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Thirty-five years after Ronny Mistry Associates Private Limited (RMA Media) was established to collect advertisements for the periodical Newsweek, Faredoon Kuka, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) says his company is "India’s second largest international media representative.” Such a company collects advertisements from businesses who wish to promote themselves in overseas publications, in both digital and newspaper/magazine formats. "About 80% of our advertisers prefer print over advertising digitally,” he informs Parsiana in an interview on July 3, 2017. While the share of the print medium in national advertising spend is dropping, Kuka says that most of the 50+  advertisers they approach on behalf of publications are central and state ministries of tourism and commerce, and state investment promotion boards who "prefer the print medium” to advertise overseas.

 

 

 

RMA Media serves "150 group titles of the world,” including The Wall Street Journal (newspaper and magazine both), The New Yorker, The Washington Times, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro and The Strait Times. Explaining that they do not represent any Indian publication, the CEO states that "in the early 1990s we had a lot of advertisers in the software business who wanted to tap into the newly-opening-up overseas markets.” The company has exclusive contracts with most international publications. "Because we serve The Daily Telegraph, we cannot work for the Financial Times,” he says. Newsweek remains in their portfolio of publishers, and ranks with The Strait Times as one of their oldest. The newest in their stable of publications is The Wall Street Journal, says the media professional. Competition comes from Publicitas International (now called NewBase) and The Times of India’s international division, Kuka states. "But we are the oldest in the business,” he adds. 
Kuka narrates how RMA Media was formed: Ronny Mistry, his father-in-law, was an advertising manager in The Times of India group till 1982 when Newsweek asked him whether he was keen to be their exclusive India representative. "He took the decision within an hour,” he says. Mistry, whom Kuka considered a workaholic, passed away 14 years ago at age 75. An alumnus of St Xavier’s Boys Academy and the Institute of Hotel Management, Applied Nutrition and Catering Technology, Kuka joined Mistry in 1991 as senior executive, and later took on the role of general manager. In 2004 Kuka took RMA Media’s presence beyond India to Dubai. The operations there represent various titles for the Middle Eastern markets.
Wife Nancy is a director in the company. Daughter Sharmin (26) oversees the Canadian operations from Vancouver while studying business management. "It is a difficult market out there,” he says, "but we have to make a breakthrough.” The operations there also serve the out of home (billboards) business and radio markets. Twenty-nine-year-old son Rushad who completed courses in graphic designing from Raffles University in Singapore focuses on building the RMA Media brand and on business development. The company works from nine locations in India and Dubai and employs 30 people, including nine in Bombay.   
Having entered its 36th year on June 22 this year, Kuka states this about RMA Media: "no publication has left us, unless they have closed down operations or set up their own operations in the country... We served the International Herald Tribune as their sole India representative till the very end, until they were integrated with The New York Times and became The New York Times International Edition.”