Indian Magazines Project

A PROJECT ON MAGAZINES

BY

KHAN M. ASIM
0037 TYBMM
RIZVI COLLEGE

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. P. K. RAVINDRANATH

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my gratitude and indebtedness to those who contributed their valuable time and guidance in helping me to achieve success in this project work.

Especially, I would like to express my sincere and whole-hearted thanks to Prof. P.K. Ravindranath for his valuable experience, time and knowledge, and providing constant guidance to me in making this project a success.

Lastly, I would like to thank University of Mumbai for providing me an opportunity to study the Magazine Journalism.

CONTENTS
*INTRODUCTION
*IRS 2006
*INDIA TODAY
*Outlook
*The Week
*Conclusion

Note: The project posted here is without images due to heavy size of the images...

INTRODUCTION

Definition of a Magazine - “ Any publication with a periodicity of one week or more is a Magazine”.

Magazines are a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by reader. Magazines are typically published weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly or quarterly, with a date on the cover that is in advance of the date it is actually published. They are often printed in color on coated paper, and are bound with a soft cover.

Magazines fall into two broad categories: General magazines and niche magazines. In practice, magazines are subset of periodicals, distinct from those periodicals produced by scientific, artistic, academic or special interest publisher which are subscription-only, more expensive, narrowly limited in circulation, and often have little or no advertising.

General magazines are aimed at the public and are usually available through retail outlets. They range from general interest titles such as Front Line, outlook and, India Today which appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, to highly specialist titles covering particular hobbies, leisure pursuits or other interests. Among the hundreds or thousands of topics covered by specialist (niche) magazines are, for example, computer games, fishing, particular marques of automobile, particular kinds of music, and particualr political interest.

While most of these magazines are available in the whole of the country in which they are published, some are specific to a local area (for instance, The Week) and a relatively small number are available internationally – often throgh localised editions so that, for example, the copy of Maxim bought in the USA does not contain exactly the same articles as the edition on sale in the UK. Some, such as TV Guide are even tailored for local markets within a country. Most make the bulk of their money from advertising, and earn a smaller amount from the purchase price paid by readers; a few are free.

A subset of the general magazine is the customer magazine, a publication similar in format and style to a general magazine but issued by an organisation such as a club, a retailer or an airline to communicate with its customers. Such magazines are usually free to the reader; the quantity of advertising that they carry varies greatly; and their circulations range from very small to very large - in some countries customer magazines are among the highest-circulation general magazines.

Many business magazines are available only, or predominantly, on subscription. In some cases these subscriptions are available to any person prepared to pay; in others, free subscriptions are available to readers who meet a set of criteria established by the publisher. This practice, known as controlled circulation, is intended to guarantee to advertisers that the readership is relevant to their needs. Very often the two models, of paid-for subscriptions and controlled circulation, are mixed. Advertising is also an important source of revenue for business magazines.

Although similar to a magazine in some respects, an academic periodical featuring scholarly articles written in a more specialist register is usually called an "academic journal". Such publications typically carry little or no advertising. Periodical is the word usually used to describe magazines, journals, newspapers, newsletters, and anything else that is published in regular intervals for an indefinite period of time, but serial is sometimes used, especially in library and information science.

Many newspapers in their weekend editions incorporate magazine supplements, such as WE (HT) and TIMES LIFE (TOI).

The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. The oldest magazine still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken that claim.

The most widely distributed magazine in the world is The Watchtower (founded in 1879). Its worldwide circulation including all editions comprises 32.4 million copies.

Size of a Magazine – Magazines are generally of 1 x 4 sizw (A4). Tabloid size magazines are generally confined to regional language newspapers.

IRS 2006


Most top magazines experience decline in readership Going by IRS 2006, Round 1, Hindi fortnightly magazine Saras Salil has maintained its numero uno position with a readership of 73.61 lakhs, which is quite consistent with last years IRS Round 2 figures (73.66 lakhs).

