Exclusive | Raising the benchmark: Stuff Magazine's Suresh Ramakrishnan

The world is dependent on gadgets. Very few would like to deny this. Be it computers, smart phones, internet or driving a car. As simple pleasure as photography or doing simple calculations, gadgets have come to rule our lives. And capitalizing on this trend is global leader in gadgets review, Stuff magazine. The magazine is a world’s biggest selling gadget magazine.  The magazine recently completed 4 years of its launch in India. Within 4 years of its launch, Stuff (India) has managed to scale the top spot of gadget/lifestyle magazines thereby raising the benchmark for magazine production in India by leaps and bounds.

Adgully spoke to Suresh Ramakrishnan, Publishing Director, Haymarket India Pvt Ltd. on the first anniversary of Stuff (India). He has over 13 years of experience in the magazine publishing space. Prior to this Ramakrishnan was Country Head, 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.

Following are the excerpts of the conversation.

Adgully: How old is STUFF magazine? What is the idea & philosophy behind launching the same?

Suresh Ramakrishnan: Stuff completed four years this month. Gadgets and their related technology have witnessed a sea change over the last couple of years…more so with the telecom revolution (which has prompted an exponential growth for mobile devices) and higher disposable income combined with easy loan schemes helping people fulfill their aspirations for buying the latest in consumer electronics. Most of the devices we write about pass through rigorous tests in our labs in the UK and in India and the results have come to be accepted as credible and trust worthy by all players in this space.

AG: How have been the response and the growth so far? Which are your main markets & target audience?

SR: Response for the Stuff magazine has been phenomenal over the last two years and it has managed to beat its own ambitious forecasts that we set internally. While the automotive space has been and continues to be the bread earner for Haymarket India, the Consumer Electronics space is fast coming up to be the dependable segment and we are sparing no efforts in making this significant if not as big as our presence in the automotive space. Besides Automotive and CE, we have serve content into the Printing Industry and the Advertising – Marketing – Creative space as well.

AG: What are your growth plans/ Any more products in the pipeline?

SR: Our first focus will be to strengthen our digital presence across the verticals we are in; we believe that is essential to increase our audience base. We are continuously evaluating business plans to penetrate different segments using our own portfolio present worldwide…but we are not close to launching anything yet.

AG: How do you see the market for magazines in India going forward?

SR: India is still predominantly print centric. While one can’t ignore the proliferation of content from the online space and the different ways / mediums through which content is disseminated today, India is still isn’t at an advanced stage like the US or UK to see significant decline of the print format. Yes, the lessons we have learnt and continue to learn from the west is helping us be better prepared for the onslaught, so a transition as and when it happens may not necessarily dent the growth prospects for a company provided they remain clued in to change.

AG: What are some of the challenges that you face in this business?

SR: The economy always poses a challenge as it does to many others. We are market leaders in most of the verticals we are present in and we lead by a significant degree….and yes, it takes meticulous planning and tons of hard work on the product front to keep innovation at its peak which helps us remain as leaders. This has been the basic ethos of Haymarket worldwide and well integrated into our vision