Riches in niches

Small, specific-interest magazines flood the market

Ever heard of The Pastel Journal, a bi-monthly magazine for those interested in pastel as a medium? Or, XXL Magazine, a lifestyle magazine on the hip hop culture? The US market also boasts of Canoe & Kayak for boat lovers.

Currently, the Indian magazine mart may not cater to such diversified human interests, but it is getting there. Over the last few weeks a number of niche magazines have hit the stands: Dogs & Pups, 4th D Woman and Movies First. Realty Plus will be launched soon.

"Trade magazines with limited circulation have been around for quite sometime," says Sushil Goenka, a consultant in the publishing business, "but what's interesting is the arrival of subject- specific magazines for small groups of readers. It is a sign of a market maturing."

Says Shweta Khurana, editor and publisher of Dogs & Pups: "Despite the fact that most of us are dog lovers, information on dogs is quite scarce and scattered in India. It was a niche waiting to be tapped." The bi-monthly magazine's initial print run is 10,000 copies and Khurana expects it to touch 50,000 in two years time. Having invested Rs 1. 5 crore, in the Rs 50 per copy glossy, Khurana hopes to break even in two and a half years.

For S C Sehgal, promoter of Ozone Ayurvedics that makes creams, gels, face packs and soaps, launching a magazine meant fulfilling his dream to do something for women. The monthly, priced at Rs 30, will also push his brands through advertising as well as free samples attached to the magazine. Ozone spends Rs 12 crore on advertising the No Marks brand.

Sehgal believes that magazine reading is on the upswing. He has invested close to Rs 2 crore in his publishing venture and claims to print a lakh-plus copies. "We're also planning a Hindi edition," he says.

While both Khurana and Sehgal say that their magazines are in response to consumer demand, PVR's move into publishing is more advertiser driven. "PVR is all about films and Movies First is another medium for both our customers and advertisers. For advertisers we bundle up media space. It's also another form of selling PVR as a brand," says Tushar Dhingra, vice president, sales and marketing, PVR Limited.

The magazine is free for film-goers who buy four or more tickets at PVR. The copies of the magazine will be available on news stands in the next six months. Currently the magazine has a print run of 40,000 copies, claims the company.

Does it make business sense to launch such niche magazines? For starters, the investment in the product is usually under Rs 2 crore. Secondly, the print runs are not too high and advertising from relevant product categories can be wooed. "There is enough space for many more niche magazines," believes Anurag Batra, managing director, exchange4media.

His company will soon launch Realty Plus, a real estate magazine. "These are early days but we're slowly moving to a world of micro-targeting. Marketers are looking for a captive audience for their products and don't want to get lost in the maze of mainstream publications."

That may or may not be true, but Swapan Seth, co-CEO, Equus Red Cell, also says that the need for niche magazines is because of the "tribalisation and compartmentalised consumers". He thinks there are "great riches in niches". "In niche magazines there is a greater chance for an advertisement to be noticed. It meets the lifestyle needs of a particular tribe of consumers," he says.

Goenka puts the business of niche magazine in perspective: advertisers will always be there, but the magazines need strong editorial content to survive. "The other problem is that the mass media may take up niche subjects thus making these magazines redundant. Niche magazines need to evolve constantly," he warns.