Live IT:Leave it gals!

Delhi Press, publisher of 26 diversified magazines in 9 different Indian languages, has launched its ‘kind’ of magazine on information technology- ‘Live IT’. Tag line of the magazine claims- IT magazine for the contemporary women.

Well, I disagree… after going through inch-by-inch of the inaugural issue!

(You must be wondering why I am giving my ‘virdi’ct in so beginning this time. Simply because this magazine belongs to the same genre that also is my core strength, i.e. Technology. Let me tell you friends, I have been IT professor for ten years before I joined media business. And now, it has been nine years since I have been serving for publishing industry in my editorial capacities. A few of you are aware that I have been Editor for various Technology magazines & have worked for other similar projects also. So, I could evaluate this magazine very precisely.)

Content
It seems that ‘Live IT’ is conceptualized by a person or a team who has got at least 15-18 years of experience of technology. Sounds good??... But what if that person is still living in that era of IT only??... Then this is a problem!! The term IT itself sounds old fashioned as it is more or less kept limited up to government sectors only.

Content, especially ‘Features’ are written in the way that those should have been written 15 years ago. They are not greater than a feature published in some Sunday supplement that comes with any news paper now a day. When I browse this magazine, it is giving me a feel as if I am going through any 15-years old magazine again. Just an example, joke in ‘Tech Cartoon’ of this magazine is already published around 18 years ago in so many magazine. And this is the height that the cartoonist hasn’t updated the configuration of the PC that is mentioned in that old joke.

To make the content up-to-date in the magazine, it has sections like ‘Style IT’ & ‘Peek & Pick’ apart from some ‘market’ pages like looking articles in the magazine.

The word ‘Tech Tip’ is certainly misunderstood by the editorial team and that is why this section instead of Tips, is carrying more than a dozen articles of single page each. ‘How to’ section could have been useful but again the selection of article is ancient. Step by Step is so disconnected that text is showing 10 steps and visually it is showing six steps only. Not only this, but within a section, all the articles are presented in different styles. Throughout, there is no consistency in the magazine.

Oh, did I forget to mention that all of these stories are more useful for women than the men? Or these are much focused towards women? No, I didn’t mention because I never felt so while reading any of these article. I don’t understand how come ‘Live IT’ is positioned for contemporary woman only. If any of you my recipients (ladies) find something exclusive which she was missing in all other existing technology magazines, please correct me.

Design
Even worse! Not even a single article is laid out beautifully. As I mentioned inconsistency in content, its worse when it comes to layout & design. Forget about anything else, basic grid is not followed there in the magazine. Some pages are carrying serif fonts and some articles are decorated by using sans serifs! Pictures & text are unnecessarily rotated in lots of articles.

All possible colors are there in single issue that gives a very cheap design to the magazine. It is needless to mention that there are lots of errors which can be taken care if design was simple & consistent. Excess of usage of stock images adds inconsistency in overall presentation… all I can say that it looks like ‘khichdi’.

Cover also is not designed intelligently that is why it is looking very shallow in terms of content. Main cover story is not justifying its tag line. Other stories on the cover are also put just like that. Imaging & concept of the cover image is pathetic. They should have realized that the usage of the symbol ‘@’ is become cliché now! And that too for wrong connotations!!

Printing
As I mentioned a lot of images of products & photographs are taken from press images, stock images or even from web. That is where you can’t control over the quality of images. Lots of pages are carrying low resolution images and a few have images of different styles from others.

Lots of pages have registration problem as well as other problems like poor quality of pre press work, poor ink, crooked photographs etc.

Product
Inaugural issue of 116 pages is priced at Rs.50. If you have experienced any of Delhi Press magazines before, you can guess correctly the quality of paper is used in ‘Live IT’, it is not great. Well, this issue is also carrying one free CD & a supplement on Excel.

As I have given my verdict on ‘Live IT’ in the beginning only, I don’t think this is the right kind of tech magazine of today’s woman. Either they have taken wrong sample data to design the content structure for this magazine or they have designed wrong structure for today’s woman. Anyways, ‘Live IT’ can’t be a great magazine until it gets tweaked as per its positioning.

----------------------------------------------------------

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!!!

