Exclusive | Print will have to reinvent the wheel: Outlook's Indranil Roy

The Outlook group was recently in the news for closing down three of its international magazines, People, Geo and Marie Claire. The publisher, Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt Ltd was publishing these magazines under a licensing arrangement from the original publishers. The official version given by the company management was that the license fees were way too high and were becoming unsustainable. Hence it was decided not to renew the licensing agreement.

Adgully spoke with Indranil Roy, President, Outlook Group to his view on the latest development as well as a lot of other matters, widely on the state of the magazine publishing industry. He has been associated with the Outlook Group for the past 18 years and knows the company and the industry inside-out. The following is the excerpt of the conversation.

Adgully: Looking at your own decision to close down three magazines, how do you feel is the overall market scene for foreign magazines published under license in India? Which are the genres that are working and which do not work? Which are the genres that are working and which do not work?

Indranil Roy: The international titles in India are here to stay and will remain strong; every publisher has a business plan and their own perspective. Carrying on with the international titles was not fitting into our business plan and therefore we decided to not renew the licenses. Lifestyle and women is a maturing segment and will grow in India.

AG: What is the overall scene as far as the English magazines scene is concerned? What kind of overall growth do you expect?

IR: English magazines have national presence and it will continue to dominate. We are already seeing a lot of consolidation in the media business and magazines are no exceptions. Subsequently it will mean that the serious magazine players would play a significant role.

AG: Can you shed some light on your presence in the regional languages segment and any plans in this regard?

IR: We have Outlook Hindi, which is growing year on year at a significant level. Since last year we have started publishing standalone issues in Malaylam and Bengali during the festive months of Onam and Puja respectively.

AG: We have seen that venturing into other mediums like electronic is a logical way forward for publishing houses. Do you have any plans in this regard? Why haven't you taken a call in this regard so far? Does it not help to spread business risk?

IR: This is our promoters call; I am not the right person to answer this question.

AG: Can you throw some light on the growth of online magazines; internationally some of the groups have gone completely online, what is your view on the growth of this segment in India? And your plans?

IR: Online is a tough business too, it is yet a supplementary business to any media company. Going 100 per cent online will not work for a print publisher. It's like giving up on your core business and staring into something new. Yes we too have started working on our portals which are extensions to our own brands. We will share more with you in sometime.

AG: What is the future of print publications in India? Where do you see the growth coming from - English or regional and your reasons?

IR: I believe that print will have to reinvent the wheel, we are no more a news delivering medium, and therefore print will have to create content which is new, analytical and knowledge driver. Localized news will play an important role with newspaper. The other challenge will be to make the younger generation continue to read newspapers and magazines. In Outlook, every week we drive new stories on the cover which gives us an advantage over other media and makes a compelling reason for the reader to read something which he has not read in any other medium.

AG: What is your view on the government's recent proposal to increase FDI in the sector? How will it benefit the industry?

IR: Opening up of FDI will bring in strategic partners, who will bring in knowledge, systems and research.

AG: What are the challenges that you face as key player in the industry and what is your response to that?

IR: The slowdown in the economy is unprecedented therefore predicting the short term is tough. It forces us to realign the business plan as a continuous process. It is tough phase but a brilliant learning curve.

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