Aaj Tak’s print sibling, the India Today magazine, is on a trailblazing spree. Powered by the dual approach of innovative distribution and institutional partnerships, the 46th anniversary issue of India Today hit the stands this Christmas with a massive 25 percent growth in circulation.

Crossing 135 clients with 376 pages in its 46th anniversary issue, categories like pharma, education, automobiles, public sector, banking and finance, tourism, and FMCG are all gaining attention in a single issue, which is higher than the average weekly client base of most news channels, the magazine claimed in a media statement.

For its 46th anniversary issue, India Today will feature the trailblazers of India Tomorrow — entrepreneurs, politicians, entertainers, activists, scientists, inventors, writers, artists, lawyers, law enforcers and bureaucrats either aged 40 years or below — who are India’s brightest stars on the horizon.

The list includes young digital moguls like Sriharsha Majety, co-founder of Swiggy, star manufacturers like Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt, entertainers like actor Alia Bhat and film maker Karthick Naren, politicians like Tejashvi Yadav, Aditya Thackeray, Abhishek Mukherjee, Tejasvi Surya and Hardik Patel, activists like Disha Ravi and Aishe Ghosh, young writers like Manu Pillai and Nisha Susan, scientists like Ravi Prakash (winners BRICS Young Innovator Prize) and a host of others who will be the torch bearers of India’s future.

Ever since the restrictions of second lockdown were lifted earlier this year, both newsstand and subscription sales have been on a high growth trajectory, giving the magazine a very healthy growth rate of over 14 percent month over month.

This trail blazing growth post-pandemic has resulted in the magazine recovering 80 percent of its pre-lockdown (March’20) circulation till Nov 2021. This growth is fuelled by re-imagining a thoughtful strategy, creating alternate channels for distribution that have increasingly become the mainline point of sales for magazines, India Today claimed in the statement.

During the bounce back, India Today Group immediately shifted its focus to the travel industry. Ties with large travel stores chains like WH Smiths were strengthened, and, as a result, sales volumes from these stores have now surged to 10 percent more than their pre-covid levels. Air India too resumed offering India Today to their executive class flyers. To cater to the increasing demand of flyers for India Today, Air India had to increase their off take to three times their pre-COVID supplies.

In addition to the print circulation, the publication has aggressively pushed its digital subscriptions all through the lockdown. Its pay-per-view and micropayment models for premium content, implemented on the website as well, resulted in the thriving of its digital first paid subscribers. This further expanded the reach of India Today magazine in all the formats of print and digital.

Talking about the milestone that the publication achieved, CEO, Publishing, ITG, Manoj Sharma, said, “India Today was the only publication in India to continue printing and distribution even when the whole country was under lockdown.  In fact, we have emerged to be the only publication in the country to have never missed even a single issue in the last 46 years of its publishing history. This achievement has only been possible because of the dedicated and relentless efforts of the entire team of India Today.”