THERE IS LIGHT at the end of the tunnel for India’s magazine publishing, and it is a big C that is shining through. No, not content marketing or clickbait or even conversion, but credibility. And credibility of the print media, especially magazines, could just save the day.
“We all saw what happened during Operation Sindoor, all kinds of fake news travelled,” Riyad Mathew, THE WEEK’s Chief Associate Editor & Director put it in perspective. “It is the credibility of print that makes us different. Trust in print is very important.”
Brand marketeers, too, agree that credibility is the new currency. “The last port of call is magazines. I will go to magazines in search of truth,” said Rajiv Dubey, vice president & head of media at Dabur India.
At the Indian Magazine Congress in Delhi, the mood was upbeat as doyens of the periodical publishing sector came together. After years of digital onslaught on print in general, and the social media hammering magazines in particular took, there seems to be a slow but steady about-turn.
Doom-scrolling is leading to digital fatigue. A recent study found that 72 per cent of respondents felt overwhelmed by the overload of digital data. And fake news is a real worry online.
“Social media misinformation is so (acute) that people are (back to) relying on you,” Manoj Sharma, CEO, Magazines, India Today Group, told the gathering. “It is also an echo chamber where you are fed again and again with the same angle or slant of what you started consuming. Users were not getting the right perspective. That is where we come in. That’s the good thing that magazines do.”
From their glory days in the 1980s all the way into the boom time of the 2000s, print magazines were the icing on the media cake. But the going got tough in the face of new challenges. First was the proliferation of mass media, especially news channels. Here again, magazines held their own as indepth coverage remained their forte. The 2000s also saw India’s magazine fraternity, taking a cue from western counterparts, spreading their wings into lifestyle and niche publishing, achieving thrust velocity thanks to the economic boom post liberalisation.
However, as the 2010s progressed, the chaotic twist that technology brought—smartphones, increasing connectivity and the proliferation of digital content and social media—saw print magazines pivoting and trying various strategies to avoid being out of step. The growth of social media, boosted by improved internet speeds (which helped the growth of the short form video format) as well as cheap data following the launch of Reliance Jio in India, saw the rules of the game changing.
The mobile, and not a print product or even TV, became the primary source of news, information and entertainment. This turned out to be a bigger challenge for publishing even compared to TV since the barrier to entry was much lower than that of getting a television set.
Magazines were the bigger loser here, a matter not helped by two big blows that came in quick succession—the 2016 demonetisation that shook up the publishing industry, followed by the 2020 pandemic lockdowns that virtually decimated the concept of the neighbourhood news-stand.
Initially, going online and getting active in all formats was the antidote, as print publishers desperately tried to keep one up with influencers, YouTube content creators and Google analytics. But as more things change, the writing on the wall became mighty clear.
“Not creating content can be an advantage for (magazines),” said Anant Nath, president of the Association of Indian Magazines, and executive publisher, Delhi Press. “The quest should not be scale, but sustainability. You have to create that small, sustainable community.”
Community is key. “Studies show 15 crore people in this country can afford curated, credible content. To tap into this opportunity, you have to rethink how you operate,” said Neeraj Sharma, MD-CMT of Accenture India. “Own your readers!” He shared the ‘4i framework’ needed—information, insights, interaction and intention. Media companies are strong in the first two, but now need to fortify themselves in the latter two as well.
And this comes from taking ownership of one’s audience in the digital space, too, but not by imitating what others (read: influencers) are doing. “Think video first to create ‘pull’, you have to be relevant and visible wherever your target group is. That real estate on mobile phones is more expensive than Amrita Shergill Marg!” quipped Neeraj Sharma.
A classic example of content curation, community and commerce coming together is the remarkable recent story of Tamil periodical Ananda Vikatan. In an era and culture where screens dominate, the magazine’s runaway success with ‘Velpari’, a fantasy fiction serialised over 100 issues is a lesson to admire, and adapt. It not only propelled the magazine’s circulation to new heights, but spawned a successful novel run, fan clubs, social media communities, on-ground ‘success’ events, talks of a film adaptation from none other than superstar Rajinikanth and, get this, as many as 1,000 babies named after characters from the story!
In fact, experts believe AI and digital could define not a threat, but an opportunity for magazine publishing. “With Google search traffic declining, AI can help a lot—repurpose articles with synopses, optimise faster, reach more consumers better,” said Manavdeep Singh, founder of PubLive, a digital experience platform, while Puneet Kukreja, vice president of Times Internet, made a clarion call, “Before AI disrupts us, we need to reinvent and reinvigorate—with the help of AI!”
For that, be open to all kinds of possibilities, said Dhaval Gupta, director of Cybermedia. “In the last three years, so many surprising new examples of monetisation popped up for media houses,” he said, pointing to magazines doubling down on anything from events to developing OTT content related to print and even becoming available through commerce platforms like Zepto and Amazon. “There is a lot of room for opportunities.”