CHAKRAM CHANDAN WEEKLY

Chandan Chakram is a very popular name among Gujarati readers. It is a weekly in Gujarati, which is coming out without advertisements for the last 31 years. It may sound unbelievable, but this fact becomes more interesting when one knows that the magazine is sold at stands at a price of Rs nine for 36 colourful A 4 pages.
The two most popular features of the magazine reveal the secret of its popularity. One of them is a crime or horror thriller which is serialized and another is a column of satirical jokes titled Atom and Fatakdi( big cracker and small cracker).
Its present editor H N Golibar known as Bholabhai among his friends has many amusing stories about the publication which began in 1947. It was started by his father. His surname Golibar has a very interesting story. He used to sell lemonades shouting 12 for an anna in somewhat in this tone- lo anna ni goli baar.
His father was a versatile personality. But, he never wanted to be in his father’s business. He did all kinds of jobs. He used to give commentary at the time of silent movies and when movies got the voice he became silent. And then he started his publication Chakram. This was later turned into Chandan Chakram.
Until 1975, the weekly had advertisements. Since then it is without advertisements. It has a circulation of about 85,000 copies. Of this about 75 per cent is stand sale. Its readers are in Africa, UK, USA, Canada Australia and NewZeland.
Since much of the content is generated by the editor and his family members there is lot of cost reduction. Despite this, the fact is that people buy the publication paying Rs 9 a copy and its circulation is 85,000 copies. It proves that content is the king