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drbiohealth
10th May 2009, 12:55 AM
The chief executive of BBC Worldwide's magazine joint venture in India wants to launch a string of local language versions of leading international titles.

Worldwide Media's best selling title, he said, was the 50-year-old English language woman's title Femina, which sells just 200,000 copies every fortnight. "It is ridiculously low," he added.

Worldwide Media recently launched a Hindi version of the magazine appeal to those who could not speak English, he said, and would look to launch more local language titles as it already sells around 50% of the English language version.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/may/06/magazines-top-gear

C'mon CEO, consults Namepros experts before delving into this fruitless exercise..;)

domainguru
10th May 2009, 03:01 AM
I just find it so bizarre that these top brand magazines are only printed in English at the moment.

In Thailand, all the top international mags are in Thai. Again, no rocket science degree required to work out its the way to do things. Localize or die.


The chief executive of BBC Worldwide's magazine joint venture in India wants to launch a string of local language versions of leading international titles.

Worldwide Media's best selling title, he said, was the 50-year-old English language woman's title Femina, which sells just 200,000 copies every fortnight. "It is ridiculously low," he added.

Worldwide Media recently launched a Hindi version of the magazine appeal to those who could not speak English, he said, and would look to launch more local language titles as it already sells around 50% of the English language version.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/may/06/magazines-top-gear

C'mon CEO, consults Namepros experts before delving into this fruitless exercise..;)

JamesZ
10th May 2009, 03:32 PM
I just find it so bizarre that these top brand magazines are only printed in English at the moment.

In Thailand, all the top international mags are in Thai. Again, no rocket science degree required to work out its the way to do things. Localize or die.

Unlike other non-English-speaking countries, English version has its market in India. It might be the only market, since those who do not speak English, although large in number, were relatively poor. But nowadays, India is developing so fast, people started to realize the potential of the market for hundreds of millions people who speak their local languages.

No country wants to lose its identity as a nation. Any government of a country wants their people united together as one nation, different from those from other countries. Governments achieve that by promoting their own culture, and language is a major component of a culture. What Chinese government has been doing clearly demonstrates this.

drbiohealth
10th May 2009, 03:52 PM
Another one bites the dust...

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/Facebook-now-in-six-Indian-languages/articleshow/4503030.cms

kartik786
11th May 2009, 06:01 PM
i was jst discussing this with vp of a media giant here the other day ..

its ludicrous .. imagine a hindi version of forbes .. who would want to read it? the whole point of reading forbes is coz you get a feeling of eliteness .. take this to the local garage store and you've diluted your brand equity.

domainguru
11th May 2009, 08:04 PM
depends whether you want to sell lots of magazines or not.

I find this whole "you can only print in English language to maintain brand equity" argument a bit .... colonialist ... and that's coming from an Englishman.

The trick to maintain you "hiso brand" whilst selling lots of copies is to scatter bits of English amongst the majority of the text which is in the local language - it works a treat.

As for "who would want to read it in their local language" - well ... people that use the local language. You will find that having aspirations is not just the realm of the english speakers.

drbiohealth
12th May 2009, 02:16 AM
Star TV (Murdoch) launched itself in India in the early nineties by catering to the so called Indian elites. Soon found themselves in a quicksand. State of the art: this channel is now MOST desi compared to all other Indian channels and also is numero uno. Bottomline is that quarterly result bottomlines are critical not the elitism.

domainguru
12th May 2009, 03:03 AM
Star TV (Murdoch) launched itself in India in the early nineties by catering to the so called Indian elites. Soon found themselves in a quicksand. State of the art: this channel is now MOST desi compared to all other Indian channels and also is numero uno. Bottomline is that quarterly result bottomlines are critical not the elitism.

Absolutely - it is often just "snobbishness" amongst elitist managers (normally local advisers more than foreigners) that prevents them from taking sound business decisions. They would prefer to be associated with a "cool publication" in English that didn't sell many copies and later folded, rather than a local language publication.

kartik786
14th May 2009, 07:07 PM
Its funny, the whole co-relation of quarterly result bottom lines to mass sales and huge profits.

Here's a quick pointer. Forbes doesnt make money on print. Its profits come from ad sales.

Premium audience = premium pricing = better bottomlines.

Mass market = cluttered audience = just another * dainik bhaskar * = pathetic ad rates = brand equity dilution = low bottomlines.

Its all about the product you sell and its positioning. A hindi version changes its positioning statement and hence brand dilution.

Management Jargon or commonsense , think deeper and you'll realize what i'm getting at ;)

drbiohealth
15th May 2009, 02:04 AM
Your Forbes reasoning does make sense, but in the US context not Indian.


Its funny, the whole co-relation of quarterly result bottom lines to mass sales and huge profits.

Here's a quick pointer. Forbes doesnt make money on print. Its profits come from ad sales.

Premium audience = premium pricing = better bottomlines.

Mass market = cluttered audience = just another * dainik bhaskar * = pathetic ad rates = brand equity dilution = low bottomlines.

Its all about the product you sell and its positioning. A hindi version changes its positioning statement and hence brand dilution.

Management Jargon or commonsense , think deeper and you'll realize what i'm getting at ;)

domainguru
15th May 2009, 02:39 AM
Its funny, the whole co-relation of quarterly result bottom lines to mass sales and huge profits.

Here's a quick pointer. Forbes doesnt make money on print. Its profits come from ad sales.

Premium audience = premium pricing = better bottomlines.

Mass market = cluttered audience = just another * dainik bhaskar * = pathetic ad rates = brand equity dilution = low bottomlines.

Its all about the product you sell and its positioning. A hindi version changes its positioning statement and hence brand dilution.

Management Jargon or commonsense , think deeper and you'll realize what i'm getting at ;)

Yeah, yeah, I think we all get that hiso magazines make their money from advertising, didn't really need that pointing out :)

This discussion started round an article talking about magazines such as Hello and Top Gear - these aren't "hiso" titles, but titles that should be mainstream, and in Hindi, or at least mixed. For tho more top-end titles, you need to consult with advertisers and see exactly who they are trying to get to.