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Tag: Association of Indian Magazines

  • The theme is ‘Innovating for Building New Revenue Streams

    Indian Magazine Congress in Mumbai on May 3

    Association of Indian Magazines (AIM), is all set to organise the 13th edition of its flagship event, the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC). This will be held in Mumbai on May 3. This year’s theme is how “Magazine Publishers in India are Innovating for Building New Revenue Streams”.

    Speaking on the congress, Anant Nath, President of AIM and Executive Publisher of Delhi Press said: “In the digital age, marred by information overload and cluttered digital spaces, the need for highly engaged and involved communities is ever more important. Magazine brands nurture spaces for readers to break away from this clutter, allowing them to find solace and comfort in a manner that is aligned with their interests and with like-minded peers. Magazines have therefore innovated new ways of monetizing their rich content and the highly engaged and invested audiences, and the IMC will throw light on these evolving paradigms.”

    The conference will have a daylong programming on following themes:

    • Subscriptions and New partner alliance
    • Leveraging e-commerce for subscription growth
    • Editorial credibility and robustness at the heart of new publishing models
    • Building new IPs on magazine content
    • New paradigms in branded content
    • Creators as collaborators for engaging content solutions
    • Product management innovations for digital age
    • Magazines nurturing and monetising niche reader communities

    Speakers at the event include:

    • Elsa Esparbe Gener, RBA
    • Kerin James O’Connor, Atlas
    • Shashi Sinha, IPG
    • Thampy Koshy, ONDC
    • Prasanth Kumar, Group M
    • Alastair David Lewis, FIPP
    • Raj Chengappa, India Today
    • Gaurav Banerjee, Disney Hotstar
    • Suagata Mukherjee, Sony Liv
    • Sameer Nair, Applause Enterntainment
    • Hormazd Sorabjee, Auto Car India
    • Naresh Fernandes, Scroll.in
    • Alex Kuruvilla, formerly Conde Nast India
    • Pradeep Gairola, The Hindu
    • Manavdeep Singh, Pub Live
    • Aditya Berlia, Apeejay Education
    • Abhishek Baxi, Independent journalist/ tech influencer
    • Vanita Kohli Khandekar, Business Journalist
    • Rati Choudhary, Decor creator (Instagram)
    • Neha Anand, Mahindra and Mahindra
    • Aditya Gurwara, Qoruz
    • Arti Raghavan, Free speech lawyer
    • B Srinivasan, Ananda Vikatan
    • Anant Nath, Delhi Press
    • Manoj Sharma, India Today
    • Dhaval Gupta, Cybermedia
    • Anurag Batra, BW BusinessWorld/ Exchange4Media
    • Riyad Mathew, Malayala Manorama
    • Girish Mallya, NextGen Publishing

    The conference agenda is available at https://aim.org.in/imc13/

     

  • This year's theme is "Building Engaged Communities"

    AIM to organise Indian Magazine Congress on March 24

    By Our Staff

     

    The Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) is all set for a comeback as the flagship event of the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) is slated to be organised on March 24th, at the Oberoi, New Delhi.

     

    This year’s Congress theme is how even in the digital age, magazines are the most effective medium for “Building Engaged Communities”. The theme is rooted in the empirical evidence that in the digital age, marred by information overload and cluttered digital spaces, the need for highly engaged and involved communities is becoming ever more important, as users feel the urge to break away from the clutter of social media lead content deluge, and find solace and comfort in spaces that align with their interests and with like-minded peers. Magazine brands are uniquely poised to nurture such engaged communities.

     

    Speaking on the Congress, the president of AIM, B Srinivasan, said: “The magazine is a unique device that has always driven perspective and enabled its communities to draw insights, rather than simply reporting and provoking audiences like most other media. We thrive in digging deep, then digging wide in our coverage of happenings around us, rather than rely on the length and breadth our coverage. In the world where readers have become our competition (influencers), fake news has overtaken relevance over fact checking, ChatGPT has almost crossed the Rubicon of human reportage with machine language (AI/ML), when big tech and governments in vibrant democracies decide what content is ripe for take-down, it is ever so important that we discuss our concerns around policy, technology, distribution, client needs, and most importantly, what our communities expect of us.  That is what we have been fostering under the hood for 6 months now, and so we are proud to present AIM’s 12th Indian Magazine Congress – Building Engaged Communities ”

