With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
In old times the dilemma was to be or not to be, in today’s time it’s to be seen or not to be seen.
In today’s fast moving routines, recognition has become one of the imperative forms of appraisals used by many organizations and acknowledged by the recipients. This trend not only exists in organizations but has been improvised and has formulated itself into being an element of our everyday lives. This has been made easier with the advent of social magazines, for example, GoodTimes (GT), which recognizes and brings to heed the ongoing events taking place in the country.
Even at a time when everyone is caught up in their own routines, keeping a tab on the whereabouts of our surrounding remains on top of the priority list. Humans are very contentious by nature, as stated by the Highest power, and so they are deemed to feed themselves on these fables. What makes this process simpler is the presence of an outlook in the face of such a social magazines; GT.
“We get calls from all over the country asking whether their event is being covered by the magazine”, spelled out Elaine, the assistant editor of the magazine. “Everyone wants to be on the first page. They want to be seen by all”, she continued.
Amidst growing tension in the economy regarding underground tapping of resources and political instability, every company or organization has been facing its set of problems. These problems have ranged from increasing employee turnover to internal ethical breaching to compromising on quality. Taking a different turn in the existing scenario, however, has been Good Times (GT) who has successfully flourished and maintained their position even in degenerated circumstances. Alarmingly, their success has created the problem for them in itself.
Being one of the biggest social magazines of our country, GT has continuously faced issues in setting prerogatives and choosing contents for their magazine. Conditions strain when reputation is at stake, all eyes are caught on your discretion of events to be published. Calls from all over the country are made to gain their place in the prestigious issue.
GT operates as a small team with correspondents working in every city of Pakistan and in areas abroad. Events from all over these districts need to be covered in the 116 pages issue, released twice a month. The concern arises when numerous events happening, celebrities bedazzling and advertising campaigns, all need to be selected from a large pool and have to be finalized before deadlines. Accommodation of all these key elements is one of the sole problems that this company faces. In serene atmosphere, with intimate internal relationship, GT doesn’t face the usual problems. The small team works in harmony and coherence is their binding feature. The only times when the GT teams join heads and set out their agenda in deciding rationally over the content to be displayed, are the times the company is in stress. The unusual problem that GT faces sets them yet apart from all other companies operating in the economy.
The other problem that sprouts from the accommodation of contents is to stay in touch with the correspondents working across a large spread of area. Even though in today’s high tech society, communication has no longer remained an obstacle in expanding or operating, coordination with the correspondents remain to be of utmost importance to the company. Slacking behind in time or sagging in staying in touch is maybe the biggest nightmare GT can ever imagine of. Losing out on important events would be the biggest blow for the company, hence to remain upright to their brand name, GT team works expeditiously. A magazine that never fails to entertain its reader, reaches out to the affluent class and has recognition of its own, started with a small team with big dreams. The team still remains diminutive but the outreach has expanded. Lead by Jugnu Mohsin, the editor of GoodTimes is Misbah Momin and assistant editor is Elaine. The GT team works as a small squad with correspondents in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Each of the three cities has their own photographers and reports their work to the editor who reproofs it and gets it finally approved by the publisher, Jugnu Mohsin. They have correspondents working in Dubai, India and New York as well. After the success of SundayTimes, printed in DailyTimes, Najam Sethi, the director of the newspaper decided to extend the idea of their magazine and make it a separate entity from the news line. And hence led by the spouse of the newspaper owner, Jugnu Mohsin, the idea of GoodTimes was pioneered. The GT team began to join heads and brood over its agenda in 2004. They translated their ideas into a tangible form and released their sample issue in September 2004. After the sudden upbeat amongst the target audience of the initiative of this project, GT released their first issue in January 2005. Being a prodigy of a renowned news line, GoodTime was free from facing the usual problems of sponsors, or finance. The firm had its own publishing house and hence was liberated from the hassle associated with it. The initial problem arose when GT had to bring together a competent team. In its early stages, Jugnu Moshin worked as the publisher and editor, assisted by Zainab Khar. But within months of stupendous success GT was able to overcome its first obstacle. Since then, this magazine has attained new levels of success. Because the GT team remains compact, ethical issues remained out of question. “We are like a family”, Elaine told us while talking of her experience. “We work together; we know each other’s temperaments’. Chances of misunderstandings or conflicting thoughts have never even crept in”. When pushed to brood harder over any instance that would depict any conflict amongst the team, she laughed and commented “we’ve never faced any problem within the group till today, but I guess you’ll force us into contriving a self-created one”, and she chuckled. At a point when it has been evidently postulated that GT operates free from the conventional problems, it can’t be ignored that troubles of its own exists for the company. “We are hovered with hundreds of calls every week asking us about our issue release. Asking us whether they’ve made it to the issue”, Mehek Raza continued. “The tribulation is not what to cover but what not to cover.” Because the company caters for numerous events every day, the quandary arises when the GT team has to make its choice. Fortunately GT has never faced a shortage of content to display, in fact knowing the popularity and the wide target audience, celebrities and social figures contact the company itself, asking to be published in the magazine. This pressure instilled on the company, from outside forces and within the team, to choose rationally the content to be displayed is what creates predicament for the company. The target audience of the magazine is the elite class, the ones hosting the parties and making grand entries at social events. The forte is to cover these events in a way as to entertain the target audience without losing out on their interest or compromising on the magazine’s credentials. This prerogative of the magazine is its biggest problem. The GT team needs to keep themselves updated with the circumstantial trends going around and based on those they formulate their content framework. For instance, in time of music trance, priority is given to singing celebrities however the confusion arises as who to cover. The magazine has covered for our nation’s female sensation Qurtalain Baloch (QB) and has alongside brought into spot light the heart throb, Bilal Khan. Bilal Khan was brought into the limelight after his success at coke studio season 4 while QB was on the cover page after her success of Humsafar OST. The GT team knows exactly which button to press, what meddles in the way is the presence of so many apt buttons to choose from. They have the resources to contact the desired celebrity but which one to consider exactly is the hindrance in the way. For every issue the team needs to study the preference of their audience. Similarly in summer bloom when the lawn collection spree is in the air, the magazine knows exactly what to cover. But which one designer to pay the importance to be what forms the question of the day. Because people begin to judge the popularity of the celeb based on their appearance in social magazine, it’s a big burden on the GT team to cover, without any biasness the deserving candidate. For every changing mood and trend, GT team works to reflect those change encompassing them in 116 pages, released twice a month. Frantically, numerous events happen every day in every city that deserve their place in the running but deciding the final winner is a hassle in itself. New Year’s party, designer outlet, new product launch, award ceremonies, celebrity weddings, polo matches, celebrity lifestyle, birthday parties, anniversary celebration; these all happen every day, in different cities. Now which one to exactly choose and pay the heed to is the biggest problem GT magazine face. Just when you think this problem is solely big enough to handle, pop goes the weasel. Events are not the only matter of concern that GT team needs to choose for, but due to its wide outreach, national and international brands wants their place in the magazine as well. Gucci, Ray ban, Tagheuer, Pedro, Guess, Vogue, Kenith Cole, Nikon, CocaCola, Master paints, Loreal and different TV channels, all want their representation in the magazine. The due amount available from each advertisement is profuse enough to meet GT’s cost. Also being led by the country’s giant, Najam Sethi, finance has never been an issue. All costs are well met for and the magazine works in profits. For this reason being, GT doesn’t fish for advertisements, instead they’re cascaded with them, and once again bringing together their rational skills, the team selects the appropriate advertisements for the issue. And so this is another issue that sprouts from a larger one and creates turbulence for the company. To make things simpler for them, certain parties or celebrities are willing to buy their place in the magazine. If the editor has not been able to decide the cover, third party is allowed to buy a portion of it; Costs are involved. The cover is divided into three sections, each section having its cost. The largest of the three section costs approximately, Rs 150000. The second section costs approximately Rs.75000 and the third section costs Rs.50000. The sections if made even smaller, the costs for it would automatically go down. In a way it’s a relief for the team to not choose for them to be on the cover, however, many are willing to but their place in the magazine, creating yet again the pool to choose from. Wedding or party pictures of un-noted people on the cover clearly means that the cover has been bought. The team would always want to put on cover familiar faces, faces the audience wants to see. But the company can’t deny the proposal for the cover being bought if options are limited for a particular issue. So even when the problem seems solved, complications remain involved. Normal issues of GoodTimes contain events covering in three major cities, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. Pictures of events are available along with a small description of the event. It also covers for events in other cities as well as in Dubai, India and New York. Along with, it contains GT diary, GT escape, GT profile, GT action, GT MySpace. All these sections vary for each issue and particularly cover lifestyles, preferences and pictures of the individuals under study. There is so much to cater for and yet the material available is beyond sufficed.
The other problem associated with the content jurisdiction is the typology of the correspondents to stay in contact with the team. In a society supporting technology, such an issue can simply be ignored, but when authorities are suppose to be equipped with all the information before deadlines, time lags for different countries and different event patterns can become an obstacle.
Losing out on important events, sagging in staying in touch and slacking behind in time are the flaws that can cause this empire to tumble down. In whimsical society with new dynamics every season, GT concentrates not on the straining moments but on the moments of exhilaration following it. As said, with great power comes great responsibility, the GT team continues to work lucidly to not let outside forces influence their decisions and they continue to work without biasness.

