Condé Nast, the international publishers of Vogue has tied up with Living Media India Limited, to be the sole distributors of the Indian edition of Vogue.

Vogue, well know internationally for its quality content and visual genius would be showcasing a discerning mix of the best local and international fashion, beauty, and cultural trends.

According to Alex Kuruvilla, managing director Condé Nast India, said that Condé Nast was pleased to distribute the Indian edition of Vogue through Living Media India Limited, which is presently the biggest and the most professional magazine publishing and distribution company in India.

The Images Group, in agreement with The Nielsen Company, is planning to launch the Indian edition of ‘Progressive Grocery’ (PG), an international food and grocery specialty magazine. Besides, the group is also planning to launch two lifestyle magazines within the next six months.

The Indian edition of PG would be like its international edition. It would deal with content related to supermarket formats and organised food retail. PG aims to be a B2B interface to build contacts amongst the farming community, suppliers, retail support firms, FMCG manufacturers and retailers.

The New York-based Virgin Comics has launched a comic series based on Indian myths. Virgin Comics has tied up with Studio 18 for this venture. The stories have been developed by the new age spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.

Through this launch the company plans to take Indian mythology to the global stage. The company is also trying to bring a successful global trend to India, horror comics and movies, targeted at the growing youth market and then re-exported worldwide.

The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) members met in Mumbai on June 11 to find solutions to the various problems faced by the magazine industry.

One of the first problems they discussed was the issue of logistics. According to Ashish Bagga, president, AIM, and CEO, India Today Group, when it came to the distribution of magazines within the country, they are facing increasing number of problems with both the railway system as well as the postal services.

The other problem they discussed was about research. Mr Bagga said AIM along with the National Readership Studies Council and the Media Research Users’ Council is working towards creating a separate module for magazine and the members discussed about what this module should be like.

The Media Research Users Council (MRUC) has formed a new committee to look into magazine-specific research. The committee would run independent of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

Amit Ray, strategic planning director, Percept Media will be heading the magazine research programmes.

According to sources within MRUC, the new committee would be focussing on the quantitative realm of the magazine industry.

According to Alex Kuruvilla, managing director Condé Nast India, said that Condé Nast was pleased to distribute the Indian edition of Vogue through Living Media India Limited, which is presently the biggest and the most professional magazine publishing and distribution company in India.

SAGE Publications India and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad have signed a memorandum of agreement to launch the prestigious IIMA-SAGE Lecture Series. The IIMA-SAGE Lecture Series would be an annual affair starting from 2008.

According to Vivek Mehra, MD & CEO, SAGE Publications India, “SAGE has been always the natural home for authors, editors and societies. IIM-A, India’s premier business school, has always been the first choice of the discerning student wanting a holistic management education. The IIMA-SAGE Lecture Series was a natural alliance waiting to happen. This lecture series will cater to both the discerning reader and the discerning scholar.”

SAGE Publications is a leading international publisher of journals, books and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets having its offices in the USA, the UK, Singapore and India.

*Planman launches Sunday Indian in 8 more languages
The Planman Media has launched its magazine ‘The Sunday Indian’ in eight more Indian languages. The new editions launched are in Kannada, Assamese, Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam and Oriya. With this, the number of language editions of the magazine has touched thirteen. According to Arindam Chaudhuri, editor-in-chief, The Sunday Indian, the magazine is the only one in India providing global content, international guest columns and cutting-edge analyses. He further said that it caters to the need of those Indian who thinks about issues which are pertinent to the country.

*Sahara’s Urdu daily to be launched in Bangalore
Sahara India Pariwar’s Urdu daily, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, would be launching its Bangalore edition on July 7, 2007. Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, which has its presence in Delhi, Patna, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, plans to come up with a few more editions.

*Marathi daily ‘Deshonnati’ to launch a Hindi daily from Delhi
Marathi daily, ‘Deshonnati’ is all set to enter the Hindi daily segment with plans to launch its first edition in Delhi by October. This would be followed by editions in Nagpur and Akola. At the same time, the publication has plans to bring its Marathi daily to the capital with a separate Delhi edition. The Delhi edition would have four pages of local content, while the other 12 pages would contain matter from the main edition.

*DMK, a South Indian political party, launches its daily 'Dinasari'
Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK), a political party from Tamil Nadu launched a daily named ‘Dinasari’ on June 22. The newly launched Dinasari currently has just one edition in Chennai and has a print run of close to 40,000 copies. The daily is expected to launch its editions in Pondicherry, Tiruchy, Coimbatore and Madurai soon.

*Customer contact magazine launched by Spinach
Spinach, the neighbourhood store for daily home needs, has launched its customer contact magazine ‘My Spinach’. The magazine was launched by Wadhawan Food Retail Pvt Ltd (WFRL). According to Kapil Wadhawan, Director, WFRL, the magazine, which would be distributed to the customers free of cost, would focus on various topics for all age group and segment. It would also become one of the regular medium for communicating and generating feedback from the customers. The magazine would also be posted to customers who wish to receive it regularly at their residence or at work place.