You might be aware of P.J. News & Information Bureau Pvt. Ltd. has its seven year old magazine called HEERA ZHAVERAAT on Gems & Jewellery and has websites, www.heerazhaveraat.com and www.worlddiamondbank.com also. This bi-monthly magazine is their latest venture which they want to target fashion & lifestyle industry and for that they are addressing a contemporary young as well as matured people!!Content
Its neither remained a niche nor become a general interest as they have tried to put everything in the inaugural issue to show their broadband of content. The same is acclaimed by the Editor- Mr. Suresh Chotai in the editorial page of the same issue that apart from the fashion trade, LA SPPA will also talk about variety of subjects like sex(?), health(!), relationships(!!), fashion industry trends, youth aspects, celebrity talks any many more to fulfill young generation's aspirations!!! Its' Publisher & Chief Editor- Mr. Rajesh Bajaj is went one step further and written in his welcome note that readers may take what they like from this magazine and may toss the rest away… No wonder content structure of LA SPPA is so scattered and distracted from the center.
You think that I am exaggerating the thing?? Fine, have a look on a few main stories- 'The joy and dangers of flirting', 'College daughters relationships with their fathers', 'School safety for parents: what to look for in your child's school', 'Massage therapy', 'Adventure with Hot air balloons', 'Minister don't teach us about sex', 'Obsessed with thin: dangerous implications of being skinny'…
And guess, which is cover story for this issue?? Of course its their in above mentioned list… Fine, it’s the last in this list. No one could understand that this is the cover story, probably makers of this magazine also knew this and that's why they clearly mentioned on the story on the cover- COVER STORY!!
Its needless to mention that most of these kind of articles are foreign content and images/pictures, almost all looks as are downloaded from the net.
Design
Equally bad…! As editorial team has tried to exposed their wide range of domain understanding, similarly design team has also tried hard to prove their creativity. For example, just on the cover itself designer has used more than a dozen fonts type faces. He has used lots of cluttering in each story headlines as well as lots of colors and effects on the cover lines...! Main image is used badly cut and poor color corrected. Oh, when I am writing about cover, let me tell you that this is the only magazine I can remember which has Editor's name on the cover itself!
It seems that designer had full liberty show his skills in single issue and he/she hasn’t missed the opportunity! You can see each and every effect or cluttering, which is possible, in this one magazine...no single consistency or style sheet!
Oh yes, only good looking pages are advertisement pages!!
Printing
As almost every photograph seems like downloaded from the net, it has got pixelated at most of the pages. Few pages have registration problems.
Product
Well, expecting for the better than what you are getting at the cover price of Rs.27/- only, would be not fair. What else (in terms of physical & tangible product) you can expect in such a low price but it cant be an excuse for the poor content & design. I think, it is not going to be sold on news stand anyways as it would be controlled distributed to the trade community (if they can find appropriate target audience for this kind of defocused magazine) or it would be subscription driven only.
LA SPPA is not focused on the subject so its difficult to say that whom publishers want to target. So is difficult to say whether it is going to useful any segment of people.
-------------------------------------------------
Content ......................: ◐○○○○
Design & Layout ........: ●○○○○
Printing ......................: ●○○○○
Product ......................: ●○○○○
Value for Money ........: ●○○○○
-------------------------------------------------
‘VIRDI’CT ...................: ●○○○○
-------------------------------------------------
How to use ‘VIRDI’CT..??
●○○○○ Browse & leave it
●●○○○ Borrow & Read it
●●●○○ Buy it occasionally
●●●●○ Buy regularly
●●●●● Subscribe it now!!!
