunities for creativity. Among the suggestions for establishing a strong mobile presence are things like having:

  • Mobile-friendly pages are those that are simple to navigate on mobile devices, meaning they don’t obstruct a user’s ability to execute any action or bother them in any way.
  • AMPs are web pages that load more quickly on mobile devices and are given favour in mobile SERPs. Additionally, AMPs are more likely to appear on Google Discover.
  • PWAs are webpages designed to take advantage of native mobile capabilities without requiring users to visit the play store or app store and download or buy the app locally. They have the same look and feel of a mobile app.
  • Push notifications are when your mobile app or website sends notifications to users’ mobile devices after obtaining their consent.
  • Vertical content is preferable for any videos made for mobile devices as this format is supported and preferred by all the major social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others. In terms of user engagement, vertical videos outperform horizontal counterparts by 58%.

As more websites link to your material, you will gain backlinks in addition to pleasing your audience by producing high quality content. High E-A-T levels are one of the traits of high-quality material (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). If you are unfamiliar with the phrase, it is a component of Google’s quality standards that determines how a page will rank for a particular keyword: In order to determine the Page Quality grade for a given piece of content, Google considers a number of factors, including the author’s experience, the website’s authority, the website’s credibility, and the website’s trustworthiness.

You will appear higher on Google if your material has a higher Page Quality rating. Having consumers for all types of material, including written, audio-visual, and more, is essential to producing outstanding content.

Publishers are changing how users consume their information on various screens. It’s time to revolutionise the publishing industry by creating wiser production strategies based on reader needs and preferences, with a stronger emphasis on digital trends.

Ethereum Merge explained: what you need to know

“Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party” on YouTube was watched by 41,000 people when The Merge took place. People with bated breath watched the show with festivity, food, drinks and Merge talk! 

Ethereum, outranked only by Bitcoin, is a blockchain best known for its cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), and its programmable capability. As a much-discussed and long-hyped event in the cryptocurrency community, the Merge represents a fundamental shift in the operation of the Ethereum blockchain.

What is the “Merge” and when did it happen? 

Touted as one of the most substantial events for the cryptocurrency industry, the Merge is a tech upgrade which was executed on September 15, 2022. The Ethereum network moved from the energy-intensive “Proof-of-work” protocols to “proof-of-stake” protocols. With this upgrade, the energy consumption of Ethereum reduced by a whopping ~99.95%.

Why is it called a Merge?

From a technical perspective, Merge is a two-step process as a merger of the current Ethereum Mainnet and the Beacon Chain proof-of-stake system. Beacon Chain was successfully launched in 2020. The second step was the actual transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus while officially deprecating proof-of-work (PoW). 

What is PoW and PoS and how is it significant? 

Proof-of-Work or PoW and Proof-of-Stake or PoS are both consensus mechanisms that are used in distributed networks to keep them secure. 

In PoW, securing and validating a block is done by miners (computer graphic cards solving complex mathematical algorithms), in exchange for rewards and transaction fees. Since a lot of gas is required to issue new blocks, this model has been criticized for its enormous energy consumption.

In PoS, the network is secured by validators who stake their crypto assets as collateral and earn a reward. With this model, power consumption decreases dramatically since there is very little computation required. PoS also offers lower barrier to entry.

The Merge and energy consumption

After switching its consensus algorithm to PoS, the Ethereum blockchain has reduced its energy consumption and decreased its carbon footprint approximately by 99.99% each transitioning into an eco-friendly consensus model. Ben Edgington, Product Owner for Teku, an Ethereum 2.0 client, emphasized the beneficial environmental impact of Merge’s upgrade. “I feel very proud that we will be able to look back and say I’ve had a role to play in removing a megaton of carbon from the atmosphere every week. That’s something that meaningfully affects my family and others”.

How does the Merge affect the Ethereum ecosystem?

Ethereum users don’t need to update their wallets or funds since the wallet works the same way as they did pre-Merge. Even with the new consensus mechanism, the genesis remains intact and unaltered by the transition to proof-of-stake. However, the Merge does affect miners, node operators, and developers since they will have to familiarize themselves with changes in both the execution layer and the consensus layer.

