Tablets have a long way to go before they become the most popular choice for print media delivery. But some of the recent apps that have been developed by media houses or third party news-stand developers have caught the fancy of tablet users and the big print news media outfits. Magzter is one such relatively recent addition.

For the uninitiated, Magzter is a popular app available across Apple, Android, Amazon and other platforms through which readers can access a broad range of magazines including India Today, Filmfare, Tehelka and other publications. eWorld caught up with Girish Ramdas, the CEO of Magzter to figure out what makes his product tick and why he believes Magzter is a win-win proposition for publishers and ecosystem-providers.

eW:Tablets have been touted as saviours for the news-media industry. Do you believe the hype is justified?

GR: I think we are in year zero for the concept of reading magazines on tablets. The problem with the e-zine or accessing a magazine's Web site through a browser is that it is not exactly a consumer-friendly exercise. It is a cumbersome process, and today, everything needs to be done in a few seconds. Everyone wants instant gratification and content availability. Until recently, publishers could not figure out how to streamline the online subscription process. Then along came the Apple iPhone, which while it did not revolutionise content, provided an interesting glossy screen to present content on. Later, in came the iPad, which could rejuvenate the news-media segment. I could actually see a newspaper as a newspaper without having to go through a traditional browser. There is no clicking for updates as they are delivered as push notifications. News comes to me through the app. Accessibility and ease of use has made a huge difference to consumers who were used to getting their music in a similar fashion , and books through the Kindle.

eW:So Magzter is largely catering to the magazine or periodical segment and not news, as of now. Is it a conscious bet on that form?

GR: News has become a commodity. Today people want everything instantly but the good thing about magazines is that people don't read them for instant news. They don't expect breaking news in a magazine. They want the whole and more elaborate story. They expect a feature story in a long form with beautifully laid out text and pictures. That's why people love magazines and why they aren't going the declining way of Western newspapers for a while. While ad-revenues of several magazines were hit during the crisis, several niche and mainstream magazines continued to do extremely well. Several of them are expanding geographically and are focusing on more localised and regional content. Tablet apps including Magzter provide magazines the chance to easily tag on content such as videos, pictures, audio and other interactive media to the app or PDF which engages the reader.

eW:Where does Magzter fit in between the content producer and the reader?

GR: As magazine publishers, everyone wants a presence in the form of an app. But the problem is to continually maintain an app and produce content making it an uphill task. To produce and distribute an app on various Apple, Android, Amazon, Nokia, Blackberry and other platforms is a huge challenge. And with every major operating system update, they need to tweak their apps to keep it running glitch-free. But most publishers such as a Condé Nast , National Geographic or anyone else are still in the process of developing a tablet strategyThe crème de la crème such as Vogue are making their own apps. But the groups have several publications which are smaller than their flagship publications. Not all these smaller magazines can afford either the time or resources which go into building and maintaining their own app or tablet presence. That's where we come in. We can provide them with a solution in the form of a customised app or store to pitch their magazines through.

eW:But given that producing the physical magazine is such a big part of the actual process, have publishers been willing to give that function up?

GR: From a publisher's perspective, the tablet/app exercise is currently a strong branding statement. They've spent millions to get the coolest app. But from a consumer's perspective they don't want a 700MB download which is more expensive than the print magazine. Publishers are trying a mix and match of various pricing models. Bundling the print and digital editions is one option. Selling both as standalone editions is another. But to keep both going until tablets emerge as a viable revenue stream is the challenge. But most smaller and niche publications don't have the time or in other cases don't have the money or time to innovate on the app front.

eW: Tell us a little about the international publications on board?

GR: Take one of the big US magazines Black Enterprise . It is a niche publication with which focuses on African Americans in the US market. They are a solid brand with a circulation of 5,00,000 copies. They made their own app. But what they realised was making their own app and optimising the app for iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle is a really expensive process. With the largest tablet user base, Apple is obviously the numero uno you want to cater to. But by not targeting millions of other devices are they missing out a large number of potential readers? And then if there is a bump from iOS 4 to iOS 5, they go back to their vendor who hands them another bill for customising their app. This becomes a continuous demand and all publishers are looking for a consistent platform for their content. They've signed up with Magzter and they get a presence on every platform and also through the browser. They wanted the uncertainty of which platform to bet or spend on to go away. Magzter provides that solution.

eW:But essentially you are asking magazine-publishers to shrink their function?

GR: Magzter needs to become a platform where any magazine in the world is available and the publisher can present it in a format they choose to present it in. We are right now trying to get publishers to price products in a way as to gain traction with customers. From an economic viewpoint we eliminate print cost, circulation cost, distribution cost and save on the investments in technology investments. This is more cost-effective compared to traditional physical stores where there are fixed costs and you pay a huge-cut for shelf space. We are trying to make them more efficient and focus on the content.

eW: Ads remain the bread-and-butter of the industry. So what's Magzter's take on the space?

GR: We don't touch any of the ads which come into the magazines. We do have plans to introduce an advertising system which could throw in full page ads. But big companies may not relegate the advertising function, here again there are several good content producers with limited scale and niche audiences who don't have the marketing muscle. We can provide them a service. We can go to advertisers. Armed with the traction gained from a strong reader-base and multiple magazines we could be in a strong position to provide targeted-advertising.

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