Spirit W | On a green ride: Green Life Magazine's Meenu Namit

Meenu Namit a scriptwriter, magazine editor, founding director and theatre and show producer is a talented personality with varied skills and expertise to her credit. She has been playing with words ever since she can remember and is really passionate towards the visual medium.  She has a passion for styling and art-directing visuals for magazines, space design, creating theatrical experiences and producing fashion shows. Her sincere and utmost dedication to her work is the secret behind her success story.

Her career in script writing and film making includes a short film ‘Just Kabir’ which she produced and directed. It was nominated in the best short film category at the Asian Festival of First Films at Singapore held in December 2009. Her contributions in the field of theatre and television too has been commendable with many plays to her credit.  Most worthy of mention is a theatrical rendering of Sathya Saran’s book ‘Ten Years With Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi’s Journey’ directed and produced by Meenu Namit and performed at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur and Jalandhar.

In April 2010 she founded  a publishing company and was Editor-in-chief of Green Life, India’s first Mainstream Green Lifestyle Magazine. Meenu was also Regional Editor, Delhi - Femina. She also conceptualised and styled shoots for Femina covers and fashion features in India, South Africa and Seychelles. Her other interests also extends to Art Direction, Styling and Photo Editing. She also founded Roots Event Management Pvt Ltd, an events company which has produced and directed shows for Indian and international corporate  clients of repute .

Her ardour and love for different cultures and history is apparent in her writings. Her deep interest in observing people and exploring different ways of life reflects in her plays and film scripts. She has launched magazines on luxury, interiors and green lifestyle.

Adgully caught up with Meenu Namit, who is currently Editor-in-chief, Green Life ,India’s first Mainstream Green Lifestyle Magazine, to talk about her current profile and learn more about the magazine.

When asked about the vision and the focus of the magazine, she said, “To be a catalyst in spreading the sustainability message and movement, especially among the ‘light greens’, eventually turning them into ‘bright greens’!”

She has been a part of the magazine industry for a while now. So where does such niche or customized content stand today? She smiled and said, “At an interesting juncture – niche titles are the only ones with a potential today.”

Namit has also been with one of the leading magazines (Femina) and completely believes that her expertise helped in conceptualizing this magazine. Apart from this she has had a varied professional career.  Her journey involves Scriptwriting and filmmaking (2000-2008), Theatre and television (1983 – 2008) , Journalism (1989 – 2011) Art Direction, Styling and Photo Editing and she has also been into Show Production, Choreography and Event Management (1996 -2012). With all this to her credit her journey seems quite eventful and interesting too.
Namit being a freelance writer of magazines has the skill of capturing the readers interest with her style of writing .  On asking what position does print industry holds in the digital era she opined that by marrying the two and keeping a sharp focus and pushing costs down would maintain every medium’s position. Namit’s strategies for the next two years would be to push a digital version of the magazine and to streamline distribution and ad-sales.

‘Green Life’ magazine claims to be a responsible magazine devoted to sustainable living. With regard to the challenges faced during the conceptualization of the magazine she said that most common ones were, publishing-related (funding, marketing, sales, distribution, branding)and content-related (title, language, frequency, layout, user-friendliness). She also informed that the magazine is a monthly issue and was earlier a bi-monthly one. 

The target audience for the magazine is the ‘light greens’ (the aam aadmi who is not very conversant with green and sustainability theory and practice, but is willing to make minimal lifestyle changes to help the environment).  Speaking about the strategy that is kept in mind while developing the content for the desired TG, Namit says, “As per the TG the content is simple and touches all aspects of one’s lifestyle. Similarly, the look and feel and layout are fresh, inviting, uncluttered and user-friendly.” 

Green Life Magazine is India's first main stream green lifestyle magazine covering a wide range of topics from fashion to food, travel to entertainment etc. The magazine is directed towards the youth and to those who want to make a difference, hence most of the content has been created by youngsters, who ‘walk the talk’ themselves. As far as reach is concerned Green Life is an ‘All India’ magazine .

For information and records, Green Life Magazine was launched in February 2011. It deals with all aspects of contemporary lifestyle – spaces, fashion, food, travel, transport, heritage, community spaces, and so on. ‘Green Life’s basic tenet is – small, conscious and aware decisions can make our lifestyle more meaningful.| By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]