     

  • By the Department of Revenue & Tax Research Unit, Ministry of Finance

    Assoc of Indian Magazines invited for pre-Budget meet

    By Our Staff

     

    Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) had been invited to participate in the Pre-Budget meeting for union budget 2022-23 by the Department of Revenue & Tax Research Unit, Ministry of Finance. The meeting was held on December 8, 2021, under the chairmanship of Smt. Pragya Sahay Saxena, Member (L&S), CBDT, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

     

    AIM was represented by veteran mediaperson Paresh Nath from Delhi Press and Raj Mohan, Malayala Manorama, both former presidents. The AIM representatives highlighted the “debilitating impact that the pandemic has had on print media, and therefore the need for government support in lessening the tax and custom duty burden in publishing”. Further, AIM representatives requested a level playing field between magazines and newspapers in various government policies, in both expenditure and revenue, as there has been a long-standing concern that magazines are not getting the same benefits as daily papers, even though both come under definition of ‘newspapers’ under the PRB act.

     

    The key points of the memorandum are given below and the memorandum submitted to the ministry has been attached with the mail.

     

    A. Government ads in Magazines

    Given that as per IRS 2019, the total reach of magazines at 8.7 crores, is about 20% the total reach of Newspapers at 42.5 crores, DAVP should mandate that 15%–20% of the total DAVP ad spend to be spent on the magazine industry. At present it is not even 1%. This should also apply to all budgets allocated by the all-government ministries and departments, in both central and state governments.

     

    B. Input Tax Credit

    It was requested that for the purpose of GST, the government allows full Input Tax credit for both newspapers and magazines. Currently, publishers can only claim proportionate credit as circulation sale revenue is exempted, while advertising attracts 5%. Since newspapers and magazines are single products, it will be more equitable if the entire input tax is allowed for publishing of that single product. This will also be in line with Governments’ stated mission of minimising tax on information and knowledge.

     

    C. Customs Duty on Paper

    There is 5% Customs Duty on imported paper used by  newspapers and magazines. Domestic production of Standard Newsprint (SNP) is inadequate to meet the demand and Glazed Newsprint (GNP) and Light Weight Coated Paper (LWC) are not being manufactured indigenously at all. Therefore it was requested that these duties be completely withdrawn.

     

    D. GST of 12% on Light Weighted Coated (LWC) paper up to 70 gsm.

    At present, there is 5% GST on Standard Newsprint (SNP) and Glazed Newsprint (GNP), while 12% on Light Weight Coated paper (LWC). Magazine industry is largely using LWC while newspapers use SNP and GNP. Therefore in the interest of equity, it was requested that GST on LWC be withdrawn, or bring it at par with 5%.

     

    E. Exemption of GST on the Cover Paper

    Magazine covers are printed on a thicker paper so that magazines can be preserved for a longer period. AIM requests GST be exempt on thicker cover paper, on Actual User basis with RNI numbers, or at least GST be brought down to 5% on par with SNP and GNP.

     

    F. Clarity of Levying GST on Digital Magazines

    Newspapers, Magazines are exempted from GST under tariff item 4902. During the lockdown in Covid Pandemic when physical delivery of magazines were stopped, digital magazines were made available to readers. Therefore AIM requested that the government give a clarity on this that magazines/newspapers in print as well as on digital platforms will be exempted from GST.

     

    G. Tax Holiday

    Given the extremely adverse circumstances, AIM has urged the Finance Ministry to consider a general tax holiday for three years

     

     

  • 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.”

     

  • Srinivasan, who was Vice President earlier, has taken over from R Rajmohan, who was the President since November 2016

    B Srinivasan is new President of Association of Indian Magazines

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) has elected B Srinivasan, MD, Vikatan Group as its President. This happened at the AGM held on Thursday. Srinivasan, who was Vice President earlier, has taken over from R Rajmohan, who was the President since November 2016.

