The Weekly War

It was like any other brand war. Last week when Living Media's newsmagazine India Today went weekly, arch rival, Hathaway Investment's 18-month old upstart, Outlook magazine already had a promotion in place. From the April 23 issue, the Delhi-based weekly introduced the The Great Outlook Offer, a subscription-driven promotion where prizes range from the Maruti Esteem to a Fuji photo film.

In comparison, India Today's weekly run is backed by low-key activity. It is not a brand building exercise for the 22-year old newsmagazine which already has a strong reader base. According to industry sources, the Rs 2.5 crore turnover Living Media will spend a couple of crores in the coming months to advertise India Today's frequency.

 

The hype behind the most happening media event is understandable. "One medium rarely replaces another; they normally change and adapt to each other." That's Aroon Purie, 52, editor of India Today in the first issue of the weekly, referring to the onslaught of satellite television.

It is one explanation that Deepak Shourie, publisher of Outlook doesn't buy. "It is like comparing apples with oranges. Television is more mass based while magazines are focused. That's why you don't get toothpaste ads in magazines," he says, speaking from the Jindal Health farm in Bangalore.

He believes that Outlook's weekly competition will definitely give both readers and advertisers a choice. A choice to read crisper, analytical stories of yesterday's news first. And Outlook, by sheer dint of its frequency, is doing just that. Launched in October 1995, the magazine's on-the-ball approach has had readers and advertisers compare it with India Today, which revolutionised magazine journalism two decades ago.

And for India Today, upholding that reputation in a weekly format will need not just a good editorial package but dollops of marketing acumen. That is where the crunch lies. Living Media, publishers of India Today and a host of other publications like Business Today, India Today Plus, Computers Today and Cosmopolitan, has little experience marketing a weekly.

Unlike fortnightlies and monthlies, the market dynamics for weeklies is altogether different. The former has a time frame of at least seven to eight days to be sold. But weeklies with a short shelf life have barely two days to be sold. After that the magazine disappears from newstands as retailers start returning unsold copies back to the distributors.

And Living Media's weekly debut wasn't really heartening. TV Today was launched last year with much fanfare, but was abruptly shut down earlier this year when it failed to enthuse readers and advertisers. Says N P Singh, executive director of Living Media, "We may have not marketed a weekly earlier, but we have learnt a lot from the TV Today experience." Now, India Today hopes to see an eight to 11 per cent surge in circulation.

Purie in his editorial has also said, "We make this change from a position of strength." But does the market perceive it as such?

"We have been waiting for India Today to change, but after seeing the changes we do not think we should do something drastic. It is not worth it," retorts Vinod Mehta, the Outlook editor.

He emphasises that Outlook forced competition to change. "India Today says that it is reacting to changes in the market, but the market pressure is Outlook and that is the truth."

Anita Nayyar, media director of Amirati Puris Lintas feels that as a market leader, India Today should have taken a proactive stance and turned weekly much earlier. "Today, it will always be looked upon as the second entrant after Outlook," she says.

But Singh is not perturbed by the me-too issue, which he claims is notional. "Why Outlook? There are Sunday and Week too. That way we will be way behind. But it is not so. Earlier we used to give readers 24 issues a year. Now we will give them 52 copies, full of crisp editorial content," he adds.

Like the new look India Today will have a host of new columns: Crossbeat, an informal debate; Follow-up; and Upbeat, a news section on unsung heroes. Outlook's Mehta however admits that there are no immediate plans to react to a changed India Today.

Even so, Outlook has a long way to go on the circulation front. India Today with its track record of 22 years has a circulation of 4.5 lakh copies. And within 18 months, Outlook has overtaken Malayala Manorama's The Week. So while The Week stands at 97,000 copies in the July-December Audit Bureau of Circulation tally, and Ananda Bazar Patrika's Sunday at 40,000, Outlook is ahead at an estimated 1.05 lakh copies. And it is drawing up strategies to keep the heat on.

From the very beginning, Outlook was subscription-driven. While only 30 per cent of India Today's current sales come from subscriptions, at Outlook, it accounts for 60 per cent, and executives claim it is expected to go to 75 per cent in the next two years. This strategy points out Shourie is deliberate and has many advantages. "You not only get a focused audience, there is stability in the circulation as well because newsstand pick-up is variable," he says.

So there are a lot of freebies to pull in fresh readers. There's a torch with a year's subscription and a camera for a five-year deal. In fact, promotions have become a part of the publication's marketing mix. As part of the brand building exercise, Outlook spent Rs 2 crore last year on promotions alone. Shourie believes that promotions are critical for magazines. "The cost of acquisition is high and the cost of retaining readers is low."

And nobody knows it better than Living Media. To retain its 49.8 lakh readers (National Readership Survey V) India Today has slashed the cover price from Rs 15 to Rs 10 per issue.

But the shorter frequency, claim ad agencies is not necessarily cost-effective for advertisers.

Explains Lintas' Nayyar, "By turning into a weekly, India Today has forced advertisers to double media spend, especially, when there has been no change in the advertsiment rates for the weekly." She says that earlier an average advertiser used India Today once a month to make their presence felt, now they will have to increase media spend. A full page ad in India Today costs Rs 2.85 lakh compared to Outlook's Rs 82,500 lakh.

In fact, last year, India Today's ad revenue stood at Rs 40 crore compared to Rs 10 crore at Outlook.

Singh is unfazed by such criticism.. "Our main aim is to have continuity in change. That is why though a newsstand buyer of India Today will have to pay Rs 40 for four issues a month instead of the earlier Rs 30, an existing subscriber will not bear the extra cost immediately

Even so, the war of the weeklies is raging. As Purie says in his editorial, "Men age, magazines shouldn't." Anjan Mitra