What successful magazines do?

This is a question that is of too much of an interest for many people, especially for people who are looking forward to start an online or print magazine. First of all, we would try to identify successful magazines. If we look around we would find hundreds of magazines today in India and almost on every topic, you name it and they have it. Be it photography or lifestyle or be it chemicals or architecture. Some last for 1, 2 or 3 years and some for a decade. But how many of them are truly successful is the question. For different people the definition of success is different. Some people buy a magazine coz’ it speaks their mind while some others buy to educate themselves or to learn the newest trends in the society or professional lives while the rest buy it for fancy. Buying a magazine for fancy is not wrong for you get too much of information for a pinch of money is what I believe. I would not only consider the magazine’s share of advertising market and of consumer audience to describe its success but also the following things:

• How long has it been since the start of the magazine?
• Is the magazine affecting, or has affected sometime the decisions on public policy?
• Is the magazine educating people?
• Is the magazine trying to create a hype? or, Is the magazine trying to benefit, directly or indirectly, some part of the society or business?
• Does the magazine stand by its words?
• Are the articles published in the magazine written by full time employees or freelancers?

These questions, and may be more, have much to do to define the success of a magazine. If a magazine is less than a decade old, then its success is questionable as their have been instances globally when the publication of a decade old magazine had to be turned off. If the magazine is trying to create a hype or benefit some part of the society, directly or indirectly, then it would harm itself while if more freelancers are working to get a magazine published then there are more chances of the breakage of the rhythm of the magazine.

A successful magazine would never loose its character and would be in the same on its last page as it was in the beginning. I haven’t seen the khichdi kind of magazines to be more successful.