Chennai : In an early sign of dwindling fortune for Print Media in a digital world, the India Today has decided to shut down print editions of its magazine in three languages – Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.
An internal communication from the chief Aroon Purie says that the decision was made as it was not possible to keep those magazines viable and that the group was not able to absorb the losses anymore.
This would mean that the Hindi print edition of the magazine would still be available.
Aroon Purie’s letter to staff stated that “The India Today weekly editions of Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam have been incurring loss for over two decades. We have been absorbing the losses so far in the hope that they will turnaround. After great deal of deliberation we have come to the conclusion that we don’t see the viability of these editions in the foreseeable future. It is, therefore, with a heavy heart that we have decided to discontinue these editions.
“As we work through the change, I assure you that any exiting employee will be fairly compensated. The office in Chennai will now be a smaller Bureau. Some colleagues who are already contributing to the English edition will be retained in ITE and be part of this Bureau.
The letter also stated that “this week will be the last edition from the South.”
The India Today group runs several magazines including Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Money Today, Auto Bild, Good Housekeeping, Business Today, Cosmopolitan India, Gadgets and Gizmos and Readers’ Digest India.
While this means a sunset for a popular magazine in Print medium, Yesterday’s launch of a smartpaper in Tamil by the New Gen Media Corporation means the raise of the digital medium. It may be noted that leading news paper groups like The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and many magazine in print are either running in loss or witnessing huge drop in their circulation that has prompted many to trim their size of operation and reduce the overheads.