     

    Indranil Roy, CEO, Outlook Group, who was General Secretary earlier, is Vice President. Anant Nath, Executive Publisher, Delhi Press is General Secretary and Manoj Sharma, COO, India Today Group the Treasurer. Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia is the outgoing Treasurer. The AGM has also elected the following to the governing body: Annurag Batra (Exchange4media); Amit Seth (Network 18 Publishing); Deepak Lamba (Worldwide Media); Dhaval Gupta (Cyber Media); Hoshang Billimoria (Next Gen Publishing); Mahesh Peri (Pathfinder Publishing); Maneck Davar (Spenta MulGmedia Pvt Ltd); Manan Kotak, (Chitralekha Group; Paresh Nath (Delhi Press); Pradeep Gupta (CyberMedia) and R Rajmohan (Malayala Manorama)

     

     

  • Request for urgent relief to magazine publishers and save the sector from extinction

    Magazine association seeks govt intervention

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) consisting of major magazine players across multiple regions and languages has reached out to the Government of India requesting for a bailout package due to Covid-19 or risk closure of business for most of them.

     

    The association has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the text of which is as follows:

     

    Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman

    Honourable Minister of Finance

    Government of India New Delhi

     

    Respected Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji,

     

    Reg: Request for urgent relief to Magazine Publishers and save the Sector from extinction

     

    Greetings from Association of Indian Magazines (AIM)!

     

    At the outset, we would like to thank you for reducing the Customs Duty on newsprint, from 10% to 5%, which had provided some relief to the magazine publishers.

     

    As you are aware, Magazines play a very important role in the society, by serving millions of readers by providing insights, analysis, chronicling trends and marketing of goods and services. Magazines are not just content but experiences. Taking into account this role played by the magazines in dissemination of knowledge, our constitution has provided many concessions to magazines and are always treated on par with Newspapers.

     

    The Magazine Industry has been going through hard times. The Advertising revenues have declined as advertisers face the pressure to reduce marketing spends, due to the prevailing macro-economic conditions. Coupled with this, is the rising input costs, resulting in low or no profitability for magazine publishers.

     

    COVID-19 and lockdown have now cast its shadow on magazine publishing and has thrown our business completely out of gear. Though classified as ‘essential services’, distribution of magazines has been severely hampered during lockdown. Most magazines are printed in one city and transported to others states through the Railways network and it is the postal and local courier services that we rely on for delivery of subscription copies. Both are currently not happening. Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, businesses have deferred their advertising spends, depriving magazines of their major revenues. This has forced magazine publishers, across country, to take drastic steps like slashing the number of pages and skipping issues. However, given the severity of the problem, these measures will not suffice and survival of magazines will be difficult unless Government steps in with a bail -out package.

     

    At this backdrop, kindly consider the following requests to salvage the magazine publishing sector:

     

    • Remove the remaining 5% Customs Duty on Newsprint. (Before the Union Budget 2019-20, there was no Customs Duty on Newsprint.)

     

    • Withdraw the GST on Newsprint or at least make the GST on LWC (paper used by magazines) on par with SNP/ GNP (used by newspapers) at 5%. As per PRB Act, both newspapers and magazines come under the definition of ‘Newspapers’. (Prior to the introduction of GST, LWC upto 70 gsm had no duties or taxes, whatsoever, for end users.)

     

    • Tax holiday for two years.

     

    • Allocate 10% of the BOC (DAVP) budgets to Magazines.

     

    • Soft loans for two years at 5% interest, with a moratorium for 6 months

     

    • Bring down the GST on Digital Content Writing to 5% from the existing 18%. (Content writing is our core business and to supplement income, magazine publishers have entered into Digital Content Writing)

     

    • Reduce GST on Events, conducted by magazine publishers, to 5%. (Our Events are extension of our Content and we have created them to engage with our readers further.)
  • The association has urged the government to withdraw the duty

    Double whammy for Print: Assoc of Indian Magazines

    By A Correspondent

     

    The announcement of 10% Customs Duty on paper used by newspapers and magazines, on the Union Budget, is highly unfortunate, the Association of Indian Magazine has said in a statement signed by President R Rajmohan. “This is a double whammy for Print media which is going through unprecedented crises due to declining revenues, caused by the prevailing macro economic conditions. Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) urges the Union Government to withdraw this Duty and help the print media industry, which serves millions of readers by disseminating information and knowledge.”

