Weekend with Vidya

After spending years with staid Business Magazines (Businessworld, Outlook Business) Vijaya Saran has taken up a job that many of us would give an arm and a leg for :-) She gets to photo-shoot Vidya Balan in Bed and the likes of Katrina and Bips. Vijaya is the Associate Publisher of FHM India and here she shares her experience in the very very different world of Men's Lifestyle Magazines.


Thought that would be a nice change for the weekend - after chewing Mint for the better part of the week.

Addictive

What is it about being part of media that is so addictive? It can’t be phenomenal profits , as any media veteran will tell you. Its definitely not about stimulating work environment. With a few exceptions, most media companies today suffer the ‘lala’ syndrome, where years of ‘loyal’ service is preferred over competence.

And the less said about the revenue model the better. Where every sneeze in the economy spells pneumonia for advertising. Where it is not the product, which makes money, but rather the perceived product.

the aphrodisiac

Having said that - it is an aphrodisiac where you can take a person out of media but cannot take media out of the person.

Talking for myself – twelve years with business magazines – It let me get a ringside view of the tsunami called liberalization, which hit the moribund Indian economy in the nineties and early part of this decade.

More so, as the association was with strong home grown magazines like Businessworld and Outlook Business. The perspective was uniquely Indian and there was clear pride in our voices when we spoke about how we often had the lead over international magazines when it came to getting the best business stories or perspective.

And then came the glut of business media, both print , internet and television . With international affiliations coming in. The uniqueness was lost , and almost every product came out with more of the same.

Media is after all a product of the times. The socialist era meant the emergence of strong political and social media to reflect the people’s frustration with the lack of accountability and conscience in the four pillars of Indian democracy.

the awakening

Then came the ‘awakening’ – that we as individuals could do our bit to improve our lot. Business media boomed and how. Everyone had a right to make money , and make money they did!

And now we have the money. How do we spend it? In came lifestyle and special interest media. Which is where I chose to be. Being with FHM, one of the world’s leading men’s lifestyle magazines , has its own perks and drawbacks . The perks, of course, are that its fun to figure out whether SRK, Kareena, Katrina or Deepika will work best on the cover. Way more fun than gloomy stock market forecasts.

Then editorially there is a huge difference. The Chinese wall between edit and marketing which was fundamental to a credible business magazine is blurred in lifestyle media – reputed groups bringing out high-profile lifestyle magazines, work closely with advertisers to get their editorial and, horror of horrors , the editors are actively involved in marketing activities! Recently the editor of a prominent women’s lifestyle magazine sent out letters to subscribers exhorting them to buy a company's products- how would readers ever trust their editorial after that? Short term gains often rule.

the honey trap

At FHM we try to avoid these traps without losing the more flexible approach that lifestyle media allows.

Just like readers tastes have changed , so have advertisers. Today they know that they know that “serious” media is all very well, but if they want eyeballs its prudent to be seen in the so called “lad’s mags”

The next media wave hopefully should be emphasizing charity and social responsibility, which till now is restricted to a few publications that are not driven solely by commercial interests.

The I-Pod Effect

So yet another Consumer Goods stalwart takes his bow.....from Print. A recent communique announced, the present Publisher of MINT is stepping down (to take on “ a new non-media challenge” outside). Glowing tributes have been paid to him for "one of the most unique media brands (created) in recent memory" and taking MINT and its number of sub-brands (Lounge, Campaign, Livemint.com ) to where they are today. Kudos most well deserved .

Marketing Success or Editorial Excellence

But, the purpose of this post is not to debate the Marketing success of MINT. We shall leave that discussion for another day . I do genuinely believe that MINT would be an excellent case-study of a new print product launch.

Here I would like to take off from a point made by Saurjyesh and also questioned by Sudhir (Syal) – as to “when do product innovations actually begin to kick-in?”. Sudhir has cited the example of the re-launched New Indian Express down South.

Opinion may be divided on the Business Model, Media Marketing, Pricing and Circulation strategy of MINT – but even the worst critic and most biased would agree that, MINT is, arguably, the best editorial product in the country today. The ExEd (now ED) of a “sister” ( nay, I meant - rival !!) publication had told me, in a private conversation, soon after its launch that , MINT is "the ultimate editor’s paper”. And, it has only gotten better since then.






When it started – it clearly differentiated itself not just in format (“compact”) and design (one of Garcia’s finest) - but in setting new standards ( and ethics ) of reportage and practically every element of content.

Along the way, MINT has added many of the “Interactive” features – which Saurjyesh, Sen and all those - from the relatively more developed and mature media markets – who commented on my earlier post ( on the future of print ) have talked about. This includes the LiveMint Blogs (click here to read)– again a first of sorts for an Indian (mainline or financial) paper.

So when did these truly fantastic product features start positively impacting the results in Commercial terms ( and, mind you – I am not talking of ‘break-even’ here !!) ?

Does the Winner take it all ?

I am slightly out of date with the numbers. But, from the little that I know of the Financial Papers space – there are 3 players (BS, HBL and Mint ) who are vying for the No 2 slot with roughly comparable figures. A 4th – the Chronicle – is threatening to storm the bastion. A 5th ( DNA Money) is spreading itself at the bottom in an altogether different segment of the market. And, a biggie ( FT – Network 18) is waiting in the wings to make a splash at an opportune moment.

Among these – although no one can discount the editorial quality of either BS or HBL) , in my opinion, MINT stands out in terms of salience. As someone put it beautifully – MINT is like the I-POD after an era of WALKMANs and Juke-boxes.