What are the risks and flaws of the Ethereum Merge?

Any technology changes comes with its own set of problems and Merge is no exception. One of the major concerns regarding the Merge is that of centralization since it may increase the concentration of power within the network. With PoS, staking is required to earn interest on one’s ETH holdings, which could lead to situations where people who cannot afford to stake are priced out of market defeating the entire purpose of decentralization. Ethereum has also warned its users to be wary of scammers after the Merge. 

Ethereum After the Merge

According to Ethereum’s co-creator, Vitalik Buterin, “this is the first step in Ethereum’s big journey toward being a very mature system, but there are still steps left to go. The next main area of our focus now is solving scalability issues”.

Key Takeaways and Recollection: WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress 2022

Ninestars took part in the World News Media Congress 2022 in Zaragoza between 28-30 September, 2022. The three-day congress with thought leaders, international speakers, and industry colleagues was a truly enriching experience. We are glad to carry home some amazing insights, idea-provoking concepts and fond memories. 

The main theme of the Congress this year revolved around Press Freedom, Reinventing Newsrooms, and Publishing Strategies to innovation and transforming media organisations. With over 1200 attendees, 120 speakers from 75 nations and several special events, the Congress provided a global perspective on the industry. 

It was exhilarating to be a part of the summit with all the decision-makers of the industry where we had a chance to learn and share our knowledge with the industry.

An array of topics was covered in the three days of Congress. The topics ranged from reflecting on the past learnings to build more sustainable future for the industry, rebuilding trust in journalism and the necessity to fight for press freedom, how to tap unserved audiences, and new ways to grow digital revenue.

One topic that had our attention captivated was web3, since Ninestars has been working towards building a unique platform based on blockchain for publishers. Web3 is where we are headed and it is an immense joy to know that a lot of our industry colleagues shared our enthusiasm. At our booth, we saw a lot of footfall of people who were interested to know more about how blockchain and NFT could be implemented in the content world.

It was great learning from some of the industry experts like Gary Liu, who emphasized the importance for media organizations to adopt web3, and to engage Gen Z and beyond. On that note, he mentioned the implementation of blockchain for South China Morning Post and also presented different case studies on NFT. An insightful presentation through and through.

Ninestars has participated in WAN-IFRA global event after quite some time and we truly enjoyed reconnecting with our colleagues, meeting publishing partners, and hearing from industry experts.

One of the major highlights for us was meeting with the King of Spain. All of our team members got to meet the King Felipe VI and we couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Were you at WAN-IFRA Congress this year? What have been your takeaways?

Come meet us at WAN-IFRA Media Congress 2022

Excitement and anticipation are at peaks, as our team gears up for World News Media Congress 2022 from 28-30 September in Zaragoza, Spain.

WAN-IFRA since 1948 has been committed to protecting the rights of publishers and journalists all over the world to operate independent media. They believe their crucial role in the society is to provide expertise and services to their members to innovate and prosper in a digital world.

It is stirring this year to be part of the Congress as we meet delegates from all over the world in person to discuss the future of media, amidst technological disruptions and a volatile economy.

We are particularly excited to present our new concept pitch on PRANA, a content marketplace for Web3. We also have a very relevant offering for media publishers to build and launch media apps in less than two days.

Meet us at booth no. 21, placed right opposite to the conference organizers, the WAN-IFRA lounge. Come be part of our journey.

NFT Culture: Hype or Favourable?

With a hefty $91.8 million price tag, The Merge (collection of art series) is the most expensive NFT sold so far. This series was created by renowned digital artist Pak making him arguably the most valued living digital artist. 

NFT culture survives at the intersection of art, culture, and the blockchain. Investors and collectors seem to be pouring money into non-fungible tokens, tokenizing anything unique as an Ethereum-based asset. In fact, sales are believed to surpass last year’s total by going up to $90 billion by the end of 2022 despite NFT prices seeing a downturn of late.

But what’s really manoeuvring the market and what makes people want to invest millions of dollars in NFTs? 

Getting to know NFT

According to Wikipedia, “A non-fungible token (NFT) is a record on a blockchain which is associated with a particular digital or physical asset. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded”.

