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.
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2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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