Not too long ago, a trip to the market often meant stopping by the magazine vendor, children flipping through Champak, women browsing Grihshobha, and men reading the latest automobile titles. That ritual has all but vanished as magazine stalls have faded from our streets. Today, instead of a street-side vendor, it might be a Blinkit rider or a Zepto delivery executive who brings you the latest issue. What began as a platform for grocery essentials has rapidly evolved into a point of sale for everything from indulgent snacks to glossy reads. Quick commerce, or Q-comm, is reshaping circulation and opening up new ways for publishers to reach readers.
On behalf of Zepto, a spokesperson explains how the service has grown, “While the magazine delivery service began in Mumbai in 2024 with marquee titles like Vogue, India Today, Forbes India, The Economist, and Architectural Digest, we’ve since expanded to Delhi-NCR and Bangalore with an even wider portfolio of weekly magazines. Encouragingly, more than a quarter of all purchases so far come from repeat users, a strong signal of growing engagement and sustained interest.”
For a generation that sees Instagram as their daily digest, magazines may feel like relics. Yet, they continue to hold a kind of credibility that fast-moving digital feeds cannot replicate. A well-researched magazine story can still spark dinner table discussions that go deeper than reels and hashtags. And if these stories can be ordered and delivered in 10 minutes, they may find their way back into everyday reading habits.
Currently, magazines are available on Blinkit, and Zepto has also explored different routes to open up this medium. Amazon India has also been offering magazine subscriptions with a feature that lets users browse story summaries before purchasing a copy that interests them.
Manoj Sharma, CEO, Magazine Business, India Today Group, which publishes 11 magazines, including India Today, Business Today, and Reader’s Digest, observes that quick commerce has fundamentally rewired shopping behaviour into a seamless loop of scroll, click, and receive.
He highlights that in just four years, quick commerce already contributes nearly 8% of the Group’s overall single-copy circulation. “This is only the beginning. Much of this growth has come during the learning phase, when quick commerce itself was in its infancy, and the first two years involved extensive A/B testing and experimentation,” Sharma notes.
At present, the Group’s magazines are available across 20 cities through these platforms. Sharma emphasises that quick commerce and e-commerce players like Blinkit, Instamart, and Amazon have been the locomotive driving recovery and growth in circulation. “For a flagship like India Today, these channels have been pivotal in helping us not only regain but surpass our pre-COVID circulation numbers,” he adds.
Kush Mohan Joshi, Senior General Manager - Sales, THE WEEK Magazine, which is available on Blinkit, feels optimistic about the category growing in quick commerce. It gives convenience to the buyer of immediate home delivery and promotes impulse reading habits.
“In today’s time, when retail space is shrinking it is due to high rents and rising real estate costs, quick commerce provides the convenience and comfort of getting their hands on magazines from the comfort of their homes,” he highlights.
Anant Nath, Executive Publisher, Delhi Press, which publishes 30 magazines across nine languages, including renowned titles like Grihshobha, Sarita, Saras Salil, and Champak, states that quick commerce has become an important channel for them. Nath highlights that in the last year Delhi Press magazines experienced a volume growth of over 100% through this channel in the past year alone.
As quick commerce platforms primarily cater to urban populations, especially millennials and Gen Z, who value speed and convenience, their users typically live in dense areas with high smartphone penetration. This means that the readership profile of those ordering magazines through quick commerce may differ from the publisher’s core subscriber base.
Indranil Roy, CEO, Outlook Group, notes that the audience reached through quick commerce is quite different from their traditional subscriber base. He explains that through Blinkit, the group now serves 26 cities, including several where access to magazines was previously limited.
“Amazon expands our reach even further, with orders coming in from across the country, from remote corners of the Northeast to southern states, and even high-altitude regions of Jammu & Kashmir. These platforms are introducing us to new readers every day, and many of these trial consumers hold the potential to become loyal, long-term subscribers,” he says.
Why does Quick Commerce work?
On quick commerce platforms, certain genres of magazines naturally align with the impulse-driven nature of the medium. Like children’s titles, lifestyle and entertainment magazines, women’s interest publications, and hobby-based magazines would see a stronger traction, as they cater to everyday leisure and instant engagement. We asked the experts what is working for their publication.
Nath mentions that for them, Champak (for children) and Grihshobha (for families and homemakers) work well in this model. He points out that this suggests parents are buying Champak for their children, and possibly Grihshobha for themselves.
Sharma says that quick commerce user behaviour is inherently impulse and curiosity-driven, which works well for news and current affairs magazines like India Today. “Users on these platforms often buy based on what’s trending, recommended, or visually striking, and that’s exactly where our strong cover visuals, topical headlines, and limited-edition specials create instant traction. Striking covers and timely headlines have consistently driven spikes in sales,” he says.
Joshi points out the categories that work on the quick commerce model are current affairs and general interest magazines like The Week, and children’s publications.
Roy highlights that they have seen a good response for their magazines: Outlook, Outlook Traveller, Outlook Money, and Outlook Business. “Travel and personal finance are standout categories,” he adds.
He also highlights that to capitalise on quick commerce, their publication is also investing in digital and social platforms. For Amazon, Outlook has optimised fulfilment through a national courier network to guarantee timely deliveries. On the packaging side, every copy is prepared in line with reseller specifications to maintain both safety and presentation quality.
Magazine publishers are constantly reinventing how they reach their readers. One of the more interesting moves has been a collaboration with Indian Railways, where passengers will soon be able to pick up a magazine of their choice while booking their tickets, turning every journey into a chance to discover new stories.
Subscriptions may still be the backbone of the industry, but these small, thoughtful innovations ensure that magazines stay present in everyday life. And by cutting down on the heavy costs of traditional distribution, publishers are finding smarter, leaner ways to grow. The result is simple: more visibility, wider reach, and a renewed bond between magazines and the readers who carry them along for the ride.
