Anweshak Tejendra and Prabal Sharma, two Multimedia Journalism MA alumni, have expanded The Envoy Web, the online publication they started during their time at the University of Westminster, smashing the 500,000 monthly global readers milestone. Their digital media publishing company Prophecyverse Media has also grown from one to three websites.
Prophecyverse Media began as The Envoy Web which publishes digital entertainment news, features, reviews and interviews. The Envoy Web has increased its monthly readership from 50,000 readers in October 2020 to 500,000 current readers worldwide. The publication was initially targeted at India, but now has readers across the globe from the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia. Since 2020, Anweshak and Prabal have expanded their publishing assets by launching two new websites, The Game Raven and The Football Chronicle, focusing on gaming and football respectively.
Anweshak Tejendra, Editor-In-Chief, and Prabal Sharma, Editorial Head, started working on The Envoy Web whilst they were studying at the University of Westminster. They noticed a gap in the market for web entertainment journalism and established the project to help them develop practical experience and skills alongside their degrees. After Tejendra and Sharma graduated in 2019, they took on the project full-time and have seen its scope and size grow ever since.
The idea came during a regular conversation between the alumni about Netflix watchlists before the Emerging Journalism class one day. Prabal Sharma said: “We were wondering why there wasn’t a mainstream website dedicated to digital entertainment platforms where we could easily access information about upcoming films and series. It was one of those eureka moments where Anweshak just randomly stated that maybe we should make one then.
“We knew we had to code a website for the module anyway, why not create a publishing site dedicated to Over-The-Top (OTT) content. It was a slow start and we initially never thought it would lead to something.”
The alumni worked in a group of six first, and each team member posted one news article on the website every day. Things took a turn when an Indian celebrity retweeted one of their articles about their upcoming show. Prabal said: “That was probably the push of validation we needed that we’ve created something relevant and potentially successful.”
Speaking about their journey after Westminster, Anweshak Tejendra said: “We graduated over three years ago when the website was at a nascent stage. We incorporated a company and started focussing full-time on it. What we did not realise at the time was the challenges that were about to follow. For the first couple of years, although the views were rising, the revenues were low. That is when we made the decision to pivot from India as the target audience to the entire world. This allowed us to tap more lucrative markets, alongside India.”
The pair was able to establish connections with some of the world’s most prominent digital advertising companies. The platform’s journalists now have contacts within Netflix and regularly get early access screeners. They also have regular access to press conferences as well.
Anweshak added: “Where we are today would not have been possible without our small but efficient core team: Nadeem Abdul, Muskan Chhatwani, Rishabh Chauhan and Rahul Shinde. We have come a long way in recent years but all of us realise that this is merely the start. Our long-term goal is to reach the top of this industry in multiple niches.”
Learn about Media and Communication courses offered at the University of Westminster.
Update: The Anime Web has now also been launched as of October 2023.
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