Indian Magazine Industry And The Effect Media Essay

The print industry is the oldest of all forms in India. Though book publishing consists of a very small part of this industry but the major portion is held by newspaper and the magazine industry in terms of the revenue. The various reasons that have increased the growth of this industry are mainly the robust consumption and rising income levels of the people. This is a mature industry but every year new magazines have been launching. New titles to focus on Niche topics for a particular bunch of people (to cater to a particular audience) are launching heavily. The revenue source for a magazine is mainly subscription, single copy sales and advertising. “The magazine industry is going through a tough phase in India just like in other countries. Newspapers have added supplements to their main issue and infringed on the content covered by magazines earlier. There is still a demand for high quality print content and magazines need to deliver on that need to avoid losing market share to other mediums. In addition, they also need to explore and distribute their content on the web and mobile platforms to give choice to their subscribers to consume content from anywhere and at any time.”

Literature review

“India has 49,000 publications, but annual revenues total just $1.1 billion. Most lack technology, marketing, and capital to grow which has resulted in a handful of publications dominating the market with the Times of India Group being the market leader. Distribution is critical for a magazine since it has to be readily available and marketed to consumers. Big publications have strong distribution network set up. “

“With the growth coming from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, magazines have to expand their distribution channel aggressively in those locations and localize content where needed.”

Trends in the Tech Magazine industry

“Multichannel: 24/7 Content Distribution. Print will still play a flagship role for most magazine enterprises, but there will be a continued drive to expand existing channels including print magazines and newsletters, digital magazines and e-newsletters, mobile, Web sites, blogs, pod casts, virtual events, video and many others. “

E-Publishing: Technology Forward: This new way of bringing the printed word to life has resulted in the creation of new software and hardware devices such as the Kindle (e-reader).

Relevance is everything to consumers, and both emerging print-based and electronic technologies will continue to enable ever-higher levels of personalization at affordable costs.

Content: Content is only growing in importance, and magazine publishers’ ability to generate targeted content will remain a huge asset in an information-hungry world.

Magazines have discontinued supplements, which were earlier distributed free of cost with the main product.”

“The print industry in India is highly fragmented due to the large number of local languages. Regional language publications own 46 percent of the market share, Hindi language publications cover 44 percent and the remaining 10 percent is served by English publications. The primary penetration of English language magazines currently is in metros and urban centres though the growth is widening to smaller cities as the education and income levels increase among the middle class. But also the Average issue readership numbers have been on a decline due to increased competition from free content on the Internet and Mobile platforms.”

The ad revenue sources are national, local, classified, pre-printed (inserts) and advertorials. The CPM rate for magazines is lower than television and the audience is more targeted.”

“With the opening up of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, several international publishers are aggressively entering the market and this trend is expected to continue.”

“A slew of foreign players launched their India editions.”

“The most notable magazine launched was Forbes India in May 2009 by Network18 and Forbes Media.”

“RPG Group’s ‘Open’, a weekly magazine aimed at evolved Indian readers who are well informed, well-travelled and identify themselves as global citizens.”

“Pathfinder publishing’s maiden title Career 360, a monthly publication focusing on career advice.”

“Technology Review, a technology magazine launched in India jointly by MIT’s Technology Review magazine and Cyber Media India Ltd.”

“Hearst Corporation’s Harper’s Bazaar, a fashion and beauty magazine in partnership with India Today.”

“The re-launch of Delhi Press’ The Caravan, a fortnightly magazine that covers politics, culture, arts and literature.”

“Images Group’s FNL and Salon and Living etc., an Indian edition of international homes magazine.”

“Gill India Communications’ What Women Want, a woman’s magazine for women aged between 20 and 45 years and ‘Lifestyle Living’, a lifestyle magazine dedicated to those with a creative lifestyle.”

“The trend for foreign magazines to launch their India edition is expected to continue in 2010 as well, with BBC’s Lonely Planet magazine having launched recently.”

