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Grihshobha goes for a makeover
Women's Hindi magazine, Grihshobha, has been given a facelift on the demand of the readers and advertisers
Grihshobha, the Hindi women's magazine from the Delhi Press stable, has been given a facelift on the demand of the readers and advertisers.
While there has been no change in editorial content, the changes come in the form of a thinner typography, colour usage, picture placements and rule-free captions. Anant Nath, director, Delhi Press Patra Prakashan, speaking to afaqs!, says, “The magazine has been made contemporary and clutter free by using a thinner font. That gives a lot of white space. Also, we had been using 100 per cent CMYK colours that made the look too bright. Now, we'll use pastel shades.”
Also, the magazine, which used 25 per cent of LWC (light weight coated) paper and 75 per cent glazed paper, will now use 100 per cent LWC paper (64 GSM), which, according to Nath, is of higher quality.
The fortnightly, which is targeted at SEC AB (20-35 years) Hindi reading women, has almost 32 per cent readers coming in from SEC A. The redesigning gives the publication an opportunity to increase its share amongst this readership and woo premium advertisers as well.
The redesign was implemented with the May (first) issue of Grihshobha, which was brought out as a 'Grand Annual' issue. Generally the magazine has 126 pages, but the special contained 380 pages and was priced at Rs 30 per copy (Rs 5 higher than the usual cover price).
Grihshobha, which has a claimed print run of 3.5 lakh, has eight editions, namely, Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Upper North (Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) and West Bengal, and competes with Meri Saheli (Pioneer Book Company), Vanitha (Malayala Manorama Group) and Grihalakshmi (Diamond Publications).
Grihshobha, as per the IRS (Indian Readership Survey) 2009, R1, has fallen to the No. 7 position from the No. 2 spot in 2008 R1, in the top magazines list across languages and periodicity. It has lost more than 22 lakh readers during the period. The latest total readership (TR) stands at 53.59 lakh. Delhi Press has taken MRUC (Media Research Users Council), the research agency that conducts the Indian Readership Survey, to court for alleged discrepancy in the figures. “There seems to be something wrong with the methodology in the way MRUC conducts its survey. We've taken the agency to court challenging the figures it has come out with,” says Nath.
For the record, Saras Salil, a general interest magazine in Hindi from the Delhi Press group, has maintained its No. 1 position amongst magazines in the latest round of the IRS.