Coming in second is Kungumam, the Tamil weekly, with a readership of 37.59 lakhs, which wasnt among the top ten in the IRS Round 2 last year.

Malayalam magazine Vanitha, meanwhile, has slipped a notch from last years number two position. It has come in third this year, declining by 4.79 lakh readers. Its total readership now stands at 35.16 lakhs. This is the third round in a row in which the readership of Vanitha has declined.

India Today (English), which was last years number three, has slipped to number four this year, with a readership of 35.09 lakhs. In comparison to IRS 2005, Round 2, its readership has declined by 3.9 lakhs.

Hindi monthly Grihasobha continues to stand at number five, with a readership of 31.93 lakhs. Last year, this figure stood at 33.7 lakhs, which indicates that its readership has declined by 2.77 lakhs.

Tamil weekly Kumudam, which has registered a fall from fourth place last year to sixth place this year, has also experienced a decline in readership of 3.63 lakhs. Its readership, as per the latest IRS round, stands at 30.71 lakhs.

India Today (Hindi) and Malayala Manorama have both slipped a rank since last year to stand at Rank 7 and 8, respectively. While the readership of India Today has declined by 4.34 lakhs (from 32.83 lakhs in IRS 2005, Round 2, to 28.49 lakhs now), Malayala Manorama readership figures have dropped from 32.07 lakhs in Round 2 of 2005 to 27.60 lakhs in Round 1 of 2006.

Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan and Hindi monthly Meri Saheli have finished at Rank 9 and 10, respectively, with corresponding readership figures of 25.50 lakhs and 24.81 lakhs. These two were not among the top ten as per IRS 2005, Round 2.



INDIA TODAY

Congress with Prabhu Chawla as editor launched the India Today Group in 1976 with a single magazine. Now it is BJP no longer of Congress with Prabhu Chawla as editor and Arun Purie as editor in chief. Today it is India's most diversified media group with interests in magazines, newspaper, television, radio, Internet, books and music. The group's portfolio includes 13 magazines, 3 radio stations, 2 TV channels, 1 newspaper, leading classical music label, book publishing and India's only book club. Through its subscribers, readers, viewers and listeners the group reaches out to over 35 million individuals. India Today is available in five different languages English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.


Other magazines by India Today group -
- India Today

- International

- Business Today

- Reader's Digest

- Cosmopolitan

- Good Housekeeping

- India Today

- Travel Plus

- Design Today

- Golf Digest

- Scientific American India

- TIME

- Fortune

- TODAY

India Today is a general magazine, which consists social, political, entertainment, national and international information. It is the mouthpiece of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), which spreading its Saffron ideology through it.

Date - September 25, 2006.

Cover Story – Why Can't We Get Dawood?

As punishment is meted out to those guilty of the 1993 Mumbai blasts, India needs to finally bring to book the mastermind behind the conspiracy.

Editorial – The editorials are mostly on political issues, critcising the government and administration.
Cost – Rs. 20

Size – A4

Display and Layout – Completely colour magazine with lots of images. 80+65 pages. Heading format is single page. An ad is there on almost every page, some are full page, half page or ¼ size.

A niche magazine ‘India Today Home’ given free with the main magazine.
Frontline

FrontLine is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu group of publications from Chennai, India. N. Ram is the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Unlike many other mainstream magazines published in India, Frontline gives a prominent place to various issues of development and hindrances in the Indian states. Apart from topics of political economy, it also covers a wide range of topics including Arts, books, cinema, Science and English language.

The perspective provided in the magazine is of a strong leftist nature, wherein views are often solicited from eminent leftist intellactuals. C.P. Chandrasekhar, Praful Bidwai, R.K.Raghavan, Jayati Ghosh and Bhaskar Ghose have been contributing regular coloumns for the magazine. Aijaz Ahmad, the eminent Marxist literary critic and political analyst also contributes occassional essays on various topics.

