"Magazines that are not sharply focussed will have a problem generating revenues"

R Jagannathan, who joined Network18 in 2011, donned the role of Editor-in-Chief, Web and Publishing, Network18 earlier this year. In his new avatar, Jaggi (as he is popularly known) heads editorial strategy with a view to drive content synergies across Network18's news and special interest brands, in line with the Group’s progression towards an integrated publishing and digital editorial operation.

In this exclusive interaction with exchange4media, Jaggi talks about his approach to Forbes India and Firstpost. He stresses on the importance of a sharply focussed magazine and shares views on the issue of cross media ownership, among other things…

What is your approach to Forbes India? Will there be any changes in the product with regards to the Indian market?
We have a good product that is accepted by the market, so we are not going to make any drastic changes and upset any of our existing readers. With that said, what we basically want is the product to be in greater alignment with the US brand.

We do not want to be compared with other business magazine. We are about entrepreneurship and anything that goes with it.
  
Can you please talk about the content synergies between Firstpost and Forbes?
They are two different brands; Firstpost is more political, less business and Forbes is more business. People will contribute across their boundaries, so that is where synergy will happen. The integration is about getting more contribution from the journalists’ side, which is what the newsroom synergy will be. For example, if Firstpost requires business expertise, it may talk to an editor in Forbes and vice versa.

What are your focus areas for Forbes India?
We want to make sure the brand identity is more closely aligned with US Forbes. When you are paying for so much content and you don’t use it, it doesn’t make sense.

All Forbes brands relevant to India will be created here as well. For example, Forbes Women will be replicated here in the main product.

The print industry in India is doing better than its western counter parts; however, our magazine industry has somewhere stagnated. Where do you see the industry few years down the line?
Magazines which are not very sharply focussed will have a problem generating revenues. So if you are a very general business magazine for the general audience, you will either have to drop rates and go for volumes.

In general, the magazine market has not been doing well. If the broadband constraint was not there, the market would have digitised very fast. Today because you are not able to access a lot of good content through broadband, you still have a market that is strongly print or television. As we go along, the market will lean towards digital products. In fact, our digital Forbes India is one of the growth areas for us.

Given the fast paced growth of digital, what is your approach to Forbesindia.com in terms of content and monetisation?
Forbesindia.com is more easily monetisable because it is extremely focussed. I think it will be directly proportionate to quality and level of content. We are just working out the strategy and once we are able to ramp up the content on Forbes India, the metrics will be different. It is already doing well both, commercially and in terms of page views.
 
Are you expecting a spike in Firstpost as well?
Firstpost is driven by politics and social issues, so business is a very small part of it. This is election year, so Firstpost will spike anyway. Politics is going to take off in the next 12 months all the way to 2014.

In your recent article in DNA Money, you have expressed very strong views pro cross media ownership, citing reasons why TRAI is wrong in its view to restrict it. Do you think India does not need a restriction on its media ownership to curb vested interests?
The concept of not having cross media ownership makes sense in the US, where you had single radio stations and monopoly situations. They were worried there will be no choice, but today there is no lack of choice anywhere.

Now, the threat to main media is coming from the digital space where you can’t control anything, anywhere.

This is the government’s stupid attempt to try and control the media, which is the wrong thing to do. In this day and age, technology doesn’t allow you to have a monopoly.

Mainstream media has peaked to a great extent, so what cross media ownership are you talking about? The digital medium will encapsulate all media. Tomorrow if you talk about Firstpost or Forbes, you will have video content and voice content; are you going to say Firstpost should not own any digital TV channel tomorrow? What are you going to regulate?

In two to three years, India is going to reach 100 million smartphones, which is more than the reach of all mainstream media put together. How are you going to control it?