AutoLife Nepal Magazine!

It’s only been a few months since I came to know of the existence of a Nepali automobile magazine called AutoLife. I have to thank the person that tagged a beautiful lady-friend of mine on their recent cover issue. Honestly, I had a #wtfmoment right there. I’ve seen magazines from travel to lifestyle, fashion, corporate and music but I didn’t think I would be seeing a magazine based on automobiles so soon in Nepal. Definitely catering to the niche I thought. Stalking the AutoLife Nepal Facebook page; I found out that the magazine was launched in Oct-Nov 2011. Scrolling through their images of their cover layout, supplied photography and overall design impressed me further. But wait… this could just be one of those mags that looked good just on the outside but is in fact dead in the inside; it’s happened to me before, a lot. To find out more I headed on to their website thinking it was going to be just another ill-updated website made for the sake of it. However, they seriously proved me wrong as the web is updated with contents from the magazines and even has a functioning digital issues section (take note other mags). After talking to the founder of the magazine Ajay Dhoj Thapa, he informed me that they upload the e-version of the magazine once the issue matures. 

Great going! I wasn’t planning to include the whole question and answers with Ajay on here but I found his side of the story very encouraging. He’s also a returnee from the UK, now that alone sets a nice example. 

AutoLife Nepal does cater to all. My favourite is their Roadtrip feature; Ride to the Far-West is a deffo recommended read. Not to forget ‘To Where the Gods Are’. And you know, the writers don’t send you off on one with technical vehicular terms (you get what I mean right). The English that I read there is well written, simple and understandable by all. For those that have a deep appreciation for their bikes and cars, the magazine does their best in updating you with automobile related events in the country and internationally to even giving you DIY and safety tips. Being someone who does not drive or bike (I can bicycle tho -.-) I found the other sections Legends and Movies very informative too! The feature about Evil Knievel, fractured 433 bones during his career as a motorcycle daredevil. Speechless.

Who’s vision was the magazine?
A: Ever since I came back from the UK after finishing my education, it was a dream of mine to start a venture for/in the local automobile industry with a motive to unite and uplift the passion that it holds. This passion then turned into a venture (Autolife) with great help from my business/life partner (wife) Shraddha Rajbhandari.
How is the magazine faring in the Nepali market?
A: Since the mag is all about passion, obsession and lifestyle its impact was almost viral amongst the auto enthusiasts as soon as it came out. However because of its content, quality and consistency it soon managed to pulled a very diverse readership ranging from a young passionate motor head to every banker, co operate houses, entrepreneurs, working force/job holders, all scale business men and any other person who wants to know about –be informed– buy or sell a car/bike/cycle.
Keeping up to this acceptance, AutoLife is now distributed in all major cities of Nepal and is available on all stationaries and shopping malls. 

Strengths:
Its most passionate team who work against all odds to produce amazing work making each issue bigger and better than the last. We believe in teamwork and each member contributes on every aspect of the magazine from editorial to design to photography to business development.

Its future:
Approaching its first anniversary soon, Autolife aims to be the main source of everything automobile in Nepal. Since it has a lot of technical aspects to it, we hope to earn the creditability and trust among the readers with our contents which are all prepared in-house with most in-depth research-hands on experience-consultation from the experts and through surveys.