Niche magazines fire up India's media market

New magazines have been hitting India's newsstands in a torrent reminiscent of the monsoon rains. In October, titles as diverse as Men's Health, Ideal Home & Country, Commercial Vehicle and Just Chill entered the booming magazine industry.

But the October deluge was not a quirk of the season. A slew of new titles from every category imaginable have launched in every month this year, and there are now 47,000 registered magazines in India, up 3.3 per cent on last year.

Not only that, but the titles slated for next year and 2008 are a who's who of international magazine heavyweights. Among them are Vogue, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, Fortune and The Economist, all looking to take advantage of an English-speaking population of 350 million, the largest in the world.

"The Indian magazine industry is growing at more than 15 per cent per year," says Ashish Bagga, CEO, Living Media (India Today) Group, which leads the pack of India's top five publishers with an estimated 60 per cent of the market by revenue.

"Rising literacy, the pull of new titles, super specialisation and the relaxing of rules controlling foreign direct investment are the main reasons for growth," he adds. Literacy in India is now at the 60 per cent mark, up from 45 per cent five years ago, thanks to better education in rural areas.

And there's plenty of competition to add spice to the market. While India Today may rule the roost, the publishing giant is forever looking over its shoulder at a market bloating with new rivals, both local and foreign. Outlook, Femina, Business World, Chitralekha make up the rest of the top five India publishers keen to grab a slice of market growth.

Understandably, India's colourful magazine market is not going unnoticed by advertisers. Liked for their ability to drive brand awareness and purchase intent, magazines have seen their issues fatten at a healthy speed.

According to the AdEx India Snapshot, ad volumes in Indian magazines grew by 23 per cent between September 2005 and August this year. By comparison, newspaper volumes over the same period grew by a not unimpressive 16 per cent. Total advertising spend for Indian magazines, over 120 titles and across 14 genres, was Rs 8,960 million (US$201 million).

General interest magazines were first to establish a foothold in India, but it is specialist interest titles — particularly those on film, housekeeping, motoring, computing, mobile phones, men's and women's magazines — that are now fuelling growth. Grihashobha is the leading women's title, with a weekly circulation of 328,000, while Filmfare, a movie magazine, pulls in 4.5 million readers every fortnight. "A growing number of niche magazines, especially those targeting the premium end, are to thank for the sector's growth," says Anurag Batra, publisher and editor-in-chief, Impact/Pitch magazines. "And the desire of Indian people to buy magazines is increasing as the economy grows."

India's GDP grew by seven per cent last year, to $652 billion.

Even so, magazines are not a licence to print money for publishers. Distribution networks for retail sales, especially in rural areas of India, are either inefficient or nonexistent. To reach national audiences publishers are obliged to set up their own distribution networks, or rely on a small number of distribution agencies whose reach is patchy.

Also, as magazines grow, advertisers are putting them under more pressure to come up with imaginative ways to reach readers. "Creative media buys are the order of the day. Staid advertising fails to grab attention," says Arun Nanda, chairman and managing director, Rediffusion DY&R. "Hats off to India Today and Outlook. They have a book of possible innovations that they give to ad agencies as part of the sales kit."

But innovative ways to reach readers are on the rise, although some categories are much better than others.
According to AdEx figures, nearly three-quarters of 'innovative' ads — which include cover mounts, wrap-arounds and pull-outs — come from the 'public issue' category. The biggest advertising categories are corporate, branded apparel, cars, jewellery, fashion, lifestyle products and telecoms.

Though advertising in magazines is clearly on the up, it is not hurting spend in other media — so isn't gaining share. "The magazine market is growing, which is hardly surprising (the Indian advertising market as a whole is expected to grow by 15 per cent this year, with TV attracting much of the growth, up 25 per cent over the past decade, with radio not far behind). Adspend as a percentage of GDP in India is much below what it is for other markets," says Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, Asia-Pacific, MindShare. "Magazines still have a long way to go."