Strategy: 'Multi' is Dangerous

Preparing to extend your magazine to the Internet?
Al Ries (marketing consultant and author of many books on marketing) has a word of advice: "Stay where you are and launch a new brand on the web".

Read the complete article ''Multi' Is the Most Dangerous Word in the Dictionary" on 'Advertising Age'.

Article: Magazine's shelf life has no boundaries

A recent Robert Sacks newsletter carried this article, originally on SacBee.com, and I loved it. Really heartening at a time when everyone is talking about the impending death of the printed magazine.

Here is a shortened version:

Every month, about 5 million National Geographics are printed. And many people seem to hoard them. For years, for decades. Why?

Every month, about 5 million National Geographics are printed. That works out to more than 2,000 tons and around 4,000 cubic yards of magazines.
Every month.
Some of them wind up in the dump, but many more accumulate on shelves in dens. Or in boxes in the garage. Or piles in the attic.
In many cases, the collectors don't read them, but they keep them. For years, for decades. Why?
"It's heartbreaking to throw them away," said Skinner. "They're too nice."The pictures are by some of the world's best photographers and the printing is top-notch.
Skinner's accumulation dates to the 1980s, but her parents in New Zealand have a collection dating back to the 1950s, she said.
Kit Yarrow, another consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, agrees with that assessment, but thinks there's more. "It's special," she said. "Readers feel an intimacy with this magazine. It's emotional."
For many owners, even recycling seems too cruel a fate, so they hold onto magazines, waiting to put them to use.
The attachment to the yellow magazine is so cultish, said Husni, that when an issue was published with a gold cover, it generated complaints."Where is my yellow spine?" was the beef from subscribers accustomed to displaying shelves of unbroken yellow, Husni said.
There's only one other magazine that has created a similar bond, said Yarrow.
Playboy. People -- mostly men, we suspect -- hoard those issues, too.

---------------------------

PS: In one corner of my house is a hoard of Nat Geos (my husband's collection).

LaunchPAD: Three B2B titles

Campaign: UK-based Haymarket Media Group plans to launch 'Campaign', a weekly magazine focusing on advertising, media and communications, around September. According to Financial Express, the second dummy of the tabloid is in circulation among agencies for feedback.
Progressive Grocer: Nielsen Media has a licensing arrangement with the IMAGES Multimedia Group to launch Indian edition of this international food and grocery specialty magazine. Release here
LOG.INDIA: A pre-launch isse of LOG.india was seen in June at the 'transport logistic' trade fair in Munich. The official launch of Log.india is scheduled for September 2007 reports Hugo Martin of MCC Counsulting Germany. This magazine is brought out by DVV Media India (DMI), the Indian subsidiary of DVV Media Group, Germany, a 60-year-old company with 12 publishing houses and 62 publications in Europe and overseas.

India: EMap buys 40% stake in NextGen

EMap (UK-based publisher) has acquired a 40.1% interest in Next Gen Publishing Limited (Next Gen), the Mumbai–based magazine publisher and current licensee of the Indian edition of Car, for a cash consideration of £3.7m.

Next Gen, which began operating in 2005, has two main businesses: consumer and B2B magazine publishing; and business directory publishing. Its consumer titles include Smart Photography, Car India (licensed from Emap), Bike India, The Ideal Home and Garden and Computer Active (licensed from VNU). In addition, Next Gen will be launching the Indian edition of FHM in the autumn. Its first B2B title, Commercial Vehicle, was launched in 2006.

Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Keenan, Chief Executive of Emap Consumer Media, said: “We see India as a prime market that will be highly receptive to our brands. Already an established publisher of English language consumer magazines and business services directories, Next Gen’s presence in the market will provide us with a strong base from which to explore opportunities to develop both our consumer and B2B brands.”

Read more in the release here

Design: Who's Designed your Favourite Magazine?

An article on Business Standard website observes that “Indian dailies prefer foreign designers” and presents the fact that ‘In the last two years Garcia designed layouts for seven newspapers in India.’ That set me wondering “What about our magazines?”

Some of the best-designed magazines in the Indian Market are usually Indian editions of famous international magazines. The design and content structure, at most times, is a very close reproduction of the international editions that have been tempered over the years and are very engaging.

Any remarkable redesign of an Indian magazine in the last two years that any of you remember? Who did it?

If you are into graphics design and are particularly keen on magazine design, here is book you might like to watch out for. ‘Designing Magazines’ is a compilation of work of 35 different authors and is due in November. To pre order it visit here. And if you'd rather wait till the book is out, you can visit the blog Designing Magazines that preceeds the book.

TIP:
Kyoorius Design Yatra 2007 is scheduled to take place in Goa in September. They do not seem to have put up a speaker list yet. However, the yatra might be worth checking out you are fascinated by design.
Last year I got to see magazine designers (Nick Bell, Neville Brody and Paul Hughes) present their work and views at the yatra.

Related Post:
Design: Neville Brody, Nick Bell and Scott Goodson in Goa?

Media Ads: Deccan Chronicle woos Young Readers

Sree Srinivasan of SAJA Forum posted this photo of a giant billboard (taken during his recent visit to Chennai) calling it an example of one problem with the media in India.
The ad has generated some debate on the SAJA Forum. Read his post and comments that followed here.

BTW, I am surprised that no one has objected to the ‘Prevention’ magazine TVC where the godman addresses problems of urban women and ends with a chant: ‘Cholesterol, cholesterol, God loves you all’. It is such a bad parody!