Towards the end of the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress, held in Gurgaon from October 10-12, 2011, Anant Nath, director, Delhi Press Group, had a spring in his step and a smile on his lips. "The romanticism of the print magazines is back," he says. "Unlike at the 2009 Congress in London where people had put print magazines on a death row, there is a growing realisation two years later that print is here to stay."

Nath’s sentiments were resonated by many others at the Congress and the mood was generally optimistic. While there were plenty of take-aways from the Congress, Campaign India has listed "14 things it liked about the Congress".

1. Aroon Purie, chairman and editor-in-chief, India Today, said in his keynote address, "There is no better time than now to shake hands with India." One couldn’t agree more. But what we liked even better is that of all the possible options available, Gurgaon was chosen as the venue to host the Congress, being held in India for the first time. The millennium city, with the third-highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Mumbai, is emerging as the city of choice for some of the top advertising spenders in the country, large network agencies, independent hot-shops and a pool of creative talent.

2. The shell-shocked look on the face of Vikram Sakhuja’s, CEO, Group M, South Asia, when he came out of his session on ‘What advertisers want from magazine media’: "I was expecting a couple hundred people, of which 90% Indians," he says. "The monumental scale the World Magazine Congress has reached is staggering and the global interest in India is awe-inspiring." There were 600 delegates from 50 countries – from Brazil to Belgium to Indonesia – hearing 60 speakers about how the magazine industry is both addressing the challenges it faces and seizing the opportunities that are opening up.

3. Shahrukh Khan describing his "tryst with magazines", especially the ones that had Samantha Fox wearing a white T-shirt on the cover. Plus his dancing skills on the opening night of the 38th Magazine Congress.

4. The opportunities and sheer numbers that left many publishers, local and global, salivating. Says Purie, "There are 10,000 newspapers and 58,100 magazines registered in India. While newspapers are shutting down around the world, Delhi alone has 16 English and 10 Hindi-language dailies. Of the 1.2 billion population of India, two-thirds are below the age of 35; today 100 million people are accessing the internet and are expected to touch 250 million by 2015; smartphones have a penetration of 5-6% of the population and are expected to grow to 25% by 2015 and there are 31 million Facebook users."

5. Ever since Ambika Soni, minister of information and broadcasting, India, mentioned a $35 tablet to be introduced for school children in India in her keynote address at the Congress, ‘tablet publishing’ became the most repeated phrase at the Congress. Neil Morgan, managing director, McPheters, UK, said the penetration of tablets is expected to triple over the next two years with 57% of sales coming from outside the USA. He states, "For every six PCs, there would be three iPads. Plus the number of publications related to iPad apps is expanding rapidly." The important take-away from the session, "How tablets are re-inventing the future of magazines" was how users show willingness to pay for premium and scarce online content, which is a winner for publishers looking to monetise digital content. "Further, paying consumers tend to be more loyal than those consuming online content for free," observes Morgan. Today, tablet demographics are shifting. While the tablet ownership amongst 35-54 year olds has exploded and is increasing in 55+ ages, there is a decline in the 18-34 age groups.

6. ‘Urgent Genius’ discussed the context of social media and how magazines can benefit. Today, consumers want everything ‘now’, and the way forward is to adopt an editorial mindset and breed hybrid thinkers to create content in real-time.  

7. The 2nd Innovations in Magazines World Report, edited by Juan Senor and John Wilpers, was made available to delegates at the Congress. The report details case-studies where innovations were made in the digital sphere – creation of digital newsstands, pay-wall experiments, use of social media, as well as in traditional media disciplines of design, marketing and advertising sales.  One example in the report was innovation in blogging. In 2010, Forbes’ chief product officer, Lewis D’Vorkin mandated that staffers maintain a blog and invite outside bloggers to post under Forbes online banner. While sceptics were doubtful, the content created, according to the report, was original rather than ‘story behind the story’ introversions that news sites sometimes use to beef up online content.

