The fine print

The Indian Magazine Congress puts the credibility of print media centre-stage, with a focus on content, community and commerce

- BY K. SUNIL THOMAS

THERE IS LIGHT at the end of the tunnel for India's magazine publishing, and it is a big C that is shining through. No, not content marketing or clickbait or even conversion, but credibility. And credibility of the print media, especially magazines, could just save the day.

"We all saw what happened during Operation Sindoor, all kinds of fake news travelled," Riyad Mathew, THE WEEK's Chief Associate Editor & Director put it in perspective. "It is the credibility of print that makes us different. Trust in print is very important."

Brand marketeers, too, agree that credibility is the new currency. "The last port of call is magazines. I will go to magazines in search of truth," said Rajiv Dubey, vice president & head of media at Dabur India.

At the Indian Magazine Congress in Delhi, the mood was upbeat as doyens of the periodical publishing sector came together. After years of digital onslaught on print in general, and the social media hammering magazines in particular took, there seems to be a slow but steady about-turn.

Doom-scrolling is leading to digital fatigue. A recent study found that 72 per cent of respondents felt overwhelmed by the overload of digital data. And fake news is a real worry online.

"Social media misinformation is so (acute) that people are (back to) relying on you," Manoj Sharma, CEO, Magazines, India Today Group, told the gathering. "It is also an echo chamber where you are fed again and again with the same angle or slant of what you started consuming. Users were not getting the right perspective. That is where we come in. That's the good thing that magazines do."