'Reinvention in magazine content with changing times is key'
Post Covid, the print industry has struggled to stay afloat and keep their profits in the green. The magazines especially had to look for ways to reinvent themselves since during this period of slow recovery, brands and advertisers too took a step back as well. At the Indian Magazine Congress 2024, by Association of Indian Magazines in Taj Santacruz, Mumbai, Dr Annurag Batra (Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of BW BusinessWorld and exchange4media) moderated a panel with Deepali Nair (Group CMO, CK Birla Group) and Ketan Bharati (marketing expert) on how magazines can reinvent themselves and foster content rejuvenation. Nair kicked off the discussion by saying, “What we used to do 15 years earlier in terms of partnerships with magazines, when digital did not exist, is very different from the way we look at partnership with magazines today. From a brand's perspective, one of the things that is emerging today is a magazine and what they do on the digital platforms for themselves.” This is because, in today’s world they are not competing for marketing dollars for advertising revenues only with other magazines, they may be competing with digital portals too. “For example, if I am doing allocations today then I will look at BusinessWorld and also Moneycontrol in the same genre. The audience is important, the format is not,” she added. She is of the opinion that even though the physical magazine readership has definitely shrunk but the digital readership of that brand or the digital consumption of the content from that brand, that's where the growth opportunity is. Bharati shared his panacea for magazines to grow their revenues. He opines that there are mainly four C’s to follow for resurgence. He elaborated, “One is content saturation because in the world of AI, content is everywhere and maybe there's a lot of content duplication. The second is the consumer scepticism which is there because we live in a polarised world now, and either you're left or the right wing. That's how magazines can influence you to some extent.” According to him, the third is the constant change in algorithm in the social media era which also influences the readers. The fourth is the complex consumer journey where the consumer is everywhere. So how you navigate these challenges is possibly the answer. Nair suggested to magazine brands that, as publishers, they need to ensure that more and more audiences are reading their content. Second is publishers need to ensure that the advertisers or the business of advertisers, be it the media agencies or be it the people who are taking brand decisions, are aware that audiences are consuming the content. She said, “You as a publisher may not be doing a great job in telling the brand decision-makers that you're doing a good job. I think that may be a weak link for you to help them get to know what your numbers are, and which audiences you are doing work with.” Publications like Harvard Business Review continue to do fantastic content which they charge for, she highlighted. What they have done is, they've created Harvard Business Review snippets for the younger generation, which is in shorter content. Hence, reinvention with changing times is the key. Bharati of Truecaller believes it's all about authentic storytelling. And it's about how you engage with your audiences in any form, be it short format or long format. “Another aspect is, how do you actually measure? At the end of the day, if I do a full page ad in a magazine, why can't I have a QR code or a response code?,” said Bharati. For a marketer, it's the entire funnel journey. They are not only going to say, hey, I reached X number of people. For me, it's also how I converted those X number of people.
Tags : Ketan Bharati Deepali Nair Truecaller Indian Magazine Congress Birla Group