NFT is simply any form of digital asset that symbolizes real-world objects like art (any form), music, in-game items, and videos. They are traded online using mostly cryptocurrencies and they are encoded with blockchain.

Cash (physical money) and cryptocurrencies are “fungible,” meaning they can be exchanged or traded for one another (which defines specific value for specific items). They’re also equal in value: one rupee is always worth another rupee; one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin. The nature of Crypto’s fungibility makes it a trusted means for carrying out business transactions and administering them on the blockchain.

Even though cryptocurrency and NFT have almost the same encoding software the similarity ends there. Every NFT has a unique digital signature that makes it rather impossible to be exchanged or considered equal (hence, the “non-fungible” moniker). For example, an NBA Top Shot gif is not equal to a cat gif just because they’re both NFTs.  For that matter, even two seemingly similar NBA Top Shot clips aren’t necessarily equal to each other.

But, anyone can view the individual images or even the entire collage of images online for free. So why are people crazily spending millions on something they could easily download, screenshot or just access online?

Because an NFT allows the buyer to own the original item (OG is the new trend!). But that’s not the only reason, NFTs contain built-in authentication, which offers proof of ownership. Collectors and investors value the “digital bragging rights” more than the piece itself (most of the time).

Essentially, NFTs are like physical collector’s items, but only in digital form; i.e., when a collector auctions a painting, instead of getting an actual painting to hang on the wall, the buyer gets a digital file instead. They also get exclusive ownership rights. NFTs work with the concept of ‘one owner at a time’, and their adoption of blockchain technology makes it easy to verify ownership and transfer tokens between the owners. The creator of the art piece can store specific information in an NFT’s metadata in the file, like their signature.

NFTs are offering more power and control to content creators than ever before…

Looking beyond the hype and the price tags; NFTs could represent a huge opportunity in content marketing. Each token has an exclusive and transparent ID which can be used to track and control them. This paves the way for fundamental changes in the relationship between content creator, consumer and brand.

Traditionally after the first sale goes through, the artist or the creator’s journey ends there with their item. Once the art has been sold, the transactions usually end there. The buyers, however, could sell the same work of art again at higher prices if there is demand and if the buyer is willing to sell. However, there is one more way that the non-fungible tokens help the creator and is called ‘NFT Royalties’. NFT royalties give a certain (usually specified) percentage on the sale price every time the NFT creation is sold on a marketplace. These are automatic pay-outs to the author made on repeated sales. The percentage of the royalties are coded into the smart contract on the blockchain of the NFT. Each time a secondary transaction takes place, the encoded smart contract ensures that the terms of the NFT are fulfilled to the dot and the specified cut of the royalty percentage on the sale price goes to the artist who created them. 

This works equally well for digital content, gaming accessories, physical items, real estate etc. NFT royalties are a never-before-opportunity to maximize the earnings of artists and content creators and to give them what is their fair share of profit. 

NFT has the power to triangulate the relationship between artists, collectors, and the brand to create a strong community that benefits all.

We are participating in FIBEP 2022

After more than a decade of working alongside Media Monitoring organizations, we have seen innovation up-close, brought in disruption, and built immense value for the industry. We can say for sure that there’s never been a more exciting time to be working in this industry. This year we take our forever and a day relation with FIBEP a notch higher. We are excited to be the Headline Sponsors’ of FIBEP World Media Intelligence Congress 2022. With that, we are all geared up to be part of this year’s discussions and insights from industry colleagues.

Founded in 1953, FIBEP is a global media intelligence association. Hosted every year, FIBEP World Media Intelligence Congress has become one of the largest congregations of communications, public relations, technology, social media monitoring, and marketing professionals. Best practices, industry developments and innovations, and the latest technologies are discussed and shared in Congress through a range of activities, discussion panels, and presentations.

The theme for the 2022 FIBEP World Media Intelligence Congress to be held in Dublin from 14-16 September 2022 is “Media Intelligence – Insights During Unrest”.

