Those of you who have followed our journey know this: when we embarked on delivering MxMIndia on September 9, 2011, we were way too idealistic. To run a B2B publication sans any quid pro quo. Dropping the sales function in a publication that survives on advertising revenues. Critiquing a community which loves critiquing the world, but hates going under the scanner.
The good (or bad) thing is that we continue to be way too idealistic.
How do we think we’ve done over the last 12 years? Revenue-wise: it’s a 2/10. Even the most outrageously biased and compromised entity in our business is evangelised by the industry more than we are. But I guess that’s the way of the world.
But integrity-wise: it’s a 10/10. When we started out and to this day, our primary allegiance is to solely to our readers. Everyone else comes second.
Content-wise: it’s a 5/10. We consider our readers to be a mature lot. So we’ve stayed away from the pulls and pressures of breaking news – announcements of people movements or account/client wins/losses. We don’t carry pop analyses: take a topic, ask five people for their views. Despite having some of the best commentary in the business, we score ourselves low, because we haven’t been able to leapfrog to content that we think is really needed. We want to be able to have content that people are willing to pay for. Just as they are happy to pay for their vada pavs and kathi rolls.
Outreach: it’s a 4/10. We don’t conduct events. Because we think the way in which they are conducted by some others has a problem. The decision-making process from amongst marketers and media agencies is taken by the footsoldiers and their team leaders, not the CEOs who attend them. Frankly, we haven’t been able to look at a new model to achieve this outreach to the real decision-makers. And only after we are able to do it, will we embark on ground-level events.
As we go forward, we need monies and investments. But that’s easier said. Ad revenues keep going up and down. An advertiser can pull the rug off pre-determined deals, and we just need to grin and bear it. Or there are some who don’t advertise with us because we don’t carry every communique they send. That’s not going to deter us though.
In our 13th year of operation, we are determined to better ourselves. And stay on course with how we would like to conduct ourselves.
If you think you can help MxM in her journey, please feel free to write to me – pradyumanm {at} mxmindia.com. If you have my personal coordinates, just call/WhatsApp.
And even if you can’t turn a benefactor – in terms of monies, connects or ideas, just be there for us. Applaud us when you find us doing the right things. Damn us if you think we are erring. But please be there with us. For us.
Thanks,
Pradyuman Maheshwari