     

     

    R Rajmohan

    President

    Association of Indian Magazines (AIM)

    New Delhi

     

     

  • B Srinivasan is the new Vice President, Indranil Roy is General Secretary and Pradeep Gupta has been re-elected Treasurer

    R Rajmohan is President of Assoc of Indian Magazines

    By A Correspondent

     

    R Rajmohan has been elected as the President of Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) at the AGM held in Mumbai. Rajmohan, Chief Marketing Officer ( North) & Head- Special Projects, Malayala Manorama Group, is a veteran in the print media having worked with The Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, Outlook, Open Media Network etc and has been a Governing Council member of AIM since its inception. B Srinivasan, Managing Director, Vikatan Group, is the new Vice President.

     

    Indranil Roy, Executive Director & Publisher, Outlook Group has been elected as the General Secretary. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, CyberMedia, who is a former president of AIM, has been re-elected as Treasurer.

  • Themed on "Incredible Magazines", the one-day congress will deliberate on various issues that concern the media at large

    Indian Magazine Congress being held today

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) is hosting its annual marquee event, the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) in Mumbai today (November 9)

     

    Themed on “Incredible Magazines”, the one-day congress will deliberate on various issues that concern the media at large including magazines and has an enviable line-up of speakers. This is the tenth edition of the annual event.

     

    The keynote speeches will be delivered by; Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament and quizmaster Derek O’Brien, and Raghav Bahl, journalist and entrepreneur. The other speakers for the day are: Manish Bhatt, Founder and Director, Scarecrow Communications, Dr Bhaskar Das, President, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, Zee Unimedia Limited, Tanuj Garg, Columnist & MD Ellipsis Entertainment, Namrata Zakaria, Columnist, Mumbai Mirror, Vinay Singhal, Co-founder & CEO, Wittyfeed, Anant Nath, Executive Director, Delhi Press Group, Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group, B.Srinivasan, Managing Director, Vikatan Group, Maheshwer Peri, Founder & Chairman, Pathfinder Publishing, Harish Nair, National Director- Digital Strategy, GroupM and Tarun Rai, CEO South Asia, J Walter Thompson.  The evening will see the launch of the first edition of the Magzimise Awards.

     

  • Global media owners including Conde Nast, Immediate Media and Axel Springer were awarded in addition to the national magazine media associations of Germany, Spain, other than India's AIM and Belgian media agency, Space

    Assoc of Indian Magazines wins 2015 FIPP Insight Award for Engagement Index

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) has won a Silver Award for its Engagement Index at the FIPP’s 2015 Insight Awards held yesterday (May 18) at Amsterdam, the Netherlands. FIPP, the worldwide magazine media association, conducts the FIPP Insight Awards (formerly known as the Research Awards) to award the best research studies published that promote the use of magazine media as an advertising medium, anywhere in the world. ‘Magazine media’ includes print, digital platforms and/or any other relevant publisher channel.

     

    Global media owners including Condé Nast, Immediate Media and Axel Springer were awarded in addition to the national magazine media associations of Germany, Spain, other than India’s AIM and Belgian media agency, Space. The awards were presented by FIPP’s president and CEO, Chris Llewellyn.

     

    The full list of FIPP Insight Award winners is:

    GOLD AWARDS

    Condé Nast Spain
    The Q Factor

    VDZ Germany
    Digital Editorial Media

    GIK Germany
    Best For Planning

    ARI Spain
    Magazine websites: usage & perception 

    SILVER AWARDS

    Association of Indian Magazines
    Engagement Index For Media

    Immediate Media UK
    Generation Wealth

    Axel Springer Germany
    Auto Bild Tablet Study

    Space Belgium
    Pulsar 2.a: Strategic Value Of Magazine Advertising

     

    Said Mr Llewellyn: “In a world of big data and ever more granular metrics, making the case for the effectiveness of advertising in magazine media has never been more demanding. The challenge to magazine media researchers and national magazine media associations is to come up with solutions that cut through the complexity and deliver insightful conclusions that demonstrate the unique qualities of our brands and the medium. FIPP’s Insight Awards are designed to recognise such outstanding work which we believe will benefit magazine media groups everywhere.”

     

    Guy Consterdine, FIPP’s insight consultant, added: “The FIPP Insight Awards, now in their sixth year, have proved an excellent showcase for some of the best research on magazine media worldwide. We are also seeing evidence that studies published in previous FIPP Insight Awards have inspired and influenced new projects conducted in other countries. We can all learn from each other.”