Even in a market like Mumbai, where (if I may hazard a guess at the risk of offending friends in the Circulation Dept of HT) I suspect, MINT’s circulation would be roughly the same as that of BS and HBL ( the latter 2, certainly BS, could infact be much higher), I believe it has a relatively greater editorial impact amongst high-end, influential readers. I would even go a step further and argue (inviting greater flak in the process) that on sheer ‘reader connect’ within the same target group it would score even higher than the newer broad-sheet mainline dailies (including the one published from the same stable).

Anecdotal or anecdotage

Of course – these are not based on any empirical research but just my own sense from anecdotal evidence. Be that as it may – the questions I have are:

-how much consumer pull did it manage to create immediately on its launch ? putting it a little differently, would MINT have reached its present level of circulation ( 120k ??) naturally without forced trials thru deep discounted subscriptions or ‘jodi’ offers ?
- would "old fashioned distribution" have worked for a product like this ?
- when will the cash registers start ringing ? would the advertisers see 'value' in a premium product offering like this and be willing to shell out an extra dollar ?
- how far and how fast this would translate into organic growth of circulation;
- would it ever be able to revert to the "traditional" sales and distribution sysyetem moving away from "door-to-door sale call" (PCC) and the "annual subscrition" model?
- how much premium would the consumer be willing to pay on the ‘cover price’ of the product ?
- can the present level of circulation be sustained at ‘full cover price’ and without offers ?

( well, well, I know – Cover Price is immaterial in today’s context. Haven’t we done that topic to death already in this blog. But, I’m asking this purely as an Index of Consumer preference)

Perhaps, we can try and answer some of these over the next few days. Would look forward to hearing from you – both 'insiders' and those who watched the birth of a ‘star’ from a distance (or even some like me who have seen it from a ‘distance within’).


Full Disclosure (in keeping with the MINT protocol) – This post was not influenced by the 'E-i-C 'of Mint giving this humble blog a pride of place among his favourites. It was, however, certainly inspired by the farewell accolades for RB.

Jottings of an Ex Circulation, sorry RMD, guy

I was in the first batch of the Times School of Management in 1990. When I joined it post doing 3 years of Hotel Management from PUSA it was a typical move of a confused young Bengali who was not smart enough to join Engineering or Medical so from my parents side it was do whatever so that you can earn a living.

On joining I realized that, there is this group called BCCL and in its helm is this three siblings – SJ, VJ and NJ - who are trying to rewrite the rules of the print media in the country. My interactions (mostly in a group) were more with the elder brother than with their late sister or the then young VJ. In that one year, I heard and saw the little steps that were being taken to shake the company out of its lethargy.

I was told about why the Sesquicentennial (I am deliberately not doing spell check here as to emphasise the point that even now I don’t know how it is spelled) events were critical in giving a larger than life image to a newspaper group and move it into a happening brand category.

I was told how and why NIE was started, to ensure that the kids of the Punjabi families started reading TOI from School so that 10 years down when they decided to demand their own newspaper they asked for TOI and HT which was ' Punjabi written in English'. It was also explained to us by Buro Lahiri (sadly no more) the reason behind the setting up of TSM. As per him SJ realised that the media planners plan their media 1/4 by data (can be manipulated so no one really trusts) and 3/4 by guts and what he reads. His reasoning was, as over the years the students from this Institute proliferate and join agencies and take marketing decision-making positions in Orgs they would have a natural bias towards the group thereby making the sales job easier.

If these are not examples of being far sighted I don’t know what are. Ask any Delhi guy who is more than 35 years old and he will talk about the night 'The Boss' sang in JLN stadium. Success of NIE forced the competition to start PACE (and they have done a great job) but BCCL is pushing NIE to the next level in making it a medium to reach School kids across the world and not limit it to Delhi. Thanks to face book I know lots of TSMites who are decision makers and decide on Advt spends across orgs.

When I passed out of TSM I decided to join RMD, circulation to non-BCCl folks, and not the more glamorous Response (Advertising Sales to the aforementioned) as it was spoken as the place where men get distinguished from boys. This was thanks to a speech from SK Mehta (MKD) where he exhorted us to take the tough route rather than the easy. I realized once I was in that I was conned but that is a different story. RMD in the city of Delhi used to be all about getting up at odd hours to go to street crossings where 200-300 hawkers used to come and buy all newspapers. In the afternoon it was going with the magazines on Feeder routes.

Now coming to the main point of this edition of my blog as a rejoinder to Robin and Sen about distribution in the print industry and some myth busting.

Myth 1: Hawker decides which copy a reader reads. I say Bull Shit; this myth was manufactured by the hawkers and given by air by moth balled circulation managers who thought this would increase their worth. Tell me when was the last time a hawker came and sold a newspaper to anyone of us. Most of us don’t even know the bugger as he comes when we are asleep.


Myth 2: We circulation guys know where each and every copy of ours goes and who is our reader. Bull bloody shit, PCC (again started by Times group through Bimal Chadha) showed very clearly that most of the old fogies in circulation had no clue about their readers and even with the name and address in hand could not ensure that the newspapers were delivered at the right address by the right hawker.


Myth 3: Schemes help in selling copies. Yes it does but only because the hawker rotates the copies. Just by giving Tupperware or Bed sheets one cant increase circulation on a permanent basis. That needs to be backed by product improvement, consumer interaction and communication and old-fashioned distribution.


The third myth is where I feel the FMCG types who came in to print have really added value and that is where again the Times group was way ahead of the competition. In spite of the jabs of the old times that these Joote aur biri bechne wale kya jaante hain newspaper sales ke baare mein, they were the ones who broke the mould and brought in new management styles which are the norm today.


Regards,

SN

(Blogkeeper's Note: SN now is the Country Manager of a leading International Wire-Agency in India. He keeps a blog : 'Random Musings' at www.saurjyesh.blogspot.com and can be reached at saurjyesh@gmail.com )--