From print to pixels: Inside The Indian Express relaunch of Screen Magazine

Long before people swiped for news or celebrities engaged with trends or created their own on Instagram, a vibrant ecosystem of film magazines thrived in India.

Film and entertainment journalists dissected and analysed every move made by the top Bollywood celebrities of the era, distilling it into in-depth stories, interviews, reviews, photo features, and even gossip columns.

Established in 1951 by The Indian Express Group, Screen was one such film magazine. It was a weekly publication printed on broadsheets first and tabloids later. 

The Indian Express Group is an Indian media conglomerate, with publications including The Indian Express, The Financial Express, Loksatta, Jansatta, Lokprabha, etc. It reported a revenue of Rs 518 crore in FY24 with a CAGR of 10% in the last 1 year, according to Tracxn, a market intelligence platform.

A black and white chronicle of the emerging film industry in Mumbai, Screen crafted coverage and reputations in an era when “magazines were the only medium celebrities could use to communicate with their fans”, says Sanjay Sindhwani, CEO, The Indian Express Digital.

The Indian Express Group also launched the Screen Awards in 1995. It was an annual Indian awards ceremony honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. 

In its initial years, it was called the Screen Videocon Awards because it was sponsored by Videocon International, a major consumer electronics and home appliances brand in India.

Between 1995 and 1999, the award ceremonies were not televised, but they were broadcast on Star Plus (2000-2011), Colors (2012-2013) and Life OK (2014-2015) in their later editions. 

Generations of film stars, from Dev Anand and Nargis to Ayushman Khurrana and Ananya Pandey, have been a part of the Screen Awards.

“Hits, flops, the arrival of a new star on the block, censor board rulings, Hollywood news, and international recognition of Indian stars” filled up the now-colour pages of Screen until it was acquired by Star India in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition by Star India

Star India reportedly acquired Screen, the Screen Awards, its archival material, and key employees to integrate the magazine's content and awards into Star's broader television and digital entertainment portfolio.

Explaining why the magazine was sold to Star India, Sindhwani says, “At that time, awards had largely become a television item, and the platform that The Indian Express provided as a publication was probably not large enough for the award; therefore, it was sold.”

Given that the Screen Awards were an integral part of Screen magazine, both entities had to be sold together.

After the acquisition, the Screen Awards were renamed the Star Screen Awards and broadcast on Star Plus and later Hotstar every year. The publication of the magazine came to an end. 

However, FY24 was an important year for Star India; the merger with Viacom18 was to happen, and it had to write off a big revenue loss.

According to The Economic Times, Star reported a massive loss of over Rs 12,500 crore, largely attributed to an unprofitable ICC cricket media rights deal that severely impacted its finances, increasing its expenditure by 68% from Rs 18,724 to Rs 31,548 crore. 

Additionally, its operating revenue also fell by over 6% from Rs 19,812 crore in FY23 to Rs 18,587 crore in FY24. To make matters worse, its advertising and subscription revenue also declined by 4% and 1%, respectively.

That same year, Disney-owned Star prioritised its core, high-revenue assets and streamlined its portfolio in preparation for its merger with Reliance-owned Viacom18. Star India was forced to relinquish control of the now-dormant Screen and the still-popular Screen Awards.

A second act: The Indian Express buys back Screen

In 2024, The Indian Express Group repurchased Screen from Star India for an undisclosed amount, relaunching the flagship entertainment magazine in a new digital format. Furthermore, the Screen Awards will return, curated by Priyanka Sinha Jha, a seasoned entertainment journalist and author.

According to Sindhwani, “For Star India, the use case was only once a year when they were doing an award show; the brand was not being used,” whereas “we had a website which was running and getting traction 365 days.” Hence, the buyback made sense.

Given that entertainment is “one of the largest sections of The Indian Express website in terms of audience reach and engagement”, the stakeholders decided that reintroducing a relevant brand like Screen magazine would facilitate brand expansion, both in terms of audience and advertising opportunities.

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While text news appears to be experiencing a global decline, as indicated by a recent Reuters survey, The Indian Express reports an approximate website traffic of “more than 40 million readers over the past months and years,” showing sustained growth. Therefore, bringing back a digital magazine and its one-page printed supplement in the Sunday Express newspaper is not risky for business, according to Sindhwani.

Sindhwani, however, acknowledges the meteoric rise of videos in India. He asserts, “While we continue to do text, we have doubled down on video production. So if you check out the Screen YouTube channel, you'll see that we've done a lot more in the past six months than we were doing prior to that.” Screen’s YouTube subscribers are doubling every two to three months, he claims.

The Indian Express has already established a range of video content, featuring properties such as Expresso, ScreenLive, Creator vs Creator, and Express Film Club, as well as a variety of celebrity interviews. 

Monetising the relaunch

The digital relaunch of Screen magazine does not have a dedicated website, and most of its articles are behind a paywall, but it does not make Sindhwani nervous. “The consumer doesn't really look at the URL; people consume topics of interest,” he says. 

“Since most users enter the website laterally through search engines or social media, it really doesn't make a difference whether you give it a different domain, but of course, we have the screenindia.com domain name,” he adds.  

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“Our initial thought was that people will pay for only serious, long-format, opinion content,” explains Sindhwani on the subject of paywalls, but “Screen is a very attractive aisle in the supermarket of IndianExpress.com”, and it had very healthy conversions.

Additionally, advertisers and event sponsors also help to monetise not just Screen magazine but “The Express bundle” as a whole. Some of the top event sponsors for the group include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Lenskart, ixigo, Abhibus, and Bummer, among others.

Readership and competition

Since consumption happens “across genders, across geographies, across age groups”, Screen is targeting readers across the spectrum.  

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While popular film magazines such as Filmfare, Stardust and Cine Blitz continue to survive, Screen defines competition as “celebrities putting out information about themselves”. 

Earlier, celebrities were dependent on magazines and newspapers to carry their message, but today, “they are speaking directly to their audiences”, says Sindhwani.

Launched during the information-deficient era when holding the latest issue of a film magazine was a mark of cinephile pride, the Screen magazine of 1951 was very different from the one that relaunched in 2024. It remains to be seen whether entertainment journalism can reclaim its former glory in the age of social media.