Only 32% urban & 65% non-metro consumers getting newspapers at home

EY Survey – Newspapers remain the most trusted news source

546
Only 32% urban & 65% non-metro consumers getting newspapers at home
School children in Murshidabad share a newspaper.

The Indian newspaper industry faces headwinds in the shape of declining advertising revenue and Covid-19 induced economic slowdown. In recent months there have been massive retrenchments and salary cuts in the newspaper industry. However, a recent survey report by consultancy firm EY, says that newspapers remain the most trusted news source. EY surveyed more than 4,000 consumers across metro and non-metro markets.

According to the survey conducted from 22 June 2020 to 4 July 2020 of more than 4,000 respondents, 35% of the respondents trusted newspapers most. At the same time, 16% said they believed TV news most, while 20% said they trusted online news the most. The remaining 28% of the respondents said they trust all these media sources.

Circulation still far from normal

The survey attempted to determine what percentage of respondents were getting newspapers at home. During the early phases of the lockdown that came into effect on 25 March, a large part of the metro and non-metro cities did not receive newspapers. The metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi were especially affected.

The survey found out the situation has still not come back to normal in terms of newspaper circulation. According to the study, only 32% of metro respondents are currently getting newspapers at home, while 65% of non-metro respondents are getting their newspapers delivered at their doorstep.

The survey also captured the trend in terms of time spent on reading a newspaper. It found out that 42% of respondents in non-metro markets spend more than 20 minutes reading a paper compared to 36% in metros.

The lockdown has resulted in the digital economy getting a boost. Expectedly, a large chunk of respondents, from both metro and non-metro cities, said that they were consuming news online. As per the survey, 77% of the respondents in the metros and 75% in the non-metro cities were consuming news online.

EY said that the online survey of 4,074 respondents was conducted across 2,017 in metros and 2,057 in non-metros from 22 June 2020 to 4 July 2020. The cities covered were Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bangalore, Bhagalpur, Bhopal, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gwalior, Hissar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Rohtak, Surat, Udaipur, Ujjain, and Vadodara.

EY’s survey corroborates IppStar’s quick survey of newspapers

In a recent webinar, representatives of major newspapers tried to talk up the recovery of the print news media, claiming their circulation has returned to 85 or 92% of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. However, IppStar’s quick survey of Indian language dailies in North and South India corroborates the more credible numbers of the EY Survey. 

Naresh Khanna, principal researcher of IppStar says, “Hindi and Tamil dailies at least, have not yet reached even 75% of their pre-lockdown circulations. One of the tricks used in the webinar by the representatives of major news organizations was to say that 85 to 90% of their circulations have come back, but they slipped in the caveat or rider of ‘household circulations.’ 

As our respondents have clarified, the single copies sold by street news vendors and shops and those distributed in railway stations and airports are not included in the base figures for calculating their recovery of circulations to pre-lockdown levels. The EY Survey which cites even lower recovery of daily circulations is a very useful dose of realism.”

This story last published by July 24, 2020.

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

Subscribe Now

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here