Sathya Saran, Editor in chief, Femina
Femina doesn't want to produce content for which there are no takers. That would make us like the art specialists who come up with abstract art and try and sell it to people who are least interested.
Femina doesn't want to produce content for which there are no takers. That would make us like the art specialists who come up with abstract art and try and sell it to people who are least interested.If there were a face to the woman of substance, it would have to Sathya Saran. Meet the candid editor of Femina who has helped shape ideas, thoughts and beliefs for women across India. In a conversation with Anushree Madan Mohan, exchange4media, Saran discusses Femina's editorial policy, the thrust towards an unbiast perspective, the evolution of content and the challenges before the magazine. Q. On Femina's target audience…is it the housewife who makes a family or the aggressive career woman who makes a workplace... I would like to think that we cater to women of all age groups, encompassing different social segments and lifestyles. But Femina's target audience is between the age group of 20-37, it starts off with the young woman who's just out of college and is at the first rung of her career. Or a woman who's well on her way to being professionally qualified. Of course, housewives also read Femina but they are the women who are housewives by choice. Our audience does not comprise of women who have opted to stay in just because they aren't capable of anything else.
Q. On stress on relationship building... Relationships today are very turbulent on account of a dynamic social ethos. On one hand, you have the western ideas and the western influence on account of multinationals, media and literature and one on the other hand, you have the Indian values, culture and mindset, which is a product of our ancestors. Relationships are thus in a constant state of flux. Femina helps in keeping the communication lines open and allows people to bridge their differences. Since most of our features are on sensitive subjects, which haven't been, broached much, there is an audience for these features. Relationships just cannot be taken for granted anymore. For example, a mother is no longer seen as just a woman, who brings up children and makes a home, she is perceived as an individual in her own right.
Q. On the reasons attributing to agony aunt columns like Home Truths, Sex info and Skinquery... I wouldn't call these columns agony aunt columns at all. Sex Info and Skinquery are medical help columns; people are getting free medical advice and there is an aspect to anonymity, which is attached to the same. They all hold positive merits and I would rather refer to them as help columns. In today's scenario, people need help and don't know where to turn. Take Skinquery for instance. In small towns, people may not have much access to good dermatologists and may need some guidance on subjects related to the skin. Who do they turn to? Again with Home Truths, so many things are pushed under the carpet in traditional Indian families, where does a girl go to when she needs to resolve certain issues? Femina plays the role of an impartial friend and gives an unbiast perspective through Home Truths. With Skinquery and Sex info, she offers her readers comfort and free medical advice.
Q. On Femina's glitzy and a flashy look, accompanied by plenty of segments on fashion and accessories vis-à-vis Verve and the Cosmo… Cosmo and Verve cannot possibly be put in the same bracket as Femina. Verve is a magazine, which is primarily about people. Cosmopolitan is more about relationships of a sexual nature. Femina primarily addresses matters connected to relationships in addition to fashion, health and beauty. The definition of a magazine is an amalgamation or a compilation of different types of articles. In today's scenario, all magazines try and incorporate a bit of everything in order to cater to different types of people. Femina thus has a certain amount of content dedicated to fashion and accessories but the objective is certainly not to drift the Verve or the Cosmo way.
Q. On the difference between the content of Femina in the clutter of women's magazines… Isn't that something that should be answered by the reader? Guess you would be the right person to answer this particular question. I think that we are a balanced impartial magazine that caters Indian women. Other magazines duplicate a lot of our content, we have had magazines stealing slugs and titles from us, and replicating it. Yet Femina still stands ahead. There must be something that we are doing right!
Q. On the challenges that face a magazine such as Femina and on giving a balanced perspective... The young woman of today is like quick silver. She changes with every passing day. We are 44 years old and yet there is a need to think young. Femina has to cater to the modern woman who is enterprising, career minded, family oriented, intelligent and more aware of her needs and wants. and we have to keep in step with her. That would be our biggest challenge. Again, Femina is a fortnightly and not a monthly like most other magazines, which make our deadlines a lot more urgent. Since we belong to a huge publishing house, we have to stand in queue for many of our technical requirements and yet have to give a timely output. Television is a big challenge; we are constantly competing with the visual media. Besides, women today are pressed for time and Femina has to think of ways to fit into the busy lifestyle of its readers.