Exhibit 1
PUBLISHER:
Jugnu Mohsin

EDITOR:
Misbah Momin

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Elaine

KARACHI CORRESPONDENT
Marium Shams
Maira P Shah
Arsalan Bilgrami arsalanbilgrami@gmail.com LAHORE PHOTOGRAPHERS
Ali Agha, Raza Ali

KARACHI CONTRIBUTORS
Ayaz Anis & Raana Khan

ISLAMABAD CORRESPONDENT
Wajiha Khar

ISLAMABAD PHOTOGRAPHERS
F S Iftikharuddin Bokhari
CONSULTING EDITOR (INDIA)
Anshu Khanna

GRAPHIC EDITOR
Muhammad Arshad

GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Faisal Malik

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Anjum Ali

ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGERS
042-3575-1441

Shakeel Ahmad(KHI)
0306-2964183

GOOD TIMES
69 D, Canal Park, Gulberg 2, LAHORE, PAKISTAN
Email: gt@goodtimes.com.pk
Phone: +92-42-35764787
Fax: + 92-42-

Yearly Mail Subscription:

Pakistan Rs: 5500.00
South Asia: $ : 190.00
Middle East: $ : 210.00
South Asia: $ : 240.00
Basic info Launched | 2005 | | Release date | Fortnightly |
Contact info Website | http://www.goodtimes.com.pk |

Exhibit 2

Collage of the recent GT issues