8. Vikram Sakhuja warned the magazine owners that the diffidence towards sharing actual numbers is working against them. "It is time to take other mediums head-on and sell what you have working for you: reach and engagement. There is no need to be apologetic about numbers,"  he says.
He added that clients are looking for opportunities where editorial can seamlessly be married to brands without compromising editorial integrity. "Paid, earned and owned content needs to be leveraged with brands, irrespective of the platform. Activation is a revenue stream magazines should monetise." He propagated the theory to moving away from silo-based multi-media planning to integrated planning. "We need a tool and a currency that’s format-agnostic and across platforms."

9. Appointment of Tarun Rai as the new AIM president and his determination to raise the profile of magazines amongst media planners and clients. "We are quieter than we should be," says Rai. As one of the first initiatives towards convincing media planners about the effectiveness of the medium, Rai has spearheaded an ‘Engagement Survey’ conducted by Quantum and IMRB, the top plans of which were shared at the Congress. "The purpose of the study is to highlight our strengths not just anecdotally but backed with research," said Rai.

10. The name Rai gave to digital media – "Always On" media. According to the ‘Engagement Survey’, the "Always On" media is leading to unconscious filtering by the consumers, as there is a paradox of too many choices. The digital media is leading to a distracted consumer who is not spending enough time on any one media. Even while consuming one media, the user is multitasking. Thus, the "Always On" media is leading to a lot of "noise" due to which the message that is delivered runs a high risk of being distorted by the time the message is received by the consumer.

11. Advice of Chris Jones, editor-in-chief, National Geographic on the ‘right formula for multi-platform reportage’. He says, "There is no right formula, but it begins with the magazine’s relationship with its readers. The wonderful thing about multi-platform reporting is that an editorial team can bring completely new experiences to their audience, when, in the past, editors’ imaginations were constrained by boundaries of print." Jones elaborates on the importance of integrated editorial team. "With an integrated strategy, an editorial team goes from telling one story timed to a certain moment, to telling multiple stories about a subject with varying timelines."

12. A link between creativity and commercial success, as suggested in The Case for Creativity by James Hurman and introduced by Phil Thomas, CEO, Cannes Lions to the Congress’s audience. "Clients are seeing creativity as something that takes their brands and businesses forward. The Advertisers of the Year at Cannes have been enjoying their highest share prices, suggesting that consumers pay when creativity drives effectiveness."

13. When asked "what is that one thing he wished he had created first" by Purie, Rupert Heseltine, chairman, Haymarket, responded, "The iPad." His quick wit brought a smile to a sombre CEO session.

14. Conde Nast has launched 22 magazines globally since 2008, suggesting print is here to stay. In his witty and pithy presentation Nicholas Coleridge, vice president, Conde Nast international, reminisced about the first magazine congress he attended where a speaker gave an "apocalyptic speech" about the death of the magazine. "21 years later, we are still doing the same," he quips. "Although we have more than a dozen iPad apps, the beauty of the printed pages can’t be replicated. We have become mesmerised at the arrival of the digital but we need to find ways to enhance print."


CEO SPEAK – The highlights of the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress


Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, Group M, South Asia
I think that the Indian publishers are still not giving advertising a serious thought. They are not learning enough from other content sellers about how content should be sold.  Also, it is now time to move from multi-media to integrated planning that can compare apples to apples. One third of the advertising revenues are targeting SEC A, SEC AB consumers. These demographics need high engagement mediums. Magazines can give a 20% reach without any wastage and at much lesser outlay than say a TV. But for these, magazine owners have to come clear with their numbers. Once we get down to the basics, a lot of value can be unlocked for magazines.



Anant Nath, director, Delhi Press Group
There was positivity about print magazines through the Congress and that, for me, was very heartening. A lot of speakers reiterated the fact that while website, mobile and iPad applications are good mediums to expand the magazine eco-system, print is far from dead. That said, the publishers in India cannot ignore the growing popularity of the digital media and need to have a very strong strategy in place, fast. However, I see digital as being important for our brands to be snacked upon. The real main course meal is still the lean-back print version. Even in the West, the magazines that have been able to create content that is not easily replicable by the Internet have shown a steady growth.



