Asomiya Pratidin, the highest circulated Assamese broadsheet daily, recently increased its color pages to 8 in its Bongaigaon edition, taking color pagination to the same level at all its four locations – Guwahati, North Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Bongaigaon. “We have a daily circulation of 1,61,543 copies across Assam. With a huge readership, it’s a kind of monopoly we are enjoying with the second position going to newspapers with circulations above 50,000 copies a day,” says Nayan Bora, production manager at Asomiya Pratidin. The other periodical and magazines published by the Pratidin group are Sadin, Xatxori and Nandini.
All four production plants have Orient 4-Hi-towers from TPH complemented by a 3C stack and two mono ink units each. “Although there is not much significant investment in the market recently that does not mean that it is without growth. Most newspapers are increasing pages. As far as the investment in new presses or other equipment is concerned, newspapers here already have enough capacity to drive the market with existing resources at least for the next 2 to 3 years.”
“People here still love to read their morning newspapers and hence we have not yet faced any challenges from new media. That is the reason why our local dailies’ current investments in online and digital media is minimal,” Bora says. “Nevertheless, we are also getting ready for the future as the future is digital.”
“Although the circulation is stagnant, the ad revenue is increasing with the current ad market pegged at Rs. 30 crore,” according to Bora. “It is a unique market here and hence stagnation in circulation is no surprise to us. This is also a reason why you don’t see any national players showing interest in the Assam or North-east newspaper market. With an already stagnant circulation, they will have to settle for some selected market with low circulation which would not be a lucrative venture for them. After all, they cannot come here and become a market leader overnight which they have done in other markets.”
Newspapers in Assam date back some 170 years with Arunodoi, its first newspaper published in 1846 from Sibsagar. Arunodoi gave an impetus to the birth of a number of newspapers and magazines in Assam, both in English and Assamese. By the end of the nineteenth century, many newspapers came up in the state, some of which are still publishing.
