In a year that newspaper circulation demand has not really grown, it is again difficult to choose the 50 fastest growing daily newspapers in India. We have made our choice on the basis of very hard won and scant rather than rich information because it is an exercise largely unsupported by the industry. Our criteria are circulation instead of readership, which we believe has more or less become a hoax that even the media planners discount greatly if not ignore completely. This means ABC audited circulations as long as these are amongst the leaders in each language and even if the circulations have declined. Our 8th annual 50 fastest growing dailies of India include newspaper in 10 languages of India. These include Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.
In the past year, 11 out of our 50 fastest growing dailies have actually increased in circulation as far as ABC audits – Assomiya Pratidin, Andhra Jyothi, Dainik Bhaskar, Deshabhimani, Niyomiya Barta, Pokhnapham, Prabhat Khabar, The Sangai Express, The Samaya, The Hindu and Vijaya Karnataka.
From the available financial data that we have been able to gather, seven dailies (or groups) have shown an increase in turnover – The Times of India (Bennett-Coleman), Dainik Bhaskar (DB Holdings), Dainik Jagran (Jagran Prakashan), Eenadu, Rajasthan Patrika, Sandesh and Udayvani.
Other criteria include investments in new editions, supplements, editorial innovation, new plants, machinery and technology, environment-friendly investments and measures and progress in digital transition as measured by Alexa rankings both globally and nationally. These are actually very tough criteria for an industry under pressure and one which needs to monetize both print and digital subscriptions. Very few papers are trying to do this but in this year’s survey, they seem to be meeting with success.           – Editors
Get a copy of Indian Printer and Publisher’s 9th annual issue of 50 fastest growing dailies in India at the WAN-IFRA conference in Gurgaon from 18 to 19 September 2019.
Click here to subscribe to IPP magazine.
