Tarun Rai named new AIM president

The Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) has elected Tarun Rai, CEO, Worldwide Media, as its new president. The presidency of AIM was passed to Rai after Pradeep Gupta, chairman, Cyber Media Group, completed his two year term.

The appointment was made at the Annual General Meeting of AIM held on the sidelines of the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress, a two-day event held in Delhi on October 11-12. Rai was the vice president of AIM for the last two years.

Mitrajit Bhattacharya, publisher & president, Chitralekha Group, who was the general secretary for the last two years, has been elected the vice-president. R Rajmohan, publisher, Open Media, will take over as the general secretary while Paresh Nath has been elected the treasurer of the association.

Commenting on his appointment, Rai said, “Owing to some excellent work Pradeep Gupta has done in the last two years, we have a good base going forward. For me the opportunity lies in the fact that the Indian magazine industry is still very nascent with just 3% share of the advertising spends.”

“There is a huge room for growth and my main task as the president would be to raise the profile of magazines in India so as to get the attention and the intention of media buyers and advertisers.”
As one of the first initiatives towards convincing the media planners about the effectiveness of the medium, Rai has spearheaded an ‘Engagement Survey’ conducted by Quantum and IMRB, the top plans of which were shared at the Congress. “The purpose of the study is to highlight our strengths not just anecdotally but backed with research,” said Rai.