RPG’s Open weekly magazine launched

RPG Publications launched its feature and current affairs weekly magazine, Open, on April 2, 2009.

Priced at Rs 30, higher than India Today or Outlook, Open will hit the newsstands in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur & Kochi, every friday.

Editor Sandipan Deb said, “I don’t think we are going to compete with India Today and Outlook, except that we are weekly. We are not positioning ourselves as a news magazine, we calling ourselves as a feature and current affairs magazine.”

He said that readers are overloaded with information newspapers, news channels, and the Internet, therefore, Open is not looking at feeding weekly news to its readers.

“We will concentrate more on features, which is trends; we go beyond what is already known to the reader. If we cannot add any value to the information that our reader is familiar with, we will not make it the cover story,” he added.

Umesh Kumar, Publisher, RPG Publications, said that RPG Publications will target information-hungry professionals, self employed people and people working with a MNC.

Open will have 60 pages of editorial and 10-15 pages of advertisements to start with. Deb said said that Open will be modeled on Time and New Yorker and will have more think pieces that are more of commentary and essay rather than just reporting.

“The reporting would be through the photographs. We don’t want to be ‘me too’, instead want to create a category for ourselves,” he said.

The first 10-page section of Open, will carry the most relevant news of the week.

The middle section will have analytical stories and features on politics, sports, entertainment, science, technology, societal trends, health, and culture, the magazine has said.

The final section of Open, Mindspace, will carry literary essays, stories on books, art & culture, gadgets, celebrity gossip, and science. The last page of Open, called Headstart, will have puzzles, mind games, and questions of ethics.

When asked about the marketing plans Kumar said, “We have a Delhi-based advertising agency called ‘Shop’, which is headed by Freddy Birdy and Naved Akhtar. We will be taking a complete 360-degree initiative and will be advertising across platforms. The promotions will happen close to the launch of the magazine.”

Sandipan Deb said that the company has a strong web strategy for the magazine. The name of the site has yet to be finalised but Open hopes to include content that no other magazine website has included.

When questioned about the wisdom of launching the magazine in the current financial climate, Umesh Kumar said that it was a good time to launch the product, because are more opportunities to hire good talent.

“On the marketing front, at this time if one is able to innovate and do things in a different way, the cost of entry could be lower.” he said.

“At the same time, there remains a challenge in the advertising revenue side, because like any other media brand, we are going to be advertising

revenue driven, so that would remain a challenge with the current market scenario. Nevertheless, if we are able to demonstrate and showcase the

value to the advertisers, we should get our share,” Kumar said

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