Celebrating 14 years of Forbes India

National Lampoon, an American humour magazine, was born in 1970, and lived on for another 28 years. A blend of parody and surrealism, it reached its peak of creativity in the first half of the ’70s. That’s when it had some of the most provocative covers—Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara splattered with a cream pie; a replica of the starving child on George Harrison’s charity album ‘The Concert for Bangladesh’, only here the child was in chocolate with a part of its head bitten off; and a dog with a revolver at its head, with the cover screaming: ‘If you Don’t Buy this Magazine, we’ll Kill this Dog’.

National Lampoon was a breeding ground for creativity, although many of its covers would qualify as click-bait of the pre-internet era. It was an old trick of magazines in their heyday, going back to the 1920s—when covers in loud, bold colours with provocative photographs, illustrations and typography were used to draw the attention of potential buyers—and they reeled them in, in millions. 

Magazine covers, and indeed magazines in their physical form, don’t matter as much these days. But getting them noticed digitally in the internet age in a smaller format on social media is still critical; so many of the old rules of bold colours and provocative images may still hold true. And the virality of a provoking and pithy cover may even bring in more views than newsstand sales in the ‘…we’ll Kill this Dog’ era.

Forbes India’s first issue was launched 14 years ago, dated June 5, 2009—a time when the world was just beginning to recover from the global financial crisis and when print publishing, at least in India, was mostly still considered the primary pillar. 

Magazine covers over a sufficiently longish period tell a story. And, as Forbes India celebrates its 14th anniversary, a journey back to issues of the past 14 years tells an inspirational tale of gutsy entrepreneurship and leadership: Of companies and their helmspersons who endured and persisted with their vision and values; and also of a few that didn’t quite make the long haul.