About the balanced perspective bit, we are careful not to sensationalize things. If we were dealing with a success story of a woman who has come out of a bad marriage, our stress would be on the success story and not on the bad marriage. Femina is not interested in taking sides; neither does it publish one-sided accounts. Our content is more about positive values, which are meant to inspire others.
Q. On coming up with Femina Girl... A lot of 12 and 13 year olds read Femina, and it was necessary to come up with something, which would be more appropriate for them. Femina Girl is complimentary; we are giving them information on things, which are more suited for their age. It can be regarded as their own private space. Of course, they are most welcome to read Femina but there isn't as much content in the magazine for young girls. One or two sections like beauty and health may cater to their needs, but the majority of the content is for women who are older. Which is why, Femina came up with Femina Girl.
Q. On content tailoring... We work closely with the ad team and sometimes bring out advertorials but it is made clear to the readers that it is not an editorial take or an editorial endorsement. When it's an advertorial, it would say the same on the page. We don't believe in conning our readers. If it's an editorial page, in other words not an advertorial, no matter how much money an advertiser pays, he is restricted to a strip on the page and has no say in the content
Q. On the merit of relationship management features, when it comes to incorporating them in real life…... Of course they do. Femina wouldn't be bringing out so many features on relationship building unless there is an audience for the same. The job before us to bring out features, which would add value to the reader's life. Whether the reader incorporates these values or not, that's best left to the reader.
Q. On the male perspective Femina carries... The whole concept of Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus needs a certain amount of change and we are trying to bridge gender differences through our content. While we are a women's magazine, it is natural that most of our content would be about women. Yet we also make an effort to incorporate the male point of view through segments like the ones on Jerry Pinto, Milind Soman and Salil Sadanandan. The idea is to help men and women understand each other better.
Q. On Sathya Saran, Shobha De and Bacchi Karkaria... We are three very different people and we cater to very different audiences. In my column, I am echoing the tone of my magazine. Femina is about women exploring themselves and striving for the better, in addition to looking at the world with new eyes and empathizing with the people's troubles. My column says much of the same things.Bachi and Shobha say equally important things to their readers, but the way they say it, is different.
Q. On Femina's evolution in content with time... We have always been fine-tuning our content in order to keep in step with the changing times. When we see a change in society, we bring out a similar change in content. We are now including content on computers, ecology, relationships… things that we dint emphasize on earlier. Beauty is a big pre occupation for young women today and we have increased our content on the same. Creative Writing seems to have lost its market because of the growing influence of television, which is why; we have reduced our content on the same. Again, we have increased our people columns. The idea is to anticipate the change in requirements and bring out content in accordance with that. It' s like making a Perfect Bhaji, the ingredients have to be manipulated in order to suit the tastes of the consumer.
Q. On how women connect with Femina vis-à-vis general interest magazines such as Outlook and The Week... I think that it's a great thing that women today have varied tastes. But at the end of the day, a woman needs her own private space. There are so few places in the world where a woman is given her due importance that she would always turn to a voice that is dedicated solely to her.
Q. On the buzz about BBC getting a stake in Femina and its probable impact on the editorial policy... I really do not have much knowledge on the subject, except for what I have heard from the grapevine. In case such a scenario does take place, it would depend on the management as to whether there is a change in the editorial policy. It isn't possible for me to speculate on the possibilities.
Q. On editorial playing second fiddle vis-à-vis marketing... Not in this magazine. The Femina reader is intelligent and the minute that she feels that we are selling her something in the guise of an editorial, she would no longer extend her patronage to the magazine. As an editor, I recognize this fact. My editorial team acknowledges it too. And so does the marketing team. Femina thus resists all attempts by clients to fool the reader. Money has its place but the reader always stands first. We have seen much success on account of the fact that we respect the reader.