     

    Summaries of all FIPP Insight Award shortlisted entries are available to view at: http://www.fipp.com/news/fippnews/awards-entries-from-fipp-insight-forum-awards-2015

     

    The FIPP Research Awards followed the first day of the FIPP Insight Forum at Sanoma’s offices – a two-day event for publishers, researchers and marketing executives in the magazine media business.

     

  • An Assoc of Indian Magazines-IMRB study throws up interesting findings on magazines vis-à-vis other media

    Mags 2x more engaging than Radio & TV

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM), the apex body of magazine publishers in India, commissioned leading market research firm IMRB in 2010 to conduct a large survey, covering a sample size of 3,600 over 10 cities. The study released at the Indian Magazine Congress held in Chennai on February 23 and 24, has shown high engagement scores for magazines on all key parameters like ad avoidance, information seeking, purchase intent and such.

     

    Mitrajit Bhattacharya

    Industry leaders urged AIM to take these findings forward and create an index as a composite score, which would clearly demonstrate the extent to which magazines are engaging, vis-a-vis other media. “That’s exactly what we did,” says AIM President Mitrajit Bhattacharya, adding: “We ran a regression analysis on the same data and came out with weights for individual indices like Mind Measures (weight .59), Ad Avoidance (-.32) etc. and then we created a Composite Index.”

     

    A two-step process was followed to create the Engagement Index. The first step entailed running a regression on a key dependent variable and evaluating the hierarchy of each of the partial engagement indices. The second step required evaluating each medium on the partial engagement indices and arriving at a final Engagement Index.

     

    The study demonstrates that magazines are twice as engaging as television and radio (239 indexed to 100 of Radio).

     

    The Engagement Index Findings

     

    Statements which constitute Mind Measures (Weight: 0.59):This medium matches my personal interests/ personality

    This medium shows how I can approach problems

    This medium is trustworthy and reliable

    This medium helps me stand out and create an impression

    This medium is like an undemanding companion

     

    Statements which constitute Escapism (Weight: 0.20):

    This medium is relaxing and a good escape

    I can consume this medium anywhere and at any time

     

    Statements which constitute Information (Weight: 0.20):

    I am always discovering something new with this medium

    This medium keeps me updated with latest styles and trends

    This medium helps me in expanding my knowledge 

     

    Statements which constitute Stimulation (Weight: 0.18):

    This medium helps me understand the opinions of others

    This medium touches and inspires me

    This medium helps in better social interaction 

     

    Statements which constitute Ad Seeking (Weight: 0.14): 

    Ads provide useful information new products/ services

    Ads add to the experience of consuming the medium

    Pay more attention to ads as I find them more useful

     

    Statements which constitute Ad Avoidance (Weight: -0.32): 

    Ads appear at inconvenient moments in this medium

    Ads in this medium should be eliminated

     

     

  • The two-day Indian Magazine Congress which begins in Mumbai today is a must-attend event for stakeholders

    Growth mantras beckon @ IMC 2013

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    By the time you read this, the seventh edition of the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) would have been be kicked off by AIM president Tarun Rai. The two-day conference has been organised by the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) and is the most significant gathering of the magazine industry in India. The attendees include people from the Indian magazine fraternity including representatives from the Ministry of Information, Magazine Publishers, Media owners, Marketers and advertisers, Media planners and buyers, Magazine Editors, Brand Managers, Circulation specialists, Magazine Distributors, Researchers, Media and financial consultants and Industry analysts.

     

    Tarun Rai

    According to recent IRS figures, the magazine industry is definitely facing tough times. However, Mr Rai opined, “All media is facing tough times. In fact, as per the latest Madison Media Outlook, magazines have done better than projected by showing a growth of 4.5 percent over 2012. And yes, publishers do recognize that the economic environment of the country is tough and advertising spending will be more conservative.”

     

    The theme ‘Magazines: New Directions. New Opportunities’ will explore the digital opportunities for the magazine industry. Mr Rai said, “Digital is the big opportunity for magazines. We have now more vehicles to take our content to people. More easily. The challenge, though, is to quickly learn to repurpose our content for digital. To equip our people through training to best exploit the digital opportunities. To recruit new talent where needed.”

