Print is still more profitable than digital: Neeraj Sharma

Neeraj Sharma, Managing Director, Communications, Media and Technology (CMT), Accenture, delivered a highly thought-provoking speech on the challenges, opportunities and changing landscape of the magazine industry in the digital age during the keynote session of the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) 2025 held at The Imperial Hotel today. He categorically stated that print is still more profitable than digital and if steps are taken in the right direction in the coming years, the magazine industry can be re-established in popular culture. 

Neeraj Sharma started his speech with a personal emotional connection when he shared that he grew up in a family where magazines were always around. He said, “Every time I talk about magazines, it is a nostalgic experience for me.”

Digital transformation and past lessons

Neeraj explained how the growth in the telecom industry had stagnated in 2012-13 and then the industry saw a big change with the launch of Jio's digital platform. He said, "The migration towards digital destroys the existing value in almost every industry. New value is created, but it does not go to the old players."

He clarified that just like what happened with telecom and TV, the same is happening in digital media, where digital value creation is happening, but traditional media institutions are not getting its benefits. He listed two main reasons for this - one, a large part of advertising revenue going to Big Tech and second, low interest in digital subscription and 'subscription fatigue' of consumers.

The Four I ’s Framework and the Creator Economy

Neeraj referred to the '4 I Framework' — Information, Insight, Interaction and Intention capture and said that media companies are strong in the first two but not the last two. He said, "Content brings eyeballs, but money comes not from it but from features that understand the user and trigger commerce."

He said that in India, the revenue of the creator economy was double the total digital revenue of all digital news and magazine companies just two years ago. He said, "YouTubers and TikTokers have created a bridge between content and commerce." 

He called KBC's 'PlayAlong' feature a successful 'Four-I' thriving product and also honestly shared the example of his own failed project 'Constituency', which he created in collaboration with a news media company during the 2024 general elections. He said that this game was for a person like me, not for the general readers, but later the same idea was repackaged as 'Area King' with a Tamil Nadu news portal and was successful.

Neeraj said that there are 150 million people in the country who can pay for curated, credible content and the era of digital fatigue has started. He quoted research and said, "72% of Indian internet users are annoyed with too much content."

He said, “Now it is not necessary that you reach crores, 1 lakh true followers are enough for your success.”

For this he gave three formulas:

1. Drive the customer experience across all three channels – print, digital and physical.
2. Look at your readers as a community, and take full responsibility for that community.
3. Control the platform yourself too, just by creating a YouTube channel you don’t become the owner of the audience.

The way forward: New approaches to product, content, monetization and distribution

He elaborated on how magazine companies should focus on multi-format, multi-platform content (such as YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, LinkedIn carousel, etc.). Giving an example of content, he said, “A 1500-word article is good, but a 23-year-old user will not read it unless he sees it in a reel.”

He stressed the importance of Micro-Influencers and said that instead of creating apps, focus should be on aggregated apps or shared platforms.

Collaborative solutions for the industry

Neeraj Sharma gave a very important suggestion that apart from content, everything else (product development, monetization, distribution) should be done by the industry together. He gave examples like 'OpenAP' (USA) and 'Project Freedom' (Indonesia) which were industry consortiums formed with the help of Accenture.

“If we can come together and do this, we can definitely re-establish the magazine in the popular imagination,” he said.

He concludes, “Magazines are still thumb scroll stoppers. The next generation is moving back to offline experiences. You just have to be visible and available where they are. And that's how you can become popular again.”