GQ:Gentlemen Quotient of India

After Vogue, GQ is the second launch in India by Conde Nast India Pvt. Ltd.. In the month of October, when Vogue India is celebrating its 1st anniversary, Indian edition of GQ is also stepped in Indian market. The acclaimed authority in style & culture, Gentlemen’s Quarterly well, GQ is launched as monthly magazine in India to conquer the heart of urban Indian men (not the boys…).

Conceived in 1958 in US, GQ with the 14 international editions has established a respect for its high standard of writing, stunning photography & fashion features. It now in India..!

Content
Lots of features to read, beautiful photographs to look at, style & fashion to explore... in short, all that you expect from GQ. Because it is the launch issue, it may be a reason that it is really a fat issue of 326 pages and probably its regular issues may have lesser pages per issue (Don’t you remember Vogue India launch issue?).

A decent mix of very few pages of firangi with lots of desi content…! Four major stories of inaugural issue are photograph-intensive stories and so are very prominent in the issue. Though I found cover story little unconvincing to be the lead story for the launch issue but Aditya Mittal’s interview by Karan Johar is really a joy to read. GQ Talk is another section which has interesting material (one shouldn’t miss) by famous columnists like Chastity Fernandes, sanjay manjrekar, Rajiv Masand & Suhel Seth.

GQ’s top bar on the cover shouts-a-loud about luxury, style, sport, cars, gadgets, girls… and it is right there in the issue. In the launch issue, where text on one hand is penned by sharpest columnists including Vir Sanghvi, Iain Ball, Altaf Tyrewala & Che Kurrien (editor- GQ India), on the other hand the issue is well supported by beautiful photographs contributed by cutting-edge photographers like Pascal Chevallier, Raghu Rai, Tom Parker, Prabhuddha Dasgupta & Stefano Galuzzi.

Inaugural issue of GQ India has lots of proofing as well as subbing mistakes which is dangerous for its reputation.

Design
It is not impressive. Design is most critical aspect of any publication which itself should speak editorial philosophy without stating in words. It should be self-explanatory and reader should not interpret in his own way.

Starting right from the cover up to inside pages, design & layout is very inconsistent. Localization of characteristics of a publication is fine but I found it downgrading from its US or UK editions! Why? Do GQ publishers think Indian readers that way only? They should have realized if people are buying US or UK edition here in India at Rs.650-800, they like GQ as it is. Stories can be localized by selecting local celebs but how can you give inconsistent & jumbled layout to the readers even if you are reducing cover price?

The kind of photograph GQ India is carrying on the cover (I am talking about the main cover only, not the full fold-out), GQ’s parental edition doesn’t carry at all... nor the cover story (unless it is a special issue… And by the way, inaugural issue is not the special issue and that must represent how regular issues will look like). The cover shot is not looking editorial shot for GQ but is looking more of shot taken for a commercial for suiting-shirting!

Too many colors & too many styles in a single issue! And that’s why chances of errors become higher. Lots of pages have design errors which could easily taken care if things were simple & less complicated. Every single story is unnecessarily carrying too many color elements and typography as well. More number of elements, more things to manage. If you miss a bit, that causes scope for errors... and that kind of mistakes you can see on lots of pages.

Few of pages are looking horrible because of cluttering of typefaces. Same is also valid for using photographs to make a collage. For instance, one page of the main cover story is made of such a poor collage that it looks like a page from a school kid’s scrap book. Few of pages have grid problems and some of the pages are not locked to the baseline and that is why design has got spoiled everywhere.

Excessively prominent usage of particularly cyan, magenta, yellow & special green colors across the issue is just not understandable.

Printing
The strength of GQ lies in photographs and that is at excellence in the entire issue. And printing is also maintained its standard to do the right justice to that kind of photographs. A few pages shows registration problem which leaves a bitter taste while going through the issue.

Product
As GQ is a photograph intensive magazine, it requires very good quality of paper to support a class of printing. GQ India has used a very good quality of paper to justify its printing expectations which its readers have in mind. No matter if next issues come with lesser number of pages than its launch issue, still it is worth of Rs.100.

As a conclusion, I can say that GQ India is going to be a tough competitor for already established magazines in this space in India like MW, Andpersand, 'm' & The Man etc.

----------------------------------------------------------
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!!!

