Unit 3 Ma'gazines and Periodicals
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UNIT 3 MA'GAZINES AND PERIODICALS structure . 3.0 Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Magazines and Journals : What are They? 3.2.1 Built-in Merits 3.2.2 TV of the Printed Word Coinmunication 3.2.3 Are Magazines the 5th Estate? 3.3 Magazine Boom 3.3.1 Riot of Colours at News Stands 3.3.2 Black and White Toppers 3.3.3 Promotional Strategies 3.4 Role of A Good Magazine 3.4.1 Accomplishments of Magazines 3.4.2 A Composite Tapestry 3.5 Categories of Periodicals 3.5.1 Government Journals 3.5.2 Weak Links in the Periodical Press 3.5.3 Emerging Trends 3.6 Giants and Dwarfs Coexist 3.6.1 Giants Eat the Lion's Share 3.7 Circulation Problems 3.7.1 Need for a Public Relations Therapy 3.7.2 Challenges from Other Media 3.8 Strategic Informational and Cultural Institutions 3.9 ~etus Sum Up 3.10 Glossary 3.1 1 Check Your progress': Model Answers 3.0 OBJECTIVES In this unit, we introduce you to the status and growth of periodical journalism in India. We present the role. significance and nature of magazines and explain how the magazine world has expanded rapidly. We discuss the different categories of magazines, emerging.trends and the future prospects of'magazines. By the end of this unit, you should be able to: specify the reasons why magazines have become popular and why their circulation has gone up; list the emerging trends in magazine publishing; describe the accomplishments of magazines; list the factors that made magazines in Indian languages very successful; describe the challenges being faced by the magazines. 3.1 INTRODUCTION Magazines disseminate more specialised information; 'hey carry articles and commentary to diverse readers. A newspaper generally reports the happenings of the last 24 hours. The tempo of work is very fast since it has to appear every morning. In comparison, magazines- weeklies, fortnightlies, monthlies, have.more time to Magazines and Perlodlrala plan and publish. They attract wide and diverse audience. The contents are'marked by high quality and' pictorial stuff. In Units 1 and 2, you have,been told about the daily press in English and in Indian Languages. Now, in this unit, we will present the characteristics, categories, role and popularity index of magazines. We will describe the competition faced among magazines and their future prospects, and explain at some length how Indian langauge periodicals are gaining a strong foothold. In the following unit we shall discuss the principles and ethics of journalism. This will help you in preparing yourself to practice journalism with a sense of responsibility. Actlvity 1 You must be reading magazines. Perhaps you may be subscribing to some magazines at home. Therefore, you are somewhat familiar with magazines, journals, weeklies etc. Before you proceed further, let us involve ourselves in an activity. 21) Select five houses (families)/offices/institutionsin your locality. h) Visit these selected places with a note book and a pencil. c) List down all the magazines/journals etc. they eubacribe to. Why do there houses (families)/off~cdinstitutiosubacribe to these magdnes/joufnold You may use the space given below for your answer. I, d) Categorise these journals/magazinea into the following categoria News and Cumnt Affairs . Literature and Culture Science and Technologies Any other (Miscellenous) I 3.2 MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS :WHAT ARE THEY? In Ipdia, we intermingle the terms magazines, journals and periodicals, although they have diSferent connotations. The term "magazine" indicates a stitched paperback or writing by different authors and traditionally a medium of light entertainment. It includes articles or stories or both and it is published at regular intervals. Most magazines include illustrations as well as advertisements. Writings of different types ranging from factual or practical reporting to more personal or .emotional accounts regularly appear in these publications. The word magazine is derived from the Arabic ward. Makhasin meaning warehouse or khazane, that is, a store-up. The word "Journal" means a diary or daily record and covers all periodical publications providing such information. These also carry serious or scholarly articles with or without illustrations and advertisements. The word "periodical" simply means a publication other than a daily, which comes out with a fixed periodicity-every week, every fortnight, every mdnth and so on. However, distinctions among these terms are fading out. Whether it is Sunday. The Week, India Today, Sarita orMalayah Manorama Weekly, they are called by any of' these names. The periodicity of thke publications can be weekly, fortnightly. monthly, quarterly and halfannually. Even annuals are included among the periodicals. 