The Indian print market has yet some time under its belt to confront the bitter crisis that its counterparts are facing in the West and other parts of the world. At least this is an argument not many industry leaders would like to counter. In fact, the readership that Indian newspapers and magazines enjoy is well ahead of the figures enjoyed by popular dailies in the West. Nevertheless, the Indian print industry too has had its share of crises. There are countless media firms in the timeline that have even closed shutters. This is just a shred to the increased number of new publications coming up daily.Â
Although India’s print media is not totally out of the limelight, business magazines in the country are no longer enjoying the past glory that they used to. Business magazines, which enjoyed heyday until some years ago, are now struggling for space in the industry with lower readership as well as circulation and ad rates. According to a survey conducted by us the average circulation of the top six business magazines in India is less than 2 lakh copies per month. An interesting trend that can be seen is that despite reduced ad rates and its numbers, circulation and readership, the pagination is on a healthier curve, with a couple of them offering almost 200 pages per month. The average price of a business magazine in India is anywhere between Rs. 50 and Rs. 150.
The highest number of ads published in February 2017 by any business magazine was 37 full-page ads by Business Today. This figure is inclusive of the 13 full-page ads published in the 34-page supplement of the magazine. Business Today was the second highest in the said period in terms of pagination at 182, following Business World which published a 188-page issue; however, Business World had only 21 full-page paid ads in the February 2017 issue against 37 ads published in Business Today. In terms of advertisement volume, Outlook Business with 27 fullpage ads stands second to Business Today. However, the Outlook Business issue was a leaner one with 124 pages. Business India published only 10 ads in its 100-page February issue.
The normal ad rate for these magazines ranges from as low as Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2.5 lakh after discount, depending on the number of insertions. Although these magazines offer a significantly high card rate, each of them has attractive discounts to lure advertisers. Business India offers the most economic ad rate while Forbes India comes at highly premium price. While circulation-wise, Business World commands the league with 4 lakh copies a month, Forbes India reserves a place at the lowest ebb with less than 1 lakh copies a month. Business Today, on the other hand, enjoys its stand as the most expensive business magazine when it comes to ads on the frontback and back cover space.
