Magazines need to maintain depth of content to stay relevant: Anant Nath

The flagship event of the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM), representing magazines in the country –Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) – was organized on March 24.

During the program held at The Oberoi Hotel, Delhi, Anant Nath, Executive Publisher of Delhi Press and Vice President of AIM, spoke to e4m on all the major issues related to the magazine business.

Excerpts:

This edition of IMC is coming back after a gap of four years. What are the big highlights of this edition?

We have been doing this for the last 12 years. The main point of any such event is to discuss the new changes taking place in that industry and share your experiences. Of course, there is also networking involved. Many new things are known from the outside people.

The event was started in the year 2006 to bring all the people associated with the magazine publishing industry on one platform, which includes editors, publishers, digital heads of media organizations, policymakers, owners of media organizations, marketers, media planners as well as researchers And industry analysts are involved. This is the 12th edition of this event.

However, due to Covid, the association is organizing the event after a gap of four years. The theme of this year's Congress is how magazines are the most effective medium for building engaged communities even in the digital age. With regard to the 'Indian Magazine Congress', our focus has been to think about the place of magazines in the digital world.

Today digital is moving very fast. In such times, what challenges/problems are being faced by the magazines to maintain relevance, and what steps are being taken in this direction?

People buy magazines for the content, which means that the content involves a lot of research and depth. The content of any good magazine is prepared after a rigorous editorial process. The magazine's content is geared towards a large and niche readership, whose interests the editorial team understands well and tries to incorporate in its content. Through this content, the editorial team plays a great utility in the lives of that readership, be it in the form of problem-solving in any topic (entertainment, information or lifestyle etc.) or in any other form.

I would like to say that to stay relevant in today's era, magazines have to focus on the content and work in that direction by understanding the interest of the readers. Undoubtedly, since the advent of digital, the competition for content has increased a lot. In such a situation, to remain relevant in today's era, magazines need to maintain the depth of the content to stay relevant.

Apart from the content, the tools of digital media/social media will also have to be adopted to serve it. As earlier newspaper and magazine publishers had to invest in printing and distribution, now that investment has shifted to CMS, SEO, social media promotion etc. But, I would say again that the focus has to be more on the content and it is important for the editorial team to understand who their readership is and what kind of content they want.

Covid had an adverse effect on all businesses including the media. During that time many magazines were closed and circulation of all magazines decreased. Now that the situation has become normal, how is the magazine business doing overall?

I would say that the circulation of the magazine business is slowly coming back on track. It would be wrong to say that the magazine industry is back to pre-Covid status. However, the industry has recovered a lot from the gap that came after covid. With the advent of digital, it has been beneficial that during covid many magazines have made their own websites. Due to this, the reach of magazines readers has increased a lot.

Magazines have the option of how to convert that reach into paid subscribers. Today, magazines are being digitized to make their information available to readers as much as possible. That is, all the magazine publishers have prepared print and digital packages and are trying to make up for the reduced revenue or circulation through the subscription model. I believe magazines should focus on how to create the right package of print and digital. Use digital to increase your reach, engagement and new readers, while keeping the content great enough to convert new readers into paid subscribers. Among these, those who like magazines very much, can include them in both print and digital paid readership.

How can Indian magazines do better from here on?

I feel that if the editorial team of a magazine can engage as many readers as possible through its content, then there is a lot of potential ahead. We have to do many things like - technology, marketing, social media and events etc. That is, we have to do all kinds of things and focus on how we can connect more and more readers with us, how to keep them with us and what kind of content should be created that the readers’ value. If that is not done right then all the other things are pointless.