Exclusive | 2012 started as a tough year for print; Haymarket's Suresh Ramakrishnan

Suresh Ramakrishnan has over 13 years of experience in the magazine publishing space. He has been a Country Head at Reed Infomedia India.  He started his media career from Jasubhai Digital Media and during his nine year stint he was associated with the launch of several magazines, events, web based properties and a content services division. Ramakrishnan is an IIT-Kharagpur engineering graduate and an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Adgully spoke to Suresh Ramakrishnan, Publishing Director, Haymarket India Pvt. Ltd who has been in the Print industry since quite some time now to understand the scenario of the Print industry and his vision for Haymarket in 2013.  

Adgully (AG) :  How was the year 2012 for the print industry as a whole?

Suresh Ramakrishnan (SR): The year started off on a tough note but stabilized as the year progressed. The second half of the year brought in better sentiments than the first.

AG:  Was it a tough year given the economic conditions or were you successful in beating the slowdown?

SR: To be honest, we faced the brunt in the first four months in the year. Clients were being cautious about major projects and advertising sales budgets were slashed as well. Some innovative proposals did go through, but things were back to normal only after the first six months.

AG:  What kind of growth did the magazine see this year? Could you share the numbers?

SR : We witnessed a healthy 30% growth with our consumer electronic titles. Our key event such as the Autocar Performance Show showed a growth of 20% as well, the rest of the titles showed low to moderate growth hovering between 2-7%.

AG: What do you look forward to in 2013 and any business resolutions in this regard?

SR: We plan to have additional events and extensions to our existing brands, we are actively planning to launch some new titles but our biggest focus would be to streamline our processes and keep the costs in check.

AG : Any major changes in the trends you visualize in the print industry, in terms of shows and genres?

SR : With FDI in retail coming into effect, we do see some major content play in that area. The trend of the shift to digital will see circulation falling for some news based publication which has already been happening. It has and will continue to make print based brands think of a broader content dissemination approach.

AG : What prospects do you see for your magazine in 2013?

SR: The trends for 2013 appear encouraging and positive. We do envisage a growth of 15% YOY overall.

AG: Are there any new initiatives in the pipeline in the coming year?

SR : We are working on some business plans for some print and online based projects. We should have a clearer picture on launch dates within the next four months. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]