At a time, when the magazine space in India is occupied increasingly by news tinged with lifestyles of middle and upper class people in urban areas, mundane "gossip", sensationalism and total non-coverage of livelihood issues, Frontline is famous for its serious coverage of issues. The magazine has made it a point to analyse issues related to the working classes, the unorganized sectors, tribal regions, etc in India.

On the foreign news coverage front, the Frontline's worldview is dominated by a strong anti-imperialist sentiment, coupled with a sympathetic reporting about leftist regimes across the world.

Since, 1991, the magazine has consistently opposed the economic reforms of successive governments comprising divestment in state owned corporations, opening of areas like telecom and insurance to private and foreign players among others.

Cover Story – India’s Shame – Manual scavenging is still a disgusting reality in most states despite an Act of Parliament banning it.

Date – September 22, 2006.

Cost – Rs. 15

Obituaries written on Subodh Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee are masterpieces.

Editorial – Without editorial.

Size – Small book size (a bit smaller than A4)

Display and Layout – 138 pages. Completely colour magazine with lots of images. Heading format is single page but many big images are covered on two pages. Less numbar of ads. The best indian English magazine with perfect format.

Outlook

Outlook is a weekly English news magazine in publication since October 1995. Vinod Mehta has been its editor-in-chief from its inception. Outlook has also spawned the specialised magazines Outlook Traveller, Outlook Money and the Hindi Outlook Saptahik. It is origianally owned by Hathway Investments Private Limited, it is now part of the Rajan Raheja Group. Some also link the publication as being part of Reliance Industries started to further their hold on political decisions. The magazine almost covers every aspect of news, the Industrial, economic, social, political, entertainment, health development, national and international issues.

Date – september 25, 2006

Cover Story – After Them Who? – Our greatest classical musicians are very old. Worse, there is no clear line of succession.

Editorial – Without editorial.

Size – Almost A4

Display and layout - 100+60 pages. Completely colour magazine with lots of images. Heading format is of both single as well as 2 page.

*A niche magazine on fashion & lifestyle is free on every monthly issue.

The Week

The Week magazine was started on December 26, 1982 by Malayala Manorama group. Mammen Mathew is the editor-in-chief. It is general magazine, which covers almost every aspect of news, the Industrial, economic, social, political, entertainment, health, fashion, development, religion and national issues. It rarely covers the international issues. Most of the stories are confined to southern India.

Date – September 24, 2006

Cost – Rs. 15

Cover Story – Most awaited Drugs – Indian companies get ready to serve better and cheaper medicines for asthma to cardiocare and cancer.

Editorial – without editorial.

Size – Small, book size

Display and layout – 78 pages. Completely colour magazine but page quality is not so good as compare to other magazines. Single page heading format but some images are covered on and in between 2 pages.


Conclusion
If we compare the entire four magazines every one is good on its position. The format and colour images are being used. As compare to newspapers magazines have longer life and more readership. These magazines have completely different outlook than daily papers.

These magazines cover almost every aspect of news whether it is of current affairs or past follow up. These magazines follow different ideologies and are mouthpiece of any political party or industrial group. As Outlook magazine is a part of Reliance Group to which they are using to get hold on political decisions. Frontline follows the leftist path. The Week is an unbiased magazine but mainly confined to the Southern India. But the Saffron ideology of India Today is really a matter of concern, it has largest circulation in the country and the BJP and VHP are using it to spread its concept of Hindutva. Which is against the national interest.

India Today and Outlook are having almost equal size and giving more pages, also covering more topics. Where as The Week and frontline are of equal size but also covering almost equal topics. Except India Today none of the three magazines have editorial.

Overall, if I have to choose any one out of four it will be The Week Magazine, though page quality is not so good as compare to others but the contents are much better than other three magazines. Also The Week is an unbiased magazine, instead of polluting mind by learning all political and industrial ideologies, it will be better to remain secular, which helps in making an atmosphere of peace and harmony in the country and leads toward development and success.