Cell Passion: Passion for cell-phones, that's it!

Really… having knowledge on a subject is one thing and presenting & packaging it to put a magazine together around that subject is different all together…!

Cellpassion, very odd in size (21X30cms precisely if you can visualize), a bi-monthly magazine is launched this month by Cellpassion Networks Private Ltd. (also the owner of www.cellpassion.com. Editor of Cellpassion, Rajat Agrawal & the editorial contributor, Nimish Dubey have shown all their enthusiasm & obsession about cell phones in entire inaugural issue. They seem much passionate to publish their own names here & there…everywhere in the magazine. Even in Content pages, their names are prominent than the products names which they had reviewed.

Content
Most of this kind of consumer magazines, which review & test consumer products to help readers to make their buying decision, bank upon reviews & tests they carry. Readers also expect more & more number of products in every issue. Readers like to see issue carrying most of the pages full of in-depth, unbiased & latest product reviews. Inaugural issue of Cellpassion is featuring very less number of products and that is the big disappointment.

Secondly, magazine is structured poorly and it is not at all reader friendly. Sections of Cellpassion are very difficult to identify and so is the navigation. ‘Bling’ and ‘Hands on’ sections in the FOB are too identical in terms of content they are carrying & the way they are presented. What could be the better opportunity than that hottest and the most revolutionary phone we have seen ever, i-phone was launched just before the magazine was released. Though inaugural issue has featured i-phone as its ‘cover story’ but again it is done badly. It gives an impression of shallow information and top on that is scattered illogically. ‘Face Off’ section, where two products are compared with each other, could be useful and impressive it would have given more depth and reasoning for their verdict. ‘Test’ section is featuring four cell phones only and that too are presented poorly. Coverage of the event- ‘Communic Asia 2008’ is nothing but looks like post-its of event photographs & tiny write-ups of a few cell phones. It is impossible to understand the rationale behind putting a story on ‘choosing the tariff plan’ in ‘How to’ section! ‘Download apps’ & ‘Play’ sections are ok… at least in this inaugural issue.

The most important & useful section of this kind of magazine is buyers guide section which is also there in the BOB. Since it is the most critical section, ‘Select’ could have presented in better way and could have much useful information.

Language of the magazine somehow appears as it is deliberately written in a casual style which could be more intelligent and still connected with the readers.

Design
Equally bad…! Cover of inaugural issue speaks itself the standard of its design. What else could be done to make it worsen that master head is made a part of cover image! It seems like they have designed this for this issue only. I am wondering what will they in next issue? This is not the end… cover is not carrying any cover story! Only photographs of ten cell phones are given in a matrix and one line using tine font size at the bottom of the cover is saying- Apple i-phone reviewed inside’ and one dotted line across the cover is pointing to the picture of i-phone to help readers to identifying the i-phone! As the cover of inaugural issue, it should have carried the stories to represent the personality & the character of the magazine. Leaving the spine blank can be their policy but it seems ignorance to me.

Design of Cellpassion is as poor as its structure. Art Director & layout person have done their work without even thinking for a single minute. No consistency in using typefaces, color schemes, text alignments, grids, placements, elements…on every page you find them different. Text in few of sections is published in sarif and sometime it is in sans. Unnecessarily folio of the magazine is designed in varying colors. All the section names are designed differently- sometimes it is kept first letter only, sometimes it is made overlapped characters and sometimes it is carrying first letter reversed…! Some pages are made of two columns grid, some are in three and some are in four…! Few articles are carrying drop cap of 5 lines, few 6 lines, 3 lines & 4 lines also.

Illustrations are horrible! Art direction is poor and that is clearly seen in poor digital imaging done in the magazine. Designer has kept doing lot of experiments on fonts, colours & effects etc through out the issue.

Printing
Printing is OK. Though a most of the product shots seems that they are downloaded from internet or are taken from press releases. Pre press work is fine as images are published very well. Few pages have registration problem as well, but overall printing is good.

Product
Size is odd… a little bit awkward. A 100 pages bi-monthly issue with perfect binding is priced at Rs.40 which is OK. Cellpassion has got a very tough competition from already established magazine in that vertical- 'My Mobile', which has more reputed & has got huge mind share. Another competition is 'India Mobile' which not a strong brand as 'My Mobile' is. You must be aware that 'My Mobile' also has its Hindi edition which is also has its own market share.

