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The moon still shines
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Chandamama attempts to reach children through various platforms
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New avatar Of an old favourite
Chandamama is as irresistible as ever. It has however developed a new tone and look. As parents expected this monthly magazine to show their children right from wrong, it used to get away with being preachy.
With children now less tolerant of a spoon-fed value system, Chandamama does not “talk down” to them any more. It just talks to them. The magazine is more visual, with vast chunks of text replaced by images.
And in keeping with the times, Chandamama characters pop up on a visual display unit. At chandamama.com, 4,000 stories are now available in six languages.
The magazine is attempting to reach children through various platforms. To test the waters, the print edition for January 2008 was made into a CD and the May edition into a VCD. Its stories can be heard on Mundu Radio. A ‘Chandamama Hour’, across radio channels is also planned. Negotiations are on with mobile service providers to create a facility for subscribers to phone in and listen to a story and also for an SMS-based quiz application that will lead to a Chandamama-based TV quiz show.
Precious archives
L. Subramanyan, CEO, Chandamama India, is confident that with “the largest archives of non-academic content”, Chandamama can foray into television serials and motion pictures and launch a print-on-demand facility. “We have an archive of 12,000 stories with 25,000 characters. If I put all these stories on the Internet and give you a story a day, I can sustain the programme for 25 years.”
Not resting on past laurels, the company has released new print products, constantly increasing the number of stories and characters. With all-out promotional activity, the magazine (available in 13 languages) has managed to increase the circulation to “over 4.7 lakh copies in July ’08 from 1.2 lakh copies in August 2007.” Yet another ambitious plan is to consciously build the brand among schoolchildren, parents and teachers. This has given birth to Chandamama Children’s Day Out (CCDO), a free one-day programme for schoolchildren to be held across 16 cities from August 2008 to May 2009.
The first CCDO programme will take place in Chennai on August 16. The venue is Valuvar Kottam, Nungambakkam. In each city, Chandamama expects to touch one lakh children. Application forms will be provided to schools. CCDO offers debate, a single wicket cricket competition, painting, storytelling and clay modelling competitions. Winners from the regional rounds will make it to the finale at Mumbai. For details, call 99620-70014/ 044-24334455 or log on to chandamama.com
PRINCE FREDERICK
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Pondicherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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