MxMIndia

Tag: Indranil Roy

  • 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

     

  • 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)

     

     

  • 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.

  • Court orders Outlook group to ensure settlement of dues before services are terminated

    Labour Court halts termination of People India edition staff

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Labour Court in Bandra, Mumbai has stayed the Outlook magazine group’s decision to terminate the employment of 17 staffers of the Indian edition of People magazine. The Editor of the magazine, Saira Menezes, and 16 other editorial employees moved the Labour Court since they felt that the employers were not forthcoming about their settlement (read: dues).

     

    From what MxMIndia learns, there is no termination notice served on the employees, and only a verbal communication was made by Outlook group President Indranil Roy that their services would stand terminated from the evening of July 31. The communication was made only a day after the news was made public with the Outlook group’s statement appearing in sections of the media.

     

    While the employees have questioned the decision of the management to close People magazine’s Indian edition, all that they appealed to the Labour Court was that proper procedures of law be followed if their services are terminated. The employees felt that Outlook Publications was indulging in unfair labour practice by terminating their services without due legal procedure.

     

    Saira Menezes and 16 others were complainants, Mr Vinod Mehta, Editorial Chairman, and Mr Roy were the respondents.

     

  • Free Press Journal has tied up editorially with Outlook group and will carry select stories from the Outlook Business and Outlook Money magazines on the business pages of the daily

    Free Press inks editorial tie-up with Outlook group

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Free Press Journal newspaper and the Outlook group have announced a collaboration under which the newspaper will carry select stories from the magazines Outlook Business and Outlook Money on the business pages of the daily.

     

    The collaboration will help the FPJ, as the newspaper is popularly called, expand its coverage, particularly in the BFSI sector, and as also help the Outlook magazines reach out to a wider target audience in Mumbai.

     

    The tie-up was effected last week as the Outlook magazine stories began appearing effective Friday, January 11

     

    Indranil Roy

    Said Indranil Roy, President of the Outlook group, “We have collaborated with the Free Press Journal newspaper to ensure that our content reaches out to a wider targeted readership base in Mumbai. The unique co-operation drives value by enlarging the target audience of Outlook Business and Outlook Money, taking our content and perspective right on to pages of a daily newspaper. In essence, the newspaper readers will now have the benefit of our perspective sitting next to the FPJ stories of the day on key sectors like banking and finance.”

     

     

    Abhishek Karnani

    Said Abhishek Karnani, Director of the Fress Press Journal: “The collaboration with the Outlook group is yet another step in our journey to expand coverage, lend new perspective and offer more value to our growing base of readers in Mumbai. Select stories from Outlook Business and Outlook Money will help us add to our growing coverage on the business pages of the newspaper. We will continue to invest in the newspaper as we build on our offerings to meet the changing aspirations of our readers in these times.”

     

  • Indranil Roy to take charge from Maheshwer Peri at Outlook from April 1

    Indranil Roy to take charge from Maheshwer Peri @ Outlook from April 1

    By A Correspondent

     

    The change of guard at the Outlook group is now official. Though in the works for a few months, it happens due to president and publisher Maheshwer Peri’s decision to concentrate on his own business – Pathfinder Publishing Pvt Ltd which publishes Careers360 in English and Hindi, and Competitions360 amongst others.

     

    With effect from April 1, Mr Indranil Roy, who has been working with the Outlook group for over a decade-and-a-half, will assume all the non-editorial responsibilities that Mr Peri held. Mr Peri will, of course, continue to be on the Board and be available for advice.

     

    Speaking to MxMIndia, Mr Roy indicated that the revamp Outlook Business has seen could be visible in other brands too. For instance, Marie Claire will soon make a strong positioning statement of a premium luxury magazine.

     

    As part of the restructuring, Ms Vidya Menon will head the lifestyle and entertainment brands of the group and Mr Johnson D’Silva will head the Western region in addition to Outlook Money. Mr Roy will relocate to New Delhi.

     

    The Outlook group will continue to steer the distribution for Mr Peri’s magazines.

     

  • The new year will see a merger of Outlook Profit with Outlook Business to become one magazine.

    Outlook to merge Profit, Business titles

    By Akash Raha

    Outlook Profit is soon to merge with Outlook Business and become one magazine. The merger is planned for January 2012, and has been confirmed by Indranil Roy, President, Outlook Group.

     

    Mr Roy told MXM India, “We realized that it is difficult to sustain a standalone equity magazine in such volatile stock markets. At the same time we saw a great opportunity to add more of finance, markets and investing in a business magazine. Therefore after a lot of deliberation we decided to merge Outlook Profit with Outlook Business.”

     

    He further said that the group would aim to put the readers’ choice first in the building of the magazine. When asked what this merger will mean to Outlook Business, he said, “Outlook Business will become a more holistic business magazine. We are currently working on adding other new elements into the magazine.”