State of Hindi Publications and What can We do About It.

I often keep searching for Hindi magazines to read. As it happens Pune does not really have good outlets keeping Hindi books barring the occasional Premchand, lot less magazines. So the only option is to search online. I came across this very well written piece that talked about the current state of Hindi Publishing.
It is indeed sad. I remember the time I was still a middle school boy, there were Dharmayug and Saptahik Hindustan that carried great pieces in Hindi. Alas both folded up. I was surprised to read that Dharmayug was printing over 4 lakh copies a month during those days. It was a pity that the very rich Times of India group and Hindustan Times group could not manage to keep these two periodicals running.
Most of the few remaining Hindi journals have an monthly print of 5000 copies or less. Its sad to see that Hindi state governments can spent crores every years in erecting statues and like but cannot spend a couple of crores in subscribing to these magazines that preserve a whole culture and provide for intellectual dynamism of the masses.
This is one thing that I admire about Maharashtrians (its also there is south from what i hear but I know about Maharashtra since I now live here). Average educated Marathi takes a lot of pride in sustaining the Marathi cultural pursuits like literature and theater etc. And its not just some notion of philanthropy that makes them pay money. The fact is that people genuinely enjoy the local art forms.
Hindi heartland probably suffers for its poverty. The big towns has its literary minded citizens reading English. and the small towns probably find the whole trouble to getting writers to contribute, print and distribute a quality magazine too expensive for its general public. I think there is also a lack of certain awareness. I and many of my friends would love to read Hindi magazines of literary kind. And I do spend money buying books so yes given a quality periodical, I would buy it. Same would go for so many of people like me, people in cities like Pune. Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, California and New York.
There is a surprising lack of online presence of these magazine. This especially comes in way of expats, a lot of whom feel nostalgic about the literature and culture back home. An online - subscription and/or ad based magazine I am sure will find takers. We already have Hindi Newspapers seeing very healthy circulation. So a large group like HT or TOI should find restarting a web based Hindi magazine maybe chump change.
There are I am sure lots of writers who still write in local languages. If these online periodicals start accepting stories online getting submissions may not be tough. There could even be some sort of a view + ratings based system where all submissions are up for view and those that cross a viewership/rating threshold gets money proportional to the number of views. To get around the usual moronic vandalism that happens on online sites, maybe a submitter needs to open an account with the site for say INR100/- so only serious authors get online and INR100/- is so low that any author will be able to sign up.
Similarly deals can be made with corporates to buy a few copies for reception areas, schools for libraries. Language schools teaching Hindi could be another target demographics. In short I think embracing new technologies, newer channels of distribution should easily allow for another 50000 a month copies for a quality journal. Even at that tiny volume, a small profit can be made.
Another idea could be that some of these magazines can even double up as literary agents. Yes there can be certain amount of discomfort with this idea but maybe a separate marketing function can take care of it. So a magazine can hook up with say a TV producer so serialize a story or have a story and episode kind of format. Both the existing publisher and the author can share the royalties from it.
Lets see if any of this is realized. Who knows one day if I have some money I might start some venture of my own. After all dead of a language is too painful to be allowed.