----------------------------------------------------------
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!!!

RANDOM... it should be titled- RARE (if u r lookin 4 humor ;-)

Publishers of this magazine themselves claim that RANDOM is launched to fill the vacuum created by MAD magazine. Trust me, it is a big disappointment. Tagline of 'India's longest running humor magazine' also shows their overconfidence. RANDOM is recently launched as bi-monthly comic magazine at cover price of Rs.25.

Content
Absolutely Humorless. Either the editor Jatin Varma can challenge the laughter-blaster Siddhu (who can laugh on even a news headline) or I have a good sense of humor who cant find even a single bit to laugh in entire issue. Concept & more importantly, illustrations, cartoons & caricatures are the core strength of this kind of magazines, but RANDOM is failed at every corner. Poor concept, childish cartoons & very unprofessional caricatures gives you a complete disappointment. I think editorial team has no clue nor they have any guideline to bring out the issue, and that is why very conveniently they have named it RANDOM (which exactly suits to their way of generating content). Most of the ideas (concepts!) seems as picked from any of college canteens gossips only. Few of columns & articles are stretched across multiple pages unnecessarily as those could be presented as tit-bits like MAD used to carry it. Overall, content per issue looks very less & shallow in quantity (and also in quality).

Design
Very unprofessional as I said earlier…! Cartoon, Illustrations & caricatures; which are the pillars of these kind of genre, are done immaturely. Presentation of content is also unplanned and put in a random(!) way. Its ok, if designer wants to be creative and wants to go with the name (Random) but still he needs to be consistent very intelligently. Layout of few pages is equally horrible, starting right from the content page up to the last page of magazine.

Printing
Since this magazine has very less scope of photographs to include but it requires good printing quality to show vibrant colors used in illustrations & drawings. And that is the area where RANDOM is fairly OK.

Product
RANDOM looks very thin, ooops… it is very thin as it is a 34 pager magazine only. paper quality is ok but at the cover price of Rs.25 it’s not cheap as they put it on the cover itself- 'Rs.25 Cheap like crazy!'.

----------------------------------------------------------
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!!!

Child: Its for Kids…

No… its about kids… Its for parents in fact!

Hey Moms & Dads, CHILD, a complete monthly Child-care guide just for you is launched by Media Transasia India Ltd. last month. CHILD India is launched under sub-license from Meredith Publishing Group, USA (publishers of leading magazines like ‘American Baby’ and ‘Parents’). You must be aware of that the Media Transasia is also publishes various magazines like ‘Swaagat’, ‘Maxim’, ‘Travel + Leisure’, ‘Better Homes & Gardens’ and ‘Golf Style’ etc.

Indian edition of CHILD is edited by Vatsala Kaul Benerjee along with a whole list of Child care specialists & experts on the board of advisors. Mission of CHILD is to provide a support the efforts of parents, educators, caregivers who strive to make this world a better place for children so that our children can grow up in a healthy, happy, loving & safe environment.

Content
Just perfect...! Being a father of two I can say that its really worth of Rs.100 which is the cover price for this value pack. Its not just talk about kid up to 12 years but it also talks about kids from 0 to 9 months.

And trust me, its not just the amount of the content which impressed me. It is well defined structure of that fully packed content. No, I am not exaggerating. To advocate my statement let me tell you that on the content pages itself every article is tagged whether that is relevant for the age group of 0-12 months or 1-2 years or
2-3 years or 4-5 or 6-8 or 9-12 years! To make its navigation more reader friendly the age-by-age guide is given here on the content pages.

Launch issue is carrying cover stories on Summer Splash, new must-get goodies, fun crafts. The same issue is also featuring ‘Every Mom’s Back To School Kit’. Since its Summer vacations are here so, CHILD’s launch issue also providing you the ultimate list of 100 Top movies for your kids!!!

Design
Neat & Clean. It is simple & pages are looking just elegant. Few pages disappoints and specially cover & the content pages. Mast head is very impressive, very strong and it is looking good. But picture looks tailor-made and typo used for cover stories is inconsistent. It also shows lack of clarity of your product positioning. Same is with the content pages which can be improved far better.