     

    The line-up of speakers is as impressive as the theme itself.

     

    “Yes, we do have a great line-up of speakers. We have very senior professionals from media, marketing and creative. We also have 15 international speakers who have flown down specially for the IMC. The delegates cannot afford to miss any session starting with the opening address of Nitin Paranjpe,” said Mr Rai.

     

    The speakers include names such as Chris Llewellyn, President and CEO, FIPP, UK; Peter A. Kreisky, Chairman, Kreisky Media Consultancy, USA; Andrew Duck, Managing Director, Audience Media, Vietnam; Fabrizio D’Angelo, MD, Hubert Burda Media, Germany; Mike Lovell, International Director, Meredith Corporation, USA; Sandra Gotelli, International Publisher and Head of Licensing, Mondadori, Italy; Torsten Klein, President, Gruner + Jahr International, Germany.

     

    MxM India brings to you the profile of the not-to-be-missed-speakers.

     

    Chris Llewellyn has been serving as Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) president and CEO in the organisation since 2009. He has been a member of the FIPP Management Board since 1999, and served as its chairman between 2005 and 2007. FIPP is the worldwide magazine media association that represents companies and individuals involved in the creation, publishing or distribution of quality content, in whatever form, by whatever channel, and in the most appropriate frequency, to defined audiences of interest.

     

    Peter Kreisky founded Kreisky Media after being at the helm of Mercer Management Consulting’s worldwide media and entertainment practice for 10 years, preceded by a career at McKinsey & Company and CBS Inc. His experience spans Europe and North America, in just about every sector of the media industry. The Kreisky Media Consultancy provides corporate strategy and management advisory services for top management, focused exclusively on the media and entertainment industry: magazine, book, and newspaper publishing, digital media, the Internet, television, music, motion pictures, information, advertising, media retailing.

     

    Audience Media is an innovative company offering the latest multi-media marketing and communication solutions to clients around the world, including Photo Review Australia, BBC Good Food and PrintNZ. The company was founded in 2011 by Andrew Duck, Rolf Rohwer and Mike Coker. Audience Media intends to stay at the forefront of developing technologies.

     

    Fabrizio D’Angelo, head of Hubert Burda International, has also served as FIPP’s Vice-Chairman. In February 2012, Hubert Burda Media pooled its international print activities in a new umbrella organization, Burda International (BI). It was then that Burda CEO Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen appointed Fabrizio d’Angelo as Managing Director. However, Mr. d’Angelo has been in charge of BHI since December 2008.

     

    Mike Lovell leads the licensing of Meredith’s leading consumer brands outside the U.S. Meredith is the leading media and marketing company serving American women. It is the industry leader in creating content in key consumer interest areas such as home, family, health and wellness and self-development and uses multiple distribution platforms – including print, television, online, mobile, tablets, and video – to give consumers content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.

     

    Sandra Gotelli of Mondadori, Italy has been managing the International editions of Mondadori Magazines since 2006, which includes: 15 Grazia editions (7 weeklies, 1 fortnighly, 9 monthlies); Casaviva: 7 editions, Interniand Sale & Pepe. Mondadori is one of Europe’s top publishing companies.

     

    European Gruner + Jahr International (G+J) publishes close to 285 print titles and accompanying homepages in over 20 countries, has printing plants in Germany and the United States, and owns professional websites. In 2012, the group bought India-based startup SeventyNine, a mobile media distribution and analytics platform for Rs 38 crore. In January 1998, Torsten-Joern Klein joined G+J AG, where he was named Publishing Director of Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier, published by Berlin Newspaper Publishing Group. From 2000 through the end of 2003, Torsten- Joern Klein was Managing Director of Berlin Newspaper Publishing Group, responsible for all of Gruner + Jahrs newspaper operations in Berlin. He was appointed member of the G+J Executive Board in January 2004. He is President of G+J International and has the responsibility for all magazines and online activities of Gruner + Jahr outside Germany.

     

    On the one hand we have BusinessWorld turning fortnightly, and on the other Discovery Channel Magazine announcing its entry into India. This may be the right time to take home received knowledge, and follow it to grow and progress.