“Newspapers and publications have reduced the number of pages to cut print and production cost. Magazines have discontinued supplements, which were earlier distributed free of cost with the main product.”

“Advertisement Revenue Breakdown by Region”

“North: 23%

South: 38%

East: 9%

West: 26%

National: 4%”

Top 25 English Magazines in India

“India Today

Readers Digest

General Knowledge Today

Competition Success Review

Filmfare

Wisdom

Stardust

Outlook

Diamond Cricket Today

Business Today

Femina

Competition Refresher

Health & Nutrition

Auto Car

Outlook Business

Woman’s Era

Business India

Champak

Outlook Traveller

Business World

Digit

Society

Frontline”

“India Today is the highest read English magazine in the county with an AIR of 1,955,000, which is an 8.7 percent decline in its readership. “Reader’s Digest has seen a 2.1 percent drop in its AIR and is now at 1,327,000.”

“Stardust has slipped down the list with a 11.4 percent decrease. “

“The current AIR is at 388,000.”

“Diamond Cricket Today has an AIR of 378,000, which is a 5.5 percent decline.”

“Competition Refresher has increased by 37.3% and its AIR is now at 335,000.”

“The Week has dropped by 4.2 percent and the AIR is 322,000.”

“Femina has dropped by 4 percent and now has an AIR of 309,000.”

“Business Today has dropped by 12 percent in its AIR down to 287,000.”

“Health & Nutrition has an AIR of 250,000, which is a 11.3 percent decline.”

“The Sportstar has seen 14.8 percent drop in its AIR and now stands at 242,000.”

“Business India stands at 222,000, which is a 7.5 percent decline in its AIR.”

“Woman’s Era has seen an AIR of 200,000, which is a 4.8 percent decline.”

“Auto Car had a 13.1 percent growth to an AIR of 199,000.”

“Champak has seen a 4 percent decrease with an AIR of 193,000.”

“Business India has an AIR of 166,000, which is a decline of 18.6 percent.”

“Business World has an AIR of 165,000.”

“Outlook Traveller has seen an AIR of 146,000.”

“Digit has seen a 5.8 percent decline.”

“Society has seen a growth of 1.7 percent.”

“Frontline has seen a 20.8 percent decline.”

“Femina Girl saw a growth of 6.2 percent.”

“Auto India like many others has seen a 18.7 percent decline in its AIR.”

“P C Quest and Outlook Money have both seen a decline of 17.4 percent and 24.3 percent respectively.”

“Business and Economy has seen a 6.5 percent growth with an AIR of 82,000.”

“Inside Outside has seen a 17.3 percent while Cosmopolitan has seen a 61.4 percent growth.”

“Overdrive has dropped by 23.7 percent.”

“The Telegraph in Schools has grown by 72.5 percent with an AIR of 69,000.”

“New Woman has seen a drop of 9.2 percent while Magic Pot has an AIR of 58,000.”

“Time has seen a growth of 3.6 percent.”

“Cine Blitz has dropped by 5.7 percent while Elle and Savvy have grown by 29.7 percent and 13 percent respectively.”

Top English Magazines by Segment

Current Affairs, Culture & Politics

Outlook

Society & Women

Femina

India Today Plus

Entertainment

Filmfare

Stardust

Sports

Sport Star

ESPN

Fashion

Vogue (UK)

Cosmopolitan

Business & Financial

Capital Market (Stock Market)

Business Today

Computer & Electronics

PC Quest

Travel & Leisure

Budget Travel

Discover India Magazine

Children

Amar Chitra Katha

Spiderman

Competition Master

Fashion & Lifestyle

Another Magazine

M Magazine

Literature

Darpan

India Star”

Discussion of the case

“Britain’s Haymarket Publishing Group already has ties to Autocar India, with 80,000 subscribers. Now, it can invest, provide funds to print more copies, market more strongly and use Autocar as a platform to bring its other brands. Bombay’s Tata Infomedia, a $30 million publisher of yellow pages and trade magazines, also has already started to solicit business with foreign companies. The Tata Group sold the Indian edition of Reader’s Digest magazine, making it the first publishing property offered for sale since the government had scrapped the ban on foreign investment in the print media.”