This year our Chief Strategy Officer, Mohan Doshi will be participating in a range of discussions including:

  • Fireside Chat discussing Future Tech Table on September 15, 2022 (Thursday) from 11:40 AM-12:10 PM (GMT+1)
  • Best Practices presenting Business Transformation at Scale on September 16, 2022 (Friday) from 12:15 PM-12:30 PM (GMT+1)

Stop by the Ninestars lounge next to the conference hall and our team will be happy to help you navigate tech-driven solutions that are changing the world of media monitoring. 

We are participating in AMEC 2021 Global Summit

It is with great pleasure that we announce that we are participating in the 2021 AMEC Virtual Global Summit on Measurement: Communication Accountability: Planning, Purpose and Proof. 

AMEC is the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication which is the world’s largest media intelligence and insights professional body, representing organisations and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research.

The two-day summit scheduled on May 26 – 27 is a great opportunity to immerse in the world of communication measurement and evaluation. It features inspiring keynotes and informative spotlight sessions from a line-up of international speakers and offer countless opportunities to connect virtually with industry leaders and influencers. 

Ninestars is participating as a Gold Sponsor and we would also be showcasing our content intelligence SaaS platform, PRANA, through our virtual booth. 

A quick note on PRANA. It is an AI-driven ESP (Event Stream Processing) platform that help derive actionable real-time insights from diverse content sources. Architected on high compute and stream processing engineering principles, PRANA is built to manage scale , processing thousands of feeds every second. It has flexible touch-points to compliment and seamlessly integrate with client’s ecosystem. PRANA offers a unique proposition with its AI-HI model (AI-enabled Human Intelligence), which ensures continuous learning and high accuracy for near real-time intelligence and analysis on bespoke dashboards. 

Even though we love the chance to meet and greet our visitors in person, this year we will use our virtual booth to meet you. Our team will be available to discuss any requirement in media content analysis, intelligence or services that could add value to your business. 

To access the virtual exhibition, make sure you register here : https://amecorg.com/summits/2021-summit/

Browse through our solutions and latest innovations here: https://www.ninestarsglobal.com

The National Archives of India is all set for Digital Transformation

In an increasingly tech-driven world, governments across the globe are looking for ways to hold on to the modicum of the past to preserve their heritage. By digitizing records and relics of historic importance, governments can effectively preserve and provide sustainable access to digital records to its citizens.

To ensure longevity of voluminous physical documents in its custody and to provide quicker access to archive records (a process that currently can take up to a month), the National Archives of India (NAI)  has decided to digitize its documents in a phased manner. Out of the total archive of nearly 18 crore pages, about 4 crore 50 lakh pages will be digitized in the first phase over the next three years. NAI chose Ninestars for this key digitisation project in 2021 through a rigorous tender process.

Established on 11 March, 1891 at Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department, NAI is the largest archival repository in South Asia containing a wealth of valuable information for historians, officials, and interested citizens. The 125-year-old body is home to priceless articles of Indian history including maps, bills assented to by the President of India, centuries old Buddhist texts, treaties, rare manuscripts, oriental records, official records maintained by the East India Company, private papers, cartographic records, important collection of Gazettes and Gazetteers, Census records, assembly and parliament debates, proscribed literatures, travel accounts, etc. These documents also shed light on the rule of the later Mughals, growth of the East India Company in India, colonial rule in India, Indian freedom struggle and growth and development in post Independent India. Apart from the political and administrative history, the archives at NAI provide information on socio-economic history and the scientific and technological progress of India over the years. These historic titles are of immense value to the nation and the global research community.

In order to broaden access to the Archives’ collections, and reduce the impact of frequent handling of the old or fragile material, Ninestars is helping NAI digitize and maintain their most valuable collections. Ninestars will help create high-resolution surrogates of the Archives’ digitized collections with scanning and enhanced optical character recognition (OCR) for more in-depth analysis. Additionally,  we will help NAI in indexing the digital documents for easy retrieval of information. The digitised files will be uploaded on a DMS (Document Management System) Ninestars will build to make NAI records available on one single, secure platform.  

We are looking forward to an exciting journey of helping The National Archives of India accelerate its digital transformation journey. A new chapter has begun. Here are some glimpses of the project inauguration ceremony.