IT NEXT is the new magazine launched by 9.9 Mediaworx pvt. ltd. (also the publisher of digit, skoar, CTO forum, Digit Channel, Industry 2.0, Logistic 2.0 and several more…) in the beginning of this year. IT NEXT is targeting next in line CIOs to help them to reach at top seat.
Content
More you slice any vertical, more you need to be careful for your positioning. Even a small deviation from your domain can blur the fine and definite boundaries of the positioning of your
product.
Editorial Structure of magazine is fine, except the weak BOB part…! Also, I can't understand the need of repeating 'Update' section again in the BOB. 'Insights' and '15-Minute Manager' sections are interesting & carrying informative content.
Most of the articles are structured well but Subbing could be improved.
Well, the cover story of inaugural issue is good for general reading but the structure of article is flawed. Further, the word 'SURVEY' sounds here 'over rating' for an ordinary story. This is a good article anyway even it was written based upon inputs from managers from across country, but 'survey' is absolutely too big tag to give this story. And presenting 6 figures (only) as the outcome of this 'extensive survey' (That too so loud) shows the shallowness of the survey. Otherwise this article is written well and is quite informative. Yes, presentation of this article could be even better.
I am wondering for this cover why the 5 out of 6 stories on the cover are interrogative. 5WH is OK, but it shouldn't be so obviously in the story titles itself!
While going through the magazine cover to cover- the quality of content doesn't go consistent across the magazine. Only a very few pages in the middle of the magazine of 64 pages are containing in depth information while the rest of the pages seem average on depth part.
Design
Good design, especially colors are quite soothing & contemporary for this kind of subject, though there are some goof-ups in the presentation of some articles. Illustrations and infographics created in the magazine are just perfect.
On the cover, cover story is just perfect but is unnecessarily cluttered. It seems as in the confusion of highlighting the right 'pull', it is given all kinds of treatments (different colors, backgrounds etc. ) to various words like- YOU, THE NEXT, CIO, 7…!
Also, '+' sign doesn't go well with 'single cover storied' cover!
Layout of 'Big Q' section is appearing just out of the place. It's very common and impractical while the rest of the magazine is very fresh and trendy in terms of look and feel.
There are some places where design has been inconsistent… may be its by mistake… (if these are corrected in forthcoming issues…)!
Printing
Prepress work is fine. And so is printing! That is why photographs have come out well and in terms of look and feel, overall magazine is looking just great.
Product
Paper quality for inside magazine and for the cover is good. But 64 pages of content are too less to quench your thirst for the information. Since it is the magazine which you cannot see on newsstand, so you will have to subscribe it for Rs.1400 (12 Issues) and looking at content quality/quantity it seems slightly on higher side.
Overall, IT NEXT is good to browse but to hook the IT managers permanently into this, this magazine needs to be A) improve on objective content & its structure and B) absolutely firm & consistent on its positioning.
