Magazines to grow at 8-10% in the next 3 yrs: Chitralekha group head

Digital medium will contribute 15-20% in the same period, says Mitrajit Bhattacharya

Despite increasing competition and slowdown in overall ad spending, the magazine industry in India reported a 6% growth last year.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of 9th Indian Magazine Congress, Mitrajit Bhattacharya, president, Association of Indian Magazine and president and publisher of Chitralekha Group, said overall magazine revenues in 2014 were around Rs 1,400 crore.

The industry is pegged to grow at 8-10% in the next three years, he said, adding that English magazines will lead the growth in niche segments while vernaculars will play a significant role in the general segment.

"Last year was not a best year for the industry, despite that magazine segment grew by 6%," said Bhattacharya, adding that overall media advertising grew by 16.4%, of which 7.3% came from elections.  So if you knock out the election contribution, then there is not much difference between magazines and rest of the industry, which includes fast growing digital medium, he said.

"Technically if you look at it, magazines are doing good," said Bhattacharya, adding that magazines have started adopting the digital medium too. 

"We are no longer seeing magazine as a printed copy anymore, there is a 360-degree shift where traditional boundaries of referring a magazine to a printed copy is dead, while audio visual is playing a major role," he said.  

Bhattacharya said today digital contribution is less than 10%, but in the next three years it will rise to 15-25%.