Pink in the Armour

Joshua Muyiwa
TimeOut, Feb 6-19 2009

When Nipun Goyal, a 21 year old Delhiite sat down early last year with a bunch of friends to talk about bringing out a nation-wide queer magazine, he knew where he had to turn for inspiration: the largest circulated gay magazine in the United States, Out. Goyal said he was drawn to American publisher Michael Goff’s idea of bringing out a magazine that aimed to appeal to high-brow advertisers by promoting them access to a marginalized audience. “Out talks about various issues without succumbing to the danger of being associated with adult material or personal advertisements.” He said over the phone. “The model makes perfect sense to us”. Goyal and his friends decided to call their magazine Pink Pages.

However, unlike Goff did in 1992, Goyal and his friends aren’t launching he publication in print. “We started it on the internet as a tester and a means to create a readership and as we get popular and have an assured readership, then it would make complete business sense for us to go into print.” he said.” The time frame we are giving ourselves is a year, and the printed copies should be available from January 2010.”

Given the fact that already some queer magazines exist in India, is there a pressing need for another one? Goyal is convinced there is. “There have been a lot of publications but they have very localized subscribers and readership.” He said. “Our idea is to launch a magazine at a national level.”

Goyal also promises that Pink Pages will be different. “It will have many flavours to offer and will appeal to everyone in the alphabet soup of sexuality.” He said.

(Note: The above article wrongly mentions that Nipun Goyal is a Delhiite. Nipun is based in Indore / Bhopal.)