BPA Worldwide will audit Ophthalmology Times India, an English-language healthcare publication from Advanstar Medical Economics and ILX/Media.
This is the first BPA audit of a title published in India. The Shelton, CT-based media auditor currently audits a few publications that are circulated in India but published in other countries. The BPA membership application was routed through the auditor's newly formed marketing partnership with Diagonal GlobalCom-Media, a consultancy focused on publishing and media.
Ophthalmology Times India will start national monthly controlled circulation in the first quarter next year. The Indian edition enters a franchise that includes U.S., Canadian, Chinese as well as Spanish- and Portuguese-language Latin American versions of the trade magazine. The Chinese edition of Ophthalmology Times was launched in 2002. It was the first BPA-audited healthcare title in China.
India's publishing industry has continued to grow despite economic challenges to the sector in most parts of the world. Ad revenue in India was up 6 percent last year and projected to grow 5 percent this year, according to Zenith Optimedia.
“As we've seen in China, Indian ophthalmologists and other professionals have been clamoring for international-standard professional magazines,” Jeffrey Parker, ILX/Media's chief operating officer and editorial director for Advanstar Medical Economics' Asia editions, said in a statement. “The advent of independent auditing by BPA enables us to reliably document the scope and quality of our Indian readership, affording these [eye] doctors, and advertisers who need to reach them, new insights into the relative strengths of their profession.”
