MxMIndia

Tag: B Srinivasan

  • 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 ”

     

  • The Annual General Meeting of the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM), for the financial year 2021-22, took place on October 14

    AIM elects officebearers for 2022-24

    By Our Staff

     

    The Association for Indian Magazines has unanimously extended the term of the incumbent president, B Srinivasan, MD of Ananda Vikatan, for another term. Anant Nath, Executive Publisher of Delhi Press, has been elected as Vice President, Manoj Sharma, CEO of Living Media, has been elected General Secretary, and Dhaval Gupta of Cyber Media has been elected as Treasurer.

     

    The previous office bearers of the association were: B Srinivasan- President, Indranil Roy- Vice President, Anant Nath- General Secretary, and Manoj Sharma- Treasurer. Indranil Roy of Outlook Publishing decided to opt out of the office bearers because of personal commitments.

     

    At the meeting, the officebearers shared highlights of the work done by the association over the past two years:

    :: Launch of a tailor-made service called ‘Magazine Post’ by India Post, to ensure speedy and assured delivery of magazines to subscribers, along with facility of live tracking and SMS alerts

    :: Launch of content marketing studio called Dastaan Hub, to offer to marketers, branded content solutions across print and digital assets of member publishers

    :: Updates on vendor subscription booking app, to leverage the vast network of morning centre newspaper vendors, for magazines sales and delivery

    :: The roll out of the distribution agency accreditation system to strengthen the magazine delivery network

    :: Presentation by AIM at the FIPP World Media Congress 2022 in Lisbon, on collaborative approaches taken by Indian magazine publishers Initiation of work on Indian Magazine Congress 2023, to be held after a gap of four years

     

  • 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.”

     

  • The findings are part of a campaign to be released by Dastaan Hub

    Magazine readers discerning & influential: NICS 21

    By Our Staff

     

    Magazine readers in India are far more aware, well off and brand conscious than any other media, including digital. This is revealed by the New Indian Consumer Survey 2021 published by Kantar, the leading data global analytics and brand consulting company. The analysis is of special significance as the fieldwork was carried post the pandemic impact, during August to October 2021.

     

    The findings are part of a campaign to be released by Dastaan Hub, the brand solutions studio of the Association of Indian Magazines.

     

    The NICS 2021 is a special edition study in place of TGI and covers a battery of 200 attitudinal statements. Affinity Scores are attitudinal endorsement scores for certain cohorts indexed to All India Urban universe. The special study, based on 25 select statements from this concludes that magazine readers are also the most likely to be influencers and innovators than any other medium, including digital, based on the Affinity Scores.

     

    Among the statements where magazines show the highest affinity are: ‘People come to me for advice before buying new things’, ‘Shopping online makes my life easier and I do some form of sport or exercise at least once a week.’

     

    B Srinivasan
    B Srinivasan

    Speaking on the new survey finding, B Srinivasan, President of the Association of India Magazines said: “The survey confirms what we have been always asserting, that magazines by the very nature, attract a very premium readership and one that places great trust in this medium. It is therefore not surprising that the engagement levels of magazines are far higher than that of other media entities”. He further added, “Our readers are more discerning than that of various other media domains. NICS 2021 is a stellar offering from Kantar and effectively studies all-important attitudinal trends.”

     

    Shripad Kulkarni
    Shripad Kulkarni

    Added Shripad Kulkarni, veteran media agency professional and Advisor, Dastaan Hub studio:  “Attitude statements are a treasure of insights that can be used for sharp targeting. We have seen over various TGI survey rounds that magazine readers are clearly more upmarket and brand conscious influencers.”

     

     

  • 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)

     

     

  • Triggerbridge with initiate internal and external initiatives to ensure the Vikatan group's teams are better equipped and our clients see us in the right light

    Ananda Vikatan consults Trigger bridge on marketing & customer connect

    By A Correspondent

     

    Triggerbridge, the marketing service consulting firm co-founded by S Yesudas has announced its  appointment as marketing and customer connect transformation consultants to Vikatan Group.

     

    Speaking of the appointment, B Srinivasan, Managing Director, Vikatan Group said: “With the magazines having 90 years of heritage, our foray into the digital space, our TV and film production and the events and activation space, we are a diverse media group that has a unique capacity to deliver audiences across platforms at scale. Since most of these are best kept secrets from the marketing community at large, we realised we needed to embark on certain internal and external initiatives to ensure our teams are better equipped and our clients see us in the right light. In triggerbridge, we found the right partners to embark on this journey of change with.”

     

    Commenting on the assignment, S Yesudas, Managing Director and Co-founder, of triggerbridge (the “unagency”, as he calls it):  “We are thankful to Srini(B Srinivasan) and his team for this partnership.  The work has already begun and as one team, people at both ends are extremely excited about the potential ahead.  Our ambition is to have the Vikatan group known as “The gateway to TN”. Let our work speak the rest.”

     

  • 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.