Mumbai: The 46th anniversary issue of India Today magazine that hit the newsstands this Christmas achieved a 25 per cent growth in circulation, said India Today Group (ITG). The growth post-pandemic has resulted in the magazine recovering 80 per cent of its pre-lockdown (March 2020) circulation till November 2021.
Crossing 135 clients with 376 pages in its 46th anniversary issue – categories like pharma, education, automobiles, public sector, banking and finance, tourism and FMCG are all gaining attention, packed in a single issue, which is higher than the average weekly client base of most news channels, said the media company in a statement on Tuesday.
For its 46th anniversary issue, India Today featured the trailblazers of India Tomorrow – those 40 years of age and below – entrepreneurs, politicians, entertainers, activists, scientists, inventors, writers, artists, lawyers and law enforcers and bureaucrats – who are India’s brightest stars on the horizon. Included are young digital moguls like Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety, boAt co-founder Aman Gupta, entertainers like actor Alia Bhat and filmmaker Karthick Naren, politicians like Tejashvi Yadav, Aditya Thackeray, Abhishek Mukherjee, Tejasvi Surya and Hardik Patel, activists like Disha Ravi and Aishe Ghosh, young writers like Manu Pillai and Nisha Susan, scientists like Ravi Prakash (winners BRICS Young Innovator Prize) and host of others who will be the torch bearers of India’s future.
Ever since the restrictions of second lockdown were lifted earlier this year, both newsstand sales and subscription sales have been on high growth trajectory giving the magazine a very healthy growth rate of over 14 per cent month over month, said the statement.
“India Today was the only publication in India to continue printing and distribution even when the whole country was under lockdown. In fact, we have emerged to be the only publication in the country to have never missed even a single issue in the last 46 years of its publishing history,” said ITG CEO (publishing) Manoj Sharma.
During the bounce back, India Today Group immediately shifted their focus to the travel industry. Ties with large travel stores chains like WH Smiths were strengthened, as a result, sales volumes from these stores have now surged to 10 per cent more than their pre-Covid levels. Air India too resumed offering India Today to their executive class flyers. To cater to the increasing demand of flyers for India Today, Air India had to increase their off take to three times their pre-Covid supplies.
In addition to the print circulation, The publication has aggressively pushed its digital subscriptions all through the lockdown. Its pay-per-view and micropayment models for premium content implemented on the website as well, resulted in the thriving of its digital first paid subscribers. This further expanded the reach of India Today magazine in all print and digital formats reaching every nook and corner of the nation.
“Pandemic came as a huge learning and turned into an advantage as it not only brought about non-conventional outlets into play but also pushed major part of our distribution to modern retail beyond newsstands and road side hawkers. While earlier people had to make an effort to reach out to newsstands to buy a copy of India Today, now the same can be picked up along with their regular purchase of grocery products or daily essentials. This convenience will certainly push up the sales further, going forward,” Sharma further said.