Inside pages are superb in terms of design & layout. Each page looks full of content but still not cluttered. Lots of design elements, icons, slugs, info graphics & illustrations are there through out the magazine, which are really adding value & the interest in the actual content.

Printing
Printing is great. Pre production work is again excellent. Photographs are looking very bright. Yes, exceptions are there but overall quality is managed very well though the nature of magazine is quite photographs heavy.

Product
As I mentioned earlier, this the content which you are getting at this cover price. Rest everything you get along with, is the bonus :-). In fact, at this price, fully packed 160 pages are just perfect. It’s a great value for money for any reader.

It is a magazine which reminds an old ad-line ‘Jo apni biwi se sachmuch Karen pyar, Wo prestige se bhalaa kaise Karen Inkaar’. Bottom line is that if you really love your kids it is a must-read for you dear parent.


----------------------------------------------------------
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!!!

Rolling Stone: Rolled out in India!

Almost four decade year old, American music & pop culture magazine 'Rolling Stone' is launched last week in India by MW.com India pvt Ltd (also the publisher of Man's World). Magazine is going to target college going kids and that’s why content relevant to that generation is also served in the language which they speak. Don’t get confused with the writing style of 'JAM', 'JLT', 'IGT" or something like that but RS is always admired for its standout, in depth content coverage with a serious journalistic writing. But, will RS India be carrying local content or US content? Well Mixed! Any Indian music which will sense Rock & Roll, will be covered here in RS India.

Content
Up to the mark! Following the ground rule for content creation, Inaugural issue is featuring Rabbi, Kailash, Anoushka, Raghu Dixit & Malayalam band- Avial. From phoren content, this issue is featuring Amy Winehouse, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen etc to represent the wide range of music coverage to show off what you can expect from forthcoming issues of RS India.

Apart from Features & Interviews, RS India also has interesting sections like Classic, Style, Review, Tech Files, Books, Games and Q&A etc. The Inaugural issue is also carrying a feature- The Future of Music, which is a nice compilation of talks from nineteen top artists about technology, Inspiration and what's next for the business.

Design
Excellent. Its quite disciplined, balanced, stick to the grid…well defined. Each & everything, even a small element is treated brilliantly. Large & bold images with simple text gives it a class appeal. Stylish layout makes it even more outstanding.
Very less text on the cover of Inaugural issue. For the Inaugural issue, RS India is available on news stand with 5 different covers for their reader. Readers can pick any one they love or they can collect all.

Printing
Superb. Good colors and sharp pictures are the proof of the quality of RS. Lots of pictures are taken in very low or very flashy stage lights or are taken when artist is performing…still pictures are printed very well. Details appeared in products shots in gear pages shows the excellent print quality of RS.

Product
Being a magazine worth Rs.100, its carrying decent quality of pages and it is big enough in size to stand out on the news stand. Inaugural issue is 170 pages bulky which is good content package for the full month, till next issue.

Rolling Stone, definitely is a special interest magazine for a very special audience who love rock & band music. As it has already created a 40 years track record in US, is now ready to touch the chord of Indian music lovers.

----------------------------------------------------------
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!!!

Good HomeMaker: A Mess of Good Content

Good HomeMaker, a monthly magazine is launched by Pioneer Books Pvt. Ltd (publisher of Meri Saheli, Arogya Sanjeevani, Ved Amrut & New Woman) for Urban-Metropolitan ladies & housewives, who do not speak-read English comfortably as compared to Hindi but who are familiar with English lingo and common words related to fashion, beauty, interior, style & life style.

That's why, perhaps, editors of the magazine have used Hinglish style of writing & copy, which leaves the product of absolutely disconnected with both- English & Hindi speaking readers. It is even more difficult to draw the line which word you should write in Hindi & what should be English. And even when using hindi, how much literary it should be or how much from the set of layman's daily vocabulary. Good Homemaker's inaugural issue is victim of this uncertainty and looks horrible when you read such a copy.

Content
Fully Packed! It is 166 pager magazine only, but it is loaded with lots of articles, sections, columns which gives lot of reading material in a single copy. It has tried to touch almost every aspect of today's up-market aspiring woman- from her home, décor, relationship, food, health & parenting to style, gadgets, Travel, corporate…everything! Rest is covered through the regular columns and features as beauty basics, fashion, cooking, gossips etc…!

