People who jumped the gun to write the obituary of print in general, and  magazines in particular, might be eating their words. “As long as there are coffee tables, people will want things to put on them”, that’s how the international news magazine The Economist (June 9, 2012) has poetically concluded a rather prosaic report on the revival of the magazine “industry” in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The report has taken account of an air of optimism about magazines (particularly in the West), faster growth rate in readership, launch of new magazines and the sound revenue returns which they are expecting. Innovative measures for preserving their distinct identities, reworked marketing and advertising strategies and working on content and formats to retain as well as add to their loyal readership are some of the ways in which magazines are reinventing themselves.

The pull of loyal readership (and perhaps the charm of the printed text that sustains it) has also led some magazines to avoid putting their text online and be identified as “print only holdouts”. The German magazine, Landlust (based on belief in a relaxed pace of living which is as close to nature as possible) is a case in point. This print-only magazine has a circulation of 1 million. And then there are magazines which have been profitable without carrying any ads and being sold only in bookshops. Relying on intellectual and literary traditions of voracious reading in Paris (the appeal that once Hans had for Hindi readers and Desh for Bengali readers), the French magazine XX1 has been profitable without advertisements and with its availability in bookshops only. Though newspapers continue to struggle and TV has become stagnant, the growth story to tell has been that of magazines. The consultancy firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has done a statistical study of the upsurge in the magazine market vis-à-vis the newspaper market (see the graph below).

One interesting thing to note is that it’s not the news magazines that are instrumental for this growth. The recent upsurge has been led by niche magazines – literary and intellectual discourse-based, long form feature and reportage-based, lifestyle and luxury publications.

The Indian Scene

In India, print has yet not seen any real crisis. It may be at a different stage of the cycle for demographical, cultural and historical reasons and even because of factors of technological accessibility. In fact, newspaper readership in India can make even powerful media barons of the West envious. Lally Weymouth, belonging to The Washington Post-owning family put this on record when she was visiting India in 2009 (in her interaction with staff of The Indian Express for the paper’s ‘Idea Exchange’ feature). I have sought to analyse some of the factors shaping robust newspaper readership figures in an earlier piece, which can be accessed through http://www.newslaundry.com/2012/03/print-for-all-seasons/

However, there is a paradox which could hardly escape notice. Magazine readership in India hasn’t kept pace with the growth rate in newspaper readership. If statistics provided by IRS Q1 (2012), published on June 19 2012 are anything to go by, only four of the top 10 most read magazines have shown growth in their Average Issue Readership (AIR), the readership for the remaining six has declined (see the table).

(All figures in ‘000)

(The readership has been measured with Average Issue Readership (AIR) numbers of a publication which is defined as the number of readers of that publication who have claimed to have last read it within its periodicity, i.e. last read a daily yesterday, a weekly within the last week, a monthly within the last month, etc.).

During the same period, seven of the 10 most read newspapers in the country registered AIR growth (see the table below)

(All figures in’000)

But magazine readership trends in India share one aspect with the trends in other parts of the world. At least eight of the ten most read magazines aren’t news magazines. In other aspects, the international trend-defying nature of readership in India continues and it gives a clear “growth edge” to newspapers over magazines. One remarkable, though not surprising, aspect is also the overwhelming dominance of language dailies and magazines in the list. The English press is somehow sneaking in with a solo presence, dwarfed by language press giants.

Statistics, yes they are damn statistics too, and of course, nobody would be gasping it if they are lies too. The age of statistical innocence is perhaps behind us, but the times of statistical overload is here to stay. However, none can fool those corners of our memory when our parents preceded their afternoon siesta poring over magazines. And mother, do you have your copies of those homely magazines with you now? Or do TV soaps have this subtext to their usual scheming plots and domestic stratagems too – drive out the printed reams of domestic engagement? Perhaps the loyalty to those printed engagements haven’t lasted. But you would also accept that they had a distinct appeal and could still have it. The reason is simple – its space has been pre-empted now, not filled. Though not fitting into The Economist’s visual imagery of a coffee table, as a young boy growing up in a small town, I remember frequent visits to magazine stalls to get copies of my favourite magazines (some of them are no longer published). I continue to do so. Hope that also figures in these cold statistics.

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