Meri Saheli to launch in Marathi -- Maajhi Saheli

The group's offering in Marathi language will be available on stands from September 20

Pioneer Book Company, the publisher of the women's magazine Meri Saheli, is launching a Marathi magazine for women, titled Maajhi Saheli. The magazine will be launched on September 20.

The magazine will bear a cover price of Rs 25 and will have an initial print run of 1 lakh copies. On an average, the new title will have 132 pages in every issue, which will be divided into two parts - about 100 pages will be in A4 size and the rest will be in A8 size. The group will try to have 60 per cent of the magazine dedicated to content, whereas the rest will be consumed by advertisements.

The content offering will be a mix of fashion, beauty, health, parenting, career, sex, travel, self-help, celebrities, marriage, relationships, women issues and glamour. According to Lalit Pahwa, director, Pioneer Book Company, "There is a lot of scope in this genre in the Marathi language. Not many big brands are there in this segment. The magazine will try to become the closest confidante of the Marathi speaking women. Their thinking is different from North Indian women and we will take that into account in our new title."

Hema Malini will continue to be the editor of the magazine. A full page ad in this monthly will cost Rs 1.10 lakh.

Pahwa says that the new magazine will face competition from Griha Shobhika, the Marathi version of Grihsobha. "Griha Shobhkia is 100 per cent translation of the Hindi edition but ours will not be an exact copy of Meri Saheli. Only 20 per cent will be same in both the offerings. Moreover, there are other players in Maharashtra, such as Lokprabha and Chitralekha - but they are not women centric magazines."

Apart from Meri Saheli, Pioneer Book Company publishes New Woman, Homemaker and Arogya Sanjeevani.

Talking about the distribution strategy, he says that the group's distribution is already in place and it has about 500 agents across the country. This new title will be available across the newsstands in Maharashtra. "We will have 100 per cent coverage from Day One of its launch," concludes Pahwa.