The journey of femina: How one magazine survives the internet age

Abstract

The report begins with a preliminary analysis of the Indian Print and Media Publishing industry. We find that the growth in readership is stagnant for newspapers and magazines. Further analysis reveals that newspapers dominate the bigger share of the pie in revenue contribution in a ratio of nearly 19:1. The revenue is generated mostly from advertisements and a small fraction from circulation. Now with the advent of the Internet, as consumers are rapidly moving towards digital forms of consumption, advertisers no longer wish to spend their money on print publications. They would rather spend their advertising dollar in the digital platform where the world seems to be moving to. With their major source of revenue now drying up, magazines and newspapers are trying to increase their circulation via the digital medium to survive. Among these, the special interest magazines such as sports magazines, lifestyle magazines, etc. seem to be doing well, but the general magazines are on a decline. With this background, the report moves on to analyze Femina, which was India’s first and remains the leading English women’s lifestyle magazine. Launched in the post-independence-era India, it has evolved in sync with the Indian woman through her journey of empowerment and self-discovery. Femina has consistently remained the leader in its segment by keeping its content very relevant to what its target audience can relate to. The rise of the internet age seemed to spell doom for the entire print industry. But studies have shown that that is not necessarily the case. In most cases, digital medium complements rather than supplements the print editions. Even magazines that make their entire print content available online for free, still retail nearly 90% of their circulation. So was the case with Femina too. Internet and the digital media did not hamper Femina’s sales. Instead Femina capitalized on the digital space by launching its own website www.femina.in, Facebook page, Twitter handle and Instagram account. Going ahead, apart from events, promotions and other on-ground activities, the focus for Femina seems to be on digital.