Content pages give you a feel of wholesome content enough for the entire month. It is structured very well. Structure looks clutter at times because of its broad spectrum it covers. Most of the articles seems as contributed by different outsiders and that is why you cant find any consistency in writing style, tone and depth of information.

Section names are irritating! The way 'Aha Zindagi' magazine (one of Bhaskar publications) has put the word 'Aha' in most of their section names, Good Homemaker has also overused the word 'Good' in almost every section name.. without caring whether it sounds good or not; Good Décor, Good Relationship, Good Products, Good Parenting, Good Money Plan, Good Makeover, Good Style, Good Cooking, Good Home, Good Story, Good Gadgets…!!

You must be wondering whether these are the section names of a Hindi Magazine or an English Magazine? As I mentioned, not only these, but twice or perhaps the thrice in the count, there are more columns, subsections & feature are named in English only! It may be advocated in both- for & against, but then there should be clear guideline of usage of such English words. Then you can't use jargon from literary Hindi or even from slang. It irritates and leaves a bad taste of reading.

Design
Below average! Lots of design trials-experiments & mistakes are done with the design. Starting from the cover, every story is given in different font, color, size, effects…its badly cluttered. Height of color trial is using two or more colors to write even a single word?? What could be worse if 'matraas' are printed in different color and rest of the word is printed in different.

Cover looks very shallow because of lack of stories on the cover though as I mentioned, issue is loaded with lots of stories which could be put on the cover to attract news stand audience.

Usages of Numbers across the magazine is also inconsistent- sometime it is in English & sometimes it is in Hindi numerals.

Printing
Good Homemaker is printed at very less LPI and because of that you can see lots of circles in photographs. Lots of pictures seems sourced from the internet and that is why they are printed in poor quality. Almost every page has registration problem; in result pages look blurred. Quality of photographs is good but could be color corrected well.

Product
Good Homemaker is printed on 70gsm LWC paper. Cover is slightly better and at the invitation price of Rs.30 it’s a good value for money. It’s a perfect bound magazine unlike Pioneer Book's other magazines which are center pinned. That is why it has got a strong spine which gives it a great look & feel.

As conclusion, all I can say that if you can tolerate its excessive use of English terms and inconsistencies in writing style, which irritates you a lot when you read, you will find a decent amount of informative & valuable content in term of each issue of Good Homemaker.

----------------------------------------------------------

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!!!

Cheers Men... your world got bigger, better and bolder!

Yes, its seems the time for a change for everyone. In last few weeks or months, so many magazines have redesigned and revamped. Few have got a new look, few have a new periodicity, few have got entirely new avatar…Makeover for improvement, change for betterment.

Filmfare, Maxim, AVMax, Mans' World are the few names, who have got new faces recently.

You must be aware that Filmfare, a publication of Worldwide Media, has gone fortnightly last month as it was earlier a monthly magazine for around 54 years. This new periodicity will allow them to put newsier & interactive content for their readers which was the growing demand. This is not the only change, In fact WWM is also launching a German edition for the same in the month of February to make it global.

Maxim and AVmax are other two magazines which has got some cosmetic changes in their design. Maxim, when it was launched around two years back in India, was very close to their parental magazine. Though it was customized according to our audience and country norms, still it used to give the same feel of original Maxim. Now, with new design changes that feel is gone. I understand that design is something which is personal in a way but I didn’t like it new avatar, it was far better as it was earlier.

At the same time, AVMAX has got superb facelift. All of sudden it gives you as if you are going through some international magazine, strong Master head, bold & properly placed cover stories, layout of inside pages, everything seems improved. What a design & layout can do with a magazine, this can be a great example to prove that. Without changing its content structure, only design style sheet has offered a great reading friendliness in it.

MW, a new master head for 8years old, men magazine, Mans' World also got revamped this month. Its got bigger (in the size of T3, World's no.1 gadget magazine), better & bolder as they claim it on the cover itself; and I second it. Since, 8 years this magazine has been constantly feeding men's content quench. But, since last two years it was losing its mind share because of other competitor launches like Maxim, Ampersand, The Man, FHM etc.