Q. On who is the king - content or the consumer... If the consumer already knows everything, why would she read the magazine in the first place? In that sense, content is still king. But Femina doesn't want to produce content for which there are no takers. That would make us like the art specialists who come up abstract art and try and sell it to people who are least interested. When Hussain made Gajagamini, who saw it? There has to be a balancing act between the content and the consumer; you cannot divorce the two of them. Content is important but so is the consumer and you have to find a way to both meet.
Q. On stress on relationship building... Relationships today are very turbulent on account of a dynamic social ethos. On one hand, you have the western ideas and the western influence on account of multinationals, media and literature and one on the other hand, you have the Indian values, culture and mindset, which is a product of our ancestors. Relationships are thus in a constant state of flux. Femina helps in keeping the communication lines open and allows people to bridge their differences. Since most of our features are on sensitive subjects, which haven't been, broached much, there is an audience for these features. Relationships just cannot be taken for granted anymore. For example, a mother is no longer seen as just a woman, who brings up children and makes a home, she is perceived as an individual in her own right.
Q. On the reasons attributing to agony aunt columns like Home Truths, Sex info and Skinquery... I wouldn't call these columns agony aunt columns at all. Sex Info and Skinquery are medical help columns; people are getting free medical advice and there is an aspect to anonymity, which is attached to the same. They all hold positive merits and I would rather refer to them as help columns. In today's scenario, people need help and don't know where to turn. Take Skinquery for instance. In small towns, people may not have much access to good dermatologists and may need some guidance on subjects related to the skin. Who do they turn to? Again with Home Truths, so many things are pushed under the carpet in traditional Indian families, where does a girl go to when she needs to resolve certain issues? Femina plays the role of an impartial friend and gives an unbiast perspective through Home Truths. With Skinquery and Sex info, she offers her readers comfort and free medical advice.
Q. On Femina's glitzy and a flashy look, accompanied by plenty of segments on fashion and accessories vis-à-vis Verve and the Cosmo… Cosmo and Verve cannot possibly be put in the same bracket as Femina. Verve is a magazine, which is primarily about people. Cosmopolitan is more about relationships of a sexual nature. Femina primarily addresses matters connected to relationships in addition to fashion, health and beauty. The definition of a magazine is an amalgamation or a compilation of different types of articles. In today's scenario, all magazines try and incorporate a bit of everything in order to cater to different types of people. Femina thus has a certain amount of content dedicated to fashion and accessories but the objective is certainly not to drift the Verve or the Cosmo way.
Q. On the difference between the content of Femina in the clutter of women's magazines… Isn't that something that should be answered by the reader? Guess you would be the right person to answer this particular question. I think that we are a balanced impartial magazine that caters Indian women. Other magazines duplicate a lot of our content, we have had magazines stealing slugs and titles from us, and replicating it. Yet Femina still stands ahead. There must be something that we are doing right!
Q. On the challenges that face a magazine such as Femina and on giving a balanced perspective... The young woman of today is like quick silver. She changes with every passing day. We are 44 years old and yet there is a need to think young. Femina has to cater to the modern woman who is enterprising, career minded, family oriented, intelligent and more aware of her needs and wants. and we have to keep in step with her. That would be our biggest challenge. Again, Femina is a fortnightly and not a monthly like most other magazines, which make our deadlines a lot more urgent. Since we belong to a huge publishing house, we have to stand in queue for many of our technical requirements and yet have to give a timely output. Television is a big challenge; we are constantly competing with the visual media. Besides, women today are pressed for time and Femina has to think of ways to fit into the busy lifestyle of its readers.
About the balanced perspective bit, we are careful not to sensationalize things. If we were dealing with a success story of a woman who has come out of a bad marriage, our stress would be on the success story and not on the bad marriage. Femina is not interested in taking sides; neither does it publish one-sided accounts. Our content is more about positive values, which are meant to inspire others.
