Sumantha Rathore
The matrimony portal, BharatMatrimony.com, recently launched a magazine for Indians living in the US and Canada. BharatMatrimony Times is an A4 size glossy magazine with all colour pages. It is available free of cost across book stores and other Indian stores in North America. It has 42 pages, 70 per cent of them dedicated to editorial content and the rest to ads.
Talking to afaqs!, Murugavel Janakiraman, chief executive officer, BharatMatrimony, says, “Based on our success in the North American market, we decided to launch BharatMatrimony Times. The marriage market is getting very big there. We had Desi Match earlier, but it was not adding any value to the brand. So, we thought of coming up with a more appealing format.”
With an initial print run of 20,000 copies, the content of BharatMatrimony Times will feature weddings, relationships, interviews with Bollywood celebrities, success stories of its members, tips, and how-to articles; it will also highlight the activities of its portal in the North American market.
The first issue of the bimonthly magazine was launched in November and its theme was The Big Indian Wedding. The company has plans to make a PDF version of the magazine available on its website, www.bharatmatrimonytimes.com.
Is a similar initiative in the offing for the Indian market? “There was a magazine called Match Maker for Mumbai, but we realised subsequently that print is not our forte in India. It was scrapped later,” says Janakiraman.
In an official statement, P Gopalakrishnan, chief marketing officer, Consim Group (which runs the BharatMatrimony.com portal), says, “BharatMatrimony Times is the latest initiative to provide a compelling offline experience to Indian Americans looking for partners in the US and India.”
Gopalakrishnan adds, “We believe this magazine has the right mix of interesting content, relevant features and useful solutions to help readers gain an insight into all aspects of marriage, including trends, relationships and the wedding industry.”
Anita Sharma heads the venture in the US. The content, printing and distribution of the magazine are being handled from the US.
BharatMatrimony.com, which was established in 1997, has created a strong foothold in the matrimony space. It has earned the trust of more than 1.2 crore members worldwide and has been recognised by the Limca Book of Records for a record number of documented marriages online. The company has been profiled in NASSCOM's Showcase of Innovations Book 2006 and 2007; the book showcases the top 100 IT innovators in our country.
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