Vikatan Group shelves 2 print editions; restructures portfolio

Tamil Nadu-headquartered magazine group, Vikatan has announced that it is shelving four of its periodicals. ‘Vikatan Thadam’ and ‘Doctor Vikatan’ will publish its last edition in September 2019, while ‘Aval Manamagal’, the quarterly bridal magazine, has already been converted as an advertiser driven publication in the B2B route. ‘Chutti Vikatan’, the children’s magazine will be available digitally.

“After immense deliberations on content and market acceptability, we have restructured our print portfolio and two titles have been shelved. Amongst two others, ‘Aval Manamagal’ has been migrated to AFP model, while ‘Chutti Vikatan’ has been contextualised to the children and school ecosystem,” said, B. Srinivasan, managing director, Vikatan Group.

He added, “The content will be seamlessly integrated with the rest of the magazines. Vikatan management remains fully committed to all other group magazines. For over 93 years, Vikatan has always retained its laser-focus on our readers and their interests. We have always stayed relevant by keenly observing the changing taste preferences of readers and catered to their informational and intellectual needs while educating and entertaining through various reader engagement activities.

As part of what it calls a “restructuring exercise”, the group has revamped its print portfolio with a sharper focus towards its content reorientation. The print bouquet has been realigned as Core Magazines and Special Interest Magazines.

The group informed afaqs! that its Core Magazine bouquet consists of 93-year-old ‘Ananda Vikatan’, which has a total readership (TR) of 33.94 lakh (IRS 2019, Q2), ‘Aval Vikatan’, the fortnightly women’s Tamil magazine, with readership (TR) of 13.26 lakh (IRS 2019, Q2), and ‘Junior Vikatan’, the biweekly, Tamil socio-political magazine.

Whereas the Special Interest Magazine bouquet includes, ‘Nanayam Vikatan’, (TR of 3.46 lakh / IRS 2019Q2), a personal finance and entrepreneurship magazine, ‘Pasumai Vikatan’, (TR of 8.55 lakh / IRS 2019Q2), a magazine devoted and focused to organic farming and inclusive farm practices, ‘Motor Vikatan’, (TR 3.72 lakh / IRS 2019Q2), only auto magazine in Tamil, ‘Sakthi Vikatan’, (TR of 4.88 lakh / IRS 2019, Q2), the spiritual magazine about the religious culture and heritage of the land, and ‘Aval Kitchen’, the brand extension of ‘Aval Vikatan’ focusing on food, recipe and kitchen.