Indian Magazine Congress 2025 explores new frontiers in distribution and subscriptions

New Delhi: The Association of Indian Magazines organised the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) 2025 on August 8, at The Imperial, New Delhi.

The theme for this year’s Congress was The Deep ConnectBu, building Communities. Nurturing Trust. Re-imagining the Future. One of the key areas of discussion was the growing emphasis on magazine subscriptions. Over the past five years, publishers have developed a stronger subscription ecosystem, beginning with the launch of Magazine Post in 2022 through India Post, which provided a more efficient delivery service. 

In addition to in-house sales and marketing, publishers have worked with external partners, including e-commerce and quick commerce platforms. Blinkit, for instance, is now selling magazines in 10 cities, with plans to expand to more than 30.

The Congress also saw several new initiatives in distribution. The Magazine e-store on Waves OTT was launched by Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO of Prasar Bharati. The Magazine Store on DigiHaat, ONDC was introduced by Vibhor Jain, Acting CEO and COO of ONDC, along with Rahul Vij, CEO of DigiHaat. In addition, Magazines on the Move, an initiative developed in partnership with IRCTC to sell magazines across premium trains, was launched by Rahul Himalian, Director (Tourism and Marketing) at IRCTC.