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Tag: Anant Nath

  • Publishers agree to strengthening subscriptions and distribution

    AIM elects Anant Nath as President

    By Our Staff

    Anant Nath

    At the he Annual General Meeting of Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) for the year 2022-23 held last week, Anant Nath, Executive Publisher, Delhi Press, was elected as President. The other officebearers elected are Manoj Sharma, CEO- Publishing, India Today Group, as Vice President, Dhaval Gupta, Managing Director, CyberMedia, as the General Secretary, and Annurag Batra, Founder, Exchange4Media group, as Treasurer. B Srinivasan, MD of Ananda Vikatan, the outgoing President, helmed the organisation for the last three years.

    The AGM has also elected the following to the Governing Body:

    B Srinivasan (Vikatan Group); R Rajmohan (Malayala Manorama); Pradeep Gupta (CyberMedia); Paresh Nath (Delhi Press); Mahesh Peri (Pathfinder Publishing); Riyad Mathew (Malayala Manorama), Girish Mallya (Next Gen Publishing); Maneck Davar (Spenta Multimedia); Deepak Lamba (Worldwide Media); Manan Kotak (Chitralekha); and Indranil Roy (Outlook Publishing);

    It was agreed by the publishers body that the No 1 focus for the industry should remain on strengthening the distribution system for magazines, with an emphasis on subscriptions marketing through innovative channels and new partnerships with e-commerce players.

    The following key decisions were taken at the AGM:

    1. Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) to be held in March 2024. Magzimize Awards, to recognize the most innovative advertising in magazines to be held along with the Congress. The jury was announced in March 2024, which is being chaired by IPG Mediabrands CEO Shashi Sinha.

    2. A new operational strategy for Dastaan Hub, the mega branded content studio by AIM, was adopted. Dastaan Hub endouvours to offer innovative branded content solutions across 10 Indian languages, with a possibility of reaching out to more than 100 million consumers, across more than 80 magazine brands and their associated websites, social handles, and events

    3. With respect to distribution, new initiative to be taken for creating a country-wide online magazine marketplace, which can serve as a single point forum for any reader to place orders for single copies as well subscriptions. Delivery to be done through tie-up with e-commerce logistics partners or Magazine Post.

    4. Using the tech-driven magazine marketplace, publishers to rope in newspaper vendors for selling magazine subscriptions

    5. After the success of partnership with online delivery platform Blinkit, new channels for magazine sales and distribution to be explored across e-commerce platforms, as well as with offline chains.

     

  • AIM collaborates with Indian Post to launch ‘Magazine Post’

    By Our Staff

     

    The Association of India Magazines (AIM) in collaboration with the Indian Post, the Government of India’s postal service, has launched the Magazine Post, specifically tailored to bring greater efficiencies for magazine deliveries.

     

    Speaking about the launch, B Srinivasan, President of AIM and MD of Vikatan Group said: “For years magazines in India have faced chronic problems in subscription deliveries as copies were either late or in many cases undelivered. We are immensely thankful to Indian Post for introducing this new tech enabled product to resolve all our delivery problems, and with a promise to ensure near 100% success rate.”

     

    Added Anant Nath, General Secretary of AIM and Executive publisher of Delhi Press: “In most evolved magazine markets, subscriptions account for upto 80% of magazine sales, whereas in India it has been other way round. The subscription ecosystem in India has been historically underserviced on account of lack of trust amongst readers with respect to deliveries. We feel that there is a scope of at least ten-fold increase in subscription numbers if we are able to guarantee delivery. We are confident that with the launch of this new product, publishers can realise the untapped potential of subscriptions.”

     

    Said Manoj Sharma, CEO of India Today and AIM treasurer: “Multiple reader surveys have highlighted that there is immense appetite for reading print copies if deliveries are guaranteed. With the launch of Magazine Post, which offers superfast deliveries at economical rate, we hope to fulfil much of this underlying reader demand.”

     

    Added DVS Rama Rao, General Manager of AIM and a circulation veteran: “Over the past year and half, we at AIM have put in motion multiple initiatives to improve magazine sales and to even cross pre-pandemic numbers. These include creating a WhatsApp platform for joint subscription marketing, a common accredited agency network, and a tech enabled platform for subscription sales through morning centre vendors. With the launch of Magazine Post, we have confidence that we will be able to fulfil all the subscription orders with great efficiency and thereby bring about a paradigm shift in magazine publishing.”