“The opening up of the print media sector to foreign investment is a bold decision by the Government, considering the unwillingness of so many past Governments to do the same. It could enrich the quality of the magazines and other publications.”

“Online advertising sells for far less per ad than printed ad space, therefore; promoting any company products or service online is much more preferable. This comes as no surprise considering the small physical size of most online ads when compared to print ads. It is important for tablet advertising to define a pricing model for their ads. Tablets have the ability to create much larger, unavoidable ads, similar to those seen in a printed magazine, with the addition of interactivity and multimedia. That being said, tablet price ranges could have the potential to be comparable to print advertisements.

Though digital sales rise every year, print is still dominating the magazine industry.

The Indian magazine sector has reached INR14.9 billion in 2009. The segment’s revenues increased at 7.2% y-o-y in the year 2009. “

“Among the magazine companies surveyed, 73% of the respondents believed that magazine readership growth will continue to be driven by the metros and India’s 15 largest cities. Of the 20 most-read magazines in India, only 3 magazines are in English, while the remaining are in Hindi and other regional languages. English magazines however, garner the lion’s share of ad revenues.”

“Alternate revenue streams such as events and digital delivery are gaining ground, and are expected to account for 20%-50% of total revenues within the next three years.”

“Currently, the magazine segment may not yet have successful strategies and business plans in place to profitably monetize the digital space. Talking about the digital space we see that the E-book sales have accelerated rapidly since 2008, but only a small fraction of consumers currently read e-books. “The market for media tablets, which consists of tablet computers (including Apple’s iPad) and electronic readers (including Amazon’s Kindle) exploded in 2010. In the first year of availability over 15 million tablet computers reached consumers. In addition, the size of the Indian electronic reader market almost doubled in size, surpassing 10 million units. By 2015, almost 200 million tablet computers are expected to be sold and consumers will use them to consume content that was previously found in printed books, magazines and newspapers.”

“Although a large portion of consumers seem to enjoy reading magazines on an iPad, print still has a firmer hold on the magazine industry.While this study shows print magazines as an overall more enjoyable and popular method of conveying magazine content, portable tablets such as the iPad are showing huge potential. Another thing regarding price was the fact that a single issue for print and digital were the same. Consumers realize there is no paper, postage or ink costs involved with digital and are therefore not willing to pay as much for an iPad issue. While many enjoyed the tablet experience, overall opinions leaned toward print as their preferred method of obtaining magazine content. “

Conclusion

“Print media companies have made great efforts to capitalize on the migration of consumer eyeballs towards digital, and magazine publishers are no exception. Newspapers have already faced severe competition from online news sources, and the adoption of media tablets, especially tablet computers, will make browsing news websites and digital editions even more convenient for consumers and advertisers.”

“One important factor regarding the two media is consumer accessibility. If a consumer does not own a tablet, they are not able to access a tablet magazine. Whereas anyone interested in reading a magazine can do so without hassle. This puts tablet magazines at a clear disadvantage to print in terms of consumer accessibility. According to the Apple Inc. website, the price of an iPad comes in at around $500 dollars (“IPad”). The amount of money put into an iPad is much steeper than only purchasing a print magazine; be it subscription or monthly. Print still has a significant lead on the consumer population.”

“The conclusion finally is; although tablet magazines will take a portion of the magazine market, print still holds the majority of consumer interest. Firstly though, the iPad must become ubiquitous in order for its digital magazines to compete with the ubiquity of print. That means both the iPad Staughton 31itself as well as its digital magazines must drop in price. With the current popularity of print, programmatic design in tablets will need to be expanded upon; graphics, navigation, interactivity and physical experience must become significantly more appealing if it is to ever overthrow print. “

“Until more sophisticated digital features are implemented into the iPad, tablet magazines will continue to be second to the print magazine industry.”