In the Indian magazine market, 80 per cent of the advertising revenue comes to only 17 magazines.

Having taken on diverse roles from sales and marketing to general management across companies and organisations such as ITC, Tupperware and the Singapore Government, the last 21 years have been quite eventful for Devashish Sarkar, CEO, Worldwide Media.

In his new role as the head of a media company, Sarkar is looking forward to more challenges. Prajjal Saha and Pritha Mitra of agencyfaqs! caught the enigmatic business leader in a candid mood, and he talked to them about how the magazine business has a long way to go in India, even though surveys indicate a negative growth in readership.

Edited Excerpts

I believe that the media industry, especially the print media, is both under-leveraged and under-penetrated in India. There is still potential to grow disproportionately faster than the economy. The excitement and challenge of being a part of this growing industry brought me in.

There are far more similarities than there are differences. The great issues of all modern businesses still revolve around striking profitable relationships with consumers. This is as true in magazines as it is in FMCG. Of course, FMCG experience is useful in many non-FMCG industries as well.

First, it has arguably the oldest brand-building tradition and, therefore, the richest body of doctrines and insights.

Second, it teaches you to keep benefits and delivery as simple as possible so that sales are made easier. While you are searching for that grand elixir of solution through that fancy conjoint analysis, you still need to pay interest on borrowings, buy raw materials and pay salaries. So, you need to have products and services that can be sold easily and regularly to keep the money coming in.

Third, FMCG in India still remains the best place to truly appreciate the vast market potential that this country represents. You can start to build a large business only if you believe that largeness is possible in the first place.

‘Top Gear’, the auto magazine of BBC Worldwide, is a market leader globally. This is why we thought of starting off with this title. And as a market leader, the presence of other players in this segment did not make a difference to us.

The fact that we have received such an overwhelming response to our inaugural issue only reinforces our belief that Indian readers are quick to understand true value when it is offered to them.

Besides, I wouldn’t say that the auto-magazine category in India is overcrowded. Yes, there are a few titles, but there is room for many more.

In my opinion, by and large, most genres of magazines in this country are untapped. I say this because in the UK market, there are more than six hundred publishers for magazines, and in the US, the corresponding figure is more than 2,000. In India, even after so many years, 80 per cent of the advertising revenue in the entire magazine sector comes to only 17 magazines. And those 17 magazines belong to only four or five categories. So, to that extent, all the other categories are underexploited.

Secondly, deciding on the genre of magazines is also very important. For instance, food magazines are quite popular abroad. Now, with the changing lifestyle of today’s generation, which has a huge disposable income and its typical behaviour of spending a lot on dining out, entertainment, clothing, and so on, it’s very tempting to say that an international title on food might do well.

But if one takes a closer look, it is not so easy because the international content on food might not suit the local taste. So, in this category, a local magazine will work wonders instead of an international title. On the other hand, an international title on computers or information technology with international content might be a lucrative business proposition.

I personally feel that magazines on the whole are still under-penetrated and under-leveraged in India. There is room for many new titles in many new categories.

I am given to understand that there are issues surrounding the interpretation of the NRS findings.

In the case of ‘Filmfare’, there are two kinds of readers. The first category contains those who are hardcore fans of Hindi movies. This forms the nucleus of the readership for ‘Filmfare’ and this core readership has not shrunk.

There is a second category of readers who would pick up ‘Filmfare’ to satisfy their thirst for gossip related to the film industry. There are also some fringe readers, who have less time and easy access to television news, who may not go to a news-stand to pick up a copy of the magazine. These groups basically represent an important number of the pass-along readership. But overall, even if the figures are pessimistic, the number of readers of ‘Filmfare’ has not gone down.

And with the increasing popularity of Bollywood, I have reason to believe that, if anything, we are getting more and more Bollywood fans to turn our pages every month.

I don’t consider free supplements a threat to magazines. Magazines are purchased out of interest. For instance, if someone is crazy about cars, they will buy an auto magazine such as ‘Top Gear’, regardless of the number of newspaper supplements that they receive for free.

In fact, all our magazines have grown in terms of revenue. Besides, magazines are inexpensive in this country. A reader pays only Rs 30 for a copy of ‘Femina’. The same reader may spend Rs 50 on a cup of coffee.

No, I don’t think that is right. Yes, there are hundreds of magazines in the UK and a couple of thousands in the US, but the really big ones continue to be the women’s and general-interest categories. In the near and medium term, the same is likely to be true in India as well.

We are exploring several categories, not just the ones that you have mentioned. But we have not finalised anything yet.

Of course, we will. One or two titles do not create a market. You need a range of offers to do that. The richness of a range and its variety are key characteristics of a strong market – be it in magazines or any other product.

As far as differentiation goes, that is what successful brand positioning is all about. Indian marketers are particularly good at this. One can look at the auto industry and see how many new offers are being successfully marketed every day.

It is too early to tell. We are seeing just the beginnings of globalisation in magazines. New rules may emerge. Besides, most marketers tend to forget that market segments are not necessarily sacrosanct from the consumer’s point of view. They also tend to forget that most markets are segmented in a particular way at any particular point of time primarily because it is the marketers who have chosen to segment them in that way. The consumer rarely has a copy of the brand plan.

The business potential, obviously. The time to market in the short term, the clarity of the path to profit in the medium term, and the scalability in the long term.

If that happens, your magazine is dead, and the advertiser will have nothing to advertise in. A great magazine begins and ends with its reader. If it connects with its reader, advertising will follow. If you try to do it the other way around, you will fail every time.

The Indian reader wants quality content. He is aware of the quality that comes with an established foreign brand. So, yes, there is a market for many kinds of international titles. But in order to succeed, they have to be locally and culturally relevant as well. To answer your second question, a big well-known brand does have certain obvious advantages over a fresh unknown one.