This new, bigger avatar is for sure a great change they have made to get back at its position. Content wise its almost same as it was earlier except a new business section, DOSSIER is introduced and Gallery section where they used to showcase upcoming & grooming models is shifted right in the FOB section with a new name called MW Eye-Opener. Design wise it has improved significantly, there are lots of subtle changes which keep a readers connected with their old layout and there are changes like, body copy font, few sections' headings, of course the physical size & master head are the obvious changes which gives a reader the great offering. Over all MW is looking great after its makeover.

Parenting & You: Parenting was not that easy before!

EuroKids International, the Pre School specialist has launched this magazine called- "Parenting & You". Targeting parents, its inaugural issue (December 08) is carrying more than two dozens of articles to provide its readers new & different insights. It is conceived to empower parents in bringing up kids from the age of two to twelve.

Content
Poorly rather I can say, not structured at all. It simply starts throwing articles on readers face right from the beginning of the magazine. There are no lows, highs, peaks, entries, exits in the magazine content structure. You find same kind of article in the beginning of the magazine as well as the middle and in the end of the magazine. Lots of articles for sure could be clubbed together to form some sections/subsections which could provide some shape to the magazine. Few of articles even are not related to the subject, but are there. And carrying such articles in the very first issue shows lack of editorial guidelines.

Design
Average. Sometimes its good to keep things simple to avoid the scope of mistakes. Unknowingly or deliberately, Design & layout of "Parenting & You" was so simple that there was no chance to do anything wrong with it. Since there was no content structure, there was no need to create variety in design. Every article is laid out in one plain grid, so in a way its good that there is consistency. But on the same time, not attractive too. I missed illustrations & info graphics elements in this magazine. Cover of inaugural issue is also cluttered & it is designed badly.

Printing
More or less, print quality is good, but pre production work is poor. Lots of images appears as were taken in low resolution from the net and lot were not color corrected properly. A couple of pages are the result of poor registration which could be easily taken care.

Product
It is not a fashion or glamour magazine, so paper used for the P&Y is just fine. Looking at subject's requirement, 96 center pinned pages are good enough but as a complete product in small size (Readers’ Digest size), it seems little expensive at the cover price of Rs.40.

As the subject, there is vast scope of creating or collating content related to the topic. At the same time it becomes even bigger challenge to reject or remove least important content out of that stack. And putting them straight without any structure kills the overall presentation of content. Same is happened with Parenting & You.

-------------------------------------------------
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!!!

FAD: Magazine on Fashion day 2 day!

FAD- a fashion magazine, as claimed by publisher, Pankaj Burande of Leela Publication House looks totally confused and lost to be in every space along with the fashion, though its tag line- 'fashion day-2 day' indicates its absolutely different positioning.

Content
Because of its scattered nature of content, its very difficult to determine to whom they are targeting. And still editor of FAD, Saai Vijayaa Venkat calls it a niche magazine for fashion and trends. Apart from its core subject, FAD also covers food, wine, beauty care, spa, interior, gizmos, travel etc. Above all, it also carries irrelevant features on eco friendliness, animal friendliness, Juices, gastronomy & organic foods and what not...!

Design
Mediocre! No style sheet is followed and that is why there lots of inconsistencies in layouts & designs. Because of poor visualization they have simply managed to spoil a few of very good photographs. Art director should have thought of the nature of the magazine that its going to be fashion magazine and that is why its going to carry a huge burden on its design & visual appeal of pages. Lots of thick frames give a clutter look on pages. Cover image is excellent for this issue but the way text & stories are put on that image, its looking sad.

Printing
Printing is good in terms of sharpness of photographs and text is also looks very sharp & great. But colors correction is poor in photographs and produces false skin colors in the magazine.

Product
Being a fashion magazine, which supposed to carry lots of visual elements, require a good quality of page. FAD is using quite a decent page which do justice with the perception of this kind of magazines. Hundred pages fat FAD is priced at Rs.60 which is good as looking at the product.

As conclusion I think it is not a fashion-fashion magazine but its confused magazine in order to attract everybody in it. For a layman's point of view its good for browsing and looking at pages but for a serious fashion enthusiast its not recommendable magazine.

-------------------------------------------------
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!!!