3.2.1 Built-in Merits Whatever be the term employed, these periodical publications contain some built-in merits. They provide a wide variety of information, opinion and entertainment. They. are designed to be kept by the readers for a much.longer time than daily newspapers. The magazines are centrally stitched and the publishers use more colours and veriegated typographical and layout designs. They even print their magazines on hetter quality paper. Compared to dailies, folders or pamphlets, magazines provide reading material of endur~nginterest and contain different shades of opinion. That way they can better inform on a theme or event and stimulate more critical, pointed and segmented deliherations on it. Besides tantalising covers, the topics covered by the magazines vary from science to fiction, from current affairs to fine arts, and from social scicncesto religion and philosophy. At the same time, they carry amusement of all sorts-stories, pun, satire, humour, cartoons, comics and various other types of light reading material. No wonder that magazines are purchased by as many as 36 m~llion readers in India while dailies are bought only by 27 million people. 3.2.2 TV of the Printed-Word Communication For their visual appeals, titilating coveis, pretty graphics and typographical variety, decoiative boxes,, drop letters, neatly cropped pictures, and other innovative devic'ii - are employed by the magazinesto hold the attention of the readers. With catchy titles, cryptic captions, racy or feature style of writing, the. focus is on cu,-rent controversies. Besides, fun arid frolic make. magazines highly readable. They cater to the tastes of a wide variety of readers. For discerning eyes, they have much more to offer. For these reasons, some people call magazines the TV of the printed word. The incieasing race arnQng the publishers to luri the readers by making'their magazines more attractive and better than others tum magazines into a feast for the e,yes. 3.2.3 Are ~a~azi&sthe 5th Estate? The readership of magazines is by and large confined to somewhat influential. affluent and discriminating sections of the people. They cover important events, in- depth and investigative reports and sensational revelations. For these characteristtcs thc magazines are called the 5th Flt;~teIn .1;1piin and are proving tb be that in India rrl\o. Check Your Progress 1 I Note : i) Use the space given b": r. for. your 'answers. ii) Check yo* answers with those given at the end of this unit. 1) M.ention 2 inherent str0n.g points' of a magazine. ........................................................................ ....................................................................... ..........................a. ............................................. 2) In what way is a magazine different from a daily? ........................................................................ 3) Why should a magazine be called the 5th Estate? M:~,oa~inesant' i'eri*djcnls 3.3 MAGAZINE BOOM Since independence, the periodical press in our countrv has been expanding and exploding, diversifying and professionalising, and thus hecoming enriched in contents, looks and impact. This sudden growth during 1970-80 is called the magazine boom. Even otherwise. during the last 45 years, magazines of all categories and periodicity, expanded nearly six times and touched the figure of 28,000 in 1992. They commanded a total circulation of over 36 million copies. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were among the top producers of the periodicals in India. The number of actual readers was, of course, much more because each copy of' a magazine passes through the hands of at least twenty persons. The number of periodicals increased from 26,728 in 1991 to 28,184 in 1992, thereby registering an increase of 5.4 per cent. The weeklies numbered 10,375, fortnightlies 4,315 and monthlies 9,555. (Press in lndia, 37th annual Report published by thc registrar ot' Nrw4papers in India, 1993). ' 3.3.1 Riot of Colours at News Stands You must have seen many beautifully produced magazines at a stall or in a library; lndia Today, Frontline, The Illustrated Weekly of India, The Week, Reader's Digest, Sunday, Gentleman, Business India, Marg, Dharam Yug, Saptahik i'lindustan. Chitra Lekha, Sarita, Manohar Kahaniyan etc. During air travel. you m;iy have even got copies of Swagat and Namaskar, the in-flight journals of India:! Airlines and Air India. Thanks to the new printing technologies and photocompos~ng,ther: magazines wear a bright look ard create a rio! of colour in window displays of book-sellers and news stands or ever1 on the pavements where riugazines are displayed for sale. 3.3.2 Black and White Toppers Unlike the above colourf'ul package, India's two largest circulated magazines Malayala Manorama (over 11 lakh) and Mangalam, (over 8 lakh) both Malayalam wczki~es,appear in h~ackand white. Recent.ly, Malayala Manorama has undergone a pleasant change t)v making its cover in colour. Malayala Manorama, which has won over a rccord n!lS;iher of readers in India and abroad. publishes articles on social and cultural subject:;, light romactic pieces. two serial cartoon strips done by their staff c.irtoonists, poet*. literan, cc?lumns and the most attractive feature is a serialized novel fix wh~chreaders wait eagerly week after week.