If you thought only TV Channels are growing like crazy in India can you digest this?
Indian print Industry saw the launch of 60 new magazine titles in past 12 months !
Bucked the recession? It looks like, but the fact is that print ad revenues dropped almost by 30 per cent in past 1 year. Still the confidence of both Indian and International publications remain strong solely because of the available market opportunity.
As India Today Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie put the facts at the fifth Indian Magazine Congress 2009 :
“With 60,000 registered newspapers and periodicals, India is the second largest print market in the world”.
Aroon also pointed out some growth opportunities in sectors such as local language magazine printing and magazine retailing.
New magazines have been launched in various sectors like- business, high end fashion, men’s magazines, lifestyle, sports, technology etc.
These are some of the new entrants in market-
- Business – Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur.
- Technology- Stuff (India’s version of Stuff, UK).
- Lex WITNESS– first Magazine on Legal and Corporate affairs.
- Feature and current affairs weekly magazine- Open.
- Seed Today– Agriculture Today group.
- Sports Illustrated India- Sports.
- Fashion and Beauty Magazine- Harper’s Bazaar.
- Indian edition of the British weekly magazine- Spectator India.
- Food and Nightlife – Lifestyle.
The trend is similar in Print media as in TV Broadcasting- “Large number of foreign collaborations”.
With Network 18 using similar strategies for both Print and Broadcasting, there can be many others looking for such expansions.
What are your thoughts? Will we see the same pace of growth in coming months as well?
[This Media Monday digest has been written by Rabi Gupta, a start up enthusiast and co-founder of iDubba (Intelligent Box).]
Internet will take a LOT of time to reach masses of India…
Apart from metros, local news papers still rule the minds of citizens…especially, in states where English is not spoken commonly, internet medium will not have such a high impact, especially when it comes to thoughtful aspects like politics and non fiction…internet is mostly limited to be in touch (think orkut) and get info (think moneycontrol)
Are the printed magazines late to the party? In the US and UK top media companies are already reeling under losses due to the success of internet and blogging, and for some reason Indian publishing is picking up now!
As I mentioned in my post titled “Death of Print Media? So What?” at http://www.lifestyles.co.in, internet, blogs and classified sites have nearly fulfilled the purpose of print media and in a much timelier manner. So even if the big media houses try to milk the customers in different forms, to me it not seem like a viable long term plan unless it is truly filling a need.
Hi Madhav,
I agree to both of your points. But in India due to varied demographics and multiple languages, print media can still survive for long. it depends on how the market is captured and what is offered.
Are the printed magazines late to the party? In the US and UK top media companies are already reeling under losses due to the success of internet and blogging, and for some reason Indian publishing is picking up now!
As I mentioned in my post titled Death of Print Media? So What? internet, blogs and classified sites have nearly fulfilled the purpose of print media and in a much timelier manner. So even if the big media houses try to milk the customers in different forms, to me it not seem like a viable long term plan unless it is truly filling a need.
TV18 Group alone has brought many magazines in the market.