Q. On coming up with Femina Girl... A lot of 12 and 13 year olds read Femina, and it was necessary to come up with something, which would be more appropriate for them. Femina Girl is complimentary; we are giving them information on things, which are more suited for their age. It can be regarded as their own private space. Of course, they are most welcome to read Femina but there isn't as much content in the magazine for young girls. One or two sections like beauty and health may cater to their needs, but the majority of the content is for women who are older. Which is why, Femina came up with Femina Girl.
Q. On content tailoring... We work closely with the ad team and sometimes bring out advertorials but it is made clear to the readers that it is not an editorial take or an editorial endorsement. When it's an advertorial, it would say the same on the page. We don't believe in conning our readers. If it's an editorial page, in other words not an advertorial, no matter how much money an advertiser pays, he is restricted to a strip on the page and has no say in the content
Q. On the merit of relationship management features, when it comes to incorporating them in real life…... Of course they do. Femina wouldn't be bringing out so many features on relationship building unless there is an audience for the same. The job before us to bring out features, which would add value to the reader's life. Whether the reader incorporates these values or not, that's best left to the reader.
Q. On the male perspective Femina carries... The whole concept of Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus needs a certain amount of change and we are trying to bridge gender differences through our content. While we are a women's magazine, it is natural that most of our content would be about women. Yet we also make an effort to incorporate the male point of view through segments like the ones on Jerry Pinto, Milind Soman and Salil Sadanandan. The idea is to help men and women understand each other better.
Q. On Sathya Saran, Shobha De and Bacchi Karkaria... We are three very different people and we cater to very different audiences. In my column, I am echoing the tone of my magazine. Femina is about women exploring themselves and striving for the better, in addition to looking at the world with new eyes and empathizing with the people's troubles. My column says much of the same things.Bachi and Shobha say equally important things to their readers, but the way they say it, is different.
Q. On Femina's evolution in content with time... We have always been fine-tuning our content in order to keep in step with the changing times. When we see a change in society, we bring out a similar change in content. We are now including content on computers, ecology, relationships… things that we dint emphasize on earlier. Beauty is a big pre occupation for young women today and we have increased our content on the same. Creative Writing seems to have lost its market because of the growing influence of television, which is why; we have reduced our content on the same. Again, we have increased our people columns. The idea is to anticipate the change in requirements and bring out content in accordance with that. It' s like making a Perfect Bhaji, the ingredients have to be manipulated in order to suit the tastes of the consumer.
Q. On how women connect with Femina vis-à-vis general interest magazines such as Outlook and The Week... I think that it's a great thing that women today have varied tastes. But at the end of the day, a woman needs her own private space. There are so few places in the world where a woman is given her due importance that she would always turn to a voice that is dedicated solely to her.
Q. On the buzz about BBC getting a stake in Femina and its probable impact on the editorial policy... I really do not have much knowledge on the subject, except for what I have heard from the grapevine. In case such a scenario does take place, it would depend on the management as to whether there is a change in the editorial policy. It isn't possible for me to speculate on the possibilities.
Q. On editorial playing second fiddle vis-à-vis marketing... Not in this magazine. The Femina reader is intelligent and the minute that she feels that we are selling her something in the guise of an editorial, she would no longer extend her patronage to the magazine. As an editor, I recognize this fact. My editorial team acknowledges it too. And so does the marketing team. Femina thus resists all attempts by clients to fool the reader. Money has its place but the reader always stands first. We have seen much success on account of the fact that we respect the reader.
Q. On who is the king - content or the consumer... If the consumer already knows everything, why would she read the magazine in the first place? In that sense, content is still king. But Femina doesn't want to produce content for which there are no takers. That would make us like the art specialists who come up abstract art and try and sell it to people who are least interested. When Hussain made Gajagamini, who saw it? There has to be a balancing act between the content and the consumer; you cannot divorce the two of them. Content is important but so is the consumer and you have to find a way to both meet.
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