NEW YORK, United States — Condé Nast Inc., publisher of magazines like Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, will open a global technology and product centre in Bangalore to amplify the digital capabilities of its brands and boost online revenues. The Condé Nast Technology Lab will open later this week starting with a few dozen engineers, with plans to expand headcount for product, design and engineering to over 300 by the end of 2021, the company said in an announcement on Wednesday. The Bangalore centre will design and build digital content platforms for its brands including GQ and Architectural Digest, it added."We want to digitally reinvent brands like Vogue to be relevant to a younger demographic, those between 18 and 30 years," Sanjay Bhakta, chief product and technology officer at Condé Nast, said on a Zoom call from New York. "So far our revenues have been mostly centred around business-to-business. The aim is to quadruple our revenues directly from consumers in the form of e-commerce, subscriptions and memberships."

Publishers including Condé Nast have struggled with declining advertising revenues as print circulations shrink, forcing them to turn online to reach new audiences. The New York and London headquartered media company, owned by Advance Publications Inc., produces print magazines and hosts events such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala and the Condé Nast Luxury Conference. It operates in 32 markets and has 88 million print and 363 million digital consumers."It will give us the horsepower to build next generation experiences," said Alex Kuruvilla, managing director of Condé Nast India. The company wants to develop original content across film, television, social, digital video using new technologies such as virtual reality.

Amid the coronavirus outbreaks, Condé Nast Chief Executive Roger Lynch has reportedly told employees the publisher will likely miss revenue targets this year after slower-than-forecast growth in multiple business segments and regions.

By Saritha Rai.