Good Housekeeping for married women

"The lifestyle of Indian women has changed drastically in the last decade. Not only has the number of working women gone up, today's housewives are also associated with different types of outdoor activities and hobbies. These women try to maintain balance between their outdoor and indoor activities," says Mala Sekhri, publishing director, Lifestyle Division, The India Today Group.

"This change in trend has created a space for a magazine, which can cater to the needs of women who are multi-taskers - balancing their home, family, kitchen, and career," adds Sekhri. This is the precise reason why the Lifestyle Division of India Today group will be launching Good Housekeeping, a magazine targeted at women in the age group of 28-40.

The magazine will be launched in October.

Good Housekeeping is a 120-year-old title belonging to the US-based publishing house Hearst Magazines. Interestingly, the magazine was available in the Indian market till the early '50s.

With over 32 million readers worldwide, it is currently published in 14 countries around the world and India will be its 15th edition.

The magazine will essentially focus on four broad subjects, health, family, home and food.

Sekhri says, "More than 20 per cent of the content will be on health. The articles will be not on frivolous diseases but will talk about hard diseases such as cancer."

In the family section, which will be 10-12 per cent of the the magazine, there will be articles on different relationships of today's women - be it with her husband, her in-laws or a companion.

For the home section, the international division has a research lab where every product is tested before being written on. While the Indian edition will contain parts of these reports, it will mainly compare different products available in the Indian market. When quizzed by agencyfaqs!, Sekhri clarified that at no point, this section would serve as advertorials.

Sekhri adds, "For over a century, Good Housekeeping has garnered a reputation of being 'tried, tested and trusted'. And, we will try to create the same image among the Indian readers."

Talking about the ratio between the Indian and international content, Sekhri said that 75 per cent of the content will be Indian and the rest international.

The food section will talk about international recipes that can be adapted in the Indian culture. Sekhri says, "Food habits has changed in the last few years as people have realised the bad effects of Indian food, which is over spicy and over fatty. Apart from different recipes for festivals and parties, Good Housekeeping will have different recipes that can be cooked fast, be good for health and also goes with the Indian taste."

She adds, "We will also provide tips on how to organise a party in a short time as apart from her professional responsibilities, today's women have to be equally concerned about her home."

At present, the magazine has been priced competitively at Rs 30 with a print run of 75,000 copies. However, Sekhri said that the cover price can be raised to Rs 50 depending on the market response. In the first phase, the magazine will be launched in 23 cities including the six metros.

The quality of paper and number of pages will be between 150-170, which is similar to that of Cosmopolitan - a sister publication. The basic design of the Indian cover will be similar to the international but an Indian celebrity will feature in the cover, every issue. Sekhri says, "In the magazine, we will not talk about the professional life of the celebrity cover girl but there will be a story on the her as a person and as an individual."

To promote the magazine, the publication is looking forward to a 360 degree marketing plan which includes television, print and outdoor; the on-ground activities will only be restricted to the six-metro cities.

For television, Sekhri clarified that general entertainment channels would also be a part of the television media plan but ruled out any major bash for the launch of the magazine.

When asked by agencyfaqs!, Shekri did not rule out the Hindi edition of the magazine but said that nothing would happen at the moment. She says, "The Hindi edition cannot have a higher cover price. So the maintaining the quality of production would be difficult. Presently, we want to concentrate on a English edition only."

© 2004 agencyfaqs!