ACK bets on comics to keep storytelling alive
Publishing house has now decided to test waters in the regional language
By : k. sreedevi
Update: 2014-11-20 02:51 GMT
Chennai: At a time when parents are worried about declining reading habit among children, ACK Media Pvt Ltd, publishers of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle brand of books, are pinning high hopes on the growing comic book market. The company is upbeat about continuing its 35 per cent annual revenue growth this year too and has now decided to test waters in the regional language category too.
“The market for children comic book is roughly about Rs 500 crore to Rs1000 crore in India and we are now looking to widen this by going regional,” said Manas Mohan, CEO publishing, ACK Media. The company has decided to launch its first illustrated comic book title in Hindi and Tamil in the name of Tinkle Star on December 1 and is hopeful of adding more titles and languages soon.
“Basing our hypothesis on the fact that the largest circulated magazines in the country are the non-English ones, we are expecting the children too to pick up regional comic books,” said Mr Mohan. With a view to covering the entire gamut of children books, the company has added Bright start, illustrated books to improve cognitive skills of kids between two and six years and Brain-wave, a science magazine for children in the age group of 10-16 years to its kitty.
“With 65-70% of our revenues from books, we want to be sure to cover the entire space of children books to continue our 35-40% CAGR growth,” the CEO said.Expanding its scope, it recently forayed into merchandise business launching bobblehead figurines of its three top comic characters.