     

  • Stories in audio format from Grihshobha, Sarita, and Saras Salil

    Audible brings popular Hindi stories on Women’s Day

    By Our Staff

     

    On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Audible, the online audiobook and podcast service of  Amazon and Delhi Press have announced the release of over 60 popular Hindi stories, from the publishing house’s magazines Grihshobha, Sarita, and Saras Salil in audio format exclusively on Audible, absolutely free.

     

    Said Shailesh Sawlani, VP and Country GM, Audible India: “This International Women’s Day, we are bringing some already popular Hindi stories, from some of India’s most renowned Hindi magazines to life via audio. I hope all listeners enjoy the heightened listening experience these stories offer, and the convenience it offers to those multitasking throughout the day. With such initiatives now and in the future, we want to continue to bring unique, diverse content to our listeners across the country”

     

    Added Anant Nath, Executive Publisher of Delhi Press, added: “Our magazines are loved and admired by millions of readers, especially women, for their heartwarming and relatable stories that resonate with the myriad of emotional hues they live through in their daily lives. This Women’s Day, we are extremely pleased to bring a selection of these stories in audio format on Audible, to a wider audience.”

     

  • To narrate brand stories to over 150 mn readers

    Magazine publishers join hands for content marketing solutions

    By Our Staff

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) has announced the launch of a content marketing studio, which will draw in the collective strengths of more than 125 magazine titles, their websites and digital media assets, to offer to marketers content marketing solutions that can reach over 150 million people. Called Dastaan Hub, the exercise seeks to expand content marketing opportunities for brand marketers.

     

    The studio has been put together by AIM member publishers, recognising the increasing need at marketers end to move from vanilla display advertising towards developing engaging content solutions for narrating compelling brand stories.

     

    Commenting on Dastaan Hub, AIM president B Srinivasan said: “Magazines by their very essence are a deeply immersive medium, and are trusted for the depth in their editorial content. Moreover, magazines cater to highly engaged communities, and each magazine publishing team has deep insights into their readers’ emotional psyches and consumer interests. This is where they have inherent strength for partnering with brands for creating compelling brand stories.”

     

    Some of the leading participating publishers in Dastaan Hub are India Today, Ananda Vikatan, Delhi Press, Outlook, Malayala Manorama magazines, Network 18 magazines, ABP magazines, Business World, and Diamond Publications.

     

    The studio is being led by industry veteran Shripad Kulkarni, who along with a team of experienced professionals, will offer full content marketing solution in appropriate multiple formats like video, shorts, podcast, articles, panel discussion, Facebook Live, contests and social media posts.

     

    Explaining how it will work, Kulkarni said: “Dastaan Hub team will be following a 3-step process. A classical first, studying the category and brand challenges. Second, the creative and strategy team will customise native communication led ideas, based on client brief. And then add an O2O, online to offline media delivery plan. All this will be co-created to capture the essence of the dialogue the brands want to have with their customers”

     

    Said Yogesh Dashrath, Country Manager, Storytel India on the launch: “Stories are a powerful means to influence and inspire. So I am sure that the Dastaan Hub plan to recreate brand stories in the regional language and cultural context will greatly help brands to connect with their customer”

     

    Added Pawan Sarda, Group CMO, Future Group: “Each region, each State of India is unique. So, there are so many cultural and contextual nuances one needs to keep in mind. The Dastaan hub initiative, is a good single window opportunity to connect with customers across the length and breadth of India”

     

    Speaking on the launch, AIM General Secretary Anant Nath said: “It is no secret that there has been an erosion of interest in magazines by marketers, and that we have been facing some serious problems in maintaining our distribution. Therefore, as a first step, we collaborated to tackle this fundamental problem. A joint distribution agency network has been put together by AIM, so that publishers can take advantage of collective bargaining and increase their footprint across geographies. Secondly, massive efforts have been put to improve the subscription ecosystem, which includes working with Indian Post to improve delivery, as well as joint subscription marketing efforts. As a result, the subscription numbers across publishers have increased during pandemic, to compensate for loss in newsstand”.

     

    Here’s what some leading magazine publishers have said. Manoj Sharma of India Today: “Dastaan Hub is a logical extension of our distribution efforts as we are confident that we can deliver highly engaged audiences to our advertisers. At the same time, we will be careful to ensure that this branded content will follow global ethical guidelines of content marketing, as reader trust is of utmost importance to us”.

     

    Indranil Roy of Outlook: “We are confident that with our collaborative working across distribution, subscription marketing, and now Dastaan Hub, our magazines will strengthen their deeply engaging relationship with readers as well as brand partners.”