Oona Dhabhar, marketing director, Conde Nast India
Magazines are here to stay and grow especially premium and niche magazines like ours. There is no doubt that the key stakeholders (readers/ advertisers / influencers/specialists) see value in the editorial experience that we create, the environment we provide and the audience we can target. At the same time the digital space provides the biggest opportunity - leveraging the amazing content for all the mediums out there (web, tablet, mobile, social media and anything else to come) and ensuring that the same outstanding editorial experience is available in all forms to the readers. The challenge of the digital space is also exciting since there is no perfect solution. The mantra clearly needs to be - invest a little, learn a lot and reapply fast.



Maheshwar Peri, publisher, Outlook magazine and president, Outlook Publishing India
Of the three main take-aways for me from the Congress, adapting ourselves to the digital world in order to exploit global opportunities has been the main one. There is no way we can beat the trend and faster we adopt and adapt, better placed we’d be. We already have great quality content – how we leverage it to gain greater traction, momentum and money has to be worked upon. Two, we need an audience measurement system through which we can educate the planners and clients about how magazines can deliver much better on a few parameters. Third, the good news is that, unlike two years ago, people are talking about new opportunities in print and digital in the same breath.



Mitrajit Bhattacharya, president and publisher - Chitralekha Group
The key take-aways: 1. The fear of unknown of London WMC 2009 is over, with publishers having embraced digital as an opportunity rather than a threat; 2. The traditional print titles will continue to see investments as they are still seeing a lot of traction for the print versions; 3. The newly launched Engagement Survey by AIM shows a lot of promise in pointing out how magazines score over other media in this shift of consumer expectation from "more message" to "less noise"; 4. Pulling in almost 650 delegates from 50 countries, WMC 2011 proved India is the toast of the world. All the constituents - sponsors, delegates, FIPP and AIM went back happy.



Mala Sekhri, COO, India Today
The key take-away of such a Congress is always the networking … the number of people one gets to meet and interact with is truly inspiring. It is interesting to find out what other publishers in different markets are doing; it can lead to insecurity -- that a lot of them are doing much more than we are but mostly it is reassuring -- that everyone is going through the same challenges and threats. The Congress has once again motivated me to think differently. Also, the statement made by a speaker about ‘owning communities’ in the space one operates in has gotten etched into my memory. I, now, want to completely own the women’s space in Indian magazine industry.



Tarun Rai, CEO, Worldwide Media
The Congress has given immense opportunities to our youngsters to be able to connect with some of the largest magazine groups in the world, which is a tad difficult when it is held in London or Rome. Also, it has raised the profile of India in the eyes of global publishers and given them an opportunity to see the in-depth potential of India. The Congress also became the platform where AIM unveiled the recently-conducted ‘Reading Engagement Survey’.  According to the top findings of the survey, the magazines are consumed with undivided attention, without noise, and by choice compared to the digital media. That said, the digital media has shown the way forward to the magazine world and can be seen as a lucrative alternative revenue stream.



Varghese Chandhy, senior general manager, marketing operations, Malayala Manorama
The key take-aways: One was the urgent genius ... a sense of urgency needs to be developed as an attitude to succeed. Every member of the organisations needs to be sensitised to this requirement and; two the need to break all the walls between the online and print vehicles. Print correspondents should also start blogging online. They should think platform neutral. Social networking strategies need to be an integral part of all publishers’ plans.



Maneck Davar, proprietor, executive editor and publisher, Spenta Multimedia
The World Magazine Congress was recognition of the importance of the Indian market. It provided an excellent opportunity to network. Having attended the last congress in London and many World Magazine Markets, our effort was well organised and interesting. However, considering the nature of the topics and discussions, the WMC should have been sponsored by Apple and not UPM. The focus was largely digital and there was little for print. Considering that in India, we have not yet reached the crisis of the West, there should have been more of an accent on print.



Ashish Bagga, CEO, India Today Group
My biggest take is that magazines have a bright future, and will grow and flourish across all delivery platforms. They will get more interactive and engaging. Strong user communities will be built for potential monetisation, across various delivery platforms. Content and context will remain king.


Glimpses from the conference

Rivetting panel discussion on 'What advertisers want from magazine media?'



David Hill, the incoming chairman of FIPP